Latest news with #biomedicalscience
Independent Singapore
19-07-2025
- Business
- Independent Singapore
‘I can't even get an interview': Fresh grad turns to Reddit after 4 months of job hunting
SINGAPORE: After months of tirelessly sending out job applications and hearing nothing back, a fresh biomedical science graduate is now asking the internet what more she can do. Posting on Reddit's r/askSingapore forum on Wednesday (July 16), the graduate, who completed her degree at a private university after doing a diploma in the same field at Republic Polytechnic, shared that it has been four months since she started job hunting, but she has yet to receive a single interview. 'All my friends already managed to get a job, but I can't seem to even get an interview,' she shared. 'I only have a small group of uni friends, but compared to them, I have previous experience in this field as I started working after my diploma.' She added that she's already updated her resume and carefully personalises each cover letter, but despite all the effort, she still hasn't gotten a single reply. 'Honestly, this is getting really tiring because I have been applying every single day on almost all platforms,' she wrote. 'I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.' She ended her post by asking if anyone had any tips or suggestions that might help her get her foot in the door. 'If you are not getting interview, then it's your CV.' Fellow Redditors responded with a range of practical suggestions. Some recommended reaching out to friends and asking them to 'pass her resume to their company's HR departments,' noting that even securing an interview for practice could be beneficial. Others encouraged her to reconnect with 'former colleagues or employers' from her previous work experiences in the field. A number of users also suggested contacting hiring managers or HR professionals directly via LinkedIn with a sincere and tailored message, as this approach has proven effective for many. A few commenters also speculated that the issue could lie with her resume. One user bluntly stated, 'If you are not getting interviews, then it's your CV.' Another added, 'Resume has to be neat, readable. No small fonts and fanciful colours all over the place. And please don't include your NRIC (Only saying this because I've seen so many people doing it.)' 'It is also a numbers game. As ridiculous as it is, it is also luck. If there's way too many candidates, they will skip a few depending on the soft skills, etc needed.' In other news, a diner took to social media to vent his frustration after being charged $5 for a simple bowl of lontong at Bishan Interchange Food Centre. In a post on the 'Complaint Singapore' Facebook page on Tuesday (July 16), the man shared that his breakfast, which was listed at S$3, ended up costing S$5 after a piece of begedil was added to the dish. Read more: Diner upset his lontong meal cost S$5 after adding begedil, but netizens say it's still 'cheap' Featured image by freepik (for illustration purposes only)
The Independent
19-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Student's fatal caffeine overdose initially dismissed as vertigo
Christina Lackmann, a 32-year-old biomedical science student from Australia, died in April 2021 from a caffeine overdose at her home after a nearly seven-hour wait for an ambulance. Lackmann called emergency services, feeling dizzy and numb, but her call was categorised as non-urgent as the emergency services operator believed it was a case of vertigo, leading to significant delays in medical assistance. Paramedics were assigned to her twice but were redirected to higher-priority emergencies, resulting in her being found dead in her bathroom hours after her initial call. A toxicology report confirmed lethal levels of caffeine in her system, and the coroner concluded her death was a consequence of ingesting caffeine tablets. An expert stated Lackmann likely would have survived with timely treatment if emergency services had inquired about medication, and the ambulance response was deemed an excessive and unacceptable delay.
News.com.au
17-06-2025
- Health
- News.com.au
Melbourne woman dies of caffeine overdose, coroner rules
A Melbourne woman died of a caffeine overdose, alone in her apartment waiting more than seven hours for an ambulance, the coroner has found. The coroner said the backlog of ambulances ramping at Melbourne hospitals and issues with the triple-0 triage system were factors in the death, and she intended her findings to 'highlight the very real potential human consequences of ambulance ramping in Victoria'. Biomedical science student Christina Lackmann died in her Caulfield North home in April 2021. The 32-year-old died after taking caffeine tablets, Coroner Catherine Fitzgerald said in a ruling delivered this month. 'The available evidence does not establish the precise time that Christina ingested the caffeine, or the quantity ingested,' Ms Fitzgerald said. 'In the absence of this information, I am not able to reach a definitive conclusion as to whether her death was preventable with earlier ambulance attendance.' Eighty per cent of Melbourne's metro ambulances were ramped at hospitals when Ms Lackmann called triple-0, the coroner said. In her decision, Ms Fitzgerald detailed Ms Lackmann had previously attempted to take her own life with an overdose of caffeine tablets in 2015, but sought medical help. She had been struggling with depression since her father's death by a sudden heart attack, and she had a history of anorexia nervosa and gastrointestinal issues. In the months before she died, Ms Lackmann was working on the final semester of her science degree and hoped to continue onto honours. Just before 8pm on April 21, 2021, Ms Lackmann called triple-0, reporting she felt sick, numb all over, dizzy and she could not get up from the floor. The operator triaged the call as a non-urgent case of dizziness and vertigo. This classification meant Ms Lackmann's call was suitable to be transferred to a paramedic or nurse, but none of these secondary medical professionals were available to take a call. The triple-0 operator told Ms Lackmann to keep by the phone, or call triple-0 again if things change. Ms Lackmann said it may be difficult for paramedics to get into her secure apartment building. 'I can't get up,' she said. 'Please hurry.' The operator told Ms Lackmann help had been organised. Less than 30 minutes later one of the nurse or paramedic secondary carers called Ms Lackmann, but her phone went unanswered. Text messages and 13 more calls got no response. Ms Lackmann's mother would later question why the unanswered calls did not trigger a welfare check from another agency. Ambulance Victoria's internal systems flagged Ms Lackmann's location as an area where there were ambulances available. Eighty-four minutes after her call to triple-0, Ms Lackmann's case was bumped up to code two to 'to improve the likelihood' an ambulance would be dispatched, the Coroner said. Immediately after this upgrade, and Advanced Life Support paramedic was assigned to Ms Lackmann's case, but the ambulance was diverted to a higher priority job. A similar diversion happened again about three and a half hours later, at 1.46am. Just after 2am an ambulance was dispatched. The paramedic arrived at 2.23am, and was hindered from getting inside until a neighbour helped. The paramedics climbed up from a neighbour's balcony and could see Ms Lackmann lying unconscious; her dog was agitated and barking, and paramedics called police for help. Police arrived, secured the dog, and paramedics got into the apartment 'shortly before 3am, a total of seven hours and 11 minutes since Christina's triple-0 call'. Paramedics saw she had been dead for a prolonged period. An email to Ms Lackmann showed 90 200mg caffeine tablets had been delivered to her apartment that day, but neither the tablets nor packaging were ever found. The autopsy found caffeine levels in her blood at very high to potentially fatal levels. A caffeine overdose can lead to seizures and fatal heart arrhythmias. A toxicologist told the coronial inquest levels of caffeine so high could not be achieved from drinking coffee. Overdoses are 'largely preventable when treating clinicians know what they are treating,' the Coroner said. The toxicologist said if Ms Lackmann had been in hospital immediately after calling triple-0 and told doctors what she took, she likely would have survived with treatment. However, the Coroner could not say when Ms Lackmann took the tablets, so could not rule on the effect of the ambulance delays. Ambulance Victoria carried out an analysis of the incident after Ms Lackmann's death. There was an 'excessive and unacceptable' delay in ambulance response times that night, the report found. Also, at the time there was no standard process for Ambulance Victoria call takers to request a welfare check from another agency. The report made seven recommendations for change; by May 2025, Ambulance Victoria had made all seven changes. However, the Coroner said had Ms Lackmann known an ambulance was not on its way, she may have been empowered to seek other help. 'I am satisfied that Christina's death was the consequence of the ingestion of caffeine tablets,' the Coroner said. 'However, I am not satisfied to the requisite standard that Christina intended to take her own life, although this remains a distinct possibility.'
CBC
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Chelsea Muirhead knows how to play an overworked surgical intern, because she was once a struggling actor
Hold onto your popcorn — and your stethoscope — because the universe has a delightfully quirky sense of humour. Just ask Canadian actor Chelsea Muirhead, who hails from Mississauga, Ont. She was charting a course for the fascinating realm of biomedical science, she tells CBC Arts, when Hollywood came calling. Now, she's trading her lab coat for scrubs with a role on the new Netflix series Pulse. Netflix's first medical procedural drama follows the personal and professional lives of ER residents at Maguire Medical Center in Miami. Muirhead stars as Sophie Chan, a smart medical intern on the quest to become a great surgeon. One month after the series' premiere, the actor is still pinching herself. She calls the role "a dream come true." Muirhead spoke with CBC Arts about Pulse, the fascination with medical dramas and how early morning theatre classes and clown workshops gave her the tools to navigate an acting career. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. CBC Arts: Does it feel surreal to star on a global Netflix series that could be this generation's Grey's Anatomy? Chelsea Muirhead: Well, when you put it like that, I don't think it's fully sunk in yet. It's like holding sand, I can't even fathom, but I'm on a whirlwind. It's a dream come true, and it's already such a gift to be working on material that is so juicy and just so fun to play. The fact that it's being received so well, and to be on such a massive platform, I can't believe it's happening. As the season goes on, we learn more about Sophie. Did you create a backstory for the character? Yeah, parts of it were [showrunners Zoe Robyn and Carlton Cuse's] idea. Like, the fact that she's from Indiana — Churubusco, specifically — and the pageant stuff. Then, for all of the other backstory, I just kind of created it myself. I injected a lot of myself into her. She is like the worst parts of myself. Like, all of the fear, the anxiety, and she's so ambitious. I will do whatever it takes to be great at what I do, and that is Sophie to a tee. But where she, I think, needs to learn a little bit of something — and also for me — is to practice a little bit more trust, to nurture friendships and that maybe work isn't the most important thing in the world. But what is happening in her psychology? Why is she so mean? Why isn't she taking care of herself? There must be a reason. When I read in the breakdown, they're like, "She's exhausted, will do anything to be a great surgeon, but is having a hard time at this hospital." And I know what that feels like. I know what it feels like to be a struggling actor trying to bartend at 3 a.m. and then turn in a self-tape at 9 and then still roll up to work. It's exhausting. In terms of her backstory, a lot of it just came from me and what I am trying to learn right now in my life. A lot of things that I've booked in my career, I feel like that's kind of what's happened: the universe is like, "You're ready to discover this part of yourself now, you're ready to challenge this part of yourself." So that was what Sophie was for me. You are also very much a hometown success story. How did your time at the Ryerson School of Performance (now the School of Performance at Toronto Metropolitan University) help you hone your skills and give you the tools you need to come this far? I definitely think that Ryerson, in a lot of ways, prepared me for the grit of this industry — the just-get-up-and-do-it, if-you-don't-love-this,-get-out mentality. Because when I was in school at Ryerson, it's still a university, but they run it like a conservatory. So I was in school for four years, six days a week from 5:30 a.m. till 1 a.m. Sometimes, I would sleep in the studios just on a prop bed or on someone's floor because I'm like, "I have to be here at 5:30 in the morning so I'll just sleep here." I love being on set, but sometimes, there's the real life of it all, juggling all of that. But that's what you do in school. You gotta be a bartender. You gotta get your elective. And then, when you get out of school, you still gotta keep doing all of those things. It definitely gave me a thick skin. It gave me grit. And it gave me indispensable tools that I still use for acting techniques. Some things I think would have taken me much longer to figure out on set if I didn't have those 10,000 hours in a safe space where I could make mistakes. I could do a Shakespeare workshop and then a clown workshop (where I actually learned the most — to just keep going, to forgive yourself, it's not so serious). I wouldn't have learned that if I didn't go to theatre school. Did working on Pulse give you a better understanding of your own goals that you've set for yourself? I just always want to be climbing. I always want to be growing. I'll still do anything. I'll take any job — almost any job. Almost. I just want to keep doing things that challenge me as an actor, [something] that hopefully challenges the consciousness of the world. That would be really powerful. I think that's the vision that it gave me. Being on platforms like this, I just want to keep expanding and growing. It almost sometimes feels a little bit too big. I think that's the thing that I still haven't processed. It's a little bit scary. I'm still just a little girl from Toronto, you know? What do you think of the fascination with medical dramas? We have quite a few right now. For me, I really do think my fascination with medical dramas is that, of course, there's a lot of action — but it's real. Like, these are real-life superheroes. We're seeing people — patients and doctors — in both their stories. You're seeing human beings at the worst times in their life, sometimes the best. Maybe it's a birth. Maybe it's a death. They're these very, very vulnerable moments that potentially you or I or anybody walking down the street could go through. And you're watching real-life people be superheroes and climb their way out of darkness. I think that's a really powerful thing that is just so close to home. And I think people can relate to that or be inspired by that. Hopefully, it brings a lot of people hope, too.
