Free Republic

A Florida biker says he has 'learned his lesson' after posting heart-stopping footage of the 140mph crash that nearly killed him. The motorcyclist who calls himself 'Street Demon PC' won a fanatical online following with tailcam videos of his highly illegal speeding through traffic-choked roads at speeds in excess of 100mph. His audience feared the worst after he went silent for months before he told them he had only just recovered enough to post film of the crash that cost him more than 20 broken bones. 'I'll be back to ride again one day, but not like I used to,'...

For adults undergoing fracture fixation, conditionally essential amino acid (CEAA) supplementation is associated with a reduction in postoperative complications, according to a study published online March 14 in the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. Nathan R. Hendrickson, M.D., from the University of Iowa, and colleagues conducted a prospective, randomized controlled trial (RCT) to examine the impact of CEAA supplementation on complications and skeletal muscle mass among adults after operative fixation of acute fractures. Four hundred adults were enrolled and randomly assigned to either standard nutrition or CEAA (200 participants to each). The researchers found that overall complications were significantly...

Women’s rugby referees in England are quitting their jobs over the inclusion of the male athletes, according to a report in The Sunday Times this weekend. “Being forced to prioritize hurt feelings over broken bones exposes me to personal litigation from female players who have been damaged by players who are biologically male. This is driving female players and referees out of the game,” one referee told the British paper under the condition of anonymity.

Vitamin D supplements may help prevent fractures in people over 65, provided they take enough of the right kind. A new review of clinical trials appears to show a strong dose-dependent effect for vitamin D in lowering the risk for nonvertebral fractures in the elderly. --snip-- The type of vitamin D made a difference. The effect of vitamin D3 was significant, with a 23 percent risk reduction, but there was no significant reduction with vitamin D2. The authors suggest that D3 is more effective in maintaining blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, the active form that the supplement takes in the...

A recent medical breakthrough at UNC may help thousands every year whose broken bones do not heal.  Researchers who transplanted adult mouse stem cells into mice with fractured bones showed that the cells could help heal the fractures. Anna Spagnoli, associate professor of pediatrics and biomedical engineering at UNC and senior author of the study, said it was meant to determine whether adult stem cells could be used to improve the healing tissue at a fractured site and whether the cells went directly to the injury once transplanted.  She said that as a pediatrician, she has worked with children...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A quarter mile past the finish line in the Kentucky Derby, a gallant runner-up effort by the filly Eight Belles was forgotten in an instant. In a freak accident that one experienced racetrack veterinarian said he had never seen before, the 3-year-old daughter of Unbridled’s Song apparently snapped both of her front ankles simultaneously as she galloped out after the race, sending her crashing hard to the Churchill Downs dirt racetrack. She was euthanized moments later, after vets determined there was no chance to save her. “She had finished the race and was around the turn at...

Lower vitamin D levels, more hip fractures HONOLULU, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- A U.S. researcher found an increased risk of hip fractures in women with low levels of vitamin D. Jane Cauley of the University of Pittsburgh evaluated patient data on 400 women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study Cohort, who had experienced hip fracture. "The risk of hip fractures was 77 percent higher among women whose 25 hydroxyvitamin D levels were at the lowest concentrations,"Cauley said in a statement. "This effect persisted even when we adjusted for other risk factors such as body mass index, family history...

Surgeons are using stem cells to fix broken bones that won't mend on their own, Sky News has learned. Patients who faced a life of disability or even an amputation because of serious fractures have been able to walk once more. Fifteen patients have so-far been treated in a ground-breaking clinical trial at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry. Assessments of the first 10 patients show that 8 have been successfully healed. They are able to drive and return to work. Previous attempts to rejoin the bones using metal pins and plates had all failed. Consultant...

New techniques to boost survival of adult stem cells could improve surgeries for severe fractures. Implantable materials that grab stem cells and spur their growth and survival could improve bone-healing surgeries. Linda Griffith and her colleagues at MIT have created a new tissue-engineering material that could help cells survive the harsh transplant environment--a key step in cell-transplant therapies. Scientists are now testing the material in animals to see how well it can help heal fractures.  "Creating instructional biomaterials like this is an entirely new way of thinking about what could be put in the human body," says Richard Lee, a...

Australian scientists are using stem cells to repair fractures in patients whose bones won't heal. The hope is it will save patients having to undergo many painful operations. Jamie Stevens, 21, fell off his motor bike nine months ago, fracturing his thigh bone. It didn't heal, leaving a five-centimetre gap. The usual treatment would be to graft a new bone from his hip. Instead, he was chosen as the first Australian patient to get an injection of specially treated stem cells. "The benefits outweigh the old procedure which takes a big chunk out of your hip," Jamie Stevens said. "It's...

The bone scan reportA copy of the March 5, 1991 bone scan radiologist's report, is part of the parent's lawsuit introduced in federal court, dated August 30, 2003. This bone scan report is available as a JPEG document, here, at terrisfight.org, and also here, at the Christian Communication Network.Here, also, is a text version of the report; copied from "Exhibit 'A'" of that August 30, 2003 lawsuit: 3/5/91BONE SCAN Indication: Evaluate for trauma Procedure and findings: Multple gamma camera images of the axial and proximal appendicular skeleton in the anterior and posterior projections were obtained, following 21.1 millicuries of Technetium...