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A nonprofit executive accused of stealing $132,000 in public money to fund her lavish lifestyle is being held behind bars. Amy Knox, who was COO of Harm Reduction Coalition of San Diego, pleaded not guilty to allegedly stealing cash for plastic surgeries, credit card bills and luxury vacations to Hawaii and Disneyland. The 45-year-old faces six felony counts of fraud and misappropriation and faces up to seven years in prison. Late Wednesday Knox pleaded not guilty to the charges in San Diego State Supreme Court. Her bail was set at $200,000. On Thursday she remanded in custody at the Las...

A nonprofit executive is accused of stealing $132,000 in public money to pay for plastic surgeries, credit card bills and luxury vacations — including a trip to Disneyland. Amy Knox, who was COO of Harm Reduction Coalition of San Diego, allegedly blew up to $30,000 of the cash on breast implants, a tummy tuck and arm and thigh lifts. The 45-year-old spent another $94,000 on buying purebred dogs, training them, martial arts classes and a trip to Hawaii, prosecutors claim. The alleged fraudster, who also went by the names Amy Hernandez and Amy Ketchum, had been living in a palatial...

Two high-profile “detransitioner” cases involving young women whose bodies were irrevocably altered as teens by transgender surgery are expected to go to trial in early 2027.Chloe Cole, an 18-year-old woman who regrets surgically removing her breasts, holds testosterone medication used for transgender patients, in Northern California on Aug. 26, 2022. John Fredricks/The Epoch TimesChloe Cole, who drew national attention after speaking out against subjecting children to gender-reassignment procedures such as hormones and surgeries, has an April 5, 2027, trial date, according to Mark Trammell, CEO of the Center for American Liberty, which represents several detransitioners.​Cole and others, known as detransitioners,...

Elon Musk just dropped a NUKE on medical careers (Jan 2026): “Don’t go into medical school.” Elon: “Yes. Pointless.” Prediction: → 3 years → Optimus robots > best human surgeons on Earth (at scale) → 4–5 years → Best medicine in the world = FREE & better than what presidents get today The moment he basically says goodbye to traditional medicine forever 👇 (1:19 clip) Abundance incoming… or mass white-coat unemployment?

Simple pharmaceutical interventions could help older brains cope with memory impairment and recovery after surgery, new studies in mice suggest. The first paper examined the problem of post-surgical cognitive impairment. Immediately after surgery, cognitive impairment is common, but studies have found that 10% of adults over the age of 60 still have deficits to learning, memory and executive function three months after surgery, Rudolph said. Propofol is a common anesthetic agent that has shown promise in other mouse studies for improving cognition in Alzheimer's disease models, though in high doses it may harm the brain, Rudolph said. To study whether...

Today the NY Times has published the story of a trans woman named Jennifer Capasso. Capasso, who lives in New York, was diagnosed with multiple tumors which had spread throughout to various organs. Capasso was still getting medical treatment, including surgeries to remove the tumors, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. In March 2022, Capasso set her phone to record what the doctors were saying during the operation.“I wanted to know what’s going on,” she recounted. She turned on the audio recorder on her phone before the anesthesia hit. “Knowledge is power.”The surgeon removed part of her lung....

A study has found that a surgical technique developed to protect vision in patients with uveal melanoma, a rare cancer that arises inside the eye, may also lower the risk of the disease spreading and improve survival.. The study followed 37 patients who were treated for uveal melanoma. Most received targeted radiation, known as plaque brachytherapy, combined with a specialized procedure that replaces the eye's gel-like interior with silicone oil, a technique designed to shield healthy parts of the eye from radiation damage while allowing the tumor to receive the full cancer-killing dose. Over a median follow-up of more than...

Patients who have a new type of lens implanted in their eyes during surgery for cataracts or to correct their eyesight have excellent or good vision over distances both near and far, and often no longer need spectacles for reading. Research presented evaluated outcomes for around 200 patients in 17 sites in Europe and Asia-Pacific who had surgery to implant the TECNIS PureSEE. Data were available for 238 patients at the time of the Congress, making it one of the biggest studies to report on this type of lens so far. The findings showed that the EDF presbyopia correction IOL,...

In February 2023, a routine cataract surgery resulted in the death of 56-year-old Bart Writer.[1] According to a now-settled lawsuit, the surgical team members—namely the surgeon, Carl Stark Johnson, MD, and the anesthesiologist, Michael Urban, MD—were playing a game called “music bingo” during the procedure. (Music bingo, as described in the case, involved naming musical artists or songs as letters, to fill a bingo card while songs were played from Urban’s cell phone.) This game was allegedly regularly played during what were considered simple or routine surgeries. Is the OR a place for fun and games? According to notes obtained...

A vein treatment at a clinic owned by a celebrity surgeon has left a Long Island councilwoman in crippling agony, after she was given a procedure she never agreed to that was painfully botched, a new lawsuit claims. Oyster Bay Town Councilwoman Vicki Walsh claims a doctor employed by TV medical pro Dr. David Greuner — who was once dubbed “America’s Most Beautiful Doctor” — was supposed to give her a complimentary vein test under anesthesia, but wound up giving her an unexpected surgery. The two-term Republican lawmaker claims Dr. Arno Rotgans did the 2020 surgery while she was passed...

In January, Dr. Elisabeth Potter said she was midway through performing a breast reconstruction surgery when a call from a representative from UnitedHealthcare came into the operating room. The health insurance company wanted to talk about the patient on the table. “I got a phone call into the operating room saying that UnitedHealthcare wanted to talk to me and that they wanted to talk to me now,” Potter, a plastic surgeon, told NBC News. Potter posted a video on TikTok recounting the call that’s reached nearly 6 million views. During the call she said the UnitedHealthcare representative wanted more information...

A new clinical trial demonstrates that dietary changes significantly reduce persistent post-traumatic headaches (pPTH), a common and debilitating consequence of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Researchers found that increasing omega-3 fatty acids (commonly found in fatty fish like salmon and tuna) while reducing omega-6 fatty acids (abundant in seed oils such as corn, sunflower, and cottonseed oils) led to fewer and less severe headaches. The randomized trial involved 122 military health care beneficiaries suffering from chronic headaches following TBI. In addition to their current headache treatments, patients were asked to adhere to one of two diets for 12 weeks: a control...

A new analysis of published data finds no evidence to indicate that the long-standing practice of having patients fast for a period of time prior to surgery prevents post-surgical aspiration: vomiting that is followed by gastric contents getting into the lungs, which in turn causes what is known as aspiration pneumonia. Patients dislike is not being able to eat before undergoing a procedure. This is done to avoid the risk of vomiting when anesthesia is given. The research, however, shows that there is no association between pre-surgery fasting and post-procedure vomiting to support this recommendation. The researchers reviewed randomized clinical...

The suicide of a 26-year-old Pennsylvania police officer over the aftereffects of the popular eye surgery LASIK was not an isolated incident, with others saying the procedure left them with agonizing and life-changing symptoms, patients and doctors told The Post. LASIK providers say the procedure is 95% to 99% safe, but one LASIK survivor said she had suicidal ideations for two years after her “disastrous” surgery in 2000. She also claimed to know of at least 40 people who took their own lives because they couldn’t stand constant pain and vision problems, which developed after the procedure. “The LASIK lobby...

A young Pennsylvania police officer took his own life after he suffered from side effects caused by elective eye surgery, according to his family. Ryan Kingerski, 26, took time off from his job at the Penn Hills Police Department in August to undergo the popular eye surgery, LASIK, in hopes it would improve his vision, his grieving parents, Tim and Stefanie Kingerski, told CBS News Tuesday. However, he began suffering from painful side effects, including headaches, double vision, seeing dark spots and floaters — tiny spots that appear as streaks or cobweb-like shapes across a person’s field of vision, they...

Exporting companies are using Chinese ships, planes, and trucks to transport dead Americans across the world for research purposes, according to a Thursday report from Reuters. A Hong Kong flagged cargo ship departed South Carolina in July carrying 6,000 pounds of human remains valued at $67,204. The container’s temperature was set to 5 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent the parts from spoiling. Relatives of the dead, meanwhile, did not realize their loved ones’ remains were being dismembered and sent to Europe and elsewhere, the report notes. Body brokers like Oregon-based MedCure rely on lax regulations to export heads, shoulders, knees and...

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee grilled whistleblower Dr. Eithan Haim this week over his criticism of transgender medical treatments, months after the Biden Justice Department dropped criminal charges against him. During a Wednesday hearing titled "Ending Lawfare Against Whistleblowers Who Protect Children," Haim defended his decision to leak documents to the media, revealing that Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston performed transgender medical procedures on minors through May 2023. "I wouldn't want this to be done to anyone, not even liberals, even if they're the craziest communists ever," Haim said during the hearing. "There's no one in this country who...

Opinion Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with millions of new cases reported each year. In 2022 alone, approximately 20 million new cancer cases were diagnosed globally, and 9.7 million lives were lost to the disease. In India, the numbers are equally alarming, with around 100 out of every one lakh people diagnosed with cancer. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), more than 14 lakh cancer cases were estimated in 2023. [1 lakh = 0.1 million] Despite advancements in early detection and treatment, many myths surrounding cancer testing prevent people from undergoing timely...

Private cataract removal work is so lucrative that consultants are cashing in and have less time for hospital appointmentsNHS doctors have been accused of leaving eye patients at risk of blindness by cashing in on private cataract removal surgery. Dr Ben Burton, president of the Royal College of Ophthalmology, said the system is on the brink of collapse, while surgeon-turned-Labour MP Dr Peter Prinsley said parts of the country could become “ophthalmic deserts” because of a lack of coverage. The crisis has been triggered, in part, by a rise in fees paid to independent providers by the NHS for cataract...

He’s been on this journey for four years. Once a week, the 17-year-old transgender boy injects testosterone into his body. He’s already frozen his eggs in case he wants to have his own biological children one day. He’s talked with his parents, his psychologist, and says he knew he was ready. For this teen, the next logical step was almost here: surgery to remove the breast tissue he was born with. “Getting this treatment isn’t fixing something that’s wrong with me,” says the teen, who lives in the Chicago suburbs and asked that his name not be used to protect...