SACRAMENTO Evan Kim was 2 years old when he was diagnosed as autistic last year, and his parents searched for some way to curb his head-banging tantrums. Using a state-financed healthcare program for low-income families, they found therapists who could provide a specific kind of autism treatment aimed at analyzing and improving behavior. The therapists spent 40 hours a week with Evan at the family's home in the Los Angeles area, coaxing him to stop the tantrums and improving his communication skills. Evan's mother, Jenny Kim, was relieved until last month, when her children's healthcare plan changed and the therapy, known as applied behavior analysis, was no longer covered. "I'm afraid he's not going to make any progress from now on," Kim said. The same service, she said, would cost $10,000 a month out of pocket. Evan's therapy was a casualty of the state's effort to phase out its Healthy Families insurance program and shift the nearly 900,000 children it covered into Medi-Cal, the broader healthcare program for the poor. Despite officials' assurances that the transition would not jeopardize services, activists say hundreds of children are losing coverage for applied behavior analysis. "Those are the families that fall through the … Continue reading →

Stroke is the third most common cause of death after heart disease and cancer and the most common cause of adult disability. People are now aware of the importance of controlling blood pressure and cholesterol levels, but less is known about the dangers of very vigorous exercise although TV presenter Andrew Marrs stroke after a spell on a rowing machine has hopefully changed this. Activities such as weightlifting should be avoided, says Rudd; and osteopaths should not be allowed anywhere near the neck. Youd be mad to let someone pull your neck around, he says. There is a real risk of arterial dissection [a torn artery]. The same thing can also happen to people being spun round violently on fairground rides. He also urges stroke survivors not to lose hope. For far too long, there has been a fallacious belief that if someone hasnt recovered in three months, they are not going to recover at all. Its nonsense. People carry on recovering for years afterwards. Certainly, with language, recovery starts off later and tends to go on longer, he says. How will stroke care do under the NHS reforms? One of Rudds biggest challenges is to encourage the new Clinical … Continue reading →

ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Today, Penumbra, Inc. announced the launch and wide availability of the 5MAX ACE, a next generation clot extraction device that uses aspiration alone to engage and remove blood clots causing an acute ischemic stroke. Ive used every generation of device for clot removal since the early days, including most recently, the stent retriever devices, said Blaise Baxter, MD, FRCPC, Director of Interventional Services at Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I can say with certainty after using the 5MAX ACE that this device is clearly superior to all the others. I am now able to get to the clot more quickly, and remove it more completely than ever before. The results are really just stunning. The 5MAX ACE makes use of more than 6 years of experience in advanced, large lumen medical device design to accomplish both exceptionally easy delivery and the highest aspiration flow rate of any such device on the market. The 5MAX ACE has made it not only possible, but also cheaper, faster, safer, simpler and easier toutilizea pure aspiration approach as the primary tool for revascularization, saidQuill Turk, DO, Professor of Radiology, Director of Neurointerventional Division, Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South … Continue reading →

Stroke is the third most common cause of death after heart disease and cancer and the most common cause of adult disability. People are now aware of the importance of controlling blood pressure and cholesterol levels, but less is known about the dangers of very vigorous exercise although TV presenter Andrew Marrs stroke after a spell on a rowing machine has hopefully changed this. Activities such as weightlifting should be avoided, says Rudd; and osteopaths should not be allowed anywhere near the neck. Youd be mad to let someone pull your neck around, he says. There is a real risk of arterial dissection [a torn artery]. The same thing can also happen to people being spun round violently on fairground rides. He also urges stroke survivors not to lose hope. For far too long, there has been a fallacious belief that if someone hasnt recovered in three months, they are not going to recover at all. Its nonsense. People carry on recovering for years afterwards. Certainly, with language, recovery starts off later and tends to go on longer, he says. How will stroke care do under the NHS reforms? One of Rudds biggest challenges is to encourage the new Clinical … Continue reading →