June 2, 1935 - July 16, 2003

Really sad news.  Carol Shields, the author of Unless and The Stone Diaries passed away on Wednesday.   She's not that much older than my own mother.

Writer Shields dies aged 68 (BBC article)

5:17:51 PM    

Health/Medical websites

A couple of new health related websites aimed at patients as well as doctors.

Health Development Agency (NHS)

Developing Patient Partnerships

There is also a website aimed at teachers and young people when looking up (specifically health) information on the internet. It has applications for other projects I'm sure. It's called Quick.

So, all you teachers out there... ;-)

3:07:29 PM    

Er,

A word I cannot pronounce very well...

Opisthotonous

3:05:01 PM    

Candida as a girl.

In the BMA news delivered in my post every week is Hypocritus's A to Z.   Here, common medical phrases that slip off the tongue from senior staff are explained through the eyes of a junior doctor.

Candida- First name given to a baby by an enthused mother. After clerking in a child called Diesel last month, I don't think it's an urban legend.

Clinician- Doctors required to be unnecessarily pleasant towards people they would normally cross the road to avoid. My recent experience has indeed underlined this.

Computerisation- Highly efficient method of losing hospital records.

Directorate education coordinator- Teacher

Directorate meetings- Similar to ward Christmas parties, you don't want to go but are annoyed if you're not invited.

Doctor's mess- A doctor's private life.

Medical documentary- The only way of ensuring all the trust's doctors are in the hospital at the same time.

Dress code- Why do doctor's dress so badly? Because drug reps do not give away clothes.

Drug- A substance which, when injected to a patient, produces a scientific paper.

Drunk- 75% A&E attenders every Saturday night. The state which 75% of the doctors on call in A&E on Saturday night wish they were.

2:58:58 PM    

Medical Claims

In the U.K., according to the MDU:

The frequency of settled claims in UK private practice over a period of 8 years-

• 22% Orthopaedics & Trauma
• 20% Obstetrics & Gynaecology
• 19% General & Vascular surgery
• 20% Plastic & Reconstructive surgery

2:56:12 PM    

Kid's Company

Channel 4 ran an exceptional docummentray in early April. All about the organization, Kid's Company.  Challenging watching and with no fairytale ending but passionately done.

"Kids Company is a unique organisation which has been working therapeutically with vulnerable children and young people since 1996. Our project — established by Camila Batmanghelidjh (who also founded The Place To Be) — is run from our children’s centre in Camberwell, South London and works within schools throughout the London area. In our work we seek to establish a positive relationship between adult carer and vulnerable child in order to reduce the impact of trauma and sustain the child’s belief in a more positive future."

2:53:36 PM    

The Missing

Another thought provoking editorial from the BMJ- British Medical Journal.  It reminded me of the fact that different bodies, government or otherwise approach things from different perspectives.  And a lack of co-operation between these results in wasted tome and lives.

'People missing as a result of armed conflict' by Robin Coupland, medical adviser, legal division and Stephen Cordner, consultant in forensic pathology.

Other sites-

• ICRC- International Committee of the Red Cross
• ICRC- The Missing. A new initiative
• ICRC- Landmines
• ICRC- War and Money

2:46:37 PM    

Dr. Carlo Urbani

I have been wondering about what Dr. Carlo Urbani was like. What the path to that hospital in Hanoi was.  I am tempted to say selflessness like his is rare nowadays. That sounds terribly cynical for someone to say, at 28.   So I won't. Not just yet.  When I heard the news of his death, I wondered, did he have kids?  Yes, three; Tommaso, Luca, and Maddalena.  Lovely names.  It takes a special type of family and a special type of spouse/partner to have someone working for an aid organization overseas.

I am not wishing to deify anyone as I am sure they had their rows as anyone has.  I am sure Dr. Urbani had his moods too, and I am sure he was just muddling through things, like everyone else. 

The U.N. Press release by Secretary-General Kofi Annan; delivered on his behalf by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Coordinator, Jordan Ryan, in Hanoi, 8 April:

" I hope you will know that he will be missed greatly by his other family too -– the United Nations family -– and that he leaves an inspiring legacy among the global public health community as a whole. I also hope you will know that for his contribution on the front lines of the fight against disease, he will be remembered as a hero –- in the best and truest sense of the word."

I also give a link to Jordan Ryan's tribute. Thankfully most aid workers are too busy to pay too much mind to armchair critics of the U.N. but word gets around (usually via the BBC World Service) and it would be inhuman for them to sometimes wonder, what's the point and to not feel overwhelmed.  Thankfully (again) these feelings are transient enough that they don't leave unless they have to.  So I make no apologies if it seems overtly political and biased. These are the folks in the thick of things, yet it's their voices that are never given as wide credence.

"We in the United Nations are bound by a common vision and we share an abiding faith in the principles of the UN Charter, including concerns for human well-being and human rights. Some in the world today say the United Nations is irrelevant. Tell that to the members of the UN family who, like Carlo, serve on the front lines of health and give their lives as a result. Tell that to the hundreds of civilian staff who have died or been held hostage while serving in the United Nations for the cause of peace. The United Nations is not a bully, not a know-it-all, not a superior force, and it is not irrelevant. The relevance of the United Nations is reborn each day through the work of the women and men of the UN family. Like Carlo, we work for a better, more peaceful world as we care for the poor, the sick and the disadvantaged. Carlo was one of the UN family's everyday heroes. These heroes are at work all over the world, fighting for human rights, better living conditions for the poor, healthier lives for the forgotten and education for those denied it. These heroes choose to work where the challenges are, just as Carlo didn't hesitate to attend those sick from SARS at their hospital bedsides in Hanoi. As a WHO public health specialist, Carlo knew our world could be better. He argued that even simple steps, like eradicating parasites, would help children in developing countries. He said solutions exist, if we'd only act. He so loved his work bringing together people who would rarely meet to tackle problems head-on. The UN family is all about bringing people together to solve problems. His compassion and his sense of duty will always be in our hearts. And we so miss his love of life, sharing Italian red wine with him or seeing him zooming on his motorbike around the crowded streets of Hanoi."

MSF- Medecins sans Frontieres has its own Obituary.  From The Lancet*, March 26, 2003 .

"Carlo Urbani first examined Johnny Chen, a Chinese-American businessman, on Feb 28, 2003, two days after Chen had been admitted to Hanoi's Vietnam- France Hospital for a suspected avian flu infection that would turn out to be severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Urbani is now widely credited as the first World Health Organization (WHO) officer to identify the disease. But a month and a day after first meeting Chen, Urbani himself succumbed to SARS in a hospital in Bangkok. "When people became very concerned in the hospital, he was there every day, collecting samples, talking to the staff and strengthening infection control procedures", Pascale Brudon, WHO representative in Vietnam, said in a statement after Urbani's death. Urbani first realized he had been infected with the disease on March 11. It was dangerous work, but Urbani told his wife, Giuliani Chiorrini, "If I can't work in such situations, what am I here for? Answering e-mails, going to cocktail parties and pushing paper?" WHO's Lorenzo Savioli told The New York Times earlier this month. Urbani was one of 80 people, including many health-care workers, infected by Chen, who also died...."

It came to me some time ago. This notion of true selflessness. Understanding it I mean. It's not about looking at what other people do or don't do. It's about getting on and doing something yourself.

*needs registration and subscription

2:43:21 PM