By Joe Moszczynski
The Star-Ledger.com

Registered nurses at Newton Memorial Hospital have filed a petition to join New Jersey’s largest union of nurses and health care professionals, the union announced today

The petition, signed by about 200 of the more than 300 RNs who work at Newton Memorial, was filed with the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that oversees union elections, on behalf of the Health Professionals and Allied Employees.

The petition cites a number of goals for the union drive, including quality patient care and safe nurse staffing, professional training and education, retention of staff, fairness in treatment, fair wages and job security.

“We are unionizing for a voice in patient care — we are at the bedside, and we want to be able to speak up for our patients and their families effectively. To do that, we need policies that help our hospital recruit and retain the most qualified nurses and staff,” said Lisa Arbolino, a registered nurse at the 148-bed hospital and a member of the HPAE organizing committee…

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By John Marzulli
New York Daily News.com

…After nearly five months in a hospital room, Tabitha Mullings is scheduled to walk out of the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine on prosthetic legs and join her family in the Bedford-Stuyvesant (New York City) apartment she has lived in for 25 years.

Mullings, 32, a single mother of three children, was rushed to Brooklyn Hospital Center on Sept. 15…(She) had been discharged from the emergency room the day before, given painkillers for a kidney stone. She dialed 911 twice in the next 24 hours, but medics did not take her back to the hospital. She developed a sepsis infection, and within two weeks gangrene had destroyed her limbs and also left her blind in her right eye and with severely impaired vision in her left eye.

Her arms and legs had to be amputated below the elbows and knees  as a result of alleged medical malpractice, according to a lawsuit filed against the hospital. Doctors say she has made remarkable progress learning to walk on prosthetic legs, and she has been fitted for prosthetic hands…

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By Patrick Swayze
Washington Post.com

…Ever since I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January 2008, I’ve been waging an intense, often hellacious battle…But I’m not alone.

More than 1.4 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year…one out of three women and one out of two men…Last week, it struck…Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who…(is) already a colon cancer survivor…

With Congress about to decide how much money to include for medical research as part of the economic stimulus package…(M)y message to our senators and representatives is simple: Vote for the maximum funding to let the National Institutes of Health fight cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. It’s not only good for our nation’s health; it’s also good for our economic well-being.

Congress is facing…a bill…which includes $3.5 billion for the NIH, and a Senate bill that provides $10 billion for lifesaving scientific work…(T)he money will also create high-paying jobs and spark economic activity in every part of the United States: The NIH funds projects at hospitals, universities and medical research facilities in towns and cities in each of the 50 states…

The Senate measure would provide funds for thousands of research projects that have already passed through scientific review and can start at a moment’s notice…Some may question why medical-research spending should be part of an economic stimulus package…(M)edical research supports jobs and infrastructure…(I)t also enables Americans to reach their individual potential and contribute more to society.

…(M)y family had a simple response for challenges like this: “Stop talking about it, and do something about it.” That’s how I feel about finding more money for cancer research. My hope is that some day, the words “a cure” won’t be followed by the words “is impossible…” My plea to Congress…Stand up to create jobs, fight illness and deliver hope.

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Source: Associated Pess

Researchers tracking Sept. 11 responders who became ill after working at the World Trade Center site found many had lung problems more than five years later in a study (which) experts said proves persistent illness in people exposed to toxic dust caused by the twin towers’ collapse.

The study…examined more than 3,000 responders between 2004 and 2007, repeating exams conducted between the middle of 2002 and 2004. Slightly more than 24 percent of the patients had abnormal lung function, the study found. In the earlier examinations, about 28 percent of the patients had similar results…

Experts have struggled since the 2001 attacks to find standards to define post-Sept. 11 illness and the time it would take to develop. The city’s medical examiner recently added to the official victims’ list a man who died in October of cancer and lung disease, citing his exposure to the dust cloud that enveloped the city when the 110-story towers collapsed…

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By “Heddi”
DemocraticUnderground.com

It is a teaching hospital associated with a state-run university. It’s actually the university that got its budget cut by 47%, and that cut was made by the governor who is focusing the brunt of budget cuts to health and education. It is a level-1 trauma center that caters to at least 6 states. It is also a community hospital. Being state run, we cannot refuse anyone any care unless we do not have the staff to do so.

Also affected are the 30 or so community health centers the university and hospital operate. These are clinics that primarily serve the homeless populations, but there are also many low-income and sliding scale income clinics…These facilities ensure that the already bulging ER isn’t filled to capacity on an even more regular basis…Now those resources are gone and the ER will be just as full as ever…

The hospital admins have already decided that they are going to negate the contract they just signed last fall for pay increases…They are also cutting our support staff. The hiring freeze doesn’t just affect RN’s. Medical and Hospital Assistants, Nursing Assistants, Phlebotomists, Lab Techs, Radiology, Transportation–all are being cut. The MA’s are being downgraded to HA’s so that they won’t be able to get THEIR union-guaranteed pay raise. They have also cut ALL overtime.

…(Y)ou better hope you’re the sickest patient on the floor because that’s the only way you’ll get needed attention. Otherwise, I’ll see you at 9pm…and 4am for assessment and meds. I hope that the time between them you are the most stable you’ll be, because I can’t guarantee that you’ll be tended to…

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By “Kwickick”
DailyKos.com

…I have pancreatic cancer. It is untreatable…I am not telling you this for pity, or for whining..I am telling you this to urge you on in your fight for universal health care…

My doctor says it probably would not have made a difference, but I have delayed seeing a physician for two years, even though I have had a series of symptoms. I have been unable to qualify for health insurance that I could afford — and even if I could, my cancer would have been deemed a preexisting condition unless I had the insurance before two years ago.

I cut back on everything — movies, clothes, restaurants, hot water, air conditioning (in Texas), cost of each meal — and saved up my money so that I could see a doctor. I…delayed everything until the symptoms became too serious (I was taken to an emergency room — and was booted to a county hospital when they found out I had no insurance, but made too much to qualify for Medicaid)…What was so frightening to me…was…the number of people I met in the waiting rooms who had done the exact same thing…

The fight against universal healthcare will be vicious. The medical industry will get out all guns, and the Repubs will lap it up…The stakes are too high. It literally means life and death, for all those people who will be in the waiting rooms in the future…who all will probably be dead when the program is finally introduced. Remember me and remember my plea…Please, don’t take our eye off the ball…

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Kwickick died  January 31.

People young and old crowd the hallway outside the locked door of the Arlington (VA) Free Clinic. They grip small pieces of paper that will determine whether they get in — or give up and go home.

It’s lottery day, and 45 county residents who lack health insurance and money to pay for medical care are competing for 30 openings on a cold afternoon in January…If they meet the clinic’s criteria, they’ll return in a couple of weeks to see doctors or other staff.

…(W)inners are separated from losers…(A) man…strides into the clinic. His broken arm had been set in a hospital emergency room, and he needs to see a specialist for follow-up care. Another man, who has Parkinson’s disease and urgently needs drugs to treat it, leaves disheartened. He will have to return in two weeks and try again in the next lottery…

Neither rich nor poor, this group doesn’t readily qualify for public programs such as Medicaid but often can’t afford to buy insurance or pay hospital, doctor and drug bills…

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By Elizabeth Weise and Julie Schmit
USA Today.com

The nationwide salmonella outbreak tied to peanut butter and peanut products is hitting a little too close to home for President Obama. Speaking of his 7-year-old daughter…he said, “That’s what Sasha eats for lunch probably three times a week…I don’t want to have to worry about whether she’s going to get sick as a consequence to having her lunch.”

Obama promised a “complete review” of Food and Drug Administration operations. “I think that the FDA has not been able to catch some of these things as quickly as I expect them to.” Congress appears to agree. The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry will hold a hearing Thursday on food-safety oversight. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on the salmonella outbreak next week.

The outbreak has sickened more than 550 people in 43 states and is linked to eight deaths. It comes from a single peanut processing plant in Blakely, Ga., owned by the Peanut Corp. of America in Lynchburg, Va. The FDA says the company shipped products to more than 2,100 customers nationwide…

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By Windsor Genova
AHN.com

(O)n Friday…(January 30, 2009)…(a)n advisory panel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)…recommended banning a pain-relieving drug linked to deaths, including suicides, and for being addictive. The…recommendation of withdrawing Darvon or Darvocet, which is also known by its generic name propoxyphene, came 30 years after its ban was first sought by the consumers group Public Citizen.

The drug, made by Eli Lilly and marketed by Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals and Qualitest/Vintage Pharmaceuticals, was approved in 1957. It was banned in the United Kingdom in 2005…

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