Alexandra Smith
November 22, 2007
TWO nurses from Royal North Shore Hospital who asked to be subpoenaed to appear at a NSW parliamentary inquiry will appear voluntarily but their evidence will be given in-camera.

The nurses made the request to the committee hearing the inquiry, led by the Reverend Fred Nile, saying they were scared to give evidence voluntarily because of bullying at the hospital and wanted to be subpoenaed so they would be legally compelled to appear.

Mr Nile yesterday confirmed the nurses would give evidence today and the committee would then decide whether to make the transcript public. Mr Nile was reluctant to subpoena them and had urged them to appear voluntarily.

A former senior orthopedic specialist at the hospital, Jeffery Sleye Hughes, who complained that cockroaches were found in one of the hospital's operating theatres, will also given evidence today as well as the relatives of former patients and other medical staff.

The inquiry was set up after Jana Horska, 32, miscarried in the toilets of the hospital's emergency department after waiting almost two hours to be seen by a doctor.

Ms Horska and her husband, Mark Dreyer, made an emotional appearance at the inquiry on Friday.

Other patients and relatives also recounted their horror stories of treatment at the hospital, including one woman with a burst appendix who waited more than eight hours for surgery and a quadriplegic who chewed through tubes so he could yell "help me" to his wife.

The inquiry is due to finish today and report to Parliament on December 14.

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/11/21/1195321867013.html

 

Medicine's Next Big Thing: Healing spines and wounds

November 19, 2007 - Medical breakthroughs happen every day in research laboratories across the world. Researchers are constantly looking to come up with promising new therapies aimed at saving human lives. Each medical university in the United States has its own research success stories and it continues every minute of every day. At the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, researchers are close to uncovering new treatments that could help millions of people across the country -- and across the world.

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STATINS FOR SPINAL CORDS: Drugs called statins were originally designed to lower cholesterol. Since their approval, statins have been studied to treat everything from Alzheimer's disease to multiple sclerosis for their effect on inflammation, and researchers continue to find new uses for the drug.

Now, researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina have found statins should help people with spinal cord injuries recover. Inderjit Singh, Ph.D., is leading the research, which, for the first time, shows statins have an effect on spinal cord injuries after they've occurred. In animal models, Dr. Singh and his colleagues found animals that received a statin shortly after an injury that caused hind limb paralysis showed significant functional recovery and less secondary tissue damage. In other words, animals that were previously paralyzed actually started walking again after they received treatment with statins. Researchers say statins protect cells responsible for producing myelin in the spinal cord. Myelin is a substance that maintains normal function by insulating nerve fibers that carry signals through the spinal cord. Dr. Singh says, "This was the greatest excitement -- when you see things you have worked [on] ... translating into animals and it has the potential to go to humans. This was major excitement." Not only does it have the potential to go to human trials -- that's the next step. Because statins are already FDA-approved and considered relatively safe, researchers expect human trials to start early next year.

WOUND-HEALING WEAPON: Across campus, researchers are on the verge of another breakthrough that could affect millions of people. Gautam Ghatnekar, D.V.M., Ph.D., and colleagues from the Medical University of South Carolina have come up with an innovative way to repair wounds and regenerate tissue faster and with less scarring. They have developed a bioengineered peptide based on a naturally occurring protein in the body that helps regulate communication between cells. In a study on pigs, the gel-like substance reduced scarring by 50 percent and healed wounds twice as fast. It also reduced inflammation surrounding the wound. Dr. Ghatnekar says the uses for the peptide are endless. "We expect this to be used right from mothers applying it on their children with cuts and bruises to soldiers taking it to the battlefield in their backpacks and putting it right on their injuries," Dr. Ghatnekar said.

The peptide can also be injected to heal the body from the inside out. Injecting it means the peptide could heal wounds from brain, heart and other organ injuries, resulting in less overall damage to the patient. Dr. Ghatnekar and his team hope to start human clinical trials on the wound-healing peptide in November 2007.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Heather Woolwine

Media Relations Director
woolwinh@musc.edu
(843) 792-7669
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Police allegedly hang quadriplegic man

LOS ANGELES - Jurors ruled the city of Pasadena must pay $80,000 to a quadriplegic man who sued because police officers allegedly jerked him out of his wheelchair and hung him upside down to search him.

Cornell Greathouse sued the city and four police officers for assault, battery, false arrest, false imprisonment, excessive force, intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and negligence.

A Superior Court jury decided Wednesday the officers weren't culpable, but they ruled Pasadena must pay $78,939.12 for failing to train officers on how to deal with a quadriplegic.

Officers responding a 2005 disturbance call encountered Greathouse and, according to the suit, they pulled him out of wheelchair and hung him over a 4-foot concrete wall in order to search him

New Technology Can Be Operated By Thought
ScienceDaily (2007-11-09) -- Neuroscientists have significantly advanced brain-machine interface (BMI) technology to the point where severely handicapped people who cannot contract even one leg or arm muscle now can independently compose and send e-mails and operate a TV in their homes. They are using only their thoughts to execute these actions. ... > read full article

New Clinical Trials Could Open 'Golden Era' In Spinal Cord Injury And ALS Research

ScienceDaily (2007-11-06) -- New experimental therapies are being -- or soon may be -- tested in clinical trials that could open the doors to a "golden era" for research to improve the treatments of people with spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, stroke, and other severe movement disorders, scientists say. ... > read full article