Pulse on Health by Jeff Hansel

Specialists: Why is this teen bleeding from the eyes?

A mother is pleading for help for her teenage son who has been bleeding from his eyes.

"I felt it coming up like a tear. I felt my eyes water. Sometimes it'll burn as it comes out," 15-year-old Calvino Inman of Tennessee says on a CNN video.

"I don't care where we have to travel.  I will go wherever we need to go. I will do whatever I have to do.  I just please want somebody to help my baby.  That's all," his mother Tammy Wynatt says.  

Read the story here at east Tennessee television station WATE, from which we obtained the name spellings.

Here's a paper about blood tears.  And here, Mayo Clinic Health Solutions staff describe blocked tear ducts on a Blue Cross and Blue Shield (of Rhode Island) post.

Anybody in Rochester got an idea for how to help this youth and his mother?

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904

Guardian Angels

The Guardian Angels organization graduated its first class of seven volunteers in Rochester, Minnesota on Sunday (August 30, 2009) at Gilligan's Cove. 

Those who joined have undergone training for CPR, first aid, hand cuffing and self defense.  Their all-volunteer role comes with risk said national CEO Curtis Sliwa of New York, who attended the first graduation in Rochester as he tries to do with all local startups.  Six Guardian Angels have been killed during the organization's 30 years of existence. 

Here's a video link from Curtis Sliwa (a radio talk show host).  You might need either a glass of warm milk (to calm you down) or a cup of coffee (to give you even more zip) after listening to the video. It gives you a little insight into Sliwa.

He emphasized on Sunday that the Rochester Guardian Angels are not people from New York who have come to town as vigilantes.  Instead, he said, they're local area residents who want to help their community put a damper on crime.  

I was most interested to learn what, exactly, the Guardian Angels plan to do because details were sketchy.  Early coverage had suggested the group wouldn't divulge that information.  However, when I spoke with members on Sunday they were more than willing to describe what they'll do. They plan to:

• Patrol neighborhoods, parks and parking lots.

• Offer crowd control at community events.

• Physically intervene to prevent fist fights from escalating.

• Call police if they witness a crime.

• Detain individuals believed to have committed crimes (until police arrive).

• Volunteer for shifts of a few hours a week apiece.

The group remains controversial (do a few Google searches and you'll find criticism).  Sliwa said Sunday that he faced arrest dozens of times until 1993 when New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani threw his support behind the Guardian Angels.  Now, Sliwa said, it's not unusual for a city's mayor to show up when a new group forms, as Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede did Sunday. 

The group wants to make Rochester a safer place to live and prevent the proliferation of gangs, drive-by shootings and the like.

Already, though, I've heard a complaint from someone in the news room who said local residents were confronted by Guardian Angels Sunday who mistakenly thought a law was being broken.  The activity happened to be taking place near the police department at the Government Center.  Thus, they argued, if their activity were illegal, police probably would have intervened at some point during the many years that the folks had been fishing carp in the Zumbro with bow and arrow.  

A cursory review shows that bow-and-arrow fishing for carp is legal in Minnesota.  And, indeed, anyone has "riparian" rights to access any body of water in Minnesota (if public land touches a body of water, Minnesota residents have the right to walk across that land to get to the water, and to fish in the water).  

So maybe the group needs a little refresher course from Parks and Recreation.  On the other hand, many people in Rochester have experienced crimes.  A year or so ago, some one (or some people) decided to break the windshield out of my truck.  Not that I wish someone with a nice car would have a window broken out, but I wondered why criminals would pick a truck in such disrepair as mine to vandalize (the $300 it cost to replace the window was piled on at a time when I had just finished significant and costly engine repairs).

So maybe having a group of people with red berets would have been a "visual deterrent" to the vandals.  It will be interesting to watch the evolution of this group and its effectiveness in making Rochester safer.

Here's a blog  response from someone who appreciates what the presence of the Guardian Angels.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904

Operation Welcome Home

A "faith-based weekend to provide encouragement, hope and inspiration to veterans and their spouses called 'Operation Welcome Home' is planned for Sep. 18 to 20 at Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch near Stewartville.  Ironwood Springs is located at 7791 County Road 6 S.W. near stewartville.

The gathering is billed as a time when veterans and their spouses can "reconnect through sessions on parenting, communication, dealing with anger successfully, healthy conflict resolution, finances, faith and making marriage work. Breakout sessions: horse-drawn wagon rides and trail rides, outdoor activities, campfires and more.”

Call 533-4315 or go to www.ironwoodsprings.com for more information.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904

Have you kidnapped a child?

The story of a child who was kidnapped many, many years ago and was rescued this week planted a seed in my mind.

There's probably someone else out there — somewhere — who has kidnapped a child and is still holding that child.  

So here's my personal plea to you:  Please let that child go.  Just open the door, and let it happen.  If you can't handle being there, open the door so the child can get out once you leave. Maybe that child has grown into an adult since you took their freedom.  Let your heart open long enough to allow the child (or adult) to leave.  It needs to happen.  It's time for you to let this person, who is loved and missed, go home.  For that to happen, you've got to open the door. Please do it — right now.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904

Celebrity name recognition and Alzheimer's

Time Magazine has published an article by Alice Park suggesting that the names of celebrities might hold a key as an early warning for Alzheimer's disease diagnosis.

A Cleveland Clinic study, she writes, showed that people with risk factors for Alzheimer's struggled more when they tried to recognize the names of celebrities than did people without risk factors.  

People who saw the name Johnny Carson and struggled to remember who that was, or maybe couldn't remember who Britney Spears is, showed differences in their brain's response, Park writes.

Cleveand Clinic opened its new Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas in July with a $100 million gift from Ruvo's son Larry, says an article in the Las Vegas Sun.  Thus, expect more research from an institution often seen as a rival to Rochester, Minnesota's Mayo Clinic — and now treating patients in Nevada as well as Ohio.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904

The price of babies (blood tests and other procedures) in Minnesota

Here's a pretty cool Web site if you want to save a few dollars — or a few hundred dollars (!).

Check out www.mnhealthscores.org and click on "cost reports."  You might be shocked by what you find.  It's a first-in-the-nation comparison of the quality of health care and cost.

A few price comparisons for you:

Circumcision:

• Gunderson Lutheran in La Crosse, Wisconsin — $309

• Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota — $283

• Mayo Health System in the southeast Minnesota region — $280

• Olmsted Medical Center in Rochester, Minnesota — $241

• Park Nicollet Health Services in St. Louis Park, Minnesota — $222

• Allina Medical Clinic in Minneapolis, Minnesota — $202

• Mankato Clinic in Mankato, Minnesota — $146

Vaginal delivery:

Gunderson — $309

Mayo — $283

MHS — $280

OMC — $241

Park Nicollet — $222

Allina — $202

Mankato Clinic — $146

So you if you needed only delivery and circumcision, you could get all of that done in Makato for just $3 more than the circumcision itself costs in La Crosse.  Of course there are likely to be regional differences, differences due to patient volume and quality-of-care issues that might make you willing to pay a higher rate at one provider versus another.  But the new information is definitely "worth" a look.

Ear wax removal in a surgical procedure? Just $94 at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Brainerd, compared with $204 at Mayo.

An infant checkup during an office visit? $148 through Mayo Health System, $134 at Mayo and $96 at OMC.  A colonscopy? $1,354 at OMC; $1,177 at Mayo and $402 at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.

How does quality compare?  Hennepin County's most-recent report was at 58 percent for colorectal cancer screening (with an average at 67 percent). OMC ranked at 74 percent and Mayo at 76 percent.  

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904

Veterans injected

Here's the answer to a question that's probably not necessarily on your mind if you're a veteran.  But it's something the Department of Defense want you to get ready for.  

It's "Immunization Awareness Month" in the military.  Smallpox and anthrax vaccinations are required for military members who are going to high-threat ares.  You can also expect the possibility of seasonal influenza vaccination and pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccination to be offered soon.

Vaccines.mil says H1N1 vaccine might be allocated to Active Duty members of the military.

"For service members vaccines are very important as far as part of force protection. Obviously we need an Army that's ready to do its job and then also to be deployed in the environment that we're in," Maj. Bret Haymore, M.D., Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Allergy Immunization Clinic, says on a video.

"It's wise to immunize," the video says. 

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904

Mayo gets ovarian cancer grant

The Mayo Clinic Cancer Center has received a five-year grant for $11.5 million “to translate research into treatments for women with ovarian cancer.”

Mayo campuses in Minnesota, Florida and Arizona together make up one of the country’s 39 “comprehensive cancer centers” and the only one designated by the National Cancer Institute with three sites nationwide.

Mayo said in its announcement that about 22,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year and about 16,000 die.  

Fewer than half (45 percent) of women diagnosed are still alive five years after diagnosis, according to the American Cancer Society online. There’s a 93 percent five-year survival rate if the cancer is found and treated before spreading outside the ovary, the ACS says. But that happens less than 20 percent of the time.

Symptoms (according to Mayo Clinic):

• abdominal pressure

• fullness

• swelling or bloating

• pelvic discomfort or pain

• persistent indigestion

• gas or nausea

• unexplained bowel habit changes like constipation

• bladder changes like a frequent need to urinate

• loss of appetite or quickly feeling full

• increased abdominal girth or clothes fitting tighter around the waste

• pain during intercourse

• persistent lack of energy

• low back pain

• changes in menstruation

If you get a diagnosis like depression, stress or irritable bowel syndrome and your condition doesn't improve with treatment, get a pelvic exam with a second opinion, Mayo advises.

“See your doctor if you have swelling, bloating, pressure or pain in your abdomen or pelvis that lasts for more than a few weeks,” the clinic notes.  Mayo will use the new grant to advance treatments, such as the use of viruses to destroy ovarian cancer cells.

Mayo says it partners with patient advocates from the Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance.

[Dr. Lynn Hartmann.  Photo courtesy of Mayo Clinic.]

Mayo researchers expected to work with the grant include:

• Lead investigator and co-leader of the Mayo Women's Cancer Program, Dr. Lynn Hartmann, M.D.

• Co-leader Dr. Scott Kaufmann, M.D., Ph.D. "a laboratory scientist who specializes in mechanisms of chemo-resistance in cancer cells." 

• Harry Long, M.D

• Keith Knutson, Ph.D. 

• Ellen Goode, Ph.D. 

• Dr. Keith Bible, M.D., Ph.D. 

• Viji Shridhar, Ph.D. 

• Evanthia Galanis, M.D.

• Kah Whye Peng, Ph.D. 

• Dr. Debra Bell, M.D.

• Ann Oberg, Ph.D. 

• Kim Kalli, Ph.D.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904

Minnesota H1N1 numbers

***Go to www.flu.gov for more information.***

On my way back from the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia yesterday I stopped at the Minnesota Department of Health's Snelling Office Park site in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The state held a briefing for journalists about pandemic H1N1 influenza, similar to the CDC briefing.  But this one has more 'real-world' information because the local level is where decisions are going to be made about how to handle response to the pandemic.

The state offers some statistics that should help you decide for yourself how worried you should be about the pandemic:

• As of Aug. 25, 263 people have been hospitalized in Minnesota with novel H1N1 pandemic influenza (novel meaning the kind of influenza that nobody under age 65 or so has immunity to).

• 18 of those 263 people were pregnant (nearly 7 percent).  If you're pregnant and get influenza-like symptoms it's important to let your doctor know right away.  If you're a spouse and things don't seem to be going well, put on your "assertiveness" cap.

• Of Minnesotans hospitalized with novel H1N1 influenza, 35 percent had asthma.  In other words, you ought to be especially concerned about influenza-like symptoms if you or your child has asthma because more than 1 in 3 people hospitalized thus far with pandemic influenza were asthmatic.

• Also, 64 percent of those hospitalized had an underlying condition.  Underlying conditions, federal officials have said, can include illnesses like diabetes, heart disease and neurological illnesses, as well as morbid obesity.

• The median age of those hospitalized in Minnesota was 11 years old.

• People hospitalized in Minnesota, thought ranged from infant to 91 years old (thus dispelling the concept that you're completely safe if elderly).

• The median length of stay for hospitalized patients was 3 days.

• 15% of those hospitalized were admitted to the intensive care unit.

• 80 percent of people hospitalized in Minnesota were hospitalized in the 7-county metropolitan area of Minneapolis/St. Paul.

• Minnesota has so far seen 3 deaths caused by H1N1 pandemic influenza.  Two were children (one without underlying medical conditions) and one elderly adult.  That means even normal, healthy children can die from pandemic influenza.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904

Airlines and your traveling health

Rochester, Minnesota has gotten quite a bit of unfortunate press lately because of a weather-related flight diversion to the Rochester International Airport.  A plane landed and remained on the tarmac for several hours while the passengers were not allowed off the aircraft.  

As I listened to the audio recording of the pilot, I wondered what would have happened had I been one of the passengers on that flight.  The plane was supposed to land in the Twin Cities, but had to stop in Rochester.  

A CNN video piece says the pilot and terminal dispatchers spoke and the flight crew was not at fault.  "There was a complete lack of common sense here," the journalist quotes a federal transportation official as saying.  

"There's no food and they're just getting really unhappy," the pilot says.

Flash floods prevented buses from getting to Rochester.

"I just want to get the people off the plan if we can't fly," the pilot says.  The dispatcher says he spoke with (apparently) a supervisor and that she said there wasn't anything they could do.

"That's ridiculous," the pilot responds.

The situation makes me a little nervous because, as a diabetic, the passengers' several hours on the plane, followed eventually by a short period of time in the airport and then a resumption of flight, means I would have been without access to food.  Fortunately, I use an insulin pump, a little easier in terms of my body's sugar control than injections.  But I also wonder about people who might have already taken their last psychiatric medicines, their last anti-seizure medication or their last blood pressure medicine and expected to get home in time to take the next dose.  

This is a good reminder that, when you fly (as I just did Tuesday), take along enough medicine, food or whatever you need to "survive" trapped in plane for a day.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904