
Mum's abseil for Lincolnshire hospitals who saved son's life
Liverpool fan Emma said she was nervous about the abseil next month, but hoped to raise £500 for the hospital trust's charity."There are not enough words to thank the staff for what they did," she said."I don't know what we would have done without them. We just want to show our appreciation."Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
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The Independent
43 minutes ago
- The Independent
FDA flags problems with two Boston Scientific heart devices tied to injuries and deaths
U.S. health regulators are warning doctors and patients about safety issues with two separate Boston Scientific heart devices recently linked to injuries and deaths. The Food and Drug Administration issued two alerts Wednesday about electrical problems tied to the company's heart-zapping defibrillator systems and a separate issue with a heart implant used to reduce stroke risk. The agency said the company's Endotak Reliance defibrillator wires can become calcified, leading to failures in delivering life-saving shocks to the heart, according to the FDA. Defibrillators are surgically placed in the upper chest, where they monitor irregular heartbeats and use electrical shocks to jolt the heart back to normal. As of July 24, Boston Scientific has reported 386 serious injuries and 16 deaths associated with this issue, the agency said. Ten of the deaths were judged to be due to the device failing to function properly, the company said in an email. Four were linked to attempts to surgically remove the devices from patients and two others were deemed unrelated to the implants. Boston Scientific's wires were distributed between 2002 and 2021 and are no longer available, the company noted in its letter to doctors. Some patients will need to have the devices replaced, though physicians should weigh the risks of the removal procedure. In a separate notice, the FDA said Boston Scientific recently updated instructions for implanting its Watchman device, which closes a portion of the heart's left atrium to reduce the risk of stroke. In a letter to physicians, the company noted that there is an increased risk of blockages in the bloodstream depending on the level of anesthesia for patients undergoing the initial implantation procedure. Watchman is an alternative to long-term treatment with blood thinners for patients at increased risk of stroke. As of July 30, the company has reported 120 serious injuries and 17 deaths related to the issue, the FDA said. A company investigation concluded that the safety issue 'is not associated with the design or manufacture of any component of the Watchman system. Heart devices, including defibrillators and other implants, are Boston Scientific's largest business, making up two-thirds of its $5 billion in revenue for the most recent quarter. Shares of Boston Scientific Corp. fell nearly 1.8 percent Wednesday to close at $102.95 in trading. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.


BBC News
5 hours ago
- BBC News
Lingen Davies Cancer Support 'overjoyed' by sunflower donation
A Shropshire cancer charity worker is "overjoyed" after hundreds of sunflowers were donated as part of a new £5m fundraising Davies Cancer Support hopes to provide a new cancer centre at Telford's Princess Royal Hospital by launched the appeal – which bosses say is their largest to date – in were recently invited to collect as many sunflowers as they required from Shropshire Petal Fields near Newport, some of which will be sold to help with fundraising. Fundraiser Jonathan Wood said the charity was "overjoyed" by the "unique offer" following the launch of its Sunflower Appeal. Some of the bright yellow blooms will be sold in bunches, whilst many will be dried in preparation for upcoming events or used in the charity's wellbeing year is the third that Shropshire Petal Fields - a collaboration between Shropshire Festivals and Shropshire Petals - has been open to the fields attract thousands of visitors, and include fresh delphiniums, cornflowers, sunflowers and other Petals has been running for 20 years, growing flowers to create bouquets and confetti for weddings and events. Ashley Evers-Swindell from Shropshire Petals said they were proud to support the charity."It's a small gesture from us, but one we hope brings a little sunshine to the incredible patients, families, and supporters they work with every day," she Heath, from Shropshire Festivals, added: "They do incredible work supporting the people of Shropshire, Telford, and Mid Wales as they deal with the impact of cancer on their lives," Charity bosses said the new cancer centre would double chemotherapy capacity in the region with 30 new bays alongside additional outpatients, lung and urology diagnostic clinics. Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.


Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Telegraph
Lithium could help treat Alzheimer's
Lithium could help treat cases of Alzheimer's disease, a Harvard study suggests. People with the neurodegenerative condition have low levels of the metal in their brain which the study revealed, for the first time, is needed for normal brain function. Experiments in mice found that when a novel form of lithium was given to animals with Alzheimer's disease, it reversed the symptoms, even in severe cases. The scientists now hope to further investigate lithium as a potential treatment in humans with clinical trials. 'These findings reveal physiological effects of endogenous lithium in the brain and indicate that disruption of lithium homeostasis may be an early event in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease,' the scientists write in their study. 'Lithium replacement with amyloid-evading salts is a potential approach to the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease.' Lithium's role in the body has long remained a mystery but it has been used as a medication for mental health conditions such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia for decades. A decade-long study saw Harvard scientists analyse the brains of deceased donors at various stages of Alzheimer's disease, as well as in people with no disease when they died. They found lithium to be the only one of 27 metals to be at lower levels in cases of disease. Experiments in both humans and mice brain samples found that amyloid plaques, the protein which develops in cases of Alzheimer's and causes disease, pulls lithium out of brain cells. In healthy brains, the lithium, which naturally has a positive charge, stays in the cells and helps maintain normal function. But in brains with amyloid, which is naturally negatively charged, the lithium is attracted to the disease-causing plaque and pulled out of the cells. This depletion triggered the brain's immune defence cells to go awry and caused inflammation and an inhibited ability to break down and clear out the toxic amyloid, which suffocates neurons and leads to cognitive decline and Alzheimer's. Scientists have investigated lithium as a possible treatment for Alzheimer's previously but found existing medications in the form of lithium carbonate to be ineffective and also prone to significant side effects. The Harvard team looked for lithium compounds which are not strongly positive in charge that would be impervious to amyloid and therefore more likely to stay in the cells and not be pulled out. The compound lithium orotate was found to be ideal and in mice studies reversed the course of disease, alleviated symptoms and restored memory. This form of lithium was given in small doses to animals to mimic the natural level of the metal and analysis found it 'almost completely prevented' amyloid from settling in the brain. In older mice with severe disease, the treatment 'was highly effective at reducing amyloid deposition and tau accumulation'. It also 'almost completely reversed the memory loss', the scientists write, whereas the existing lithium medicine had no impact. Lithium orotate also improved learning and spatial memory in old mice with severe amyloid. The authors are reluctant to draw conclusions for humans from these rodent experiments but say this new lithium medicine could be a viable route for future drug studies. Current Alzheimer's drugs such as donanemab and lecanemab do not improve a patient's condition but slow down disease progress. However, these come at significant cost as well as the risk of serious side effects such as brain bleeds and swelling. Neither was approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for use on the NHS despite being deemed effective and safe by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. Results 'very encouraging' No drug has yet been discovered that can actually improve a patient's condition and reverse the condition of Alzheimer's. 'You have to be careful about extrapolating from mouse models, and you never know until you try it in a controlled human clinical trial,' study author Prof Bruce Yankner, professor of genetics and neurology at Harvard, said. 'But so far the results are very encouraging. What impresses me the most about lithium is the widespread effect it has on the various manifestations of Alzheimer's. I really have not seen anything quite like it in all my years of working on this disease.' The study is published in the study Nature and in an accompanying opinion piece, Prof Ashley Bush from the University of Melbourne, who was not involved in the research, said the work of the Harvard team exposes 'a possible contributor to Alzheimer's disease and a potential non-conventional therapeutic target'. The work could also lead to improvements for how lithium is used in mental health conditions, she believes, especially in older patients. 'Apart from the implications for treating Alzheimer's disease, the data invite a re-evaluation of lithium-salt variants as treatments for older adults with bipolar disorder,' she writes.