The Girl Who Cries Blood http://buzzegg.com/318/the-girl-who-cries-blood/

This is the girl who has baffled top doctors because she spontaneously BLEEDS from her pores up to 50 TIMES a day.Twinkle Dwivedi, 14, has strange disorder which means she loses blood through her skin without being cut or scratched. Terrified Twinkle has even undergone transfusions after pints of it seeped through her eyes, nose, hairline, neck and soles of her feet.

Dr George Buchanan, a leading haematologist who has worked in Britain, travelled to India to look into the startling case. The teenager from Lucknar, Uttar Pradesh, has been suffering the frightening episodes up to 50 times a day for the last three years. She said: “I bleed from my eyes, my hands, my head, from everywhere. From my ears, nose and eyes as well. “It doesn’t hurt when the bleeding starts. But it makes me tired and sometimes I have headaches.” Dr Buchanan, an American paediatric blood specialist, visited Twinkle’s family at the Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai where he observed her bleeding.

He said: “I’ve never seen a case of someone who bleeds spontaneously from their scalp or their palms, or read about it in medical history. “I was interested to see if I could help Twinkle.”
The doctor was called to the family’s hotel room to witness bleeding which began from her hair parting.
He was shocked to find no signs of cuts, bruising or redness.

PAC calls National Rural Health Mission a fiasco

Coming down heavily on government’s flagship program, the National Rural Health Mission (NHRM), the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has termed it is a ‘fiasco’.

The committee found glaring deficiencies, loopholes, and virtually no effective monitoring mechanism, and called for a through restructuring.
“A large number of sub-centers, primary health centers and community health centers are located in sub-standard environment such as garbage dumps, cattle sheds and stagnant water bodies, and functioning in unhygienic conditions,” the report said.

In reform mode, MCI considers national exam for doctors

The Medical Council of India (MCI) is considering a National Licentiate Examination for doctors after the completion of their medical education. This comes in the wake of a vision document for 2015, launched to bring reforms in medical education in India. 
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SC tells pvt hospitals to treat poor for free

TNN, Apr 5, 2011, 04.36am ISTNEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday directed Delhi's private hospitals, which had got land at concessional rates from the government, to provide free treatment to 25% of outdoor and 10% of indoor patients who are poor and are unable to afford health care costs.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Nothing Is Impossible

Cody McCasland is not an ordinary child. When he was only 15 months old, a rare condition called Sacral Agenesis took is legs. But that didn’t stop Cody.

Some months later he got his first prosthetic legs and since then he can move almost like any other kid.Нe can not only walk, but run, swim, play soccer, golf, karate, ice hockey etc. He’s a real inspiration.

 Original Story

Hyderabad docs run for 'cover' as legal cases soar

Hyderabad docs run for 'cover' as legal cases soar

The city touted as a world-class healthcare hub now has adopted a new 'Western' practice — legal cases of medical negligence are routinely slapped on hospitals and doctors.
For the first time in city's healthcare history, doctors and hospitals are running for cover, literally. If five-star swanky hospitals now have lawyers on their payrolls to fight cases filed against them, 90 per cent of the city doctors are now covered under the 'Professional Protection and Welfare' policy offered by private insurers and even the Indian Medical Association (IMA).

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Finance Minister withdraws healthcare service tax

NEW DELHI, March 22, 2011

Yielding to pressure from across the board, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday withdrew the proposed 5 per cent service tax on air-conditioned hospitals with more than 25 beds and on diagnostic services. The tax was imposed in the budget proposals for 2011-2012.

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We know very well that there are plenty of places on this planet, where even a pothole on a highway could not be repaired in six days, let alone a major crack, even if the countries in question have not been subjected to a segment of Nature’s wrath. In most cases, if not all, even if that is fixed, it is just going to be temporary and could resurface in weeks while breeding a chain of its own kind – progression of potholes, instead of just one. Then, excuses fly in from all directions to veil the monstrous combination of apathy, inefficiency, tentacles of corruption and lack of work ethics in those instances without delay, which in turn, makes the unpleasant spectacle a part of national character in the country or region concerned. Against this backdrop, the resilience of the Japanese surprised the world once again. It is monumental feat that could only be achieved by a nation who sets its sights firmly on the forward march, not the handicapped past. If Great Kanto Highway in Naka stood as a catastrophic indication of the gravity of the quake that struck Japanese Archipelago on March 11, the very place now stands as a shrine to embody the enviable Japanese collective spirit – having been repaired after just six days for the movement of traffic as usual. Japan is not the only place in the world with renowned engineers for performing impressive tasks. However, even in those countries, it is hard to imagine an achievement of this nature, given the scale of the damage on many fronts – both in terms of human lives and damage to infrastructure. In short, the Japanese are in a league of its own when facing with calamities – and overcoming them as well, of course. It is estimated the cost of the earthquake, tsunami and the subsequent nuclear disaster will be at least $365 billion. Therefore, finding funds for the task is a monumental challenge for the government and the people in Japan. They know it is the worst disaster since the Second World War. However, judging by the way the recovery went into full swing, and the way the Great Kanto Highway repaired clearly show that the Japanese have the will and vision to put the tragedy behind them and move forward, in order to occupy the place they deserve, in the global economic landscape once again. In this context, the optimism expressed by Mr Naoto Kan, the Japanese Prime Minister, just does not ring hollow. On the contrary, he just echoed the Japanese thinking in the aftermath of the disaster. The repair of the Great Kanto Highway is not the only one that shows us the length that the Japanese go to, for the sake of rebuilding the country. The brave workers at the crippled nuclear plants, known as Fukushima Fifty, also received admiration for their heroic work, while putting their own lives on the line for the good of the motherland. Comparisons have already been made and the mission is almost dubbed as ‘Kamikaze’. Human suffering, after the quake and the tsunami, is truly heart breaking. However, the recovery process is clearly resonating with our age-old cliché – every dark cloud has a silver lining. The Japanese have set the stage for all those countries which moan about the lack of ‘x’, ‘y’ and ‘z’ when it comes to doing things even in good times, to take a glance at how thing are being done in a society where the significance of work ethics is taught at a very early age to its people. Japan was hit hard and it will take years to make a full recovery. Until then, however, the Japanese can draw some comfort from the fact that millions of human beings all over the world have already started admiring and respecting them for the dignity they showed during the darkest hour and the way they coped with the catastrophe in a calm manner while keeping the antennas of selfishness at bay.

It is a moral gift offered by these unique people to many countries in the world, which easily lose their very bearings when faced with calamities - regardless of the index they enjoy on economic scales.

     Thanks Sanjoy for providing me the material.

Doctors must possess six virtues, says Abdul Kalam

Former President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam on Thursday highlighted the six virtues that doctors have to possess since a doctor is expected to work with compassion.

The six virtues, he said, are — generosity, ethics, tolerance, perseverance, concentration and being intelligent.
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High court warns against use of ‘Dr’ without valid medical degree

Putting a pause to the tug-of-war between physicians and physiotherapists over the use of the prefix ‘Dr,’ the Madras High Court has asked the authorities to take action against persons who use the prefix in their prescriptions and advertisements without a valid medical degree.

Passing orders on a writ petition filed by the Indian Medical Association’s Quackery Eradication Committee, the first bench comprising Chief Justice HL Gokhale and Justice KK Sasidharan said the IMA must furnish details of people prescribing allopathic medicines and administering allopathic treatment and using the prefix ‘Dr’ to the authorities.      Read more

Hospitals should display treatment costs: Consumer Commission

Hospitals in the capital should display the cost of treatment for the patients to see and decide whether it is affordable to them, the Delhi Consumer Commission has observed.

Concerned over the spurt in consumer complaints accusing the hospitals of keeping them in dark about the expenses, the Commission has also asked the medical facilities to give a minimum estimate of treatment at the time of admission.
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Cabinet clears bill to check medical malpractices

In a move that may help in improving medical services, checking malpractices and sub-standard services to patients, the government has decided make registration of all private, public medical facilities and diagnostic laboratories operating in the country compulsory.

The cabinet on Thursday cleared the Clinical Establishment (Registration and Regulation) Bill that aims at bringing all clinical establishments under a single regulatory framework.

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Homeopathy couple jailed over daughter's death

A husband and wife were jailed today for the manslaughter of their baby, who died after they chose to use homeopathic remedies rather than conventional medicine to treat her severe skin disorder.Read the Complete Article......

Deviation from normal practice not medical negligence - Supreme Court

As long as doctors have performed their duties and exercised an ordinary degree of professional skill and competence they cannot be held guilty of negligence, the Supreme Court held on Wednesday. Laying down a set of principles, a Bench said, “Mere deviation from normal professional practice is not necessarily evidence of negligence.” Read the original Article