Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Minneapolis School Shooting Victim, 12, Improving After Being Shot In Head
NBC News: Girl Shot In Head During Minneapolis Annunciation Catholic School Shooting Making 'Miraculous' Recovery
A girl who had a bullet lodged in her brain after the Annunciation Catholic School shooting last month is making what her family has called a "miraculous" recovery and will this week leave an acute care ward and join an inpatient rehab program. Seventh grader Sophia Forchas, 12, was shot in the head when a gunman opened fire during a school-wide mass at the Annunciation Catholic Church on the morning of Aug. 27. Surgeons performed a decompressive craniectomy, essentially removing the left half of her skull so her brain could swell. (Smith, 9/23)
More health news from across the U.S. —
WUSF: Hospitals Challenge Florida Proposal About Approving Organ Transplant Programs
Three major hospital systems have challenged a new state proposal about approving organ-transplant programs, alleging it does not include adequate safeguards for quality of care. Tampa General Hospital, UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville and Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami filed the challenges after the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration in August issued a proposed rule for transplant programs. The challenges, filed this month at the state Division of Administrative Hearings, came after years of debate and disputes about approving transplant programs. (Saunders, 9/23)
Chicago Tribune: Committee Recommends State Part Ways With Feds On Vaccines
Illinois health leaders should part ways with the federal government when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines and recommend the shots for all adults and many children, an influential state committee voted Monday. The Illinois Department of Public Health Immunization Advisory Committee voted unanimously Monday to recommend updated COVID-19 vaccines for all Illinois residents ages 18 and older. And they voted to recommend the shots for all children ages 6 to 23 months old. (Schencker, 9/22)
NBC News: Family Of Boy Killed In Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Fire Files Lawsuit
The parents of a boy killed in January in a fiery explosion inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber filed a lawsuit Monday, alleging the 5-year-old perished as a result of “corporate greed.” The suit filed in Oakland County circuit court in Michigan calls Thomas Cooper’s death the result of “callous indifference to human life” by the manufacturer of the oxygen chamber and the alternative medicine clinic that operated it. It said Thomas’ parents, who live in Royal Oak, Michigan, were not adequately warned that hyperbaric oxygen therapy could pose a serious risk of death should a fire break out, and said the hyperbaric chamber was designed without an effective way to extract someone during an emergency. (Chuck, 9/22)
The Washington Post: After Decades, DNA Test On Identical Twins Cracks Cold Case
Investigators in Prince William County, Virginia, used an advanced test to distinguish the DNA of identical twins and solve a decades-old rape case. (Wu, 9/22)
