Latest news with #childHealth
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
A 9-year-old girl died after a dental surgery. Now we know why
The death of a 9-year-old girl who became unresponsive after dental surgery in San Diego County has been ruled an accident resulting from a rare blood disorder, according to autopsy report by the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office. Silvanna Moreno died from a disorder called methemoglobinemia that could have been triggered by the administration of nitrous oxide and other commonly used anesthetic medications during her dental surgery on March 18, the medical examiner said. Methemoglobinemia is a rare blood disorder which disrupts how iron in the hemoglobin can deliver oxygen to cells and tissue in the body. It's extremely rare for a person to be born with the disorder — there isn't an exact number of affected people due to its rarity. Experts who have studied the condition say it can, more commonly, be developed by an unusual confluence of events involving the exposure to medication, which may have happened in the case of Moreno. It's not clear if Moreno had the congenital form of methemoglobinemia, meaning present at birth, or a form triggered by exposure to certain medications. The disorder leads to symptoms such as shortness of breath, fatigue and cyanosis, or bluish discoloration of the skin, said Dr. Michael Levine of UCLA Health. Read more: Pope meets with child protection advisory board as survivors call for zero tolerance of abuse "Sometimes people have a defect in that system and they get congenital methemoglobinemian as a result," said Dr. Gentry Wilkerson, associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who has authored a study on the condition and ways to treat it. "I's so rare, I would be shocked if I ever saw it in my career." The San Diego Police Department's child abuse unit announced in April that it was investigating the girl's death but the department said Friday it has ceased its investigation and closed the case, said Lt. Travis Easter. Dreamtime Dentistry, the Vista, Calif., facility where Moreno underwent surgery, responded to the medical examiner's report by saying the death was "not due to dosage but instead due to her rare but undiagnosed/undetected medical condition." The dentistry office also said there were no clear signs before the surgery that she had this condition. "A common cause of exposure that can lead to methemoglobinemia is dental procedures because one of the medicines that they'll give for patients that have dental pain is benzocaine," Wilkerson said. Benzocaine was not listed in the medical examiner's report as one of the medications administered to Moreno. Wilkerson said dental procedures are generally very safe. But in other cases, "it's a medication dose dependent effect where a person can take an excess of quantity or an excess amount of the drug and then subsequently develop methemoglobinemia," Levine said. Moreno was referred to Dreamtime Dentistry after complaining about a toothache four months prior, according to the autopsy reviewed by The Times. The dental office accepted the referral because it offered Moreno "treatment under general anesthesia due to her young age and acute situational anxiety," the facility stated. A day before her March 18 surgery, Moreno's autopsy said that she had a fever but her symptoms resolved after being given children's Tylenol. Representatives for Dreamtime Dentistry told The Times they were not aware of her fever and noted that Moreno's mother, "completed and signed a pre-operative check-in form indicating 'No' when asked if the patient was sick." The pre-op evaluation included a thorough review of Moreno's medical and dental history, assessment of vital signs, a physical examination including heart, lung sounds and airway evaluation, among other procedures, according to a statement from Dreamtime Dentistry. Read more: Commentary: A mother's plea to Trump: If you want to encourage a baby boom, give families a break "All medications were administered according to manufacturer guidelines based on Moreno's age and weight," according to the statement from the facility. Throughout the procedure, anesthesiologist Dr. Ryan Watkins observed Moreno and noted no complications, the dental office stated. Once the procedure was completed, the child was monitored in the facility's recovery area until she awoke with stable vital signs. After the procedure, she was discharged into the care of her mother and sent home, according to the County of San Diego Medical Examiner's Office. Moreno fell asleep on the car ride home, and when she arrived home she stayed asleep and was transitioned into her bed, according to the medical examiner's office. Her family checked on her throughout the day and called 911 when it was discovered later that she was unresponsive. First responders transported Moreno to Rady Children's Hospital while performing life saving measures. When the child arrived at the hospital medical staff assumed life saving measures to no avail and she was pronounced dead, according to the medical examiner. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Daily Mail
03-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
MSNBC anchor chokes up live on air as he blames Trump and Musk for African boy's HIV death
MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell held back tears while blaming the death of a 5-year-old African boy born with HIV on Donald Trump and Elon Musk. The Last Word host labeled the pair 'soulless, mindless entities' on Monday's show, claiming their cuts to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) caused the death of the South Sudanese boy. ' The richest person in the world carrying around his drug box of Ecstasy, Adderall, psychedelic mushrooms and then taking life-saving drugs away from the poorest people in the world is a picture only Donald Trump could have created,' O'Donnell said. The host had been referring to a New York Times piece in March that detailed how Evan Anzoo died days after Trump and Musk halted all US foreign aid pending a review on January 20. Eighty-three percent of USAID programs - including the one providing aid to Anzoo - have been terminated since. The boy had been taking antiretroviral medicines that cost less than 12 cents per day, an emotional O'Donnell said, while also taking aim at Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 'Evan died on his watch,' the host said of Rubio, who last month told members of Congress that no children would die following the freezing of aid packages. Scroll down for video: 'Evans of all ages are dying on Marco Rubio's watch, and no one is counting. 'And so we don't know as of tonight whether it's tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of Evans, but we know it will be.' O'Donnell cited a separate New York Times piece, headlined Elon Musk's Legacy is Disease, Starvation and Death, that stated the cuts have led to an estimated 300,000 deaths overseas. 'Most of them children,' the host said. 'And it will most likely lead to significantly more by the end of the year.' 'This is what Musk's foray into politics accomplished,' he continued. 'If there were justice in the world, Musk would never be able to repair his reputation - at least not without devoting the bulk of his fortune to easing the misery he's engendered.' O'Donnell said that that Musk's time in government 'has revealed severe flaws in his character.' '[It's shown] a blithe, dehumanizing cruelty and a deadly incuriosity,' he said. Musk officially stepped down from his role in Trump 's administration over the weekend. The move - which came months after the Tesla and SpaceX boss shelled out nearly $300 million in political spending to help re-elect Trump - brought an abrupt end to one of politics' most unconventional partnerships. The funds that paid for Evan's medication, meanwhile, came from emergency plan for AIDS relief launched by George W. Bush in 2003. Before being frozen, the program reportedly saved more than 26 million lives.
The Guardian
02-06-2025
- General
- The Guardian
A ‘war on children': as US changes Covid vaccine rules, parents of trial volunteers push back
As the Trump administration contemplates new clinical trials for Covid boosters and moves to restrict Covid vaccines for children and others, parents whose children participated in the clinical trials expressed anger and dismay. 'It's really devastating to see this evidence base officially ignored and discarded,' said Sophia Bessias, a parent in North Carolina whose two- and four-year-old kids were part of the Pfizer pediatric vaccine trial. 'It's infuriating. My kids contributed literal blood and tears to help demonstrate the safety of these vaccines,' Bessias said. 'As a parent and also a pediatrician, I think it's devastating that we might no longer have the option to protect kids against Covid,' said Katherine Matthias, a pediatrician in South Carolina and a cofounder of Protect Their Future, a children's health organization. Robert F Kennedy Jr, head of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has called for new trials using saline placebos for each of the routine childhood vaccines recommended by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), even though these vaccines have already been tested against placebos or against vaccines that were themselves tested against placebos. Marty Makary, the head of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Vinay Prasad, the FDA's vaccines chief, outlined a plan in a recent editorial to restrict Covid boosters for anyone under the age of 65 without certain health conditions. For everyone else between the ages of six months and 64 years old, each updated Covid vaccine would need to undergo another randomized controlled clinical trial, Makary and Prasad said. It's not clear when, how or whether this plan will be implemented officially. On Tuesday, top US health officials said on the social media site X that they would remove the recommendation for Covid vaccination from the childhood immunization schedule, and would also cease recommending it for pregnant people, who have much higher risks of illness, death and pregnancy complications with Covid. On Friday, the CDC appeared to contradict that announcement by keeping Covid vaccines as a routine immunization for children – though the agency now says health providers 'may' recommend the vaccine, instead of saying they 'should' recommend it. Changing recommendations could affect doctors' and parents' understanding of the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines. Vaccines recommended by the CDC are also covered by the federal Vaccines for Children program, and health insurers are required to cover the costs of routine vaccines. It's not clear if the wording change from 'should' to 'may' will affect that coverage. If insurance no longer covers the vaccines, pediatricians are less likely to keep many of the shots in stock, Matthias said, and pharmacies are limited by different state laws on which ages they may vaccinate – which means families who want the vaccines may not be able to find them. Matthias drove her children, then aged 15 months and 14 years old, two hours each way to a Moderna pediatric trial. They did six or seven visits, plus two visits to receive the actual vaccines after they learned they had received placebos. Child participants spent hours on each visit and endured blood draws, Covid swabs, regular symptom and temperature monitoring, and, of course, several shots. Each shot was followed by a week of daily journaling and side-effect reporting. Participants who got Covid, even months later, had blood draws to check their antibody responses. 'It was a pretty big commitment of our time and energy. But I did it because I wanted to be sure that my kids and all kids had access to vaccines,' Matthias said. Laura Labarre, a parent in Oregon, said the trials involved 'committing to something that felt important but larger than ourselves, because it ended up being a lot of work and a lot of logistics and a lot of effort'. She drove her two kids, then aged one and three, an hour and a half each way to a Pfizer trial, and searched for ways to keep them occupied for hours on end. When most people hear about new developments in pediatric medicine, such as new vaccines, they don't often consider the hard work of volunteers, some only a few months old, who made the trials possible, Labarre said. 'I don't think people consider the toll on the families who are the ones who bravely and nervously put their children up to be the first to try it out,' she said. When Nick Giglia got the call asking if he still wanted to enroll his one-year-old daughter in the Pfizer pediatric vaccine trial, he immediately said yes. For eight visits, extending over nearly a year, he would drive an hour each way to a trial in New Jersey. In all, his daughter received seven shots – three saline placebos, three vaccines and a booster. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion 'It was very rigorous,' Giglia said of the study design. Now, he said, 'it's really difficult to hear people harping on the thoughts of there not being the placebo group. Well, it's news to me. My kid was in the placebo group,' he said. Parents who were eager to enroll in the original trials now wonder whether families would want to endure another round of placebo-controlled trials for updated vaccines. 'Finding the number of participants that they would need would be extremely difficult,' Matthias said. 'To think that they would subject anyone, let alone children, to potentially getting the placebo in a trial where we know that the control is already so beneficial for health, just seems highly unethical and really disturbing,' Labarre said. 'A new trial today would not add anything we don't already know,' Bessias said. 'It would feel like actually participating in a project of undermining the existing evidence, rather than contributing new evidence.' And the whole point of updating the vaccines is to counter new strains, Matthias said. Those vaccines would be out of date by the conclusion of a new study, which could take years. 'People should have the option' to get Covid vaccines, Matthias said. 'The people who don't want it don't have to get it.' When Matthias enrolled her kids in 2021, she felt as though they were in a limbo, and 'we were all just desperate to get our kids protected', she said. 'To kind of have that feeling coming back now – we worked so hard and we advocated so much to get our kids access and now it might just be taken away – is really upsetting.' While Covid mortality rates are highest among people over the age of 65, Covid is still the eighth leading cause of all deaths among children. Any child dying a preventable death is a tragedy, Bessias said. 'We have to take a step back and realize that absolute numbers matter, too. And we can really avoid a lot of hospitalizations and deaths and transmission and horrible experiences for families by reaching those younger children. It's baffling because that seems to be completely left out of these discussions.' Labarre feels 'profoundly enraged and betrayed' by the Trump administration's actions. Limiting access to the vaccine, especially while proposing cuts to Snap and Medicaid, feels like 'an additional audacious battlefront they've opened up in this sort of war on children', she said. 'It is destabilizing, frustrating and enraging to feel like my daughter, who wasn't even 18 months old, has done more for public health than some people who are now currently in charge of it,' Giglia said. 'It is very frustrating to hear that sacrifice that we volunteered to make for the country, and frankly, the world, belittled.' At the end of the trial, Giglia's daughter was given a stuffed teddy bear in a sweater that said 'Covid-19 vaccine study hero'. 'I don't care what anybody says. That's what she is,' Giglia said. 'I look forward to one day being able to tell my little girl all about how she helped save the world. And it's hard to hear that many people think that we did the exact opposite.'
Fox News
29-05-2025
- General
- Fox News
When 2-year-old goes into cardiac arrest, parents take life-saving action
Most parents of toddlers worry about sleep habits and sniffles, but heart failure isn't usually a concern. It certainly wasn't on the Thomases' radar when their 2-year-old son went into sudden cardiac arrest in the middle of the night at their Illinois home. When the child woke up screaming, his parents ran into the room. "Hearing him scream out was alarming, as he usually slept soundly, and it was a horrible cry," Stephanie Thomas told Fox News Digital. "When I went into his room, he continued to scream out and then face-plant into his crib." At first, the Thomases thought their son was just having a night terror, so Stephanie — who is a clinical dietitian at OSF HealthCare Children's Hospital of Illinois — sat next to his crib with her hand on his back, trying to calm him down. "When he finally settled, I could feel his breathing slowly come to a stop," she recalled. "I picked him up out of his crib and placed him on the floor. With him being unresponsive, I felt for a pulse and started CPR." "I was petrified and confused about how my seemingly healthy 2-year-old was in this situation." "I was petrified and confused about how my seemingly healthy 2-year-old was in this situation." As Stephanie performed CPR, her husband, Kris, called 911. Emergency responders rushed the boy to OSF HealthCare. After 11 days of testing, he was diagnosed with Brugada syndrome, a very rare heart condition that can cause sudden cardiac arrest and death. Though there can be some signs of Brugada syndrome, such as fainting or passing out, the condition is often not discovered until cardiac arrest occurs. The Thomases' son had a similar incident about a month before the cardiac arrest, which they now believe may have been his first episode. "He woke up in the middle of the night with a horrible scream, had some gasping and was hard to calm," Stephanie recalled. "It was only a short period, and once he calmed, he seemed 'normal.' We assumed it was a night terror." As Brugada syndrome is often inherited, the Thomases were both tested for genetic abnormalities, but it was determined that their son's syndrome is a "mosaic defect," which is when there are two or more genetically different sets of cells in the body. The OSF team implanted the young boy with an EV-ICD (extravascular implantable cardioverter-defibrillator), which is positioned outside the heart's blood vessels. It is designed to detect and correct any abnormal heart rhythms. This was the first time the device was implanted in a child at such a young age, the hospital noted in a press release. Since the first episode, the Thomases' son has been hospitalized six more times. Each time an abnormal heart rhythm is detected, the EV-ICD delivers a "life-saving shock" to the boy's heart. "Our son acts and appears healthy more than 99% of the time, until his heart gets into an arrhythmia that his body and medication cannot manage on their own," Stephanie told Fox News Digital. "In these cases, he receives a shock from his ICD." The boy has been readmitted to the hospital due to arrhythmias and medication titration seven times since his initial discharge, his mother added. Sunita Ferns, M.D., a pediatric electrophysiologist at OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center who is treating the Thomases' son, noted that her young patient is now "married to cardiology." "We monitor these devices constantly. If we see any arrhythmia in the background, despite the medication he's on, we can offer him other technologies," Dr. Ferns said in the OSF press release. "Ablative technologies can help modify the substrate, which is the tissue that's responsible for the bad rhythm." To help control his arrhythmias, the boy also takes a compounded oral medication every six hours, which he will take for the rest of his life. The parents said it can be challenging to navigate the episodes with a 2-year-old who can't understand what's happening. "The hardest part is when he says things like, 'I can't use the elephant blankie because it shocked me,'" Stephanie said. "He makes these associations between being shocked and the objects or places around him." There are specific triggers for the boy's arrhythmias, the Thomases have learned, such as low-grade fevers and even slight illnesses, like a cold. "It is vital that we keep him as healthy as we can — which can be challenging with him being an active 2-year-old and having a 4-year-old," Stephanie said. "We make sure that he stays up to date on his and our whole family's vaccines. We do our best to tightly regulate any temperatures." "It is vital that we keep him as healthy as we can." The Thomases now aim to raise awareness of the importance of having CPR training, being alert to warning signs and putting an emergency plan in place. As a healthcare employee, Stephanie has maintained her Basic Life Support (BLS) certification for over 10 years. For more Health articles, visit "I have always said that I work with doctors and nurses, so felt that this was something I would never use — but the doctors and nurses were not in my house the night my son went into cardiac arrest, so it was left to me."
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Furious NYC moms rail against toxins in kid foods: ‘Shouldn't be so hard to protect your family'
Tara Ferrara's 7-year-old daughter began suffering from a baffling mix of symptoms four years ago — nausea, stomach pain and sudden, intense panic that struck without warning. As dozens of doctors worked to pinpoint the cause, they put the girl on a strict diet low in highly processed foods and free of gluten, dairy, corn, soy and histamines. For Ferrara, 39, figuring out what her daughter could safely eat was like trying to understand a foreign language. 'Sometimes I feel like I can't work because I literally need to research food,' Ferrara, a speech and language pathologist from Brooklyn, told The Post. Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) make up nearly 70% of calories in American kids' diets — and a jaw-dropping new White House report warns they may be fueling the nationwide rise in childhood chronic diseases. The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission's report marks the Trump administration's first major push to confront what it calls a 'crisis' affecting more than 40% of young people across the country. 'We will follow the truth wherever it leads, uphold rigorous science, and drive bold policies that put the health, development and future of every child first,' HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said Thursday. Two New York moms raising children with chronic health issues told The Post that it can be an uphill battle to keep their kids' diets clean in a country where UPFs dominate supermarket shelves. While there's no single, universally accepted definition, UPFs are generally packaged, ready-to-eat products that undergo extensive industrial processing to boost their flavor, texture and shelf life. They're often loaded with added sugar, salt, unhealthy fats and refined grains — and packed with preservatives, artificial colors, flavors, emulsifiers and stabilizers not commonly used in home cooking. UPFs usually contain little to no fruits, vegetables or whole grains and are typically low in fiber and other essential nutrients. Researchers estimate that about 70% of the 300,000-plus branded food products in grocery stores fall into this category. Two years into the strict diet, Ferrara is still navigating the minefield — and slip-ups come with serious consequences. '[Food] really, really affects her and can trigger a flare-up where she's so uncomfortable gut-wise and brain-wise that she can't go to school,' said Ferrara, who co-owns Social City, which provides social support services for children. One recent mistake? The gluten-free, dairy-free pancakes her daughter eats every morning. Turns out they contain a corn-derived additive called maltodextrin — something Ferrara only discovered after calling the manufacturer. 'It was one of the ingredients that my eyes just skipped over, because I don't know what that is,' she said. 'Unknowingly, every morning I was giving her these gluten-free, dairy-free pancakes that actually have something that is highly inflammatory and ultra-processed.' The MAHA report warns that more than 2,500 food additives can be pumped into UPFs — all to enhance taste and texture and stretch shelf life. Some additives have been linked to serious health concerns, including behavioral disorders, metabolic issues and even cancer. Take Red 40, for example. This food dye is found in popular snacks like Skittles and Doritos, as well as drinks like Pepsi. It has been tied to increased hyperactivity and irritability in children, especially if they have ADHD, and can trigger allergic reactions in others. Meanwhile, research shows titanium dioxide, found in everything from candies to sauces, may damage cells and even DNA. Then there are artificial sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose and saccharin, which some studies suggest can disrupt the gut microbiome — a key player in metabolism, weight control and blood sugar regulation. Ferrara's younger daughter, 4, doesn't have food sensitivities — but keeping her diet clean is still a challenge. At school, playdates and other places outside the home, junk food is nearly impossible to avoid. 'She doesn't get directly affected immediately after she eats, but I know it's doing harm to her over the long term,' Ferrara said. 'Just because it doesn't outrightly show on every single person doesn't mean it's not doing the same damage internally.' According to the White House report, ultra-processed grains — found in cakes, cookies, breads and snack foods — dominate children's diets. These products are stripped of their bran and germ, removing essential fiber, vitamins and minerals. 'The stripping of these components can lead to blood sugar spikes, increasing the risk of Type 2 diabetes,' the report states. The sugar situation is just as grim. Ultra-processed sugars can be found in 75% of packaged foods. The average American consumes 17 teaspoons of added sugar a day — amounting to a whopping 60 pounds a year. This sugar overload — especially from high-fructose corn syrup and other additives — may be playing a 'significant role' in the nation's rise of childhood obesity, Type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, according to the report. But it's not just the ingredients — it's what industrial processing does to them. The MAHA report warns that processing alters fiber content, caloric density and digestibility in ways that can hijack hunger hormones, short-circuit satiety signals and damage the gut microbiome. 'It shouldn't be so hard to protect your family,' Ferrara said. 'They need to be more transparent with what's in the food, but also how it's processed.' Astoria mom Carissa Serralta has always strived to feed her kids a healthy diet — but it wasn't until one of her newborn twin daughters was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder, MCAD deficiency, that she saw just how flooded grocery stores are with ultra-processed junk. The condition prevents her now 2-year-old, Mila, from properly metabolizing fats from seed oils like palm, coconut and avocado. 'Eighty to 90% of the brands you see on the shelf she can't have,' Serralta told The Post. 'It could be anywhere from pasta to tortillas to Cheez-Its.' That became a nightmare when she couldn't produce enough breast milk — and realized nearly all baby formulas on the market are loaded with seed oils. 'They say breast is best, but if you don't have milk for your baby and you have no choice but to give them formula, and the formula has bad ingredients, what do you do?' she mused. 'Your baby has to be fed.' Doctors told Serralta to give Mila tiny doses of seed oils to build tolerance for formula — but that led to months of relentless diarrhea. The MAHA report notes that seed oils have flooded the US food supply, overtaking animal-based fats like butter and lard in American diets over the past century. Finding safe foods has become 'a full-time job' for Serralta. Many of the items her daughter can eat aren't available locally, forcing her to shop online or cook everything from scratch. If Mila accidentally eats seed oil, it means an upset stomach, which Serralta said is painful but manageable. She is thankful it's not something more severe like a peanut or gluten allergy. The White House report highlights that childhood food allergies have soared 88% since 1997, while celiac disease in kids has jumped fivefold since the '80s. The diagnosis didn't just change what Mila eats — it transformed the rest of the family's eating habits. Serralta shudders at the thought of her older son previously eating ultra-processed snacks. 'It's almost a scary thought, because I was so unaware of this before I had the twins,' she said. And while she's no fan of the current administration, Serralta said she welcomes any effort to expand access to healthier foods. 'Less-processed foods have to be made available to all kids — it shouldn't just be online where people with lower incomes can't access it,' she said.
