Mother Donates Half Her Liver

As any parent will know, you would do anything for your child and Charlotte Rogers certainly did that.

Imogen was born without any bile ducts making it impossible for her to break down fats in her diet.  The rare condition called biliary atresia was diagnosed when Imogen was nine weeks old and could eventually have led to bile poisoning her to death.  After five months on the waiting list for a transplant Ms Rogers decided to donate half her liver to her daughter.

Following a nine hour operation both mother and daughter recovered well and are looking to a positive future.  The liver will regenerate so both Ms Rogers and Imogen will have normal sized livers in time.

Premature Baby Numbers Increase

The number of babies being born prematurely is increasing and over the last ten years the numbers of children surviving has risen considerably too.

Babies born before 26 weeks are more likely to survive now due to the improvements in intensive care but the proportion of those suffering serious development and health issues as they grow up remains almost the same.

Professor Kate Costeloe, who led part of the study released in the British Medical Journal, said: “I can’t pretend that we fully understand that” when commenting on why premature baby numbers are increasing but suggested it might be related to ageing mothers, obesity, and a changing ethnic mix but higher IVF rates was not related.

Nurses Told to Focus on Caring

Jeremy Hunt, health secretary, made a strongly worded speech last week regarding the poor care people receive from staff within the NHS, he said: “coldness, resentment, indifference, even contempt”, were deep-seated in parts.

Chief Nursing Officer, Jane Cummings, has released a three year strategy to amend the training, recruitment and appraisal of nurses to put emphasis back on the basic values and not only technical ability.  Ms Cummings wants to lead change within the nursing sector and create “a culture of compassionate care”.

In the media recently there have been many complaints about patients being neglected, treated badly, and stripped of dignity.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association has praised the renewed focus and further commented: “It is right that nurses are now trained to a higher level than ever before but compassion and dignity should be vital components of that training.  Once nurses have qualified they need to be supported and monitored throughout, and we support those moves towards appraisal of values as well as skills”.

Male Middle Aged Spread

A recent study has found that men who are carrying excess weight around their middle are not only putting their heart at risk but also increasing the chances of weaker bones.

Harvard Medical School found men have a higher risk of developing osteoporosis, a disease more commonly associated with older women, if they have a beer belly. The study involved splitting a group of overweight men into two groups; one with fat evenly spread all over the body, and the other with most fat located in the abdomen. The results concluded that those with more abdominal fat had a higher risk of osteoporosis even though both groups were equally matched in age and level of obesity.

New Baby Monitor for Parents

Scientists from Brigham University in Utah have devised a baby monitor which straps around the child’s foot and monitors heart rate and blood-oxygen levels. It notifies the parent on their smart phone that all is well or advises of significant changes to breathing or heart rate.

The device is wireless and uses non-invasive technology, and the team who designed it hope it will reduce the annual cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

The Owlet Baby Monitor designed by a team of five headed by Jacob Colvin recently debuted and won two awards at the third annual Student Inventor of the Year competition.