Highway guardrails are installed to keep people safe in the event of an accident. Now, federal officials are claiming that some guardrails malfunction, turning the metal rails into giant spears that can pierce through a car and seriously injure or even kill the people inside. The problem, it seems, comes from a manufacturing change …
The Department of Transportation recently launched a new PSA campaign intended to encourage North Carolina passengers to buckle up. According to a recent NCDOT press release, front seat passenger seatbelt usage dropped in 2013 to 84.9 percent, down nearly one percentage point from the previous year. In North Carolina, every passenger in a motor vehicle …
New “Click It or Ticket” Campaign Targets Passengers Read More »
Women who have had uterine surgery or hysterectomy can tell you that the recovery can be long and painful. So when a new technique known as morcellation became available–which allowed laparoscopic hysterectomies or uterine fibroid removal–it was seen as a great medical step forward. Now, morcellation is being linked with the spread of a rare …
HensonFuerst Investigating Link Between Morcellation Surgery & Cancer Spread Read More »
Walker Cassidy had a dream of farming his own land, building a home, and honoring the memory of a dear friend in the process. Instead, he has ended up in a bureaucratic nightmare–despite owning 71 acres in Shelby, NC, he cannot build, farm, or even mow down the weeds. The state doesn’t even want him …
HensonFuerst Attorney Fights for Property Rights Read More »
In June 2011, the FDA revealed that use of the diabetes medication Actos for more than one year was linked to an increased risk of bladder cancer. This risk pertains not just to Actos, but any medication that contains pioglitazone, such as Actos, Actoplus Met, Actoplus Met XR, and Duetact. In early April 2014, a …
We trust that when we go to the hospital, we’ll get cured and sent home good as new… or at least not sicker than when we went in. According to a new study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, each year nearly 650,000 hospital patients get a serious infection during their stay …
If you think that iPads are just entertainment devices, you should read about St. Edward High School in Ohio athletic trainer Jason Cruickshank. He uses an iPad to help diagnose his student athlete concussions. Using the tablet with the C3 Logix concussion app, the coach has a baseline measure of all his athletes’ cognitive function, balance, …
Since posting the story about how 18 patients at Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC, were possibly exposed to the rare but deadly Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), we’ve had folks ask for more information. While there has been no additional information provided by the hospital, we’ve put together this list of answers to common questions: I’ve …
Q&A about Possible CJD Exposure at Forsyth Medical Center Read More »
In early February 2014, a security guard at Duke’s Dan River Steam Station found that a pipe running under a 27-acre waste pond had collapsed, allowing 82,000 tons of coal ash mixed with 27 million gallons of water to drain out. The spill turned the river cloudy for miles. Two health advisories have been released, …
Today, officials at Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC, admitted that improper medical instrument sterilization exposed 18 neurosurgery patients to the deadly Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). CJD is caused by infectious agents called “prions,” which are extremely difficult to kill. On January 18, 2014, a patient suspected of having CJD had surgery. Instead of throwing away …
Forsyth Medical Center Exposures Some Patients to Serious Disease Risk Read More »