Latest news with #Emory
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Lawmakers want clarification on abortion bill after controversy over brain-dead pregnant woman
Some Democratic state senators are demanding that the state attorney general clarify just what the Georgia Life Act covers. The law essentially bans all abortions in Georgia after about six weeks. The move comes over controversy surrounding the case of Adriana Smith, a pregnant woman from Lithonia. Her mother said she's brain-dead but is being kept on life support at Emory Midtown. The mother said they couldn't remove that life support because it would impact the baby's life, and Emory said it would violate Georgia's abortion law. Emory cannot comment on the case because of federal privacy laws, but did issue a statement which reads in part, 'Emory Healthcare uses consensus from clinical experts, medical literature, and legal guidance to support our providers as they make individualized treatment recommendations in compliance with Georgia's abortion law.' TRENDING STORIES: Tornado touches down in Henry County, 18-year-old critically injured 'Life doesn't feel real:' Family mourns GA 9-year-old found shot in car SWAT team, multiple DeKalb police units respond to barricaded suspect on Lavista Road Smith's mother initially supported an abortion but told Channel 2's Richard Elliot off-camera that she supports the child's birth. On Thursday, some Democratic state lawmakers demanded that Gov. Brian Kemp request a formal legal opinion from the Attorney General's office about the Life Act. 'We said this law is vague,' State Rep. Park Cannon said. The AG's office said last week that the Life Act doesn't apply in the Smith case, and in a statement, the governor's office said, 'Holding a partisan press conference does not change the fact that the attorney general's office has already answered this question in the clearest possible terms.' Still, Duluth Democrat Nabilah Islam-Parkes thinks an official opinion is needed. 'We are calling on the governor to do his job and request a formal opinion from the AG telling the people of Georgia what this law actually means,' Islam-Parkes said. Republican state Sen. Ed Setzler wrote the Life Act. In a statement, he said that his heart goes out to Smith and her family. He also condemned those Democrats, saying they were hurting Smith's family by dragging them through 'a sick political debate.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
People Are Absolutely Outraged Over A Black Woman In Georgia Being Forced To Carry A Pregnancy To Term — Even Though She Is Legally Dead
Note: This article contains mention of medical abuse and loss of life, including that of an infant. Adriana Smith is a 30-year-old Black nurse and mother in Georgia. She was about nine weeks pregnant with a boy in February when her boyfriend woke up to her gasping for air in her sleep and gurgling. Her mother told the media that her daughter had sought treatment at Northside Hospital the previous night and was released after being administered medication, but no CT scans or other tests. Smith was taken to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta "with severe head pains," according to MSNBC. "A CT scan showed blood clots in her brain, and soon physicians declared Smith to be brain-dead." She has now been on life support for over 90 days. The murky legality around this centers on Georgia's LIFE Act, a law banning most abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy once "fetal cardiac activity can be detected" — aka Georgia's heartbeat law. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed the bill into law in 2019, but it was only invoked once Roe v. Wade was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2022. Officials seem to be in disagreement about the interpretation of the law, though. The office of the Georgia Attorney General issued a statement reading, "There is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death. Removing life support is not an action with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy." However, Ed Setzler, a Republican state senator who sponsored the 2019 bill, said he thinks it's "completely appropriate that the hospital do what they can to save the life of the child [...] I think this is an unusual circumstance, but I think it highlights the value of innocent human life. I think the hospital is acting appropriately." Medical staff at Emory, where Adriana Smith worked, have been ignoring the wishes of her family in favor of the law, which leaves a glaring gray area in the case of a legally dead mother. Brain death is "the legal and medical standard for death in the United States." Smith's mother and family have expressed that they've had virtually no say in her medical care or that of her fetus. "She's been breathing through machines for more than 90 days," her mother said. "It's torture for me. I see my daughter breathing, but she's not there. And her son — I bring him to see her." The family has reportedly been by her side every day since she was admitted to the hospital. Smith's young son reportedly thinks his mother is just sleeping. According to Atlanta television station WXIA-TV, "The plan now is to keep Smith alive until doctors believe the baby can survive outside the womb — likely at 32 weeks gestation." That would mean 10 more weeks on life support; Smith's family said doctors have told them there are no other legal ways to proceed. "This decision should've been left to us. Now we're left wondering what kind of life he'll have — and we're going to be the ones raising him," Smith's mother said. She told WXIA-TV that the family is concerned about the health of Smith's baby, as doctors have told them he has fluid on the brain. "[Adriana] is pregnant with my grandson. But he may be blind, may not be able to walk, may not survive once he's born," Smith's mother said. Many people have taken to social media to express their outrage over the anti-abortion legal and medical system that has allowed Adriana Smith to be kept alive by machines for the sake of preserving her pregnancy. Related: This Reporter's Reaction To Donald Trump Talking About The Declaration Of Independence Is Going Viral "I'm the mother of a brain-dead son whose organs were donated," said TikTok user Jennifer Comstock (@positivejen) in a video earlier this week. "People need to understand what it's like to keep a brain-dead body alive." She goes on to explain that it took time for the hospital to stabilize and prepare his organs for donation and to find suitable recipients because of his blood type. "So I sat in that hospital bed with him for two days, because despite the fact that he was legally dead, that was my baby, and I wasn't leaving him in that hospital alone," she says. "During that two days, the amount of interventions they had to do to keep my son's body was unbelievable," Comstock says. "Obviously, he was on a ventilator, but you also can't regulate your own heartbeat. You can't maintain your own blood pressure. They're giving you all kinds of medications [...] His kidneys were failing. They had to give him medication to fix that." She goes on: "They would fix one thing, and another thing would go wrong. And sitting there watching it felt wrong. It was horrible watching what they were doing to him." But, as Comstock says, there's one major difference between the case of her 30-year-old son and that of Adriana Smith: "My son wanted to be an organ donor, and that is why we continued to do it. And my son saved lives," she said. "But I don't think you guys understand. This woman is not in a vegetative state; she's not in a coma. She's dead." "Her body is not functioning. Her brain is not producing the hormones required to sustain a pregnancy." "This family is being put to torture. I did this of my own free will, and I am still traumatized," she concludes. Related: A Clip Of Donald Trump Getting Angry After Being Fact-Checked Is Going Mega Viral, And It Sums Up His Entire Presidency In A Nutshell People replied to the video in droves. This person wrote about how having a body that is technically "alive" is only one part of the equation in a healthy pregnancy. Someone else echoed what Jennifer said in the video about the crucial difference in having the choice to be kept on life support; she replied, "Pregnant Georgia women seem to belong to the state not to them selves." A lot of other folks just said that what's happening to Adriana Smith is wrong: Another creator, Grace Wells (@0fficial.c0wgirl on TikTok), made a video with the heading, "What does it mean to be born of a corpse?" "Adriana smith deserves to rest. Her family deserves peace. Humanity deserves safety from birth by corpse," she captioned the video. "You think that a brain-dead person just isn't conscious anymore and their body's all working and so their body's just gonna grow the baby either way?" she says. "That's not what's happening." "It is not pro-life to force a child to be born of a corpse," Grace repeats twice. "And what are the medical implications of a fetus gestating in the chemical environment of a corpse, of a brain-dead person who has to be on medication to regulate every single bodily function because their brain cannot do it because they are dead?" "You can't even eat lunch meat when you are pregnant. But you think it's pro-life to force a brain-dead person, a corpse, to be medically kept some semblance of alive to force the birth of a 9-week-old fetus?" Wells says. "If that's something that you can justify, we have very different interpretations of what is sacred," Wells says. "What does it mean for us as a society that we are attempting to do this as a political stunt? Force a child to be born of a corpse." She also says that if Smith's child is born healthy enough to grow up, they will "live with the public political fear of keeping their dead mother on life support [...] following them for the rest of their life. That's not pro-life. That's not compassionate. It's not Christian. It's not healthy. It's disgusting. It's desecration of a corpse. It's horrific." The comments resoundingly agreed. Some pointed out how Adriana Smith's case joins the long history of medical abuse and racism toward Black women. "It's so sick. I also think about trauma and medical debt they are laying on her poor family," this person wrote. One user pointed out the hypocrisy of this case within the "pro-life" movement. And finally, someone shared the haunting reality that may await Adriana Smith's unborn child: What are your thoughts? We want to hear in the comments. Also in In the News: An Ad Against Far-Right Voters Is Going Viral For Being Both Terrifying And (Kinda) Accurate Also in In the News: People Are Sharing Their Honest Opinions Of Elon Musk, And Boy, This Is Brutal Also in In the News: 15 Extremely Difficult Things People Do Not Understand About The United States, And, Honestly, They Got A Point
E&E News
4 days ago
- Business
- E&E News
Supreme Court rejects bid to stop Arizona copper mine
The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a request from some members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe to block a massive proposed copper mine that they say will destroy a holy site in Arizona known as Oak Flat. A majority of the court denied the petition, but in a dissent joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Neil Gorsuch said he would have granted the petition. Justice Samuel Alito recused himself from considering the case. Gorsuch in his dissent called the decision a 'grave mistake' and said the case 'meets every one of the standards we usually apply when assessing petitions for certiorari: The decision below is highly doubtful as a matter of law, it takes a view of the law at odds with those expressed by other federal courts of appeals, and it is vitally important. Before allowing the government to destroy the Apaches' sacred site, this Court should at least have troubled itself to hear their case.' Advertisement Apache Stronghold had called on the Supreme Court to block the project, arguing it would violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which protects their right to worship at the sacred site. The group, alongside the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, had warned the Resolution Copper mine would transform holy land into a 2-mile-wide and 1,100-foot-deep crater. The site — known as Oak Flat, or Chi'chil Biłdagoteel in Apache — consists of a vast grove of Emory oaks sacred to the tribe, where some go to pray, hold ceremonies and collect acorns for cooking. It's now part of the Tonto National Forest about 60 miles east of Phoenix, where the Forest Service currently has a campground. Resolution Copper, a joint venture between Rio Tinto and BHP, has countered that the campground would remain open and accessible for decades, and argued that the case is about the government's right to use national land to pursue national interests — a settled authority that the Supreme Court and other benches have consistently reaffirmed. The Trump administration has said it intends to complete an environmental impact statement for the mine. Once it's released, the land exchange that accelerates Resolution Copper must happen within 60 days. The land swap would allow the federal government to transfer thousands of acres of public land in Arizona, including the Oak Flat site, to the mining company, advancing construction of the copper mine. The deal was originally included in the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act and championed by the late Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Attorneys for Apache Stronghold brought their challenge to the Supreme Court after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to reconsider the case last year. The appeals court in a 6-5 ruling affirmed a lower court's denial of Apache Stronghold's request for a preliminary injunction against the government's transfer of the land to Resolution Copper.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Apple Inc. (AAPL) Partners with Emory Healthcare to Power First U.S. Hospital with Its Devices
Emory Hillandale Hospital in Georgia has become the first U.S. hospital to fully operate on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) devices, signaling a major step in AAPL's push into health care. The hospital will use iPads, iPhones, Apple Watches, iMacs, and Mac minis, all integrated with Epic, the nation's leading electronic health record (EHR) software. An Apple store displaying the latest in consumer electronics, from smartphones to wearables. Emory executives chose AAPL for its user-friendly design, robust cybersecurity, minimal IT support needs, and reliable hardware. The move follows last July's widespread CrowdStrike outage, which crippled over 20,000 devices at Emory but left Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) products unaffected, prompting deeper collaboration with AAPL and Epic engineers. Emory Healthcare CEO Dr. Joon Lee called the initiative a potential 'game changer,' noting the system will closely monitor the rollout to ensure improved patient care. Feedback from a pilot program was 'phenomenal,' boosting confidence for this full-scale launch. If successful, Emory plans to expand AAPL device use across its 10 hospitals. Dr. Sumbul Desai, vice president of health at Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), said the company is 'thrilled' to support Emory in delivering exceptional care, while Epic's Seth Howard described the integration as a natural evolution of their longstanding partnership with AAPL. While we acknowledge the potential of AAPL to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AAPL and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this READ NEXT: and Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CNBC
22-05-2025
- Health
- CNBC
When 20,000 devices were paralyzed by a bad update, a Georgia health system turned to Apple
Apple devices will power a hospital in Georgia, a first for the company as it continues its push into the health-care sector. Emory Healthcare on Thursday announced that its Emory Hillandale Hospital will be the first U.S. hospital that runs on Apple products, including the iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, iMac and Mac mini. The devices will also integrate with software from Epic Systems, the leading electronic health record vendor in the nation. Hillandale is using Apple products because they are user-friendly, require less IT support, offer cybersecurity advantages and have long-lasting hardware and battery life, Emory executives told CNBC. Since this is new territory for the health system, Emory said it will closely monitor the devices to ensure they improve the organization's quality of care. "It can certainly be a game changer that's not been done anywhere else in the country," Emory Healthcare CEO Dr. Joon Lee said in an interview. "And like everything else, it's not going to be without its challenges, but it really opens the door to multiple possibilities." Emory Healthcare is an academic health system in Georgia that operates 10 hospitals and supports roughly 26,400 employees. Its Hillandale facility is a 100-bed community hospital on the outskirts of the greater Atlanta metro area. "At Apple, we believe in technology's power to improve lives," Dr. Sumbul Desai, vice president of health at Apple, said in a statement to CNBC. "We're thrilled that Emory Hillandale Hospital is using Apple products to deliver exceptional care — because doctors and nurses should have the best technology in the world to serve their patients." The health system's interest in using more Apple products was partially inspired by the major CrowdStrike outage that rocked businesses, including Emory, last July, said Dr. Ravi Thadhani, the executive vice president for health affairs of Emory University. Thadhani said more than 20,000 of the health system's devices were "paralyzed" by a faulty CrowdStrike software update, but notably, all of its Apple products were still working. In the aftermath of the outage, executives asked engineers from Apple and Epic to visit Emory and explore a deeper integration. "They were working on each other already, you could get Epic on an Apple device, but it wasn't quick and it wasn't seamless," Thadhani said. "And so they came, they descended here." Epic is Emory's electronic health record, or EHR, provider. EHRs are digital versions of a patient's medical history that are updated by doctors and nurses. The software is often referred to as the "central nervous system" of a health-care organization, said Seth Howard, Epic's executive vice president of research and development. Howard said Epic has worked with Apple for many years, deploying apps for the iPhone as far back as 2010. Last year, the company released Epic on Mac, which made its complete suite of applications available on Apple's computer operating system macOS. "The Epic on Mac project was really an extension and natural next step for us on this journey with Apple," Howard said in an interview. Emory was an early adopter. Before Emory decided to roll out Apple devices throughout an entire hospital, it conducted a smaller pilot across one floor of a facility. Thadhani said the feedback from doctors and nurses was "phenomenal," which gave the health system confidence to expand the scope. If the launch at Hillandale is a success, Lee said the health system could deploy Apple products across other Emory facilities in the future. "Certainly our intent and hope is that it will show a difference, and that we can expand and it will also be a model for other health systems across the country," he said.
