There are the indigent, the chronic, the intoxicated, and the damaged, who for better or for worse, however they got there, depend on the compassion of those around them. And the staff of the Health Sciences Centre Emergency Room are among the most hardworking, diligent, and compassionate people I’ve met. But – they aren’t perfect, and the system isn’t perfect, and someone was missed and died. I’ve seen the changes that followed in the emergency room – new policies, procedures, and staff, right down to changes to the layout of the ER so that people cannot physically be in the waiting room without having checked in, brighter lights to discourage sleeping, and so on.

All of which is why the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s (WHRA’s) new move to have the case against the hospital dismissed – on the grounds that the dead don’t have charter rights – is shameful. It might be an example of budgetary prudence or toothless legal posturing, but its a slap in the face to the family of the deceased, to the people at hospital who are working hard to deliver care to those who need it, and to every Manitoban who has compassion in their soul.

Finally, its an embarassment to the WRHA itself, and all of the kind, decent people who undoubtedly work there. The WRHA has not endeared itself of late to the people it is supposed to serve: it has been roundly criticized for being a bloated bureaucracy, and for not dealing effectively with many of the health care challenges in the city. The WHRA had an opportunity with the Brian Sinclair story to show some humility.

Regardless of whether you think the family deserves a payout or not, and however just or unjust the family’s claims, the WHRA is doing no-one a service with their current defence, least of all themselves.

To quote some commenters from the Free Press:

“Mr. Sinclair was probably a lot of things, but unworthy of medical treatment, I think not.” Citizen 204

“Remind me to sue the WHRA for wrongful death BEFORE I die.” Rural Reader

“…Apples that suppress appetite could also be in the pipeline, with the first varieties on shelves within five years.”

via Extra healthy apples on the way as scientists crack genome for Golden Delicious | Mail Online.

Why does anyone receive suboptimal care? After all, society could not have given us people with more talent, more dedication, and more training than the people in medical science have—than you have. I think the answer is that we have not grappled with the fact that the complexity of science has changed medicine fundamentally. This can no longer be a profession of craftsmen individually brewing plans for whatever patient comes through the door. We have to be more like engineers building a mechanism whose parts actually fit together, whose workings are ever more finely tuned and tweaked for ever better performance in providing aid and comfort to human beings.

via News Desk: The Velluvial Matrix : The New Yorker.

In the late 1950s, psychologist Milton Rokeach was gripped by an eccentric plan. He gathered three psychiatric patients, each with the delusion that they were Jesus Christ, to live together for two years in Ypsilanti State Hospital to see if their beliefs would change.

Read on at Salon – “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus”. (found on Reddit)

“For the first time, the nation will have goals, benchmarks, and measurable outcomes that will help us tackle the childhood obesity epidemic one child, one family, and one community at a time,” Obama says in a news release.U.S. kids haven't always been obese. Only one in 20 children ages 2 to 19 was obese in the 1970s. But around 1980 child obesity began to rocket to today's stratospheric level: Nearly one in three kids is overweight or obese, and nearly one in five is frankly obese.

via Michelle Obama’s Plan to End Childhood Obesity Epidemic.

… [researchers] found more than 20 compounds in maple syrup from Canada that have been linked to human health, 13 of which are newly discovered in maple syrup. In addition, eight of the compounds have been found in the Acer (maple) family for the first time.

via Pure maple syrup contains medicinally beneficial compounds, pharmacy researcher finds.

And, in a major breakthrough, the “ice-ball” created around a tumour by the injections not only kills it off but ensures the cancer does not return.

via Express.co.uk – Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: Ice-cold gas ‘kills’ breast cancer.

Should be something Canada can excel at, given our experience with ice and cold.

The risk of children suffering from flu can be halved if they take vitamin D, doctors in Japan have found. The finding has implications for flu epidemics since vitamin D, which is naturally produced by the human body when exposed to direct sunlight, has no significant side effects, costs little and can be several times more effective than anti-viral drugs or vaccine.

via Vitamin D better than vaccines at preventing flu, report claims – Times Online.

Lack of Vitamin D is the curse of the sun-starved north. I imagine its consumption should be advocated more strongly.

A 42-year-old HIV patient with leukemia appears to have no detectable HIV in his blood and no symptoms after a stem cell transplant from a donor carrying a gene mutation that confers natural resistance to the virus that causes AIDS, according to a report published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

via Man appears free of HIV after stem cell transplant – CNN.com.

Don’t be concerned that 2,000 IU will give you too much. With exposure to sunlight in the summer, the body can generate between 10,000 IU and 20,000 IU of vitamin D per hour with no ill effects. In addition, no adverse effects have been seen with supplemental vitamin D intakes up to 10,000 IU daily.

via Dr. Andrew Weil: New Recommendation: Why You Need More Vitamin D.