Group items tagged

New York City | January 17, 2012 Alexis Rodriguez, 28, was treated at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital for pneumonia as an out-patient last week and survived, but the medical bill he received for more than $44 million nearly acted as a revolving door to the hospital and almost caused him an asthma attack. The $44,776,587 bill he received was apparently the result of a billing error caused by the hospital's billing company and billing errors threatened to send not just Rodriguez, but hundreds of other people back to the emergency room after they received inflated bills as well. The Daily News reports that Rodriguez actually owed about $300 for the out-patient care he received at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in New York City last week. Somehow, invoice numbers were inserted in the space for the amount owed, leading to hundreds of panicked phone calls from patients. Rodriguez and others who had received the inflated bills were assured that they would receive new bills within a few days.

LIMA | January 28, 2012 In a country where firefighters are not just notoriously underfunded, they volunteer where the entire nation's firefighting budget is only $19 million dollars per year, it is no surprise that a fire killed 26 people and injured 10 others at a 2-story unlicensed and overcrowded private rehabilitation center in the Peruvian capital, Lima on Saturday, officials said. The blaze started around 9 a.m. local time at the "God is Love" rehabilitation center for drug addicts and alcoholics located in the capital city's poor Zarate district. The cause of the fire is still unknown and the 10 injured were taken to Lima hospitals, said Zarate police chief Clever Zegarra. Peru's chief fire fighter, Antonio Zavala, said the fire was of "Dantesque proportions, with most of the people having died from asphyxiation" Gianfranco Huerta, who was being treated at the center, told local radio station RPP that he jumped from the second floor of the center to escape the fire. "The doors were locked, there was no way to get out," he said. Residents were apparently kept inside like prisoners, Health Minister Alberto Tejada told the Associated Press. An AP journalist at scene said all the windows of the building were barred that he was able to see. As police cordoned off the block, Journalists were not allowed inside. By early afternoon, all bodies had been removed from the center. "This rehabilitation center wasn't authorized. It was a house that they had taken over... for patients with addictions and they had the habit of leaving people locked up with no medical supervision," Tejada said.

LOS ANGELES | January 27, 2012 49-year old actress Demi Moore, mother of 3 daughters from former husband Bruce Willis, suffered convulsions after smoking an undisclosed substance, according to an emergency 911 recorded call from last Monday in which she was described as being "barely semi-conscious." The recording was released by Los Angeles fire officials and captures the few minutes it took paramedics to arrive as friends surrounded the actress who had collapsed. In the recording, an unidentified female is asked by the emergency operator "is she breathing normal?" The female responded and stated "No, not so normal. More kind of shaking, convulsing, burning up." When the operator asked if Moore had ingested or smoked anything, the female replied: "She smoked something. It's not marijuana but it is similar to incense," according to a BBC News report, although the complete reply was redacted on the advice of the city attorney's office citing federal medical privacy rules. "She's been having some issues lately with some other stuff," said the female. Asked by the operator if this had happened before, the female voice said: "There's been some stuff recently that we're all just finding out." Apparently, as the call was about to end, Moore began to improve when a man got on the telephone and told the operator that Demi Moore had calmed down and began speaking. Demi Moore's publicist had previously declared that Moore was suffering from exhaustion post her divorce from Ashton Kutcher, 16 years her junior at 33, last November.

The sheer joy which comes from finally - finally! - processing this epic journey is an act of magic by itself. It's the lemon juice that reveals the invisible ink of my medical stories. I need to keep writing. I feel a quiet confidence to attend all the ones yet to come.

For over a decade, Kristin Loberg has quietly co-authored a long list of bestselling books for medical superstars like David Agus and Sanjay Gupta. Now she's embroiled in a growing plagiarism scandal that has her celebrity clients worried sick

The MSF spoke out as guilt grew over the bombing of hospitals in the dissident-held east of the Syri...