Hello, and welcome to Pediatric House Calls. I am…
A Physician board certified in Pediatric medicine with Clinical experience including caring for infants, children and teens – well these days mostly children and teens up to twenty-one;
An Administrator experienced in top medical management for several national health insurance companies;
An Author of health care manuals, newspaper columns and even children's stories;
A Business Medical Consultant for drug companies, insurance companies and
physician practices;
A Veteran of the US Navy in the Vietnam era;
And…
I make House-Calls.
You can’t escape from Santa
[About this time every year things get a bit hectic around the homestead and we need to take a little hiatus. Hope you and everyone you care about have a perfect holiday season—wherever you may be! See you again in the new year.]
Henry Heimlich, MD, a thoracic surgeon who invented an anti-choking maneuver that saved an untold number of lives, died today at age 96 of complications from a heart attack earlier in the week.
The maneuver that bears his name made Dr Heimlich a celebrity. However, he left his mark with other innovations, such as the Heimlich Chest Drain Valve, credited with saving thousands of US soldiers shot in the chest. He also developed the Micro-Trach, which delivers oxygen into the lungs through a narrow breathing tube inserted into the trachea.
Dr Heimlich put the number of people saved from choking to death by the Heimlich maneuver, introduced in 1974, as high as 100,000. It is performed by wrapping one’s arms around the victim’s waist, placing a fist thumb-side just under the ribcage and between the lungs, and thrusting it upward to dislodge an airway obstruction with a burst of expelled air. A roll-call of celebrities who underwent the maneuver include President Ronald Reagan, Cher, Halle Berry, Carrie Fisher, Nicole Kidman, and TV journalist John Chancellor, according to the physician’s website. Dr Heimlich applied his own technique perhaps twice himself, including just last May on a choking woman at a Cincinnati retirement center where they both lived.
Born in Wilmington, Delaware, Dr Heimlich received his medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical College in 1943. He and his late wife Jane Murray, daughter of dance school operator Arthur Murray, had four children.
Ok, ok, ok! I’ve been informed more than once this week that two other bugs have an affinity for human flesh and are seen just as often, at least in the warmer climes. I admit I had forgotten about the more, let’s say: “winter challenged” (equatorially inclined) portions and desert areas of this great world where both ticks and fleas flourish.
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There are lots and lots of things that cause rashes in children and we’ve spoken about them several times before. There are fewer problems that cause rashes that itch and less caused by things that bite— although that’s still more than in a world I would create… if it were me.
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It still seems early to be saying “Merry Christmas” but all the department stores have been trying to sell me another tinsel Christmas tree since before Halloween. I just thought that I’d make mention that the popular “Santa Tracker” website from Google is back open again for another year with information and games to keep the little ones interested—they’ve even spilled over onto Android with a couple of games. Refreshingly no commercial hype!
Even though nanobiotechnologists work with infinitesimally small things their results are anything BUT! Oded Shoseyov’s talk at TED showcased the state of the art in making “home-grown” body parts taking the best materials from both the animal and plant kingdoms and combining them into “super-materials” with greater strength and flexibility than either kingdom has on its own. Just Watch This!
See the video…
How can technology help improve our quality of life? How can we navigate the world without using the sense of vision? Inventor and IBM Fellow Chieko Asakawa, who’s been blind since the age of fourteen, is working on answering these questions. In a charming demo, she shows off some new technology that’s helping blind people explore the world ever more independently … because, she suggests, when we design for greater accessibility, everyone benefits.
See the video…