Fatal COVID from Lung Transplantation; Vax Line Amputation; Hernia Mesh Problems

Welcome to the latest version of the Investigative Roundup. Each week, we focus on some of the best investigative journalism about healthcare.

Patient dies after COVID-infected lung transplant

A woman in Michigan died last fall two months after being infected with COVID-19 and receiving a double lung transplant from an infected donor. Kaiser Health News report..

Officials at the University of Michigan School of Medicine said the first proven case of COVID-19 in the United States where the virus was transmitted by organ transplantation could be death. KHN report. This case is an abnormality in about 40,000 transplants last year.

Donors showed no signs of COVID-19 and were initially negative, KHN report. The surgeon who treated the lungs was also infected. The surgeon became ill but recovered.

Dr. Daniel Kaul, MD, director of transplant infectious disease services in Michigan Medicine, said the case, though isolated, urges the need for a more thorough examination of lung transplant donors. KHN report. This includes samples taken from deep in the lungs and from the nose and throat.

“If the COVID test was positive, I would never have used my lungs,” Cowl said. KHN..Cowl Co-authoring a report About the case of American journal of transplantation.

Wealthy Californians Jump Vaccine Line

A California program aimed at increasing access to the COVID-19 vaccine in the devastated color community is being abused by people who do not live in the affected areas. Los Angeles Times report..

People who misuse the program are scooping up vaccination plans for residents of black and Latin communities, he said. Times..

Vaccine access codes used to make reservations are distributed in the wealthier telecommuting communities. Times Approximately 2,000 community groups contacted the state to participate in the program and were reported. Many people who have gained illegal access are not yet eligible for the vaccine.

The problem with the program was revealed last week, Times Reported to California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) Make changes To the program.

Widely used hernia mesh perpetrator of chronic pain

As more patients report chronic pain after hernia repair surgery, proceedings, including the use of synthetic nets known as hernia mesh by physicians, are increasing. Harpers report..

Since 2018, approximately 30,000 people have filed proceedings in federal and state courts, including Hernia Mesh. Harpers He quoted Brett Bourne, a lawyer at Hollis Law Office in the suburbs of Kansas City.

Harpers One of them, Michael Landsford, a 60-year-old farmer from New York, underwent surgery to repair both umbilical and testicular hernias at the Columbia Memorial Hospital in 2016. Landsford, which was repaired by a doctor using a hernia mesh, then further to remove some of the mesh that had adhered to the intestines and most of the remaining mesh that was causing scar tissue and other pain. I had two surgeries. Causes problems. In the process, Landsford had to amputate his right testicle. And he is still experiencing pain.

“Landsford doesn’t know if he will recover completely. Doctors performing explant surgery (removal of degraded mesh) see improvement in 75% to 80% of patients, but some patients States that he continues to experience intermittent pain. ” Harpers report.

In recent decades, mesh makers have hired doctors to promote their products and encouraged others to promote them as a new standard treatment. Harpers report. The main argument of Mesh was to prevent the recurrence of hernias.

Medical researchers have turned their attention to the warning about hernia mesh, but the problem is the FDA’s 510 (k) process, which allows businesses to sell new devices simply by claiming similarity to existing devices. It may have been the cause. Harpers report.

“Hospitals are also part of the ongoing epidemic of hernia mesh,” Harper added. “Many people have partnered with Intuitive Surgical, a top seller of surgical robots.”

The magazine quoted Marty Makary, MD, MPH, Editor-in-Chief Today’s MedPage A professor of surgery and health policy at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine talked about the problem of robots as an unnecessary expense. “This is an operation that has no benefit to the robot and can pose new risks,” McCulley said. Harpers..

COVIDE CMO distribution

Just as autumn public health experts warned about the surge in COVID-19 patients that could overwhelm hospitals, that’s exactly what happened, and doctors, including doctors in Los Angeles County, make difficult decisions in the process. I was prompted. ProPublica report..

The surge meant that critically ill patients who might have survived extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) could not be treated. ProPublica report.

“Physicians had to choose who was treated based on who they thought was the best chance to survive.” ProPublica report. “Some were approved, but had to be on the waiting list. Many patients waited and died.”

This included 53-year-old Miguel Fernandez, a COVID-19 patient at PIH Health Whittier Hospital. Fernandez was the beloved and oldest brother of a Mexican immigrant family. ProPublica report. His family wanted to take an ECMO machine to a nearby hospital and highly trained staff had to do them, but his condition worsened and eventually healed. Approval to receive has been revoked.

“In some parts of the country, doctors can use a centralized system to quickly find beds available for ECMO at any hospital in the area.” ProPublica report. But that’s not the case in Los Angeles. For Fernandez, his caregivers and family “had to hack bureaucratic formalism and navigate an opaque, detached, and sometimes unfair system to save his life.” ..

Fernandez died in December after being hospitalized for 26 days and had never been treated.