Health & Medical Newswire

The Senate Finance Committee has approved a $829 billion health care reform bill on a 14-9 vote, with Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe the only Republican who voted “yes.”

Olympia Snowe was the only Republican to vote yes on senate health care bill

The vote moves President Barack Obama’s goal of overhauling the nation’s health care system one step closer to reality.

The bill would require all Americans to own health insurance or pay a fine of up to $1,500 per family. It doesn’t require employers to offer health coverage – as the House version of the bill does – and would create health-care co-operatives for purchasing insurance, not the publicly run health insurance option many liberals hoped for.

A 37-year-old nurse and mother of three is on life-support after going to a Weston, Fla. Med Spa for a routine liposuction reports the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.

The attorney for the physician who performed the procedure at Weston Medspa said Rohie Kah-Orukotan, a nurse, did not suffer complications until the end of the procedure.

“She went in for a routine  liposuction performed by (Dr. Omar J. Brito Marin) without any complications until the very end, at which time Dr. Brito immediately administered emergency care and called 911,” attorney Brian Bieber told the Sun-Sentinel. “Paramedics arrived; they noted all emergency procedures put into place were proper.”

State officials told the newspaper that the privately owned clinic is not licensed to perform liposuctions under general anesthesia. It could perform a scaled down version of a liposuction procedure while a patient is awake, however. Bieber said he didn’t know which type of procedure Brito performed. State records show Brito is not a board certified plastic surgeon and has a background in occupational medicine.

Kah-Orukotan remained unconscious, with no brain activity, Wednesday at a Florida branch of the Cleveland Clinic, where her family is agonizing over whether to keep her on life support, the family’s attorney said. It’s been five days since Kah-Orukotan had the procedure.

Medspas across the country offer cosmetic procedures like botox, laser hair removal  and lighter versions of liposuction known as laser liposuction or Smartlipo for fat removal. Under the care of a licensed physician, these procedures are relatively safe.

Laser liposuction is still considered a surgical procedure and must be done by a qualified doctor.  If a patient is going to use general ansthesia, then the patient needs to have surgical procedures like liposuction done where there are emergency facilities  to handle complications.

Even local anesthesia such as the use of lidocaine can cause complications. If an overdose of lidocaine is given,  the patient can have seizures.

Under state rules, medical offices do not have to be licensed to perform laser iposuctions or some other procedures  that use only local anesthesia. It’s unclear which type of liposuction Kah-Orukotan had.

NY mandates H1N1 flu shots for nurses and health care workers

Nurses and health care workers in New York are being told to either get the swine flu vaccine or lose their jobs and they are revolting.

New York is the first state in the country to mandate flu vaccinations for its health care workers. They are being told that if they don’t get the H1N1  flu shots, they will lose their jobs

Is New York turning into a police state? Protesters are holding  signs reading: “The State Doesn’t Own My Body’”

A protest took place throughout the state including Albany, where hundreds of demonstrators demanded freedom of choice.

Health care workers in Hauppauge also rallied Tuesday against the state mandate screaming “No forced shots!”

Paula Small, a Women, Infants and Children health care worker said “I don’t even tend to the sick. I am in the nutrition field. They are telling me I must get the shot because I work in a health clinic setting.

Small’s concern. like many, is that the vaccine is untested and unproven, recalling the 1976 flu shots that caused many deaths from the flu vaccination itself.

Frank Mannino, a 50 year old registered nurse, said the state regulation violates his personal freedom and civil rights.

“And now I will lose my job if I don’t take the regular flu shot or the swine flu shot.”

Around 500,000 health care workers are slated to receive the vaccine.

With already a nursing jobs shortage and lack of adequate heath care staff, can New York afford to carry out its threat of firing its health care employees?

Stay tuned for more on this story.

Sarah Palin writes WSJ Op Ed on Obama Care

Tues September 8, 2009, Sarah Palin wrote an op ed piece for the Wall Street Journal called Obama and the Bureaucratization of Health Care. The president’s proposals would give unelected officials life-and-death rationing powers.

Palin said, “Writing in the New York Times last month, President Barack Obama asked that Americans “talk with one another, and not over one another” as our health-care debate moves forward. I couldn’t agree more. Let’s engage the other side’s arguments, and let’s allow Americans to decide for themselves whether the Democrats’ health-care proposals should become governing law.”

She states that some 45 years ago Ronald Reagan said that “no one in this country should be denied medical care because of a lack of funds.” Each of us knows that we have an obligation to care for the old, the young and the sick. We stand strongest when we stand with the weakest among us. Read full story.

Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor for Telegraph.co.uk reports that one million NHS patients have been the victims of appalling care in hospitals across Britain, according to a major report released today.

In the last six years, the Patients Association claims hundreds of thousands have suffered from poor standards of nursing, often with ‘neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel’ treatment.

Claire Rayner, President of the Patients Association and a former nurse, said: “For far too long now, the Patients Association has been receiving calls on our helpline from people wanting to talk about the dreadful, neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel treatment their elderly relatives had experienced at the hands of NHS nurses.

“I am sickened by what has happened to some part of my profession of which I was so proud.

“These bad, cruel nurses may be – probably are – a tiny proportion of the nursing work force, but even if they are only one or two percent of the whole they should be identified and struck off the Register.”

The charity has disclosed a horrifying account of elderly people left in pain, in soiled bed clothes, denied adequate food and drink, and suffering from repeatedly cancelled operations, missed diagnoses and dismissive staff. Read full story.

Palin calls Obama health plan evil

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called President Barack Obama’s health plan “downright evil” Friday in her first online comments since leaving office, saying in a Facebook posting that he would create a “death panel” that would deny care to the neediest Americans.

“The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care,” the former Republican vice presidential candidate wrote.

“Such a system is downright evil,” Palin wrote on her page, which has nearly 700,000 supporters. She encouraged her supporters to be engaged in the debate.

Read full story.

Betty Lichtenstein Impersonates A Nurse

Norwalk, CT – Betty Lichtenstein, a 56 year old woman, has been charged for illegal use of the title Registered Nurse, reckless endangerment and criminal impersonation.

The story is being compared to the 2000 comedy “Nurse Betty”, where Renee Zellweger pretended to be a nurse, however residents say this is no laughing matter.

Prosecutors said that Lichtenstein paid $2000 of her own money for a staged celebration dinner honoring herself at The Connecticut Nursing Association. The problem is there is no such legal organization known as The Connecticut Nursing Association. Lichtenstein made it all up.

In fact Lichtenstein never had a license to practice nursing, but yet she gave intramuscular injections, medical care and advise to patients. Inspectors from the state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit began investigating only after a  complaint that Lichtenstein injected a patient too quickly causing them pain.  A warrant for her arrest was issued.

Watch video.

In an interview with Dr Gerald Weiss, where Lichenstein worked, he said it took him all by suprise. He believed she was a licensed RN but could not find a copy of her nursing license. Under advise from his attorney he has no other comment.

Dr Weiss and his staff became further convinced something was wrong after Lichtenstein won The Connecticut Nursing Association “2008 Nurse of the Year Award”, a complete fabrication.

If she is convicted of all charges, she faces up to five years in prison.

Find nursing jobs and nursing information about travel nursing at Nurses Forum.

Unborn Baby 22 Weeks

Should nurses be forced to perform abortions  as part of their job if it is against their moral code?  Is the following story about nurses having to perform abortions as part of their job an isolated case? Does anyone have other stories about this subject? In my opinion no one should be forced to take the life of a viable baby.

The picture you see on the left is a 22 week old unborn baby.

abs-cbnNEWS.com reports | 07/28/2009 3:43 PM

Brooklyn, New York – A Filipina nurse has filed charges against Mount Sinai Hospital for allegedly forcing her to assist in a late-term abortion procedure.

The New York Post reported that the May 24 incident was traumatic for Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, 35.

“It felt like a horror film unfolding,” said Cenzon-DeCarlo in a report by the New York Post.

Cenzon-DeCarlo was reportedly threatened by Mount Sinai Hospital with insubordination and patient-abandonment if she refuses to assist in the abortion procedure. She also claimed that the hospital has cut her overtime shifts.

A devout catholic, Cenzon-DeCarlo is a married mother of a year-old baby and niece of a Filipino bishop.

She said her bosses at the hospital reportedly exaggerated about the condition of the patient who was 22 weeks into her pregnancy.

In her lawsuit, Cenzon-DeCarlo claimed that the hospital told her the patient had preeclampsia, a condition that could lead to seizures or death if left untreated.

However, she refuted this and said the patient was not even given magnesium therapy which was a common treatment for preeclampsia.

She found out later that the hospital’s own records described the procedure “Category II,” which is not considered immediately life threatening.

The incident prompted Cenzon-DeCarlo to file a grievance with her union, the report said.

“I emigrated to this country in the belief that here religious freedom is sacred. Doctors and nurses shouldn’t be forced to abandon their beliefs and participate in abortion in order to keep their jobs,” she said in the report.

Cenzon-DeCarlo is a native of the Philippines and moved to New York in 2001. She started working at Mount Sinai Hospital as an operating nurse in 2004.

Find nursing jobs at Nurses Forum

Nursing Jobs Shortage News -  Today Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) proposed legislation to create incentives for healthcare workers to become nurses and for current nurses to become nurse faculty.

The nursing shortage in Illinois could top 21,000, Durbin said. According to information from the senator, 2,523 qualified nursing students were turned away due to lack of faculty and resources.

“Everyone depends on nurses for quality patient care, yet the healthcare system in America lacks an adequate supply of nurses and the problem is getting worse,” Durbin said. “Today’s legislation proposes a new, innovative program that builds on our existing healthcare workforce — an important, but currently untapped resource.”

Durbin’s legislation proposes a new grant through the Department of Labor to train healthcare workers to earn a nursing certificate or degree and assist current nurses in obtaining specialty training or advanced degrees to serve as educators.

This information was obtained from Marion Daily Republican

Michael Jackson's Nurse

The L.A. County Coroner’s office wants the files that Michael Jackson’s former nurse has. Cherilyn Lee is the nurse who claims Michael Jackson kept asking her how to obtain the powerful anesthesia, Propofol. She denies ever giving him this drug and warned him against ever taking it.

According to TMZ Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter just left nurse Cherilyn Lee’s office … he walked out with Jackson’s medical records.

When Lee was asked about Jackson’s use of the drug Propofol — she says he asked her for it but she never gave it to him.

Winter retrieved files from Dr. Arnold Klein last week.

TMZ also reports, Winter has left the building with medical records. He said Lee was cooperative and is not under investigation. We spoke with Lee after Winter left — she says she thought she’d convinced Jackson not to take Diprivan, he was feeling good and a great father figure.