Free Republic

Hi everyone - I got news last night that my younger brother Mike had a massive heart attack yesterday. He was recovering from an aneurism in his brain (an attack he had last year). They put him on a machine to help pump blood into his heart but they plan to disconnect him from the machine on Thurs.

HOUSTON (Sept. 16, 2005) - Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston have found that human fat cells produce a protein that is linked to both inflammation and an increased risk of heart disease and stroke. They say the discovery, reported in Journal of the American College of Cardiology, goes a long way to explain why people who are overweight generally have higher levels of the molecule, known as C-reactive protein (CRP), which is now used diagnostically to predict future cardiovascular events. And they also report...

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid suffered a mild stroke earlier this week and underwent tests, but he was not hospitalized and "feels fine," his office said Friday. The Nevada Democrat experienced lightheadedness Tuesday evening and was diagnosed with having a transient ischemic attack after seeking medical attention, his office said in a statement. Reid, 65, was in Searchlight, Nevada. his hometown, when the episode occurred, The Associated Press reported. "Senator Reid feels fine. There are no complications or any restrictions on this activities," the statement said. "His doctors have recommended that he take advantage of the summer congressional recess for...

Breaking

Susan Torres' Husband and Parents Reveal Strange Happening on Night of Susan's Tragic Collapse As told for the first time in interview with lifesitenews.com ARLINGTON, VA, August 5, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The story of the heroic struggle to preserve the life of the unborn child of life-support patient Susan Torres and her husband Jason, and the miraculous birth of their baby girl, Susan Anne Catherine Torres, has unexpectedly received worldwide publicity. Thousands of news sources picked up on the fight for the life of baby Susan and broadcast the evolving miracle to hundreds of millions of readers and viewers across...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Blues musician "Little" Milton Campbell, whose gritty vocals and songwriting recalls B.B. King's rough-edged style, was in a coma after suffering a stroke, a friend said on Wednesday. The 71-year-old Grammy-nominated guitarist and singer known for writing and recording the blues anthem "The Blues Is Alright" suffered a stroke July 27 and lapsed into a coma at a Memphis, Tennessee, hospital, friend Larry Chambers said in a telephone interview. Born to sharecropping farmers near the Mississippi Delta town of Inverness -- his father, "Big" Milton Campbell, was a local blues musician -- "Little" Milton picked up a...

Brain-damaged IVF stroke victim wins negligence case SHAN ROSS A WOMAN who was left brain damaged after a series of strokes following her third cycle of IVF was awarded "very substantial" agreed damages yesterday. An emotive message from the 34-year-old accountant was read out in court by her QC. In it, the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said: "IVF. I was so happy. Looked forward to my newborn baby. Unfortunately miscarried. Baby die. Disaster happen. "Then stroke. Disaster. Now my face fine but my body will never be the same. My son is torn apart. One year...

Once again on behalf of my wife, Miss Ruthie and myself, I come asking for you prayers for her recovery from yet another illnes that has befell her, a stroke she suffered during the early hours of Friday, 7-22-05. It's a major one, effecting her right side, and she hasn't spoken since. She does open her eyes most times when spoken to and looks toward those who speak to her while standing to her left. She has held and squeze my hand with her left hand. Her vital signs have become pretty good after the first few scary hours in...

Birth Control Patch Claims 23 Lives and Counting NEW YORK, July 15, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Federal drug safety reports obtained by The Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act request, "indicate that in 2004 -- when 800,000 women were on the patch -- the risk of dying or suffering a survivable blood clot while using the device was about three times higher than while using birth control pills." AP points out that the majority of the women were young and in otherwise good health and at low risk for blood clots - "women like Zakiya Kennedy, an 18-year-old Manhattan...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A blood test already used to help screen for heart problems won U.S. approval to help predict a patient's risk for stroke, officials for the firm that makes it said on Friday. The PLAC test, made by privately held diaDexus, scans the blood for high levels of the protein lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-Pla2), which studies found were more common in stroke patients. GlaxoSmithKline Plc holds a partial stake in the biotech firm, which it co-founded in 1997 as SmithKline Beecham along with Incyte Genomics, which is now known as Incyte Corp. "The PLAC test provides new information,...

New Zealand-born Kate Adamson-Klugman experienced a double brainstem stroke in 1995 at the age of 33. She was helpless and completely paralyzed, suffering from "locked-in syn­drome." Kate thought she was clear in her own mind about what she would want if she ever experienced a catastrophic injury or illness. She knew she would face death bravely; she wanted no heroics. But as she lay in an intensive care unit, listening to the doctors talk about her own impending death and their plans not to treat her, her ideas of medical aid toward incapacitated persons drastically changed. Her own will to...

Scientists have developed a system which enables people to stroke a chicken over the internet. It's seen as the first step to virtual physical interaction, reports Wired News. The Touchy Internet system was created by researchers at the National University of Singapore. Users touch a chicken-shaped doll which duplicates the actions of a real chicken through a webcam link. Touch sensors on the doll send 'tactile information' over the internet to a second computer near the chicken. This computer triggers tiny vibration motors in a lightweight jacket worn by the chicken, meaning the chicken feels the user's touch in the...

Suffering a stroke can be severely debilitating, frustrating, and costly. It's the leading cause of long-term disability in the US with current statistics indicating that there are over 4.5 million Americans who have survived a stroke or brain attack and are living with the after-effects. According to the National Stroke Association, only 10% of stroke survivors recover almost completely. Today, the chances of full stroke recovery and stroke rehabilitation with post-stroke home treatment for paralyzed muscles are being improved with the advanced Israeli-developed training device Biomove 3000 Stroke Rehabilitation system, the first such device specially developed for home therapy after...

<p>May 23, 2005 - For 24 hours, Hamilton Loeb lay unconscious inside a cold blue suit that put his brain on ice. Four times, his heart had stopped beating and he was shocked back to life. Then doctors essentially refrigerated him, in a bid to avert the brain damage that too often cripples survivors of cardiac arrest.</p>

Scientists have developed a system which enables people to stroke a chicken over the internet.It's seen as the first step to virtual physical interaction, reports Wired News. The Touchy Internet system was created by researchers at the National University of Singapore. Users touch a chicken-shaped doll which duplicates the actions of a real chicken through a webcam link. Touch sensors on the doll send 'tactile information' over the internet to a second computer near the chicken. This computer triggers tiny vibration motors in a lightweight jacket worn by the chicken, meaning the chicken feels the user's touch in the exact...

After the failures of numerous drug candidates over two decades, an experimental treatment has been shown to protect the brain from some of the damage caused by strokes, drug industry executives and doctors said yesterday. The drug, called Cerovive, reduced disability from stroke in a late-stage clinical trial involving 1,700 people, according to the product's developers, AstraZeneca and Renovis. The companies are conducting a second late-stage, or Phase 3, trial. They say if the results, due the first half of next year, are positive, they will apply late next year for federal approval. Shares of Renovis, a biotechnology company in...

Doctors should consider treating people at risk of developing strokes caused by narrowed arteries in the brain with aspirin instead of warfarin, a common anti-clotting drug, new research suggests. The study, conducted at more than 50 sites across North America, was done on 569 patients who had suffered a stroke or mini-stroke as a result of a condition called symptomatic intracranial arterial stenosis. It is caused by the buildup of fatty deposits in the arteries' inner walls, restricting blood flow. Those patients on warfarin, which is marketed as Coumadin, suffered a higher death rate and more major bleeding compared with...

Where aspirin is concerned, there is almost no such thing as bad news. Take the surprising results of the landmark Women's Health Study released earlier this month by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital. The 10-year study showed low-dose aspirin taken daily does not prevent heart attacks in healthy women under 65, as it does in men. But aspirin did appear to protect women against strokes caused by blood clots. This finding was especially relevant because the women in the study were actually more likely to have strokes than heart attacks, the report's lead investigator says. ``So it's not really...

Warning signs of an ischemic stroke may be evident as early as seven days before an attack and require urgent treatment to prevent serious damage to the brain, according to a study of stroke patients. Warning signs of an ischemic stroke may be evident as early as seven days before an attack and require urgent treatment to prevent serious damage to the brain, according to a study of stroke patients published in the March 8, 2005 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Eighty percent of strokes are ischemic, caused by the narrowing of the...

Regular use of low-dose aspirin does not prevent first heart attacks in women, as it does in men, a 10-year study of healthy women has found. The nearly 20,000 women in the Women's Health Study who took 100 milligrams of aspirin every other day were no less likely to suffer a heart attack than a like-sized group of women who took placebos. Aspirin did appear to help protect the women against stroke, however, which is something the drug has not been found conclusively to do for men. "What was really surprising and not anticipated was this gender difference," said Dr....