Cara F's Profile

Who should MDs let die in a pandemic? Report offers answers

By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer Mon May 5, 9:47 AM ET

CHICAGO - Doctors know some patients needing lifesaving care won't get it in a flu pandemic or other disaster. The gut-wrenching dilemma will be deciding who to let die.
ADVERTISEMENT

Now, an influential group of physicians has drafted a grimly specific list of recommendations for which patients wouldn't be treated. They include the very elderly, seriously hurt trauma victims, severely burned patients and those with severe dementia.

The suggested list was compiled by a task force whose members come from prestigious universities, medical groups, the military and government agencies. They include the Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services.

The proposed guidelines are designed to be a blueprint for hospitals "so that everybody will be thinking in the same way" when pandemic flu or another widespread health care disaster hits, said Dr. Asha Devereaux. She is a critical care specialist in San Diego and lead writer of the task force report.

The idea is to try to make sure that scarce resources — including ventilators, medicine and doctors and nurses — are used in a uniform, objective way, task force members said.

Their recommendations appear in a report appearing Monday in the May edition of Chest, the medical journal of the American College of Chest Physicians.

"If a mass casualty critical care event were to occur tomorrow, many people with clinical conditions that are survivable under usual health care system conditions may have to forgo life-sustaining interventions owing to deficiencies in supply or staffing," the report states.

To prepare, hospitals should designate a triage team with the Godlike task of deciding who will a

The Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing

Having kittens: Rabbit adopts new feline family
Last updated at 09:49am on 19th November 2007

Comments Comments (2)
When veterinary nurse Melanie Humble took home a litter of kittens, she expected her cat Ellie to show some interest.

Instead it was her rabbit Summer who quickly developed a bond with the baby felines. Although only five-months-old, Summer has shown remarkable patience with the frisky five-week-old kittens, and lets them snuggle close to her.

Scroll down for more...

Summer the rabbit is mobbed by her new brood of kittens

"I brought Summer inside on bonfire night because I was worried about her being scared by fireworks," Melanie said.

"I did wonder how she would get on with the kittens tearing around the house, but she has been really great.

"I think they think she's their mum. She's a big, fat rabbit and she just sits there quite happily and lets them climb all over her. It is lovely to see them all together."

The kittens had been abandoned by their mother and were brought into the veterinary branch in Aberdeen where Melanie works. Melanie agreed to foster them until they reached eight-weeks-old. They were too small to feed themself so Melanie have been giving them a special formula through a syringe every two to three hours.

"It's a bit of a full-time job," said Melanie.

"Wherever I go, the kittens have to go, too, but they're lots of fun."

Melanie Humble with her rabbit Summer and a kitten

bout Jungle Friends

Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, located on 12 acres in Gainesville, Florida. Jungle Friends is accredited by the American Sanctuary Association and The Association of Sanctuaries. We rescue and offer a permanent, safe haven for monkeys from around the United States who have been abused, confiscated by authorities, retired from research, or who are ex-pets.

At this time, Jungle Friends is the sanctuary home for 90 monkeys and we have an ever-growing waiting list.

Mission Statement

We are children and adult volunteers who care deeply about animals and our community.

We want children, in our program, to learn responsibility, commitment, and a sense of caring for animals and community service.

We want to create an awareness within our community about the immediate need to reduce the number of unwanted and discarded animals. The cornerstone of our program is to educate and promote the concept of spaying and neutering.

We want to make sure every animal can find its way home. If it can't find its way home, then we will provide a safe, caring and secure environment until it finds a new home. We strongly believe that every dog deserves the opportunity to live its life as a part of a loving and caring family. All dogs are equal in our eyes, and each one has a special gift to give.

We believe that a caring and compassionate commitment to the animals that we share our lives with, will provide for an enriching environment for us all.

We believe that it is our responsibility to

diocracy: Why the Media Is Not Protecting the People

Posted October 23, 2007 | 01:15 PM (EST)
Read More: Barnum & Bailey, drug resistant TB, elephants TB, elephants tuberculosis, Kenneth Feld, Ringling Brothers, tb, tuberculosis, Breaking Living Now News

stumbleupon :Idiocracy: Why the Media Is Not Protecting the People digg: Idiocracy: Why the Media Is Not Protecting the People reddit: Idiocracy: Why the Media Is Not Protecting the People del.icio.us: Idiocracy: Why the Media Is Not Protecting the People

If you have not seen the movie Idiocracy, you should. The dumbing down of the masses is a problem in this country and it's the only real way to keep Americans etherized. We all know who benefits from that -- monarchs and dictators. But why isn't the press helping to wake us up? Here's a story that might help you understand.

* Email
* Print
* Comment

I was in my kitchen listening to the radio when the headline made me drop both my mouth and the pre-packaged meal in my hand: "The World Health Organization said today there is concern that a new form of drug resistant tuberculosis is spreading across the country and the world."

As a journalist who worked for a large media corporation, I had tried to warn people of this possibility for the previous two years. I knew TB positive and TB infected elephants were one reason there was a drug resistant strain of TB. I also knew why the story was kept a secret, and the reporter (me) had been silenced. The corporation potentially spreading the tuberculosis is considered "an American Institution." That corporation, Feld Inc., owns Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus and at least 25 other corporations, including part ownership of Disney on Ice.

As far back as 1993, an endangered Asian elephant owned by Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus was diagnosed with tuberculosis, the same kind of tuberculosis humans contract. Since tuberculosis is unheard of in the wild, humans had to give the M

diocracy: Why the Media Is Not Protecting the People

Posted October 23, 2007 | 01:15 PM (EST)
Read More: Barnum & Bailey, drug resistant TB, elephants TB, elephants tuberculosis, Kenneth Feld, Ringling Brothers, tb, tuberculosis, Breaking Living Now News

stumbleupon :Idiocracy: Why the Media Is Not Protecting the People digg: Idiocracy: Why the Media Is Not Protecting the People reddit: Idiocracy: Why the Media Is Not Protecting the People del.icio.us: Idiocracy: Why the Media Is Not Protecting the People

If you have not seen the movie Idiocracy, you should. The dumbing down of the masses is a problem in this country and it's the only real way to keep Americans etherized. We all know who benefits from that -- monarchs and dictators. But why isn't the press helping to wake us up? Here's a story that might help you understand.

* Email
* Print
* Comment

I was in my kitchen listening to the radio when the headline made me drop both my mouth and the pre-packaged meal in my hand: "The World Health Organization said today there is concern that a new form of drug resistant tuberculosis is spreading across the country and the world."

As a journalist who worked for a large media corporation, I had tried to warn people of this possibility for the previous two years. I knew TB positive and TB infected elephants were one reason there was a drug resistant strain of TB. I also knew why the story was kept a secret, and the reporter (me) had been silenced. The corporation potentially spreading the tuberculosis is considered "an American Institution." That corporation, Feld Inc., owns Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus and at least 25 other corporations, including part ownership of Disney on Ice.

As far back as 1993, an endangered Asian elephant owned by Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus was diagnosed with tuberculosis, the same kind of tuberculosis humans contract. Since tuberculosis is unheard of in the wild, humans had to give the M

* Odd News
* Comics
* Travel
* Weather
* People of the Web
* You Witness News
* Site Index

Search: Advanced
Reuters
Cat tells life story of his "best friend" the Pope

By Philip Pullella Wed Oct 3, 10:24 AM ET

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Chico the cat describes the life of his "best friend", Pope Benedict, in an authorised biography for children released this week.
ADVERTISEMENT

"Dear Children, here you will find a biography that is different to others because it is told by a cat and it is not every day a cat can consider the Holy Father his friend and sit down to write his life story," the Pope's personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Ganswein, says in the foreword.

"Chico and Joseph -- A Cat Recounts the Life of Pope Benedict XVI" is narrated by Chico who took up with the Pope in his native Germany when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

The illustrated 44-page book is written by Italian author Jeanne Perego and set mostly in Germany in the years before Benedict was elected in April 2005.

Chico is a real cat who belongs to a German couple in the German city of Pentling, where the Pope lived until he moved to Rome in 1981. The couple are caretakers of the house where Ratzinger had hoped to retire had he not been elected Pope.

Chico tells the story of the life of "my best friend" from his birth in Germany in 1927, through his days as a young man, priest, bishop and cardinal. It ends with his election as Pope on April 19, 2005.

It recounts the Nazi era in Germany when the Pope was a teenager, calling the war years "one of the most dramatic and shameful times in the history of man".

"At that time, Joseph was forced to do something which was absolutely against his will: john the army and leave for the war. We cats do not make war," Chico narrates.

Chico recounts how each time then Cardinal Ratzinger returned to Germany for a vacation, the cat would run into his house and sit on his lap as he played the piano

time is running out for ...

Little Bit
Time Remaining: 12 day(s)
Location: Jacksonville , IL

Wed Sep 26, 3:34 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new Web site is seeking to tug more forcefully on the heart strings of people who might adopt abandoned dogs by publicizing how much time is left before an animal is killed if a home has not been found.
ADVERTISEMENT

The activists behind dogsindanger.com believe theirs is the first Web site to take the approach. They hope that highlighting the fact many unadopted dogs are euthanized by shelters with scarce space will spur people to take them in.

"This is happening ... in our country, in our back yard," said Alex Aliksanyan of The Buddy Fund, the group behind the site. "It's been kept underneath a blanket of niceness and sweetness. So we said, 'Lets put the truth in front of the consumer -- either do something about it, or at least realize

Cats cross pool swimmingly
By Eric Florip
The Register-Guard
Published: Thursday, September 6, 2007

COTTAGE GROVE - Any cat owner who has tried to take a feline swimming probably has the claw marks to show for it.

But not Mary Ellen Angel Scribe. The Cottage Grove author and columnist has five cats that willingly go with her into the backyard pool. Kind of.

Mary Ellen began taking her cats in the water three summers ago as a way to prevent an alarmingly common tragedy, she said, having heard of several cat owners whose animals ventured into a pool without knowing how to get out.

"For their safety, 100 percent," she said of her motivation in encouraging them to swim. "We wanted to know that they could swim, and we wanted them to know that they could swim."
advertisement

On a recent afternoon, Mary Ellen took two of her aquatic felines for a dip.

First up was Nymbus, a 4-year-old silver Persian who sat calmly while cradled in Mary Ellen's arms as she waded into the water. As she gently dipped the animal into the pool, remarkably, the cat didn't struggle at all. Instead, he started waving his submerged paws in a sort of cat paddle.