Wrong Patient Gets Brain Surgery Due to Hospital Mix-Up

Doctors at a hospital in Kenya were two hours into brain surgery to remove a patient’s blood clot when they discovered to their shock there was no clot, the Daily Nation reports. They had the wrong patient. According to the BBC , the patient they were operating on simply needed non-invasive…
Newser

UnitedHealth is buying hundreds of clinics in $5-billion deal as insurers push into patient care

UnitedHealth Group Inc., the nation’s biggest health insurer, is spending nearly $ 5 billion to buy hundreds of clinics, just three days after rival Aetna Inc. announced a tie-up with CVS Health Corp.

Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealth said Wednesday that its Optum segment will buy the DaVita…

L.A. Times – Business

Patient in Utah Nurse Arrest Controversy Dies

A sad development in the Salt Lake City nurse arrest controversy: Bill Gray, the patient whose blood nurse Alex Wubbels refused to allow police take without consent or a warrant, has died from the injuries he suffered in a July car crash. Gray, a reserve police officer with the Rigby,…
Newser

As Doctor’s Age Climbs, So Does Patient Death Rate

Having a more experienced doctor might not be best. That’s the message from a Harvard Medical School study published in the British Medical Journal that appears to show patient mortality rate increases with the age of a doctor. The increase is small but significant: In a study of more than…
Newser

Patient Claims Doctor Kicked Her Out After Political Argument

A teacher says she went to her doctor for a physical but instead got booted from the office by her Donald Trump-supporting physician after she disagreed with him, the AP reports. Heidi Kravitz Dunn tells the Philadelphia Inquirer it happened Friday in Broomall. She says Dr. Joseph LaBricciosa ranted about…
Newser

Research Exonerates AIDS ‘Patient Zero’

The French-Canadian flight attendant dubbed “Patient Zero” in the AIDS epidemic in North America was no such thing, researchers say. In a study published in the journal Nature , researchers analyzed HIV genomes and determined that the virus came to the US from Haiti around 1971 and had already infected many…
Newser

Here’s The Key To Patient Empowerment

Patients deserved to play a role in their healthcare decisions. Often the right choice depends on a particular patient’s goals – the same illness might warrant aggressive treatment for one person and minimally invasive treatment for another, depending on how each person weighs the pros and cons of those treatments. But […]
Forbes Real Time

Janice Dickinson — Fiancé Accused of Sex with Patient … Loses Medical Licence

Janice Dickinson can no longer brag about dating a doctor, because the man she’s set to marry just surrendered his license … TMZ has learned. Psychiatrist Robert Hugh Gerner allegedly engaged in a sexual relationship with a female patient…

TMZ.com

Scientists Wake Comatose Patient Using Only Ultrasound

Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles , are reporting on the “remarkable” recovery of a 25-year-old man in a coma following a simple and brief exposure to low-energy ultrasound targeting the thalamus, the part of the human brain that is typically impaired after a coma. They are keeping their…
Newser

Judge rules against AIDS patient advocates in Gilead lawsuit

A federal judge has ruled that pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences did not illegally manipulate the U.S. patent system by waiting years to introduce a less-toxic version of one of the world’s most-prescribed HIV medicines.

The Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation had sued Gilead in January,…

L.A. Times – Business