Heidi de Marco

Heidi de Marco was a reporter and producer for KFF Health News until March 2023.

@HeidideMarco

A Young Woman, A Wheelchair And The Fight To Take Her Place At Stanford

KFF Health News Original

Throughout her young life, Sylvia Colt-Lacayo has been told her disability didn’t need to hold her back. She graduated near the top of her high school class. She was co-captain of the mock trial team. In April, she learned she had been admitted to Stanford University with a full scholarship. Now, the struggle to fund the caregivers she needs to leave home is proving her toughest battle yet.

Firing Doctor, Christian Hospital Sets Off National Challenge To Aid-In-Dying Laws

KFF Health News Original

In Colorado case, the right to aid a cancer patient’s death runs up against faith-based hospital policies. As more states have passed laws, about 1 in 6 acute care beds nationally is in a hospital that is Catholic-owned or -affiliated.

The Collapse Of A Hospital Empire — And Towns Left In The Wreckage

KFF Health News Original

Jorge A. Perez and his management company, EmpowerHMS, helped run an empire of rural hospitals. Now, in a staggering implosion, 12 of them have entered bankruptcy and eight have closed their doors, leaving hundreds of residents without jobs and their communities without lifesaving emergency medical care. So, what happened?

Tecnología casera ofrece más libertad a los pacientes para controlar su diabetes

KFF Health News Original

La diabetes tipo 1 es una condición crónica que requiere un estricto control de la glucosa y la administración de la cantidad de insulina precisa. Pacientes crearon un sistema para mantener ese equilibrio vital.

DIY Tech Gives People More Freedom In Managing Diabetes

KFF Health News Original

People with diabetes say they’ve been waiting for years for better technology to manage their chronic condition. Tired of waiting, some tech-savvy, do-it-yourselfers are constructing their own devices using open-source programming instructions.

Migrant Moms Await Due Dates And Court Dates

KFF Health News Original

A growing number of pregnant women are among the migrants seeking asylum in the United States. Many must wait in Mexico until their cases are heard, spending weeks or months in migrant shelters with limited access to health care.

‘John Doe’ Patients Sometimes Force Hospital Staff To Play Detective

KFF Health News Original

A large public hospital in Los Angeles gets over 1,000 unidentified patients a year. Most are quickly identified, but some require considerable gumshoe work — a task that can be complicated by medical privacy laws.

Diabetic Amputations A ‘Shameful Metric’ Of Inadequate Care

KFF Health News Original

In California, people who are black or Latino are more than twice as likely as whites to undergo amputations related to diabetes, a Kaiser Health News analysis found. The pattern is not unique to California.

Destination Limbo: Health Suffers Among Asylum Seekers In Crowded Border Shelter

KFF Health News Original

Asylum seekers from Mexico and Central America, housed in migrant shelters in the border city of Tijuana, Mexico, are often sick and exhausted from their long journeys. Volunteer health workers from Southern California recently sent a mobile clinic to one of those shelters and spent a day tending to its inhabitants.

Migrantes reciben atención médica en abarrotado refugio de Tijuana

KFF Health News Original

En los albergues, migrantes centroamericanos y mexicanos muchas veces están enfermos y debilitados. Un grupo de voluntarios de California llevó una clínica móvil a uno de estos lugares para atenderlos.

How To Fight ‘Scary’ Superbugs? Cooperation — And A Special Soap

KFF Health News Original

Hospitals and nursing homes in California and Illinois hope that regional cooperation — and a special soap — will help them gain the upper hand against deadly antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

She Was Dancing On The Roof And Talking Gibberish. A Special Kind Of ER Helped Her.

KFF Health News Original

With mental health beds in short supply, emergency rooms increasingly have become the care of first and last resort for people in the grips of a psychiatric episode. Now, hospitals around the country are opening emergency units that calmly cater to patients with mental health needs.

‘Medieval’ Diseases Flare As Unsanitary Living Conditions Proliferate

KFF Health News Original

Outbreaks of infectious diseases such as typhus and hepatitis A are resurging in California and around the country, particularly among homeless populations. Public health officials warn that such diseases could spread broadly.

Hidden FDA Reports Detail Harm Caused By Scores Of Medical Devices

KFF Health News Original

The Food and Drug Administration has let medical device companies file reports of injuries and malfunctions outside a widely scrutinized public database, leaving doctors and medical sleuths in the dark.

Students With Addictions Immersed In The Sober Life At ‘Recovery’ High Schools

KFF Health News Original

At one Seattle public school, students earn their diplomas while attending daily support groups and meeting with counselors to help them stay off drugs and alcohol. There are about 40 similar schools around the country, both public and private, and more are on the drawing board.

When Medicine Makes Patients Sicker

KFF Health News Original

The Food and Drug Administration is supposed to inspect all factories, foreign and domestic, that produce drugs for the U.S. market. But a KHN review of thousands of FDA documents — inspection records, recalls, warning letters and lawsuits — reveals how drugs that are poorly manufactured or contaminated can reach consumers.

Coverage Denied: Medicaid Patients Suffer As Layers Of Private Companies Profit

KFF Health News Original

Managed-care plans, which reap billions in taxpayer dollars to coordinate care for low-income Americans on Medicaid, outsource crucial treatment decisions to subcontractors that aren’t directly accountable to the government. In California, health officials say one firm improperly withheld or delayed care for hundreds of people.