One early morning in September 2012, Eric Jordan was awakened by the cries of his 20-month-old son and that kept him from dying in his sleep. As he tried to go to his child, Jordan fell to the floor, paralyzed. The opera singer would soon learn that he had undergone a severe stroke that robbed him of his speech. After awakening from surgery, Jordan still couldn't speak and feared his career singing bass with the Metropolitan Opera was over. But he soon made an uplifting discovery: Even as he struggled to relearn to speak, he could sing. Six weeks after his stroke, Jordan, 41, returned to sing on the Met stage, and he remains on the roster today. In a voice that can sound slightly robotic as he enunciated every syllable, he spoke about his journey back from his stroke. After he sweetly sang a few perfect bars of "Puff, the Magic Dragon," the sentences that followed suddenly flowed freely. Both your son and your wife helped save your life? My baby boy woke me at 5:30 in the morning. I stood up and then passed out. My wife reacted quickly. She saw my face drooping and my right arm … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 24-Oct-2014 Contact: Lucy Handford media@monash.edu Monash University @MonashUni New data shows that healthcare and personal costs to support survivors of stroke remains high 10 years on. The Monash University research, published today in the journal Stroke, is the first to look at the long-term costs for the two main causes of stroke; ischemic where the blood supply stops due to a blood clot, and hemorrhagic, which occurs when a weakened blood vessel supplying the brain bursts. Previous studies based on estimating the lifetime costs using patient data up to 5 years after a stroke, suggested that costs peaked in the first year and then declined in subsequent years. The new findings, led by Associate Professor Dominique Cadilhac and Professor Amanda Thrift from the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, provides evidence that healthcare and personal expenses associated with a stroke continue to be substantial over time. The greatest ongoing costs being for aged care facilities and informal care. 243 patients who experienced an ischemic stroke the most common type of stroke, and 43 patients with intracerebral hemorrhage stroke who went on to survive for 10 years or more were interviewed to calculate annual costs as part … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 24-Oct-2014 Contact: Lori Sundeen Soderbergh lori.soderbergh@utsouthwestern.edu 214-648-3404 UT Southwestern Medical Center @UTSWNews DALLAS October 24, 2014 Genetic screening services for rural and underserved populations will expand from six to 22 counties in North Texas under a $1.5 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) to UT Southwestern Medical Center. The goal is to identify patients with Hereditary Breast-Ovarian Cancer (HBOC) and Lynch syndrome, two of the most commonly inherited cancer predisposition syndromes. For those carrying these mutations, the lifetime risk for breast, ovarian, colorectal, and uterine cancer is as high as 85 percent. "Overall, about 10 percent of cancer diagnoses are hereditary," said Linda Robinson, Assistant Director of Clinical Cancer Genetics at UTSouthwestern. "The power of genetic testing is that we can lessen the amount of treatment for these people by finding the cancer early, and for some patients we can prevent it from happening altogether." Cancer Genetic Services for Rural and Underserved Populations in Texas is part of the Genetics Department at the Harold C. Simmons Cancer Center, in partnership with Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas and the Moncrief Cancer Institute and JPS Health Network in Fort Worth. The cost of … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise DALLAS October 24, 2014 Genetic screening services for rural and underserved populations will expand from six to 22 counties in North Texas under a $1.5 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) to UT Southwestern Medical Center. The goal is to identify patients with Hereditary Breast-Ovarian Cancer (HBOC) and Lynch syndrome, two of the most commonly inherited cancer predisposition syndromes. For those carrying these mutations, the lifetime risk for breast, ovarian, colorectal, and uterine cancer is as high as 85 percent. Overall, about 10 percent of cancer diagnoses are hereditary, said Linda Robinson, Assistant Director of Clinical Cancer Genetics at UTSouthwestern. The power of genetic testing is that we can lessen the amount of treatment for these people by finding the cancer early, and for some patients we can prevent it from happening altogether. Cancer Genetic Services for Rural and Underserved Populations in Texas is part of the Genetics Department at the Harold C. Simmons Cancer Center, in partnership with Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas and the Moncrief Cancer Institute and JPS Health Network in Fort Worth. The cost of the genetic evaluation and testing is covered … Continue reading →