Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Hospitals Are Often Skipping Easy Procedures That Could Drastically Cut Down On Maternal Deaths
USA Today: Hospitals Know How To Protect Mothers. They Just Aren’t Doing It.
Every year, thousands of women suffer life-altering injuries or die during childbirth because hospitals and medical workers skip safety practices known to head off disaster, a USA TODAY investigation has found. Doctors and nurses should be weighing bloody pads to track blood loss so they recognize the danger sooner. They should be giving medication within an hour of spotting dangerously high blood pressure to fend off strokes. These are not complicated procedures requiring expensive technology. They are among basic tasks that experts have recommended for years because they can save mothers’ lives. (Young, 7/26)
USA Today: Deadly Deliveries: How Hospitals Are Failing Mothers In 13 Graphics
The U.S. healthcare system is one of the most expensive in the world. Yet America’s maternal death rate is the highest among developed nations. (7/26)
USA Today: 'Mommy Went To Heaven'
Like thousands of women facing childbirth emergencies every year, YoLanda Mention didn’t get the care recommended by leading experts for new mothers experiencing severe high blood pressure, according to court records. Now, her family goes on without her. (Young, 7/26)
USA Today: Deadly Deliveries: “I Am One Of The 50,000” (Videos)
Women from across the country retell harrowing stories of surviving life-threatening complications during childbirth. (7/26)
In other women's health news —
Politico: Texas Anti-Abortion Group Tacks To The Right, Dividing State Republicans
Texas Right to Life’s attempts to move the state Legislature further to the right are faltering this election season. And that may be just fine with some conservative and rival anti-abortion groups. The group's political action committee spent $2 million backing 17 challengers to incumbent state House and Senate lawmakers. Only three won their March primaries. Meanwhile, the group's attacks on lawmakers with strong anti-abortion records and free spending are stirring questions about whether it's more beholden to deep-pocketed donors and their agendas than to its core mission. (Rayasam, 7/26)
KQED: California May Soon Be First State To Require Public Universities To Offer Abortion Pills
A bill advancing in the Legislature would make California the first in the nation to require that abortion pills be available at on-campus health centers. The legislation, which has passed the Senate and is advancing in the Assembly, would mandate that all California State University and University of California campuses make the prescription abortion drug RU 486 available at their on-campus student health centers by Jan. 1, 2022. (Castillo, 7/26)
Kansas City Star: Missouri Passes Bill To Require 3D Mammogram Coverage
Starting next month, all health insurers in Missouri will be required to cover 3D mammograms, as well as the traditional flat images. ...The medical community isn’t in total agreement, but a consensus is growing among specialists that 3D is the way to go for spotting breast cancer. (Marso, 7/27)
People: Woman Dies Days After Giving Birth As Medics Assumed She Can't Afford Ambulance Ride, Mom Claims
A mother of three from Florida died days after experiencing a stroke, and the four paramedics who arrived on scene have now been suspended after an investigation revealed they mishandled the response, PEOPLE confirms. In the early morning hours of July 4, Nicole Black found her daughter, 30-year-old Crystle Galloway, unresponsive in a bathtub just six days after she had given birth to a son via cesarean. When Galloway regained consciousness a short time later and complained about her head, Black quickly called emergency services and explained that her daughter was breathing but was “drooling from the mouth,” she told the Tampa Bay Times. (Hahn, 6/27)
