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.
Sudden Cardiac Death is, by definition, both sudden and unexpected – especially in a child whose life is supposed to revolve around “play” and “fun.” Unfortunately, it is also increasing.
Just as unfortunate, children’s “play” is often “industrialized” into major competitions with adult methods, standards and expectations leading to unintended consequences.
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This was a fun series of articles to write, but about an almost terrible experience on a 17-year-old boy athlete. It made the papers when he ostensibly had a “heart attack” on the baseball field.
The reader gets to “see the patient” and make a diagnosis (and see my humorous side) while learning about the four causes of sudden cardiac arrest in a child.
In follow-up we see some of the emotional side-effects of the near-death experience, exacerbated by viewing social media; and learn methods of problem-solving the correct way.
I’ve written about fireworks and kids before and the time is on us again. I missed the reminder this year for most of the country on July 4th; but, in Utah the battle starts all over again on July 24th, Pioneer Day, which sort of commemorates statehood.
And it is a battle; especially now that all the box stores began selling “mega-boxes” of the gunpowder laden flammables over a month ago and parents are dropping several hundred dollars on the stuff at a single “pop.”
Who do YOU think wins in the battle? The fireworks or the kid?
Keep it sane folks. Please!
We’ve had a fairly long sequence of pretty deep medical articles which, If I’m honest, were also exhausting to write for me; so, let’s take a bit of a break from the intensity and see something that is just so refreshing to me that it brings scratchiness to my throat when I see it. Here’s singer Josh Grobin doing what he does: sing. Watch his eyes and body language and see how he handles this girls experience.
Daily medical news, that’s how often it comes across my desk and trying to winnow the fruff while gleaning the critical information for you is a bit time consuming. There are millions of professionals all trying to add their legacy of understanding to the mix of medical care and just one of me.
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The slogan “Back to Sleep” which revolutionized infant sleep methods has been changed to “Safe To Sleep” to broaden its scope and bring other causes of sleep-related infant death “into the fold” for research. Perhaps you already knew that, the slogan has been registered as a trademark of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
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“That gunky, smelly, puss draining out of your son’s ear is an infection called ‘Otitis Externa‘ – or possibly Otitis Media that has ruptured and is draining.
With the history you gave I’m guessing it’s ‘externa’ – you can call it ‘Swimmer’s Ear‘ but I don’t, cause it’s certainly caused by a lot more things than merely swimming.”
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