According to Morse’s family, he was on vacation with his wife, Dana, their children and other family members. An experienced skier, he lost control and slammed into a tree. Dana Morse, a nurse practitioner who has spent a decade working in intensive care, was present at the time of the accident and said Morse suffered severe chest trauma and internal trauma. Morse was awake and responsive immediately after the accident, but in significant pain.

Morse’s wife said that paramedics did an initial assessment of Morse at the base of the hill, but didn’t take his blood pressure, start an IV or take other key basic steps. Then they started to put him in the ambulance, but he went into cardiac arrest.

What went wrong?

As the ambulance raced to the hospital with Dana Morse in the front seat, she said she sensed her husband was dying and asked to sit in the back so she could hold his hand. Instead, the paramedics got annoyed with her requests, stopped the ambulance and left her out on the side of the road.

Dana Morse said she had to flag down a passing car to get a ride back to the ski resort so she could get her car and drive herself to the local hospital, Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington. Morse died en route to the hospital.

For reasons that aren’t yet clear, the ambulance returned with Morse’s body to the ski resort’s medical clinic. When Dana Morse arrived at the hospital, staff had no idea where her husband was, or what his condition was.

Administrators at Franklin Memorial have launched an investigation into both the care he received and the allegations about how his family was treated. Among the questions are whether he should have received more aggressive treatment earlier and if he should’ve been flown to another hospital as another skier was that same weekend.

About 20% of Americans suffer from some sort of mental illness each year. About 5% have a disorder serious enough to disrupt their family, work or social life. Four percent consider suicide.

Those figures come from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an annual overview of the state of mental health in the country. The survey is overseen by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The survey is an intensive undertaking, with data pulled from more than 68,000 interviews of randomly selected Americans.

Those most likely to report mental illness to the survey were women, young adults and lower income people.

Of course, being ill is one thing, having access to treatment is another. And on that score, the health care infrastructure isn’t working. Just under half of those with a mental illness receive treatment in any given year. More troubling, only 60% of those with a serious mental illness receive treatment.

Of those who said they needed mental health care and didn’t get it, the reason they gave was an inability to afford it.

Whites and Native Americans were most likely to receive mental health care. Blacks, Hispanics and Asians were less likely.

Linda Cole, Wilderotter’s partner of 11 years and her legal spouse, arrived at the hospital, identified herself as Wilderotter’s partner …  and wasn’t allowed to see her. Only after Wilderotter’s sister also arrived was Cole given access to her partner.

Such a denial is a violation of both federal hospital visitation rights and Maryland law.

A hospital representative called the couple six weeks later to apologize, blaming poor communication and a new employee’s misunderstanding of the law for the denial. The hospital said the incident wasn’t an example of discrimination and that it’s reviewing patient rights training to make sure no one on staff makes such an error in the future.

Wilderotter and Cole weren’t satisfied. Cole has filed a complaint with the Joint Commission and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services over the incident.

Of course, since Hernandez is reportedly thriving after the procedure, she may not be too concerned about the details of how the heart got to her.

The heart was donated by the relatives of a man who died in a car accident. It traveled nearly 300 miles by ambulance, plane and helicopter to get to Hernandez’s hospital, while national news reported on the case. Traffic was stopped to allow the helicopter to land near the hospital. After disembarking, one of the staffers wheeling the heart’s cooler stumbled. The cooler’s lid flew off and the heart landed in the street.

The medics quickly grabbed the heart, which fortunately had been wrapped in plastic, put it back in the cooler and continued on their way.

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is finding itself on the wrong end of the Internet outrage machine after a patient’s mother wrote a blog posting that claims the hospital turned the child down for a kidney transplant solely because the child is intellectually disabled.

The child, two-year-old Amelia Rivera, was born with Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome, which commonly causes severe mental and physical delays, seizures and heart damage. Kidney damage is a less common, but known, symptom.

In her emotional post, Rivera’s mother claimed that a doctor at CHOP said her daughter wouldn’t qualify for a transplant solely because of her developmental delays and “quality of life.” Rivera also painted a picture of stunning callousness. According to her post, “I said [to the doctor] so you’re saying in six months to a year when her kidneys fail you want us to let her die? And he said yes.”

The information we have is one-sided, as HIPAA regs don’t allow the hospital to give its version of the conversation, or the reasons behind the decision.

But in the wake of emails and Facebook postings criticizing the hospital, CHOP released a statement that it didn’t discriminate in any way against Rivera and that mental and physical disabilities aren’t considerations in transplant decisions. The hospital also noted that it has in the past performed many transplants on many children with a variety of disabilities.

Medical reasons ignored by community?

But even with medical details unavailable, there are hints even in Rivera’s post that there are valid medical reasons for denying the transplant. The necessity of the transplant itself isn’t clear: Rivera claims the transplant is “life-saving,” and insists repeatedly in her post that she will stop at nothing to make sure her daughter receives a transplant. But she didn’t mention in her post or subsequent media interviews why dialysis isn’t even being considered.

Additionally, the family planned to use a privately donated kidney, so qualifying for the organ transplant wait list wasn’t an issue.

Most importantly, Rivera acknowledges that her daughter has had prior heart surgery and has seizures. Both of which make the complicated and intense regimen of medications post-transplant both hard to manage and potentially dangerous.

Those key details are being routinely skipped over by the family’s supporters, who have launched a social media campaign to urge CHOP to change its ruling. CHOP has agreed to meet with the family later this week to discuss the matter further.

It’s hard not to empathize with a very sick two-year-old girl and the parents who clearly love her. But not every treatment is a viable option for every patient. The case highlights the on-going need for health care professionals at all levels to improve their ability to communicate the pros and cons of specific treatments and to relay that information in a way that doesn’t upset patients and their families who may already be emotionally frayed.

A new study seems to indicate that perfluorinated compounds (PFCs)  keep childrens’ immune systems from getting the full benefit of their vaccines. The chemicals are used to coat the popcorn bags, and are also part of many other products such as non-stick cookware and stain repellants.

Previous studies have demonstrated that PFCs don’t break down easily and can build up to toxic levels in mammals’ blood.

The most recent study, conducted by a research team at Harvard, found that mothers with higher amounts of PFC in their blood had children with less protection from diphtheria at age five. (Specifically, a doubling of PFC levels in the mother’s blood correlated to a 39% reduction in diphtheria antibodies in their children.)

Among the children themselves, those with double the PFC levels were found to be two to four times more likely to have an immune response that was too low to effectively fight off the disease.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

She said that while she wasn’t planning to make any major lifestyle changes in the wake of the diagnosis, she did make changes “in” her life, including taking more walks and taking a drug called Victoza. Other than drinking less sweet tea she didn’t mention any dietary changes. Diet, of course, plays a huge part in both preventing and managing Type 2 diabetes.

Deen’s mention of the drug she takes is no accident: She also announced she’s a paid spokesperson for the drug.

And that admission, along with her lack of acknowledgement that her high-fat recipes could contribute to the disease, is drawing fire from many nutritional experts, health care professionals and some fans. When asked if the diagnosis would cause her to re-examine her recipes, she said “I’m your cook, I’m not your doctor. You are going to have to be responsible for yourself.” (Her son, incidentally, recently landed his own show, “Not My Mamma’s Meals” which focus on lighter versions of the same kind of foods Deen makes.)

No doubt, people are responsible for what they put in their own mouths. But the average American’s nutritional ignorance is well-documented. It’s easy to believe that many people treat recipes touted by someone as popular as Deen as a normal and healthy way to eat — not as the type of high-carb fat-bomb they should treat as an occasional indulgence.

Even other chefs have been critical of Deen’s position. Chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain once said of her cuisine (before the announcement of her diabetes), “If I were on at seven at night and loved by millions of people at every age, I would think twice before telling an already obese nation that it’s OK to eat food that is killing us.” After her announcement he tweeted a response that likened her stance to “getting into the leg-breaking business” in order to sell a lot of crutches.

Does Deen have a responsibility to model healthier eating patterns to her audience? Or is it up to grown adults to figure out their own path to healthy eating? Sound off in the comments.

Awhile back, the otherwise healthy 37-year-old woman felt a strange tickle in her throat, and then coughed up a small “liver-colored” piece of tissue. Concerned, she immediately went to her doctor’s office.

The doctor sent the tissue to be analyzed — it turned out to be a metastatic adenocarcinoma that had probably formed in glandular tissue in the back of her mouth.

Follow-up tests to prep for chemotherapy showed that the cancer — which is usually aggressive — was seemingly totally removed. Doctors couldn’t find any trace of a remaining tumor. They theorize the cancer grew on what was essentially a “stalk” which was removed by her coughing fit with nearly surgical precision.

Doctors did perform a small procedure to surgically remove any cancer cells that may have been missed by the scan.

At first, he thought he’d been cut by a stray nail whizzing by. His girlfriend inspected the small wound, cleaned it with peroxide and Autullo continued with his work for the day, including some snow plowing. The next day, when he awoke from a nap feeling nauseated, his girlfriend suggested they go to the hospital to play it safe.

When doctors showed him the X-ray of his head with a 3 1/4″ nail nestled deep in the middle of his brain, Autullo assumed the doctors were playing a practical joke on him.

He was sent to Advocate Christ Medical Center in nearby Oak Lawn for emergency surgery. Along the way, Autullo took a few minutes to post the X-ray to his own Facebook wall. Autullo is now recovering well from the surgery with no apparent permanent damage or loss of function. He did lose a part of his skull during the extraction though, which was replaced with titanium mesh.

Doctors say the nail missed the part of the brain that controls motor function by mere millimeters. The lack of pain-indicating nerves in the brain itself explain why Autullo felt the impact to his skull, but no other pain from the nail being embedded in his head.

A handful of patients have been documented in Italy and Iran since 2003. But these are the first documented cases in India.So far, the cases have been limited to poorer regions and haven’t spread much.

The patients were treated by doctors in Mumbai with 12 different antibiotics over as many as three years, without success. Although the World Health Organization doesn’t recognize the term “totally resistant” TB, preferring to call it “extensively drug-resistant,” at least one US TB expert said the phrase “totally resistant” appears to be accurate.

That means that for all practical purposes, patients with the strain cannot be treated. TB is fatal without treatment.

One small sliver of good news: Indian health officials said the strain doesn’t appear to be spreading. In fact, almost all of the cases came about from mutations of the disease within patients who received inadequate care. One patient was infected by person-to-person contact while living with her mother in close quarters.