"A Healthier World One Family At A Time"
Medication Errors Hurt Kids the Most
The above is a headline from the March 07, 2007 edition of the Star-Ledger out of New Jersey. This article, and several others in other publications, was based on a report released by United States Pharmacopeia, an independent organization that sets quality standards for prescription and over-the-counter medicines sold in the United States. An article based on the same study also appeared in the March 07, 2007 New York Times.
This report showed that the time surrounding surgery (called perioperative period) is the time of highest risk for being harmed by medication errors. The study showed that errors related to surgery are three times higher than in all other areas of a hospital combined. The report also showed that children are most likely to be harmed.
The rate of harm from medications was 5% for patients undergoing surgery. According to the articles this is much higher than the general risk level from medications. However, for children, the risk was reported to be over 12 percent.
Diane Cousins, a health care specialist at Pharmacopeia and one of the authors explained that the area of most common time for errors is when the patient was transferred from the preoperative team to the operating room and then to the recovery room and finally to the regular ward nurses,. “The system is often very fragmented,” she stated. She also warned, "It’s beyond troubling that the smallest, youngest patients are the ones most at risk. We need to move more towards system fixes."
The New York Times article also reported that Ms. Cousins stated that, "There are 10,000 drugs in the marketplace, and many have never been tested on children in clinical trials, so doses are often made by guesswork based on weight, involving conversion of pounds to kilograms, sometimes by nurses who are not pediatric specialists."
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Baseball Superstar Barry Larkin Headline Chiropractic Event
For the 15th consecutive year, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California was once again the star at the International Chiropractors Association’s (ICA) 15th Annual Symposium on Natural ?Fitness held March 2-3, 2007 in Columbus, Ohio. Crediting chiropractic for keeping him going as a bodybuilder when injuries would have sidelined any other competitor, and then through his movie and political careers, Arnold again spoke of doctors of chiropractic as “the greatest profession, helping people in important and special ways.”
Also at the event, and showing his support for chiropractic, was Cincinnati Reds baseball star Barry Larkin. A 19 year baseball veteran, Larkin has been acknowledged as one of the greatest shortstops of all times. Mr. Larkin told the crowd about his powerful, career sustaining experience with chiropractic and spoke about the need to extend access to chiropractic care to all athletes, in all sports.
ICA honored Governor Schwarzenegger with a special “Crystal Award” (shown above) celebrating the 15 years of exciting partnership between Arnold and the chiropractic profession. Also honored by ICA at this event, was legendary bodybuilder and mentor to Arnold, Mr. Reg Parks. The photo above taken at the ICA Sports and fitness symposium shows, (left to right) Barry Larkin, Dr. Gerry Mattia president of the ICA Sport Council, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, ICA President Dr. John Maltby, and Reg Park.
Chiropractic Helping Kids Fight Ear Infections
A news story on February 13, 2007 appeared on CBS-11 News out of Dallas - Fort Worth as well as on their website, that chronicled chiropractic helping children with ear infections. This story reported on a mother, Susan Lekborg who says her son Cooper had suffered from chronic ear infections for years. During this time medical treatments did little to ease her son`s suffering.
?In this report Ms. Lekborg recounted the long, sleepless nights and stated, "We were up all night, he was miserable, cranky. He was on antibiotics all winter and it just wasn`t helping. It would go away and come back, go away and come back." After feeling frustrated and helpless she reluctantly decided to go to a chiropractor. "I`ll be honest, I was a little skeptical, nervous about a chiropractor adjusting my baby."
The story reports that the chiropractor she took her son Cooper to was Dr. Peter Martone. Dr. Martone explained the rationale for care by saying, "Chiropractic care is simply the art and science of aligning the spine to take pressure off the nerve and ultimately allow the body to heal itself." He continued, "So what happens with the adjustment, it allows for those ear canals to open up and the ears will drain, preventing any ear infection."
The news article noted that after only one visit Cooper started feeling better. The news story also interviewed Pediatrician Linda Nelson who said there`s a lot about the body doctors just don`t understand. "I`m very open to anything that`s benign," she said. "And it`s certainly isn`t going to hurt the child."
The article concluded with Susan Lekborg stating that it worked for her children. "This will be their third winter, no antibiotics, no Tylenol, no Motrin. They`re clean. I just feel like they`re healthier."