First Edition: September 17, 2018

Kaiser Health News: 'Step Therapy' Cost-Cutting Tool Could Limit Drug Choices For Medicare Advantage Patients
Starting next year, Medicare Advantage plans will be able to add restrictions on expensive, injectable drugs administered by doctors to treat cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, macular degeneration and other serious diseases. Under the new rules, these private Medicare insurance plans could require patients to try cheaper drugs first. If those are not effective, then the patients could receive the more expensive medication prescribed by their doctors. (Jaffe, 9/17)

Kaiser Health News: Half As Many People Are Trying Heroin, But Marijuana Use Grows
Some good news from the front lines of the heroin crisis: Half as many people tried heroin for the first time in 2017 as in 2016. That’s according to data released Friday from the government’s annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health. “This is what we were hoping for,” said Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, who directs the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. “It tells us that we are getting the word out to the American people of the risks of heroin,” especially when the drug is tainted with additional powerful opioids, fentanyl or carfentanil. (Gold, 9/14)

California Healthline: Paper Jam: California’s Medicaid Program Hits ‘Print’ When The Feds Need Info
In the shadow of Silicon Valley, the hub of the world’s digital revolution, California officials still submit their records to the feds justifying billions in Medicaid spending the old-fashioned way: on paper. Stacks and stacks of it. (Terhune, 9/14)

The Washington Post: California Professor Christine Blasey Ford, Writer Of Confidential Brett Kavanaugh Letter, Speaks Out About Sexual Assault Allegation
Earlier this summer, Christine Blasey Ford wrote a confidential letter to a senior Democratic lawmaker alleging that Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her more than three decades ago, when they were high school students in suburban Maryland. Since Wednesday, she has watched as that bare-bones version of her story became public without her name or her consent, drawing a blanket denial from Kavanaugh and roiling a nomination that just days ago seemed all but certain to succeed. Now, Ford has decided that if her story is going to be told, she wants to be the one to tell it. (Brown, 9/16)

Los Angeles Times: Kavanaugh Nomination Faces Delay After Sex Assault Accuser Comes Forward
Kavanaugh, 53, issued a brief statement last week when the allegations came to light, without the accuser’s name attached. “I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time,” he said. At about the same time, the White House released a testimonial letter from 65 women who knew Kavanaugh as a teenager saying that in their experience, he had always treated women with respect. (King, 9/16)

The New York Times: Brett Kavanaugh’s Confirmation In Turmoil As Accuser Comes Forward
Ms. Ford’s decision to put her name behind accusations that began to circulate late last week — a choice made after weeks of reluctance — appeared to open a door to a delay in a Senate committee vote on the nomination scheduled for Thursday. The disclosure also injected a volatile #MeToo element into the confirmation debate, one that is playing out in the overwhelmingly male Republican-led Senate during a midterm election that has energized Democratic women. (Stolberg, 9/16)

The Washington Post: GOP Senator: Hold Off On Kavanaugh Vote Until Accuser Is Heard
The White House on Sunday stood by Brett M. Kavanaugh after a woman publicly accused him of sexual assault decades ago, an allegation that triggered the most concrete signs yet of Republican resistance to President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. With the nomination suddenly in doubt, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) was working to arrange follow-up calls with Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who said he assaulted her when the two were in high school. (Sullivan, Kim and Sonmez, 9/16)

Politico: 'I Do Not Know This Woman': Trump Allies Rally To Kavanaugh's Defense
More than half a dozen current and former White House officials or people close to the president said that Trump will continue to stand behind Kavanaugh, even as they were increasingly resigned to the likelihood that the Senate Judiciary Committee will be compelled to examine the allegations in detail. “Of course we’re not going to pull the nomination,” said one White House official involved in the confirmation process after retiring Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a member of the Judiciary Committee, told POLITICO that he wasn’t comfortable moving ahead on the original timetable. (Gerstein, Restuccia and Lippman, 9/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Brett Kavanaugh Accuser Comes Forward About Alleged Sexual Assault
Sen. Jeff Flake (R., Ariz.), who sits on the committee, said he wouldn’t vote for Judge Kavanaugh to advance to the full Senate until the committee had heard from Mrs. Ford. “I would not vote yes until we hear more from the woman who’s come forward,” Mr. Flake said in an interview. With Republicans holding just a one-vote majority on the committee, a defection by Mr. Flake would prevent the panel from favorably advancing Judge Kavanaugh to the full Senate, where the GOP has a 51-49 majority. Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) told Politico he also supported delaying the vote to hear from Mrs. Ford, while Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) told CNN she was discussing the matter with colleagues. (Peterson and Gurman, 9/16)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Groups Sue To Block Trump's Expansion Of Short-Term Plans
Seven healthcare industry and advocacy groups sued the Trump administration Friday to block a new rule expanding the availability of short-term health plans that don't comply with Affordable Care Act consumer protection rules for the individual market. The Association for Community Affiliated Plans, the American Psychiatric Association and several other groups alleged that the rule flies in the face of the intent of the ACA to make low-cost comprehensive insurance available to Americans and it cannot move forward. (Meyer, 9/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Lawsuit Seeks To Block Trump Health-Insurance Effort
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, takes aim at one of the central planks of the administration’s plan to roll back the Obama-era health law, after Congress failed to repeal it last year. It sets the stage for a legal standoff that could affect coverage and premiums for millions of Americans in 2019. The Trump administration rule finalized in August loosens restrictions on a type of coverage known as short-term medical insurance—low-cost plans that cover a limited period with less-expansive benefit offerings, which are subject to fewer consumer protection regulations. The plans don’t have to cover people with pre-existing conditions, and insurers can charge higher premiums based on a consumer’s health status. (Armour, 9/14)

Los Angeles Times: How The Centers For Disease Control And Prevention Responds To A Hurricane Like Florence
For all the political chatter about the human toll of hurricanes, one lesson of past monster storms is clear and increasingly urgent: Hurricanes claim lives and erode health before, during and after the water, wind and rain hit. To reduce the short-term and long-term health consequences of these ever more frequent storms, emergency planners need to anticipate how the threats unfold — and get ahead of them. They may even use such disasters as opportunities to boost communities’ health after a storm has passed. (Healy, 9/14)

The Associated Press: Florence Death Toll At 17, Including 3-Month-Old
The death toll attributed to Florence stands at 17, including 11 in North Carolina and six in South Carolina. (9/17)

Politico: Trump Gets Pass From Congress On Puerto Rico Deaths
After Hurricane Katrina crashed into the Gulf Coast in 2005, Congress sprang into action. Seventeen days after the storm made landfall, the Republican-led House created a bipartisan select committee to investigate the Bush administration’s response to the storm. In the Senate, the committee with oversight over the Federal Emergency Management Agency held 22 hearings in six months. Within eight months, both committees had released 500-plus-page investigations into the Bush administration’s handling of the crisis with dozens of recommendations for reform. (Vinik, 9/16)

The New York Times: No. 1 Aim Of Democratic Campaign Ads: Protect Pre-Existing Conditions
In years past, Obamacare was the stuff of Republican attack ads. No more.This cycle, even Democrats running in red states are unapologetically putting health care at the center of their campaign messages. There’s a reason: Republican efforts to overhaul the health care system last year were deeply unpopular. (Sanger-Katz, 9/17)

The New York Times: Taking Page From 2016, Trump Claims Democrats Will Destroy Safety Net
President Trump had a blunt message for Montana voters last week, an unapologetic reprise of the promise to protect Medicare and Social Security that he used during the 2016 presidential campaign to successfully appeal to older, blue-collar voters. “They’re going to hurt your Social Security so badly, and they’re killing you on Medicare. Just remember that. I’m going to protect your Social Security,” Mr. Trump said at a campaign rally in Billings on behalf of Matt Rosendale, a Republican Senate candidate. (Shear, 9/14)

The Washington Post: America’s Anger Paradox: Voters Want The Anger To Stop But Can’t Stop Being Angry
Elissa Slotkin assumed that her campaign for Congress would be built around pocketbook issues such as the rising cost of health care, stagnant wages and unaffordable college tuition. Her first big indication that it would be something entirely different came at a house party last October in Ortonville, a small Republican-heavy town about 50 miles northwest of Detroit. The audience was made up entirely of moms. The presidential election and its aftermath were still raw. (Jaffe, 9/16)

The New York Times: Federal Panel Alarmed As Thousands Are Dropped From Medicaid In Arkansas
Members of a federal advisory panel expressed alarm this week that 4,350 low-income people in Arkansas had lost Medicaid coverage because they failed to show they were complying with new work requirements held up by the Trump administration as a model for the nation. “I hope these data scare the pants off people in Arkansas,” said Dr. Christopher Gorton, a member of the panel, called the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission. (Pear, 9/14)

Stat: Gottlieb Pitches 'Subscriptions' To Encourage Pharma To Make New Antibiotics 
The Food and Drug Administration is talking with other federal agencies and even the private Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation about new ways to encourage drug makers to develop more antibiotics, agency Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a speech Friday. The problem Gottlieb wants to address is twofold. First, as bacteria become immune to the current arsenal of antibiotic medicines, more than 20,000 Americans are dying each year from these hard-to-treat infections. Drug companies, however, have few financial incentives to develop better drugs. (Swetlitz, 9/14)

CNBC: HHS Supports FDA's Proposed E-Cigarette Crackdown, HHS Chief Azar Says
Regulators aren't going to allow what they're calling an epidemic of e-cigarette use among teens become a "pathway to nicotine dependency," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told CNBC on Friday. The e-cigarette craze has driven what's arguably the largest uptick in teen nicotine use in decades after years of driving cigarette smoking rates to record lows. Teens who would have never smoked cigarettes are happily inhaling fruity flavors, sometimes without realizing it is packed with nicotine, an addictive substance. (LaVito, 9/14)

Reuters: U.S. Health Secretary Backs Proposed FDA Crackdown On E-Cigarettes: CNBC
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on Wednesday the agency was considering a ban on flavored e-cigarettes from Juul Labs and other companies as it grapples with an "epidemic" of youth e-cigarette use that threatened to create a new generation of nicotine addicts. (9/14)

Reuters: Global Health Regulators Find Second Toxin In Common Heart Drug
European and North American regulators have found a second toxin that may cause cancer in humans in a commonly used blood pressure drug made by Chinese firm Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical Co Ltd. Health regulators in the European Union, United States and Canada had already recalled drugs made with the company's active pharmaceutical ingredient valsartan after finding traces of the chemical N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), considered a potential human carcinogen, in the medicine. (9/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Health Care Looks Beyond Medicine To Social Factors
The latest efforts by health organizations to fight disease extend well beyond medical care. With a growing body of research showing that social and economic forces play a significant role in health, many medical groups are investing in programs to help needy patients secure basics such as affordable housing, transportation and nutritious food. By tackling such nonmedical issues, often called the social determinants of health, they aim to ease the burdens that make battling disease more difficult. (Gormley, 9/16)

Modern Healthcare: Health Systems Focus On Patient-Centered Care Consumerism Takes Hold
Market forces are pushing health systems to rethink their approach to defining and encouraging patient-centered care. The term patient-centered care, first coined by the Institute of Medicine in 2001 and defined as ensuring patients guide their own clinical decisions, has become commonplace in healthcare. But CEOs of top health systems say the term and approaches to providing it need a revamp in order to address evolving consumer expectations. (Castellucci, 9/15)

The New York Times: Prominent Cancer Researcher Resigns From Dartmouth Amid Plagiarism Charges
One of the country’s most influential researchers in cancer screening has resigned from his post at Dartmouth College, after a two-year internal investigation concluded he had plagiarized a graph included in a paper published in a prominent journal. The researcher, Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, has published widely on the risks of aggressive screening and over-diagnosis, including Op-Ed articles in The Times and several popular books. He disputed the university’s findings against him. (Carey, 9/14)

Stat: NEJM Again Refuses To Retract Article Dartmouth Says Is Plagiarized
The New England Journal of Medicine is again refusing to retract an article co-authored by one of the country’s leading health policy scholars even after the researcher resigned his position this week following a misconduct finding last month. As STAT and Retraction Watch reported Thursday, Dr. H. Gilbert Welch resigned from his faculty position at Dartmouth following an internal investigation, which found that Welch had plagiarized material from a Dartmouth colleague and a researcher at another institution for a 2016 paper published in the venerable journal. The paper was an analysis of how breast cancer screening led to the overdiagnosis of tumors and unnecessary treatments. Welch disputes Dartmouth’s conclusions. (Oransky and Marcus, 9/14)

The Associated Press: To Avoid Overdoses, Some Test Their Heroin Before Taking It
The newest tool in the fight against opioid overdoses is an inexpensive test strip that can help heroin users detect a potentially deadly contaminant in their drugs. Sales of fentanyl test strips have exploded as a growing number of overdose-prevention programs hand them out to people who use illicit drugs. (9/17)

Los Angeles Times: As Opioid Death Toll Worsens, California Doctors Will Soon Be Required To Perform Database Checks
By the time the 59-year-old woman overdosed in the late summer of 2013, she’d been given 75 prescriptions by three primary care doctors, a psychiatrist and a pain specialist in one year. Her deadly cocktail: an opioid painkiller, a sleeping aid and anti-anxiety medication. Had any of the five physicians treating her been aware she’d been “shopping” around for prescriptions? Had they warned her of the dangerous combinations? Had anyone tried to intervene? (Davis, 9/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Koch-Funded Gyms Help Opioid Addicts Recover
Emily Brawn stumbled as she attempted to kick opioids a few years ago. When she wasn’t at 12-step meetings, she grew isolated. “Days and days in your own head,” she said. “That is where the relapse starts.” She is trying a new strategy. In early September, 90 days sober, the 29-year-old stepped into a gym in an industrial corner of Boston. Muscled people were warming up for CrossFit, surrounded by top-line equipment and a rock-climbing wall. (Levitz, 9/16)

Stat: Addiction Doctors Try To Bring Care To Patients, Rather Than Vice Versa
The San Francisco program, run by the city’s public health department, is one of a handful of novel programs around the country that are taking the unusual step of delivering comprehensive treatment to people with addiction — wherever they are. These programs aim to help patients who can’t or won’t jump through the hoops of health care bureaucracy — appointments, referrals, paperwork, even obtaining a photo ID. It is one of the rare policy ideas that is giving health officials hope for reducing overdose deaths, even as Congress nibbles around the edges of the crisis and the Trump administration grows increasingly hostile to some harm-reduction initiatives. (Facher, 9/17)

The New York Times: For Elderly Women With Breast Cancer, Surgery May Not Be The Best Option
Annie Krause moved into a nursing home in Detroit in 2015, when she was 98 years old. She had grown frail. Arthritis, recurrent infections and hypertension had made it difficult for her to manage on her own. When the facility’s doctor examined her, he found a mass in Ms. Krause’s breast and recommended a biopsy — standard procedure to determine what sort of tumor this was and, if it proved malignant, what treatment to pursue. Once diagnosed, breast cancer almost always leads to surgery, even in older women. (Span, 9/14)

The Associated Press: FDA Plans Meeting To Discuss Safety Data On Breast Implants
U.S. health regulators say they'll convene a public meeting of medical advisers next year to discuss new science on breast implant safety, including an independent analysis that suggests certain rare health problems might be more common with silicone gel implants. The Food and Drug Administration said it would hold the meeting even as its officials and several independent experts disputed the new work. Leaders of the study concede that it has big limitations and cannot prove that implants cause any of these problems. (9/14)

The New York Times: New Approach To Breast Reconstruction May Reduce Pain And Weakness For Some
Before Deborah Cohan had a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction five years ago, her plastic surgeon explained that he would “create a little pocket” behind her chest muscle and “slip the implant in.” Her doctor glossed over the part of the procedure in which the large pectoralis major muscles are detached from some underlying ribs, pulled off the chest wall, then stretched out for several months to accommodate breast implants. The process can weaken the muscle and left Dr. Cohan, an obstetrician, with chronic pain that made it difficult for her to work at a computer, let alone deliver babies. (Rabin, 9/17)

The Associated Press: Few Safeguards For Foster Kids On Psych Drugs
Thousands of children in foster care may be getting powerful psychiatric drugs prescribed to them without basic safeguards, according to a federal watchdog's investigation that finds a failure to care for youngsters whose lives have already been disrupted. The report due Monday from the Health and Human Services inspector general's office found that about 1 in 3 foster kids from a sample of states were prescribed psychiatric drugs without treatment plans or follow-up, which are considered standard for sound medical care. (9/17)

The New York Times: Low-Dose Aspirin Late In Life? Healthy People May Not Need It
Should older people in good health start taking aspirin to prevent heart attacks, strokes, dementia and cancer? No, according to a study of more than 19,000 people, including whites 70 and older, and blacks and Hispanics 65 and older. They took low-dose aspirin — 100 milligrams — or a placebo every day for a median of 4.7 years. Aspirin did not help them — and may have done harm. (Grady, 9/16)

NPR: Risks From Daily Low-Dose Aspirin Outweigh Benefits For Healthy Seniors
Results released Sunday from a major study of low-dose aspirin contain a disappointing answer for older, otherwise healthy people. "We found there was no discernible benefit of aspirin on prolonging independent, healthy life for the elderly," says Anne Murray, a geriatrician and epidemiologist at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, who helped lead the study. The study involved more than 19,000 people ages 65 and older in the United States and Australia. The results were published in three papers in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Stein, 9/16)

The Washington Post: Low-Dose Aspirin Offers No Overall Benefit For Healthy Older People, Research Says
There is good evidence that taking aspirin can help people with known cardiovascular problems. But it had been unclear whether healthy people older than 70 would derive the same benefit. “Clinical guidelines note the benefits of aspirin for preventing heart attacks and strokes in persons with vascular conditions such as coronary artery disease,” Richard J. Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, which helped fund the research, said in a news release. “The concern has been uncertainty about whether aspirin is beneficial for otherwise healthy older people without those conditions.” (Bernstein, 9/16)

The New York Times: How An Unsolved Mystery Changed The Way We Take Pills
Odds are that you have had moments of frustration trying to open new bottles of aspirin or other over-the-counter medications. Perhaps your fingernails are not up to the task of breaking the seal on the plastic wrap. Or maybe the pop-up cap is a challenge, seemingly designed to be not only childproof but also adultproof. The foil covering the lip of the bottle may defy neat tearing. Then you struggle to remove every wisp of the cotton wad standing between you and the medicine. But odds are also good that, even if a bit annoyed, you are reassured. All those layers of protection mean you may reasonably trust that the pill you are about to pop is safe. (Haberman, 9/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Cancer Coaches Help Guide Patients During And After Treatment
Tom Loeswick has faced a series of illnesses in his life, but when he was diagnosed with stage 3 lymphoma in 2012 at the age of 61, he felt helpless, emotionally drained and disconnected. Overwhelmed, Mr. Loeswick turned to cancer coach Shariann Tom. Ms. Tom, a five-time cancer survivor and former executive coach, helped Mr. Loeswick understand the emotions he was feeling—especially anger—and helped him move forward, he says. (Sadick, 9/16)

The Associated Press: Doctors Group Recommends Support For Transgender Children
A doctors group took a stand in support of transgender children Monday, offering advice in what it called "a rapidly evolving" field. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommended support for kids who change their names or hairstyles to affirm their chosen gender identity. The group said children are more likely to have better physical and mental health with such support. (9/17)

The New York Times: Where A Sore Throat Becomes A Death Sentence
Neighbors whisper that she is pregnant, a disgrace for a young, unmarried woman. The rumors mortify her. She hates her swollen belly. But Florence Ndimubakunzi is not pregnant. Her heart is failing. It pumps so poorly that blood backs up in her veins, bloating her liver and spleen, and filling her abdomen with fluid. She is only 18. For millions like her in poorer parts of Africa, Asia and other regions, this devastating heart disease began insidiously. During childhood, they contracted strep throat — an infection caused by streptococcal bacteria. (Grady, 9/16)

The Wall Street Journal: The Secret To Retaining A New Skill: Learn, Exercise, Sleep
Scientists are discovering new connections between learning, exercise and sleep. A new study suggests that when learning a new task, people improve the long-term retention of those skills when they exercise intensely for as little as 15 minutes immediately afterward—provided this is followed by a good night’s sleep. The study was published in March in the medical journal NeuroImage. (Ward, 9/16)

The New York Times: For Kids With Concussions, Less Time Alone In A Dark Room
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a major new guideline on diagnosing and managing head injuries in children on Sept. 4, the product of years of work and extensive evidence review by a large working group of specialists in fields ranging from emergency medicine and epidemiology to sports injuries to neurology and neurosurgery. The guideline, which is the first from the C.D.C. that is specific to mild brain injury in children, advises against the long recovery period, isolated in a dark, quiet room, that has sometimes been used in treatment. (Klass, 9/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Synthetic Materials Can Replace Cartilage In Your Aching Joints
Cartilage, a rubbery tissue that acts as a cushion between bones of joints, doesn’t come with a lifetime warranty. When it wears down with age, or is damaged, the pain may be so severe that the patient ends up fully replacing a joint such as a knee. For the big toe, a common option is to surgically fuse bones together, reducing pain but leaving the patient with no motion in the joint. (Johannes, 9/16)

The Washington Post: Mysterious Terrible Pain Afflicted Her For Years Because Doctors Refused To Listen
The prominent New York City gynecologist didn’t bother to conceal his disdain. “Stop practicing Google medicine,” Lina Kharnak remembers the doctor chiding her when she asked about a possible cause of her worsening leg and back pain. The disease about which she was inquiring, he said brusquely, has different symptoms. (Boodman, 9/15)

The Washington Post: Chronic Back Pain Managed With Body Modificiation
Janet Jay is a cyborg. No, she’s not RoboCop or Darth Vader. But she shares a similarity with those characters: Her all-too-human body has been upgraded with a machine. A next-generation implant deep in Jay’s back stimulates her spinal cord, overriding her body’s pain signals to give her some relief from the back pain that has plagued her for years. (Blakemore, 9/16)

NPR: Support For Caregivers Is Key To Managing Alzheimer's And Dementia
When Kate Sieloff's husband, Karl, began acting strange, she didn't know where to turn. Her hard-working, affectionate spouse was suddenly having fits of anger and aggression. He stopped paying the bills. Karl, 56 at the time, was an engineer at General Motors, where he'd worked for more than 40 years. But some days he didn't even show up for work, finding it too hard to get out of bed. Because the problems were sporadic, most people in her life couldn't see what was going on. (Gravitz, 9/15)

NPR: Seniors Flock To Marijuana Dispensaries To Relieve Aches And Pains
Shirley Avedon, 90,­­ had never been a cannabis user. But carpal tunnel syndrome that sends shooting pains into both of her hands and an aversion to conventional steroid and surgical treatments is prompting her to consider some new options. "It's very painful, sometimes I can't even open my hand," Avedon says. (O'Neill, 9/17)

The Washington Post: David Salamone, Who Contracted Polio From Vaccine And Helped Spur Changes In U.S. Immunization Policy, Dies At 28
“We had a very healthy 8-pound, 8-ounce baby boy, no problems at all,” John Salamone said in 1995, describing his then-5-year-old son, David. The problems started when David was 4 months old and received a routine oral vaccination for polio. He had a fever and a rash, but within weeks his parents noticed he could no longer crawl or turn over. (Schudel, 9/15)

The New York Times: Don’t Use Infant Walkers
More than 230,000 children younger than 15 months were treated in emergency rooms for injuries incurred while using infant walkers from 1990 to 2014. An analysis published in Pediatrics has found that 6,539 of them had skull fractures, 91 percent of them from falling down stairs. The devices are banned in Canada, and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that they be banned in the United States as well. (Bakalar, 9/17)

NPR: Babies Still Injured In Infant Walkers, Doctors Call For Ban
"I view infant walkers as inherently dangerous objects that have no benefit whatsoever and should not be sold in the U.S.," says Dr. Benjamin Hoffman, a pediatrician who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Injury, Violence and Poison Prevention. More than 230,000 children under 15 months old were treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments for skull fractures, concussions, broken bones and other injuries related to infant walkers from 1990 through 2014, according to a study in the journal Pediatrics published Monday. (Cohen, 9/17)

The Washington Post: Face Transplant: Canadian Hunter Maurice Desjardins Becomes World's Oldest Face Transplant Recipient
A bullet fired from a rifle during a hunting trip left Maurice Desjardins with a severely damaged face. Despite the efforts of doctors and surgeons, who tried rebuilding the his face with plates, screws and even some bone that came from his leg, he was left with holes in his face instead of a full nose, and a mouth that he was unable to fully close. (Rosenberg, 9/14)

The Washington Post: A Family Battles A Terrible Diagnosis For An 11 Year Old
You’ve had a bad feeling all summer, a nagging in your gut that something’s wrong. She looks thinner, but she just turned 11 and kids that age get taller, thin out. Yet . . . why is she so pale in July? Why is she tired all the time? Your husband said it was because she’d been staying up too late on her iPad, so you limited her screen time. That didn’t help. She keeps falling asleep smack in the middle of bright summer days. You notice she isn’t enjoying her summer. She’s irritable, picking frequent fights with her younger sister. “It’s just hormones,” you tell yourself. “Eleven is a difficult age.” (Dooley, 9/16)

The New York Times: 2-Year-Old Boy With Deadly Cancer Gets An Early Christmas From His Neighbors
Five weeks ago, Brody Allen’s parents were told that their 2-year-old son’s rare form of brain cancer meant he had two months to live. The boy’s family realized that he probably wouldn’t be able to enjoy one more Christmas. So they decided to celebrate early, putting up a tree and decorations, and their Ohio neighborhood followed suit. (Garcia, 9/15)