Showing posts with label Johns Hopkins Hospital. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Johns Hopkins Hospital. Show all posts

Monday, December 28, 2015

Troops: "tens of thousands of undiagnosed and untreated brain injuries"

Study: Combat vets wait for 'wake-up call' before seeking help for brain injuries
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Tribune News Service)
By Carl Prine
Published: December 28, 2015
Veterans too often played down their wounds but became detached from friends and family. Many denied their downward spiral until a "wake-up call" forced them to seek help from Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs programs.
Johns Hopkins researchers conducted 38 in-depth interviews with Army combat veterans and their family members, and a model emerged: Veterans too often played down their wounds. Many denied their downward spiral until a "wake-up call" forced them to seek help from Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs programs. DOD
Tens of thousands of American combat veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan with undiagnosed brain injuries often were "thrown into a canyon" — falling deeper into despair and sometimes flirting with suicide or addiction — before trying to get help, according to a Johns Hopkins University study.

Written by Rachel P. Chase, Shannon A. McMahon and Peter J. Winch, researchers at the Baltimore university's Department of International Health, the study published in the December issue of Social Science and Medicine builds on previous work at Johns Hopkins. That work uncovered tens of thousands of undiagnosed and untreated brain injuries stemming from improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, the signature wound of America's 21st-century wars.

Innovations in body and vehicular armor saved the lives of troops who likely would have died of blast injuries in past wars, but survivors often had higher risk of memory loss, cognitive struggles, mood disorders, migraine headaches, addiction, insomnia and suicide.
read more here

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Learning from Twitter Veterans with PTSD Tweets

One more thing worth thinking about when you read this article about a study on PTSD and tweets is the US military has been cutting troops, leaving them unemployed. That isn't the worst. They lost a part of who they are on top of that.

For far too many, this is all they ever wanted to do with their lives. It was part of who they are. Far more attached to their jobs than anyone else, these career choices came with being ready to die on the job. Military life is part of their identity.
Tracking traces of depression and PTSD in tweets
Beta Boston
Nidhi Subbaraman
7 DAYS AGO

Losing a job can take a toll on mental health. That’s a case that’s been made time and again.

For the first time, researchers are showing that this relationship can be seen in the geo-tagged tweets sent by Americans across the country.

At the Joint Statistical Meeting held in Boston last week, researchers from the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center and Johns Hopkins University presented early evidence that counties in the U.S. with higher rates of unemployment also had a higher proportion of Twitter users with depression-signifying language in their tweets.

That isn’t all. In counties with high populations of veterans, more Twitter users showed traces of post-traumatic stress disorder in their public posts. Counties with a lower median household income had a higher proportion of people who had tweets with signs of depression.
read more here

Linked from
Twitter opens a window on depression and PTSD Boston Globe AUGUST 19, 2014

Monday, January 28, 2013

Quadruple amputee Iraq veteran gets new arms

UPDATE
January 29, 2013


Soldier who lost all four limbs in Iraq bomb blast receives double arm transplant
Brendan Marrocco, injured by a roadside bomb in 2009, was the first soldier to survive after losing all four limbs in the Iraq war. The New York City native is recovering after undergoing a double arm transplant and a bone marrow transplant on Dec. 18 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, his father said Monday.
BY CHELSIA ROSE MARCIUS , JOSEPH STEPANSKY AND STEPHEN REX BROWN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

He was the first soldier to survive the loss of all four limbs in Iraq, and now he’s the recipient of a cutting-edge double-arm transplant.

Staten Island’s own Brendan Marrocco, 26, endured the 13-hour operation on Dec. 18 at Johns Hopkins Hospital to replace the arms he lost because of a roadside bomb on Easter Sunday 2009.

“He never quits, he fights to survive,” said Giovanna Marrocco, 76, Brendan’s grandmother.

“He’s very happy, he wanted this transplant. I’m happy, too.”
read more here
Double-arm transplant given to Iraq war veteran
By The Associated Press
on January 28, 2013

BALTIMORE — A soldier who lost all four limbs in a roadside bomb attack in 2009 in Iraq has received a double-arm transplant in Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Hospital officials said Monday.

Surgeons who treated the unidentified infantryman plan to discuss the transplant Tuesday at a news conference with the soldier. The soldier is one of seven in the U.S. who have undergone successful double-arm transplants, the hospital said.

The transplant last month is the first for the hospital and involved an innovative treatment to prevent rejection of the new limbs. The treatment used the dead donor’s bone marrow cells and so far has prevented rejection and reduced the need for anti-rejection drugs. Those drugs can cause complications, including infection and organ damage, hospital officials said.

The novel treatment to help prevent rejection was pioneered by Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, plastic surgery chief at Johns Hopkins, when he previously worked at the University of Pittsburgh.
read more here

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Murder-suicide at Johns Hopkins Hospital

Hospital Gunman Kills Mother, Self After Shooting Doctor
Mara Gay
Contributor
(Sept. 16) -- A gunman wounded a doctor inside Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital today, then fatally shot his mother and himself, police said.

Police had partially evacuated the building while pursuing the suspect.

The gunman, Warren Davis, 50, shot the doctor after receiving some upsetting news about his mother's condition, Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld told reporters.

"Mr. Davis was receiving some news about the care and condition of his mother just outside the doorway to that room when he became emotionally distraught," Bealefeld said.
read more here
Hospital Gunman Kills Mother Self After Shooting Doctor

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Stroke kills commander of county SWAT unit

Stroke kills commander of county SWAT unit
Lt. Michael Howe collapsed after leading investigation into murder-suicide
By Jennifer McMenamin Sun reporter
7:42 PM EDT, August 12, 2008
A veteran Baltimore County police officer and the longtime commander of the department's tactical unit died Monday from a stroke he suffered a day earlier after leading the investigation into a murder-suicide in Randallstown.
Lt. Michael Howe spent Sunday morning at the home of a man who called police to say he had killed his wife and was about to shoot himself. There, the 55-year-old commander ordered his officers to enter the house of an armed man, just as he had done hundreds of times before. Officers found two bodies in the basement.
Hours later, Lt. Howe collapsed at his Carroll County home. He died Monday afternoon at the Johns Hopkins Hospital of an apparent massive stroke, police said Tuesday.
"He was a shining example of the best in American policing," said Baltimore County Police Chief James W. Johnson. "It is a significant loss for this agency."
go here for more of this


http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_county/bal-howe0812,0,3277150.story


Lieutenant Howe died Monday of a stroke he suffered a day earlier after leading an investigation into a murder-suicide in Randallstown.
Related links
Lt. Michael Howe
He is receiving full departmental honors.


Balto. Co. police ID man who allegedly killed wife, himself
By Kevin Rector Sun reporter
11:44 AM EDT, August 11, 2008
Baltimore County police today identified Palmer Corbin White, 71, as the man who allegedly shot and killed himself after fatally shooting his wife, Dianne Pittman White, 55, yesterday in their home in Randallstown.

Police said in a statement that detectives learned that he was "suffering from several medical and financial problems." They said they were unsure why his wife was killed.Palmer White called 911 at 7:24 a.m. yesterday and told the dispatcher that he had just killed his wife, police said. He then said, "I'm going down to [the basement] to join her," police said.A SWAT team entered the house in the 4200 block of Mary Ridge Drive after unsuccessful attempts to reach White by phone and found both bodies in the basement, police said.
The investigation is continuing, police said.kevin.rector@baltsun.com



Police funeral today to close highways
August 16, 2008
Parts of the Baltimore Beltway, Interstate 795 and Interstate 83 will be closed this afternoon for a funeral procession for Lt. Michael Howe, who was commander of the Baltimore County police tactical unit, authorities said.According to Baltimore County police, there also will be sporadic closures of Route 30 in Carroll County from 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. today in the area of North Carroll Middle School and St. Bartholomew Roman Catholic Church in Manchester, where the service will take place at 9:30 a.m.After the service, starting about noon, both Route 30 and southbound I-795 will be closed for the funeral procession to Timonium. About 12:30 p.m., police will close the inner loop of the Beltway from I-795 to I-83, and northbound I-83 to Padonia Road. About 2 p.m., Padonia Road will be closed from I-83 to Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. The roads will reopen after the procession passes.