A twist on the Alzheimer's fight
Mary Newport, a Spring Hill doctor, said ketones — a kind of superfuel for brain cells — had an immediate effect on her husband, Steve, who has early onset Alzheimer’s disease. "He said it was like someone had turned on a lightbulb," Mary Newport said. Others are taking notice, too, as ketones are drawing interest as a possible treatment for Alzheimer's disease.
Monday, August 3, 2009
TV Shows Trauma and Mercy
Trauma
Executive producer Peter Berg delivers "Trauma," the first high-octane medical drama series to live exclusively in the field where the real action is. Like an adrenaline shot to the heart, "Trauma" is an intense, action-packed look at one of the most dangerous medical professions in the world: first responder paramedics. When emergencies occur, the trauma team from San Francisco General is first on the scene, traveling by land, by sea or by air to reach their victims in time. From the heights of the city's Transamerica Pyramid to the depths of the San Francisco Bay, these heroes must face the most extreme conditions to save lives -- and give meaning to their own existence in the process.
Source: NBC
Mercy - NBC TV Show - Mercy Seasons, Spoilers, Cast, Pics
NBC's "Mercy," a new medical drama with a unique point of view, portrays the lives of the staff at Mercy Hospital as seen through the eyes of those who know it best—its nurses.
Nurse Veronica Callahan (Taylor Schilling, "Dark Matter") returns to Mercy from a military tour in Iraq—and she knows more about medicine than all of the residents combined on NBC's "Mercy." Together with fellow nurses Sonia Jimenez (Jamie Lee Kirchner, "Rescue Me") and Chloe Payne (Michelle Trachtenberg, "Gossip Girl"), Callahan navigates through the daily traumas and social landmines of life and love both inside the hospital and out in the real world on NBC's "Mercy."
The cast of NBC's "Mercy" also includes: James Tupper ("Men in Trees") as Dr. Chris Sands, a new doctor at the hospital who complicates Veronica's life; Diego Klattenhoff ("Supernatural") as Mike Callahan, Veronica's husband; and Guillermo Diaz ("Weeds") as Nurse Angel Lopez.
NBC's "Mercy" is a Universal Media Studios/Berman Braun production. Joining writer/executive producers Liz Heldens (NBC's "Friday Night Lights") and Gretchen Berg & Aaron Harberts ("Pushing Daisies," "Pepper Dennis") are executive producers Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun. Emmy Award winner Adam Bernstein (NBC's "30 Rock," "Rescue Me") is the director for the pilot of NBC's "Mercy."
TV Shows Trauma and Mercy
It's really odd to finally see TV shows coming out addressing trauma after all these years, but it's wonderful they are finally being done.
Quiet heroes we depend on everyday to take care of us when parts of our life beyond our control spiral into chaos. Car accidents can change our lives in a second. Natural disasters strike leaving us in total confusion wondering where we're supposed to live, find clothes, food, how we are supposed to put our lives back together again. Fires wipe out everything we thought we valued, needed to make us happy and obliterated sentimental reminders of our lives captured in pictures lost forever.
We tend to not think about these people we need when traumatic events happen but we're sure glad they show up when they do.
Firefighters, emergency responders, police officers and Chaplains show up when they are needed the most then return into the background of our lives. It never dawns on us to wonder how they do it, how they face all these events, risk their own lives for the sake of strangers, then go back to their own lives without asking anything in return except a simple thank you and their paycheck, because they were "just doing their jobs" for the rest of us.
They go back home after working to save us, risking their lives to do it, then have to take out the trash, do the laundry, go food shopping, deal with kid's homework, dust furniture and vacuum the rugs. They deal with the usual mundane problems and family relationships all the while they are remembering they just saved a life, wondering why simple events in life can take on so much importance to the people they love the most. Someone died in their arms a little while ago but they have to deal with an argument over who was supposed to unload the dishwasher. They saved the life of a child but have to go home and tell their own kid to clean their room.
We see them everyday but never really notice any of them until we need them. We never think about their own lives once we are done needing them.
These TV shows may make us think more about them while reminding us of the trauma they face daily. Mercy will show us what it's like to be sent into combat then have to come back home living like the rest of us but being oh so much more than we could ever dream of.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Seminole jail trainee shot by deputies after corrections officer killed
Seminole jail trainee shot by deputies after corrections officer killed
Gary Taylor
Sentinel Staff Writer
3:07 PM EDT, August 2, 2009
A Seminole County Sheriff's Office trainee, suspected of fatally shooting his female companion, was shot and seriously injured this morning by a deputy from that agency.
Jeff L. Thomas, 45, is in critical condition at Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he was airlifted after the shooting in Geneva, Seminole County sheriff's Capt. Dennis Lemma said.
Lemma identified the dead woman as Melanie Lee, 37, a sergeant with the state Department of Corrections, working at the Central Florida Reception Center near Orlando.
read more here
Corrections officer killed
Gary Taylor
Sentinel Staff Writer
3:07 PM EDT, August 2, 2009
A Seminole County Sheriff's Office trainee, suspected of fatally shooting his female companion, was shot and seriously injured this morning by a deputy from that agency.
Jeff L. Thomas, 45, is in critical condition at Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he was airlifted after the shooting in Geneva, Seminole County sheriff's Capt. Dennis Lemma said.
Lemma identified the dead woman as Melanie Lee, 37, a sergeant with the state Department of Corrections, working at the Central Florida Reception Center near Orlando.
read more here
Corrections officer killed
Homeless Marine gave millions away
Richard Walters, a homeless man who lived in Phoenix, died two years ago. And he left behind a surprise: a $4 million estate. Courtesy Rita Belle
He just gave up all of the material things that we think we have to have. You know, I don't know how we gauge happiness. What's happy for you might not be happy for me. I never heard him complain.
- Rita Belle
Homeless Man Leaves Behind Surprise: $4 Million
July 27, 2009
Every day on NPR, listeners hear funding credits — or, in other words, very short, simple commercials.
A few weeks ago, a new one made it to air: "Support for NPR comes from the estate of Richard Leroy Walters, whose life was enriched by NPR, and whose bequest seeks to encourage others to discover public radio."
NPR's Robert Siegel wondered who Walters was. So Siegel Googled him.
An article in the online newsletter of a Catholic mission in Phoenix revealed that Walters died two years ago at the age of 76. He left an estate worth about $4 million. Along with the money he left for NPR, Walters also left money for the mission.
But something distinguished Walters from any number of solvent, well-to-do Americans with seven-figure estates: He was homeless.
Walters was a retired engineer from AlliedSignal Corp.; an honors graduate of Purdue with a master's degree; and a Marine. Walters never married, didn't have children and was estranged from his brother. But he wasn't friendless.
read more here
Homeless Man Leaves Behind Surprise
linked from AOL News
Acknowledging a POW’s sacrifice, eligible for Purple Heart
Acknowledging a POW’s sacrifice
Decades after their deaths, they are eligible for Purple Heart
By Brian MacQuarrie
Globe Staff / August 2, 2009
EPPING, N.H. - The World War II mess kit still gleams when the sun strikes its aluminum, a treasured family keepsake that bears hundreds of tiny markings chiseled in secret in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp.
The etchings form a cross, the letters R.I.P., and the date, Dec. 28, 1942: the day when an Epping farmboy, Private Joseph Norman St. Laurent, died in the Philippines after surviving the Bataan Death March, the hell of a prison ship, and a scavenger’s diet of worms, grubs, cats, and monkeys.
If St. Laurent had died in combat, he would have been awarded a Purple Heart, a presidential honor to acknowledge the sacrifices of those killed or wounded while serving with the military. But because he perished in captivity, St. Laurent and 12,000 other US veterans who died in prison camps in World War II never received that recognition.
Now, more than six decades later, the Defense Department has expanded its criteria for the medal to include any POW who died in captivity after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. As a result, in the first ceremony of its kind in the nation, the next-of-kin of many of the 61 prisoners from New Hampshire who died during World War II and the Korean War will gather at the state veterans cemetery Aug. 8 to honor their long-deceased loved ones.
read more here
Decades after their deaths, they are eligible for Purple Heart
Decades after their deaths, they are eligible for Purple Heart
By Brian MacQuarrie
Globe Staff / August 2, 2009
EPPING, N.H. - The World War II mess kit still gleams when the sun strikes its aluminum, a treasured family keepsake that bears hundreds of tiny markings chiseled in secret in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp.
The etchings form a cross, the letters R.I.P., and the date, Dec. 28, 1942: the day when an Epping farmboy, Private Joseph Norman St. Laurent, died in the Philippines after surviving the Bataan Death March, the hell of a prison ship, and a scavenger’s diet of worms, grubs, cats, and monkeys.
If St. Laurent had died in combat, he would have been awarded a Purple Heart, a presidential honor to acknowledge the sacrifices of those killed or wounded while serving with the military. But because he perished in captivity, St. Laurent and 12,000 other US veterans who died in prison camps in World War II never received that recognition.
Now, more than six decades later, the Defense Department has expanded its criteria for the medal to include any POW who died in captivity after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. As a result, in the first ceremony of its kind in the nation, the next-of-kin of many of the 61 prisoners from New Hampshire who died during World War II and the Korean War will gather at the state veterans cemetery Aug. 8 to honor their long-deceased loved ones.
read more here
Decades after their deaths, they are eligible for Purple Heart
Hundreds of babies dropped off roof in India
Hundreds of babies dropped off roof in India
By NIRMALA GEORGE, Associated Press
Watch the story NEW DELHI (AP) — Rights activists lashed out Friday at local officials who allowed hundreds of infants to be dropped from the roof of a mosque in western India in the belief that the fall — which ends when the babies are caught in a bedsheet — would ensure good health and prosperity for their families.
The ritual at the Baba Umer Durga, a Muslim shrine, is believed to have been followed for nearly 700 years, and each year hundreds of people, both Hindus and Muslims, take part in the ritual.
Local officials told television news stations there had been no reports of injuries.
The infants, mostly under two years old, were dangled Thursday from the roof of the shrine near Sholapur, about 280 miles south of Mumbai, before being dropped about 50 feet onto a bedsheet held aloft by parents and other believers.
Television channels showed the babies screaming as they were shaken in the air before being dropped.
read more here
http://www.komonews.com/news/national/52209737.html
By NIRMALA GEORGE, Associated Press
Watch the story NEW DELHI (AP) — Rights activists lashed out Friday at local officials who allowed hundreds of infants to be dropped from the roof of a mosque in western India in the belief that the fall — which ends when the babies are caught in a bedsheet — would ensure good health and prosperity for their families.
The ritual at the Baba Umer Durga, a Muslim shrine, is believed to have been followed for nearly 700 years, and each year hundreds of people, both Hindus and Muslims, take part in the ritual.
Local officials told television news stations there had been no reports of injuries.
The infants, mostly under two years old, were dangled Thursday from the roof of the shrine near Sholapur, about 280 miles south of Mumbai, before being dropped about 50 feet onto a bedsheet held aloft by parents and other believers.
Television channels showed the babies screaming as they were shaken in the air before being dropped.
read more here
http://www.komonews.com/news/national/52209737.html
Woman's search for brother in Pinellas Park leads to ashes
Woman's search for brother in Pinellas Park leads to ashes
By Andrew Meacham, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Saturday, August 1, 2009
PINELLAS PARK — The ashes lay in a white wooden urn, on a shelf in a locked room at the Anderson-McQueen Cremation Tribute Center. A sticky-backed, computer-generated label identified the remains: Brown, Steven. DOB 6/20/52.
The urn had sat on the shelf for about four weeks, next to the labeled remains of others. As the main repository in Pinellas County for unclaimed remains, it represents a kind of mezzanine level between a body's discovery and its dispensation.
If no family came forward to claim Brown's ashes in the next three months, they would be dumped in the Gulf of Mexico.
But on Tuesday, a key fit into the lock. An Anderson-McQueen employee retrieved Mr. Brown's urn and handed it to a courier.
On the other end, someone was waiting.
read more here
http://www.tampabay.com/news/obituaries/article1023804.ece
By Andrew Meacham, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Saturday, August 1, 2009
PINELLAS PARK — The ashes lay in a white wooden urn, on a shelf in a locked room at the Anderson-McQueen Cremation Tribute Center. A sticky-backed, computer-generated label identified the remains: Brown, Steven. DOB 6/20/52.
The urn had sat on the shelf for about four weeks, next to the labeled remains of others. As the main repository in Pinellas County for unclaimed remains, it represents a kind of mezzanine level between a body's discovery and its dispensation.
If no family came forward to claim Brown's ashes in the next three months, they would be dumped in the Gulf of Mexico.
But on Tuesday, a key fit into the lock. An Anderson-McQueen employee retrieved Mr. Brown's urn and handed it to a courier.
On the other end, someone was waiting.
read more here
http://www.tampabay.com/news/obituaries/article1023804.ece
Wounded Afghanistan Vet to sue Ministry of Defense
August 2, 2009
'My life is ruined and MoD has deserted me'
Steven Swinford
Lance-Corporal Ryan Knight, 23, was badly injured in Helmand Province and now plans to sue the minstry for negligence
A SOLDIER who was offered less than £14,500 compensation for being crippled by a Taliban bomb that killed his two best friends is planning to sue the Ministry of Defence.
Lance-Corporal Ryan Knight, 23, was left with a shattered pelvis after his Land Rover hit two mines in Helmand province, Afghanistan, in September 2007. Today he struggles to walk unaided and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Knight, a combat medic, decided to speak out for the first time after The Sunday Times highlighted the inequity of the armed forces compensation scheme last weekend.
His case will intensify the pressure for an overhaul of the scheme. Last week the government announced it was bringing forward a review, but ignored calls by the former prime minister Sir John Major and the Royal British Legion (RBL) for it to be conducted by an independent panel.
read more here
My life is ruined and MoD has deserted me
'My life is ruined and MoD has deserted me'
Steven Swinford
Lance-Corporal Ryan Knight, 23, was badly injured in Helmand Province and now plans to sue the minstry for negligence
A SOLDIER who was offered less than £14,500 compensation for being crippled by a Taliban bomb that killed his two best friends is planning to sue the Ministry of Defence.
Lance-Corporal Ryan Knight, 23, was left with a shattered pelvis after his Land Rover hit two mines in Helmand province, Afghanistan, in September 2007. Today he struggles to walk unaided and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Knight, a combat medic, decided to speak out for the first time after The Sunday Times highlighted the inequity of the armed forces compensation scheme last weekend.
His case will intensify the pressure for an overhaul of the scheme. Last week the government announced it was bringing forward a review, but ignored calls by the former prime minister Sir John Major and the Royal British Legion (RBL) for it to be conducted by an independent panel.
read more here
My life is ruined and MoD has deserted me
Benning lieutenant killed in motorcycle wreck
Benning lieutenant killed in motorcycle wreck
The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Aug 2, 2009 14:51:51 EDT
SMITH’S STATION, Ala. — A Phenix City man has been killed in a motorcycle crash in Smith’s Station.
Lee County Coroner Bill Harris says Joshua Adam Picard was killed when his motorcycle crossed the center line and collided with a small SUV Friday night.
Picard was a Army lieutenant and was stationed at Fort Benning, Ga. Picard lived less than two miles from the site of the accident. Harris said Picard was ejected from his 2002 Harley-Davidson Sportster and landed in a swampy area near the road.
Benning lieutenant killed in motorcycle wreck
The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Aug 2, 2009 14:51:51 EDT
SMITH’S STATION, Ala. — A Phenix City man has been killed in a motorcycle crash in Smith’s Station.
Lee County Coroner Bill Harris says Joshua Adam Picard was killed when his motorcycle crossed the center line and collided with a small SUV Friday night.
Picard was a Army lieutenant and was stationed at Fort Benning, Ga. Picard lived less than two miles from the site of the accident. Harris said Picard was ejected from his 2002 Harley-Davidson Sportster and landed in a swampy area near the road.
Benning lieutenant killed in motorcycle wreck
In Ranks of Heroes, Finding the Fakes
I don't know if these people will ever understand how many other people they are hurting. Worse is that I don't even know if they care at all.
Because of these fakes and frauds, it makes it all the more harder on the real heroes. They not only had to prove themselves in combat, they had to prove themselves with claims to the VA, to veterans organizations and now, they have to prove it all over again. A data base would be very helpful with this however, that is, as long as what it put in is right and all paperwork errors have been found and fixed.
I don't want to bore you with the story of my husband all over again, so the short version is, his award for a Bronze Star had the wrong social security number typed in. This caused a cluster of accusations, his VA claim to be denied and a lot of doubt. We had a newspaper clipping his mother kept from a local paper announcing the award. We had all the paper work with all the official seals and signatures. What we didn't have was the right social security number. That was pretty hard on him to have to prove it all over again, but when I was put in contact with a general's office, all the paperwork supported the truth, it was corrected and his claim was finally approved. How many others did this happen to? How many others didn't keep all their paperwork after Vietnam? What if my husband tossed his paperwork in the trash the way he wanted to over 30 years ago? We'd have no proof of anything even though he was telling the truth. We have the fact his mother raised him to be a pack rat the way she was with saving papers.
Too many others are not so lucky.
The only way a massive data base could ever be a good thing is if they went through everyone's files to make sure all the pieces of paper in the file belonged to them and not someone else. I'm sure somewhere there is a veteran with papers that belong to someone else but because the social security number came up it was attached to someone else's name. Can they do that? Can they go through every piece of paper for every service man or woman before they even attempt to do it? I doubt it. No one has that kind of time.
We can't even trust some of the data bases we use. Most of them have a disclaimer saying their information is not complete. With the Medal of Honor, it is easy to have an accurate data base since so few really received the award. The lower the award, the more recipients of it and it gets harder to find all the information. It would be so much easier on the veterans if they didn't have to go through any of this unless there was a technicality but because of the frauds wanting to use what they did not earn, it makes it all the more difficult for them. It is a betrayal, a theft and should be treated like a crime, which it is but somehow I doubt all the frauds out there have been found. While they wanted publicity for what they stole, they should get publicity for it when they have been found to be lying. For the others with possible mistakes on their records, their claims should be treated as if it is possible and taken seriously. Knowing a fraud that got away with it for a time does not make up for a real veteran suffering for a mistake he did not make. What is justice in this case and how do we arrive at it as soon as possible?
This article points out that the Internet is very helpful in all of this but no site can have every single piece of information no matter how good they are at it. It takes diligence from the rest of us.
If you ever talk to someone claiming to be a veteran with awards, do some checking to see if they are telling the truth. You never know when you can help catch a fraud or help a veteran with no clue errors were made in their case.
Because of these fakes and frauds, it makes it all the more harder on the real heroes. They not only had to prove themselves in combat, they had to prove themselves with claims to the VA, to veterans organizations and now, they have to prove it all over again. A data base would be very helpful with this however, that is, as long as what it put in is right and all paperwork errors have been found and fixed.
I don't want to bore you with the story of my husband all over again, so the short version is, his award for a Bronze Star had the wrong social security number typed in. This caused a cluster of accusations, his VA claim to be denied and a lot of doubt. We had a newspaper clipping his mother kept from a local paper announcing the award. We had all the paper work with all the official seals and signatures. What we didn't have was the right social security number. That was pretty hard on him to have to prove it all over again, but when I was put in contact with a general's office, all the paperwork supported the truth, it was corrected and his claim was finally approved. How many others did this happen to? How many others didn't keep all their paperwork after Vietnam? What if my husband tossed his paperwork in the trash the way he wanted to over 30 years ago? We'd have no proof of anything even though he was telling the truth. We have the fact his mother raised him to be a pack rat the way she was with saving papers.
Too many others are not so lucky.
The only way a massive data base could ever be a good thing is if they went through everyone's files to make sure all the pieces of paper in the file belonged to them and not someone else. I'm sure somewhere there is a veteran with papers that belong to someone else but because the social security number came up it was attached to someone else's name. Can they do that? Can they go through every piece of paper for every service man or woman before they even attempt to do it? I doubt it. No one has that kind of time.
We can't even trust some of the data bases we use. Most of them have a disclaimer saying their information is not complete. With the Medal of Honor, it is easy to have an accurate data base since so few really received the award. The lower the award, the more recipients of it and it gets harder to find all the information. It would be so much easier on the veterans if they didn't have to go through any of this unless there was a technicality but because of the frauds wanting to use what they did not earn, it makes it all the more difficult for them. It is a betrayal, a theft and should be treated like a crime, which it is but somehow I doubt all the frauds out there have been found. While they wanted publicity for what they stole, they should get publicity for it when they have been found to be lying. For the others with possible mistakes on their records, their claims should be treated as if it is possible and taken seriously. Knowing a fraud that got away with it for a time does not make up for a real veteran suffering for a mistake he did not make. What is justice in this case and how do we arrive at it as soon as possible?
This article points out that the Internet is very helpful in all of this but no site can have every single piece of information no matter how good they are at it. It takes diligence from the rest of us.
If you ever talk to someone claiming to be a veteran with awards, do some checking to see if they are telling the truth. You never know when you can help catch a fraud or help a veteran with no clue errors were made in their case.
In Ranks of Heroes, Finding the Fakes
By IAN URBINA
Published: August 1, 2009
Last August, the Texas Department of Transportation started asking applicants for more documentation after discovering that at least 11 of the 67 Legion of Merit license plates on the roads had been issued to people who never earned the medal.
Last September, the House of Representatives passed a bill naming a post office in Las Vegas after a World War II veteran who, it later turned out, had lied when he claimed he had been awarded a Silver Star. The legislation was rescinded.
In May, one of the most prominent veterans’ advocates in Colorado was detained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation after it was discovered that his story about heroic service in Iraq and severe injuries from a roadside bomb was an elaborate hoax.
Military imposters are nothing new. But the problem has grown or at least become more obvious as charlatans are easily able to find fake military documents, medals and uniforms on auction Web sites.Last month, The Marine Corps Times found 40 erroneous profiles in this year’s Marine Corps Association Directory, including false claims of 16 Medals of Honor, 16 Navy Crosses and 8 Silver Stars.
read more here
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