Latest news with #CorewellHealth
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Metro Detroit doctor performs CPR during public medical emergency
The Brief A doctor was in the right place at the right time when a fitness classmate collapsed. She performed CPR until the ambulance arrived. It was her first time doing CPR outside of work. DETROIT (FOX 2) - A special reunion on Friday gave a young woman who suffered a medical emergency the chance to thank the person who saved her life. The backstory Emily Morgan was in a fitness class when suddenly Emily collapsed. Luckily, Dr. Dema Fawaz, an emergency room physician at Corewell Health, was in the right place at the right time. "I turned around and saw Emily being slowly lowered to the ground," said Dr. Fawaz. "I sensed a lot of panic in the room and I immediately identified myself and said, 'Don't worry, I'm a physician, I can help.'" Fawaz said she performed CPR until the ambulance arrived, helping save Emily's life. It was her first time doing CPR outside of work. Big picture view At only 27 years old, Emily survived cardiac arrest, and all she remembers is waking up in the hospital. "They told me someone in my class had saved me, and I didn't know who it was. But I immediately recognized her when she came in at the hospital. We'd taken classes together before, and I just didn't know her name, so it was emotional in the hospital when she came and visited me," she said. Meanwhile, the heartfelt reunion was just another reminder of why learning CPR could save a life. Every second counts, and even though Fawaz is a doctor, CPR is not hard to learn, and the more people who know it, the better. It might just save a life.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Tumor Destroyer' shows promising results at Corewell Health
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Corewell Health has recently acquired a new tool to help treat patients with certain liver cancers, and the first treatments appear to be a success. The tool was developed by , a company that spawned out of the done at the University of Michigan. It has been billed as a but Corewell Health radiologist James Morrison says the key to the tool is its precision. '(It's) completely non-invasive, and unlike other non-invasive technologies, it doesn't damage any of the surrounding tissue. So, we can be very focused on the cancer itself and preserve as much of the normal tissue as much as possible,' Morrison told News 8. The tool uses focused ultrasound pulses to destroy its target. The ultrasound causes bubbles to grow in the tiny gas pockets within the target tissue, causing it to expand and eventually collapse under stress, destroying the cells. Tumor Destroyer? FDA approves tool that uses ultrasound to fight cancer 'But you could stick your hand through the beam and, as long as you're not at that one point in space, it's not going to damage any of the normal tissue,' he explained. The by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2023 and, for now, can only be used to treat cancers in the liver, but experts are confident the tool will work in other parts of the body and that approval will expand. 'Next will be the kidney and then beyond that, things like pancreatic cancer and other places in the body,' Morrison said. Corewell Health doctors have already treated multiple patients with the HistoSonics tool and, so far, the treatments appear to be a success. Latest trial of University of Michigan's 'tumor destroyer' exceeds goals 'Our first few patients, we (wanted to be) extra precautious and keep them in for observation. But in the future, they will go home the same day. It's well tolerated,' he said. 'Everything went smoothly. Even more smoothly than expected. … The tumor was completely ablated.' Corewell Health is one of roughly 30 hospitals in the country to offer the new treatment. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Corewell Health invites trauma survivors, caregivers for event
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Corewell Health is celebrating survivors of serious injuries and the doctors and nurses who saved them. The Grand Rapids-based hospital system is hosting a trauma survivors' event at Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park Tuesday evening. 'This is an event where we bring survivors of trauma, their families and caregivers all together to reconnect, to reflect on the power and heroism that a lot of our patients sustain to go through and recover from trauma,' Dr. Alistair Chapman, division chief for acute care surgery at Corewell Health, said. 'It's powerful, it's emotional as you can imagine, it's really uplifting.' He said the 'full circle moment' allows both survivors and their caregivers to reflect on the trauma and aftermath. Corewell in Grand Rapids is the Level 1 Trauma Center for 13 counties, including Ionia, Kent, Montcalm, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oceana and Ottawa. It also has the only regional burn center. 'We care for about 4,000 patients a year that sustain trauma. We're the second-busiest trauma center in the state and we really pride ourselves on providing this service for our community,' Chapman said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Miami Herald
17-05-2025
- Health
- Miami Herald
New ‘long COVID' study zeroes in on possible biological cause of brain fog
St. PAUL, Minn., May 15 (UPI) -- Millions of "long COVID" patients coping with debilitating "brain fog" and chronic fatigue, who are looking for answers to what's at the root of their illness, received a hopeful sign through a new study released Thursday. The answers, though somewhat complex, appear to be biological and neurological, authors of the study said. In other words, it's not just in patients' heads. An estimated 12 million COVID "long-haulers" in the United States experience a range of neurological symptoms such as feeling slow, having difficulty thinking or concentrating, confusion and forgetfulness many months after recovery from the viral infection. Sufferers have reported up to 200 different symptoms, both mental and physical, the most common of which include brain fog, lingering fatigue and shortness of breath. The neurological symptoms, for example, can limit those who once exceled at sophisticated mental "multitasking" to doing just one thing at a time, making them far less able to handle stress or tap the mental flexibility needed for their jobs. Since long COVID first emerged as a recognized syndrome, the hunt has been on to find a "biological mechanism" at the root of the malady. Those efforts got a boost this week with the publication of a small-scale study showing altered levels of a pair of key brain chemicals in patients who complained of symptoms six months after infection. Researchers from Corewell Health in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Michigan State University said their findings provide more evidence that a biological mechanism is indeed at the root of the cognitive impairments. The study is the first to directly measure inflammation in long COVID patients and bolsters theories that the pernicious brain fog and fatigue are not just mental issues, but linked to a biological cause that can be objectively assessed, the authors say. More than 6% of American adults reported they were experiencing long COVID symptoms in 2023, translating to nearly 25 million people. Of those, about half have complained of brain fog -- and at those levels the need to understand and develop health strategies for them is tremendous. The Michigan study, published in multidisciplinary journal PLOS One, looked for telltale biomarkers and to assess cognition in patients who have been very "conservatively" defined as having long COVID -- that is, those who were still experiencing brain fog six months after initial infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the authors said. They looked at a total of 17 people with confirmed COVID diagnoses, including 10 who were still reporting long COVID symptoms and a control group of seven others who had recovered without any long-lasting symptoms. The authors found that those with the symptoms had lower serum levels of nerve growth factor, or NGF, a protein that plays a key role in neuron development and maintenance of the brain's plasticity. NGF is associated with high-level cognitive functions that require memory and mental flexibility. Those same subjects also had higher levels of interleukin-10, a powerful anti-inflammatory protein secreted by white blood cells that plays a crucial role in regulating the immune system. Meanwhile, the group also showed declines in "letter fluency," a neurological cognition test meant to measure how quickly subjects can perform "executive function" mental tasks requiring working memory and attention to detail. According to study co-author Dr. Bengt Arnetz, a professor of family and preventive medicine and former chairman of Michigan State University's Department of Family Medicine Clinical Center, the combination of these biological and neurological differences in long COVID sufferers is significant. "We found biological changes, which I think it's very big strength for this study," he told reporters during a virtual press conference earlier this week. "In parallel with the effects on executive function, we also saw that [NGF], which reflects the brain's ability to adapt to grow new neurons and connection, was suppressed in long COVID. This is aligned with the findings in the neuro-cognitive test. "And that's a very novel finding. No one has really looked at that before [among patients] with proven COVID cases who have recovered from the infection." Co-author Michael Lawrence, a clinical neuropsychologist with Corewell Health in Grand Rapids, said the long COVID sufferers underwent a battery of psychological exams to assess what effects the condition has had on their mental acuity. He found that, generally speaking, they "look normal on neurocognitive testing" -- except for one measure. "Out of the multitude of tests that we gave, only one test seemed to show group differences, and that test is a test of what we call letter fluency. It measures executive functioning, but executive functioning under time constraints," he told UPI. Long COVID patients come to his practice complaining of challenges relating to fatigue, brain fog and being "ineffective and inefficient," he said, but they are continually frustrated and often feel "invalidated" by the medical community because there was no known biological reason for their complaints. The study results suggest "it's this processing speed-related issue that we think is somewhat related to COVID 'fog,' but also somewhat different, outside of the cognitive domain" -- thus likely pointing to a biological cause. The deficit of interleukin-10, "given that it's an energy production protein... I think there is a relationship there," Lawrence said. "And I think it's helpful, because now we have some objective findings that really confirm what patients are describing and feeling." The study provides hope that "if we can identify these individuals early with biomarkers, then we can develop multidisciplinary treatment to focus on all aspects of the individual," he added. "I think patients and our medical community, at least years ago, tended to separate the mental health from the physical. But what we know is they're all very interconnected. The more we can improve mental health-related symptoms, what we see is decreased reports of pain and fatigue. We really need to treat the whole person, but we need to treat it early." Future researchers "can look at these biomarkers over time to see what treatments tend to affect or change these serum levels," Lawrence said. Copyright 2025 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
The Hill
17-05-2025
- Health
- The Hill
Study: Long COVID ‘brain fog' linked to inflammation, stress markers
A new study indicates the debilitating 'brain fog' suffered by millions of long COVID patients is linked to changes in the brain, including inflammation and an impaired ability to rewire itself following COVID-19 infection. United Press International reported this week that the small-scale study, conducted by researchers at Corewell Health in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Michigan State University, shows that altered levels of a pair of key brain chemicals could be the culprit. The study marks the first time doctors have been able to provide scientific proof that validates the experiences of the approximately 12 million COVID 'long-haulers' in the U.S. who have reported neurological symptoms. Researchers looked at biomarkers in study participants and found that those complaining of brain fog had higher levels of an anti-inflammatory protein that is crucial to regulating a person's immune system, UPI reported. They also showed lower serum levels of nerve growth factor, a protein vital to the brain's plasticity. The study examined 17 COVID-19 patients, including 10 who still experienced symptoms six months after contracting the virus. The most debilitating symptom is brain fog, described by Yale Medicine as 'sluggish' thinking, forgetfulness, difficulty processing information and an inability to focus or concentrate on tasks they used to complete with ease. The National Library of Medicine describes plasticity as the ability of the brain to change its activity in response to illness or injury. That healing process includes reorganizing the brain's structure, functions or connections. One of the biggest issues involving long COVID has been doctors' inability to find physical proof of the symptoms described by patients. The study has changed that, according to co-author Dr. Bengt Arnetz. 'We found biological changes, which I think [is a] very big strength for this study,' Arnetz said, according to UPI. 'In parallel with the effects on executive function, we also saw that [NGF], which reflects the brain's ability to adapt to grow new neurons and connection, was suppressed in long COVID. This is aligned with the findings in the neuro-cognitive test.' For the neuro-cognitive test, researchers put study participants through a battery of psychological exams. The results were unremarkable for all the exams except one — the 'letter fluency' test. Arnetz's co-author, clinical neuropsychologist Michael Lawrence, explained that a fluency test measures a person's executive functioning under time constraints. It requires a patient to generate words beginning with a specified letter of the alphabet or to name items from a specific category, like animals or fruit. Errors or difficulty performing the task are indicative of executive functioning impairments as well as impairments in memory and language. According to the Library of Medicine, similar impairments are found in conditions like Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia and Lewy body dementia. Lawrence said he believes the study is helpful because 'now we have some objective findings that really confirm what patients are describing and feeling.' Identifying long COVID sufferers through the identified biomarkers could help the medical community develop multidisciplinary treatment for their symptoms, he said. 'I think patients and our medical community, at least years ago, tended to separate the mental health from the physical. But what we know is they're all very interconnected,' Lawrence said. 'The more we can improve mental health-related symptoms, what we see is decreased reports of pain and fatigue. We really need to treat the whole person, but we need to treat it early.'
