Tonight at 8 pm, HBO will debut a four-part documentary series, The Weight of the Nation, an unflinching look at the severity of the obesity crisis in America, and its crippling effect on our nation’s health and economy.
HBO and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences have joined forces to bring together the nation’s foremost experts on weight and weight loss for a frank and educational look at obesity in America. The series explains how weight became such an issue in this country and provides answers for how we can get to a healthy weight by overcoming the forces that drive us to eat too much and move too little. Full story »
The Boston Globe recently ran a story about a young Boston Children’s Hospital patient who came to the hospital from Palestine. Coordinating his care was a combined effort of many people, crossing geological and political borders.
Yahya at Boston Children's
When Yahya Ahmad Masalma was born in a small village in Palestine, Israeli doctors diagnosed him with posterior urethral valves (PUV), a congenital and chronic condition that compromises the kidneys and urological system. In Yahya’s case, his kidneys and bladder were unable to properly function, causing serious problems, so doctors in Jerusalem began performing regular dialysis—a process that takes the blood out of the body, filters it through a machine and puts back into the body.
But a person—especially a child—can only undergo dialysis for so long before the body begins to revolt. After five years, Yahya’s blood vessels were damaged and failing and he would soon be unable to undergo any more of the life-sustaining treatment.
Without dialysis, Yahya’s condition would worsen quickly, and the only way he could survive was to get a kidney transplant.
Michael Agus, MD,director of Medicine Critical Care Program Boston Children’s Hospital had heard about Yahya’s case through his Israeli colleagues, and made William Harmon, MD, chief of Boston Children’s Division of Nephrology, aware of the situation. Although the Israeli Hospital has performed kidney transplants in small children before, Yahya had very low blood pressure and they felt that it would not be safe to do so for him. The Israeli physicians could not find a transplant program that was willing to accept Yahya. Full story »
Mattel Inc., maker of Barbie dolls, last week announced that it would create a bald version of the popular fashion doll to support people battling cancer.
The announcement came a few months after Beautiful and Bald Barbie, a Facebook group that petitioned Mattel to make a hairless version of the doll, gained mass support online. Their mission was simple:
We would like to see a Beautiful and Bald Barbie made to help young girls who suffer from hair loss due to cancer treatments, alopecia or trichotillomania. Also, for young girls who are having trouble coping with their mother’s hair loss from chemo. Many children have some difficulty accepting their mother, sister, aunt, grandparent or friend going from longhaired to bald. Full story »
Dr. Claire McCarthy is a primary care physician and the Medical Communications Editor at Children’s Hospital Boston. Along with her blogs here on Thriving, you can find her at the Huffington Post and Boston.com. Follow her on Twitter @drClaire.
Those of us who do primary care often feel like Rodney Dangerfield: we get no respect. Compared to the specialists, our job is thought of as, well, lowly and ordinary.
But that’s changing—and Children’s Hospital Boston is leading the way. The primary care departments of Children’s, Children’s Hospital Primary Care Center (CHPCC) and Martha Eliot Health Center (MEHC), have been chosen by Harvard Medical School to take part in its Center for Primary Care’s Academic Innovation Collaborative. They have been awarded $900,000 over two years, to be matched by the hospital, to work with the Collaborative to transform primary care delivery and education. Full story »
Have you seen this week’s copy of People magazine? It features the story of Avery Toole who was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), one of the most rare and most devastating congenital heart defects. As a long-time nurse in Children’s Hospital Boston’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, her mother, Cheryl, knew Avery might one day need a heart transplant. What she didn’t know was the amazing relationship that she, her husband, Mike, and Avery would one day have with the family of the boy whose heart now beats in Avery’s chest.
Special thanks to KBTX for contributing to this story. To see more on the Toole/Lawyer connection, please visit their website as well.
To learn more about their incredible journey, watch the following video and grab the magazine on newsstands everywhere.
CBS This Morning recently took a look at a new test that will detect birth abnormalities at an earlier stage in a woman’s pregnancy. The new test, called the MaterniT21, can be administered at just 10 weeks and is safer and more accurate than current tests of a similar nature.
Detecting birth abnormalities helps families and health care workers prepare for the child and figure out the best ways to treat and support him once born, but there are also concerns about how such testing could affect birth rates of children with identifiable medical conditions.
Brian Skotko, MD, MPP, a clinical fellow in genetics at Children’s Hospital Boston’s Down Syndrome Program, was interviewed in the CBS piece and has been following the MaterniT21 story since it first surfaced. Also featured in the story is an adorable young patient of Skotko’s named Grace McLaughlin, as well as her mother Melanie, who discusses how having Grace has changed her life.
Both Skotko and the McLaughlins were also featured in a recent article on prenatal testing in TIME magazine, which explores what these types of tests could mean for future generations.
Click here for the option to read the full article.
To read more on Skotko’s take on MaterniT21 visit Thriving’s first blog on the subject from January 2011.
The journal Pediatrics released two studies this week that focused on the mental and physical wellbeing of children who don’t conform to typical gender roles.
The first study, led by Children’s Hospital Boston researcher S. Bryn Austin, ScD, indicates that kids who fail to adapt traditional gender stereotypes as children are at a significantly greater risk for physical, sexual and psychological abuse during childhood. These children are also more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in young adulthood.
The study was funded by the National Institute of Health and compiled data from almost 9,000 young adults. Participants were asked to recall their childhood experiences, including their favorite toys and games growing up. The types of charters they related to as children, which roles they adopted during pretend play and their earliest understanding of masculinity and femininity where all reported on as well. Researchers also asked participants to disclose information about any physical, sexual or emotional abuse they experienced at the hands of parents, other adults or older children. Finally, participants were screened for PSTD. Full story »
Dr. Claire McCarthy is a primary care physician and the Medical Communications Editor at Children’s Hospital Boston. Along with her blogs here on Thriving, you can find her at the Huffington Post and Boston.com. Follow her on Twitter @drClaire.
Claire McCarthy, MD
The Boston Globe recently reported on a Children’s Hospital Boston study that shows a preventative approach to treating asthma can keep kids out of the Emergency Department (ED) and save money on health care spending. Here, Dr. Claire talks about the medical professionals whose commitment to keeping children healthy supports these innovative approaches to medicine.
I have known Susan Sommer, a nurse in the Community Asthma Initiative (CAI) at Boston Children’s, for nearly twenty years—we met at Martha Eliot Health Center when we were both working there. I was so happy when she started working with CAI, because she is the perfect person to do that kind of work. There are three things that are undeniably true about Susan. First, she really cares about people. I mean really cares, as if each and every one of us were family. Second, she’s really smart. Third, she gets real life.
That last one isn’t to be taken for granted, especially when we’re talking about medical professionals. Sadly, it can be said about us that we often have our heads up in the clouds. We prescribe things based on science and studies—which is good, don’t get me wrong, medical treatments should be based in science and studies. But when patients leave the hospital and go home, real life has a way of, well, getting in the way. Full story »
Do you have a Children's Hospital Boston story you'd like heard? By sharing your Children's story you can be a great source of inspiration and encouragement to families who are going through similar situations. And it’s a great way to find support by connecting with others. Share your story today »
Mattel Inc., maker of Barbie dolls, last week announced that it would create a bald version of the popular fashion doll to support people battling cancer.
The journal Pediatrics released two studies this week that focused on the mental and physical wellbeing of children who don’t conform to typical gender roles.
