First Edition: March 13, 2018
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
A Battered Doctor, A Slain Patient And A Family’s Quest For Answers
The police report is all David Cole Lang’s family has to describe his last moments on Earth. Fifty pages of officer narratives and witness interviews filled with grisly detail, it lacks any explanation for his death. Ten months later, Lang’s widow, Monique, says she still has no clue as to why the 33-year-old combat veteran and father who struggled with opioid addiction ended up fatally shot by a doctor whom — as far as Monique knew — he hadn’t seen in over a year. (Rinker, 3/13)
Kaiser Health News:
Oregon Medical Students Face Tough Test: Talking About Dying
The distraught wife paced the exam room, anxious for someone to come and tell her about her husband. She’d brought him to the emergency department that afternoon when he complained about chest discomfort. Sophia Hayes, 27, a fourth-year medical student at the Oregon Health & Science University, entered with a quiet knock, took a seat and asked the wife to sit, too. Softly and slowly, Hayes explained the unthinkable: The woman’s husband had had a heart attack. His heart stopped. The intensive care team spent 45 minutes trying to save him. (Aleccia, 3/13)
Kaiser Health News:
Black Men’s Blood Pressure Is Cut Along With Their Hair
Amid the buzz of hair clippers and the beat of hip-hop, barber Corey Thomas squeezes in a little advice to the clients who come into his Inglewood, Calif., shop for shaves and fade cuts. Watch what you eat, he tells them. Check your blood pressure. Don’t take life so hard. “We’re a high statistic for … hypertension and everything, and it’s something we let go by,” Thomas said as he worked at the shop, A New You, on Friday. “Our customers, they’ll talk to us before they talk to anybody else.” (Abram, 3/12)
The New York Times:
Congress Quashed Research Into Gun Violence. Since Then, 600,000 People Have Been Shot.
Guns in the home protect families. For decades, that has been an essential part of the National Rifle Association’s mantra in defending firearms ownership, repeated at congressional hearings, in advertisements and on T-shirts. Dr. Mark Rosenberg, who once headed research on firearm violence at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wondered if there was any evidence backing the N.R.A.’s assertion. (Kaplan, 3/12)
The Washington Post:
Gun Violence Research Gets Little Support So States Step In
As deaths from mass shootings have mounted across the United States, some states are moving to collect hard data to guide their decisions about guns — even as the federal government has retreated from such research in the face of pressure from pro-gun groups. The New Jersey legislature, for example, is weighing a measure that would create a gun-violence research center at Rutgers University. The center would be modeled on the new Firearm Violence Prevention Research Center at the University of California at Davis, which launched last summer with $5 million in state money over five years. (Ollove, 3/12)
The New York Times:
Trump’s Evolving Positions On Gun Issues
President Trump said on Monday that his administration would leave it to states to set an age limit for buying assault rifles. It was a reversal of weeks of repeated promises to act, and the latest of years of conflicting positions he has taken on a range of gun issues, from background checks to arming teachers. (Qiu and Bennett, 3/12)
The Associated Press:
Trump's Strong Words On Guns Give Way To Political Reality
Not two weeks ago, President Donald Trump wagged his finger at a Republican senator and scolded him for being "afraid of the NRA," declaring that he would stand up to the powerful gun lobby and finally get results on quelling gun violence following last month's Florida school shooting. On Monday, Trump struck a very different tone as he backpedaled from his earlier demands for sweeping reforms and bowed to Washington reality. The president, who recently advocated increasing the minimum age to purchase an assault weapon to 21, tweeted that he's "watching court cases and rulings" on the issue, adding that there is "not much political support (to put it mildly)." (Lucey and LeMire, 3/12)
The Wall Street Journal:
Trump Backs Off His Support To Raise Federal Gun Purchase Age Limit
President Donald Trump backed off his support for new age restrictions on firearm purchases, saying there was no support for such a move in Congress. But his promise to spend federal money on arming teachers also drew fire from Republicans in the Capitol on Monday. “I’ve got a problem with that,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R., W.Va.) said of arming teachers. “It just doesn’t sound like a solution to the problem.” (Bender and Peterson, 3/12)
The Wall Street Journal:
Designing A School To Stop Shooters
Designers of the new $19 million George W. Bush Elementary School had more in mind than education. The blueprint for this school in an upper-class Dallas suburban neighborhood was intended to stop a school shooter. Sparse landscaping and numerous windows in front provide a clear view of approaching visitors. Entry is a multistep process. Visitors enter a vestibule and must be buzzed inside the main office. From there, a government-issued ID must be scanned through a system called the “Raptor,” which alerts for child molesters and anyone flagged to keep out. (Hobbs, 3/13)
The Washington Post:
Sessions Calls On U.S. Attorneys To Aggressively Prosecute Gun Buyers Who Lie On Background Checks
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Monday that U.S. attorneys will more aggressively enforce the law that makes it a crime for gun buyers to lie on their federal background checks, one of several steps Justice Department officials outlined as part of the Trump administration’s response to last month’s deadly school shooting in Parkland, Fla. The Justice Department also will increase the presence of law enforcement officers at schools and continue to review the way law enforcement agencies respond to tips from the public, Sessions said. (Horwitz, 3/12)
The Hill:
Insurer Credits GOP Tax Law For New Commitment To ObamaCare
A health insurer in Alaska and Washington State is crediting the Republican tax law for its decision to participate in ObamaCare markets next year. Premera Blue Cross said in a statement Monday that because of a one-time refund the company is getting under the GOP law, it will be able to make new commitments. (Sullivan, 3/12)
The Hill:
Conservative Groups Warn Against ObamaCare 'Bailout' In Spending Bill
A coalition of 15 conservative groups wrote to Congress on Monday to urge against including a “bailout” of ObamaCare in the coming government funding bill. The groups are putting pressure on lawmakers amid bipartisan negotiations on providing payments to health insurance companies with the goal of stabilizing markets and lowering premiums. But the conservative groups see those payments as a bailout for the health-care law. (Sullivan, 3/12)
Reuters:
Judge Rejects Massachusetts Challenge To Trump Birth Control Rules
A federal judge on Monday rejected a lawsuit by Massachusetts' attorney general challenging new rules by President Donald Trump's administration that make it easier for employers to avoid providing insurance that covers women's birth control. U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton in Boston dismissed a lawsuit by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey that sought to block rules that provide exemptions from an Obamacare mandate requiring such coverage on moral or religious grounds. (Raymond, 3/12)
ProPublica/Politico:
Trump’s VA Is Purging Civil Servants
Last June, President Donald Trump fulfilled a campaign promise by signing a bipartisan bill to make it easier to fire employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The law, a rare rollback of the federal government’s strict civil-service job protections, was intended as a much-needed fix for an organization widely perceived as broken. “VA accountability is essential to making sure that our veterans are treated with the respect they have so richly earned through their blood, sweat and tears,” Trump said that day. “Those entrusted with the sacred duty of serving our veterans will be held accountable for the care they provide.” (Arnsdorf, 3/12)
The Washington Post:
Democrats Show Little Willingness To Fight GOP Ahead Of Spending Deadline
One brewing partisan fight concerns the perennial flash point of abortion politics. The parties are sparring over language pertaining to federal family-planning grants, as well as Republican policy provisions that would block funding for health-care providers that perform abortions, allow health-care providers to opt not to perform procedures they find morally objectionable and bar funding for scientific research using fetal tissue. House Republicans are rejecting a Senate-crafted compromise that seeks to prevent the Trump administration from changing the rules for awarding family-planning and teen pregnancy-prevention grants to favor groups that advocate sexual abstinence over other groups, including Planned Parenthood. Democrats are pushing to preserve that compromise in the final bill. (DeBonis, 3/12)
Politico:
Wendy Davis Leaves Door Open To Planned Parenthood Gig
Could Wendy Davis, the former Texas state senator who rose to national prominence after her marathon 2013 filibuster protesting an anti-abortion bill, be in the running to next head of Planned Parenthood? The prominent Democratic surrogate isn't ruling out the possibility. (Flores and Palmer, 3/13)
Politico:
Right-To-Try Drug Bill Could Needlessly Raise Patients' Hopes, Experts Say
Congress may be on a speedy path to lifting the hopes of terminally ill patients. Whether it’s anything more than a feel-good exercise is an open question. The House of Representatives is expected to deliver the deciding vote for a right-to-try bill Tuesday that President Donald Trump touted in his State of the Union address and would give terminally ill patients — or those likely to die prematurely — access to experimental medicines without the FDA’s blessing. The Senate, which already passed its own bill, is considered likely to adopt the changes. (Karlin-Smith, 3/13)
Stat:
'Right-To-Try' Bill Would Give FDA Some Oversight, But Still Frustrates Critics
A new “right-to-try” bill hurtling toward a House vote this week would give the Food and Drug Administration some oversight of experimental treatments permitted under a new process, but critics warn that it would still undermine the agency’s role in protecting patients. The new legislation, from House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.), is the latest salvo in the effort to create a new pathway for patients with terminal illness to access experimental therapies. The House of Representatives is set to vote on the measure Tuesday, after which it will head back to the Senate for further consideration. (Mershon, 3/12)
The Hill:
Key Democrat Comes Out Against 'Right To Try' Bill
The top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee announced his strong opposition Monday to a revised version of the “right to try” bill on experimental drugs that the panel’s top Republicans introduced over the weekend. The bill “puts vulnerable patients at risk by completely removing the Food and Drug Administration [FDA] from the review or oversight of access to investigational therapies,” Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), the Energy and Commerce Committee’s ranking member, said in a statement. (Roubein, 3/12)
Stat:
Amid Efforts To Expand Naloxone Access, A New Study Questions Its Value
Amid a worsening opioid epidemic, the overdose-reversal drug naloxone has taken center stage. Fire and police departments across the country stock the drug; nonprofits aim to get it into the hands of millions of residents as a bystander intervention. But a controversial new working paper has raised the question of whether the urgent push to expand naloxone access may be doing more harm than good. (Facher, 3/13)
The Hill:
Bipartisan Bill Would Give DEA More Power In Setting Opioid Quotas
A bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill Monday they said would strengthen the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) ability to prevent opioid abuse. The bill would allow the DEA to take into consideration overdose deaths and abuse rates when it annually sets quotas for the number of Schedule I and II controlled substances, such as opioids, that can be manufactured and produced in the U.S. (Hellmann, 3/12)
The Washington Post:
Patients Mobilize To Take Legal Action Against Fertility Clinics With Malfunctions
An Ohio couple who lost both their frozen embryos when a fertility clinic’s storage tank overheated last week are the first in a wave of patients heading to court to hold the facility accountable for dashing their dreams of future children. Two Cleveland attorneys said they have been inundated in the days since the University Hospitals Ahuja Medical Center’s Fertility Center disclosed late last week that it was notifying 700 patients that their eggs or embryos may have been damaged. The tissue was in a tank that lost liquid nitrogen, which is vital for temperature control. (Goldstein and Cha, 3/12)
The Associated Press:
Fertility-Clinic Breakdowns Baffle Experts, Upset Couples
Simultaneous refrigeration failures at two fertility clinics in San Francisco and suburban Cleveland have damaged or destroyed potentially thousands of frozen eggs and embryos in the biggest such loss on record in the U.S. The malfunctions have left parents-to-be heartbroken and baffled experts. Here are some questions and answers about the two cases. (3/12)
Stat:
During The Great Recession, Fewer People Took Their Medications
The Great Recession had dramatic and visible effects: Millions of Americans lost their homes; more than 8 million people lost their jobs. But a new study finds that it also had invisible effects on people’s health — and that those effects could have long-term consequences. Using a long-running study on heart health, scientists evaluated blood pressure and blood glucose measurements from 2000 to 2012. They found that those metrics were significantly worse after the recession hit in 2007 — at least in part due to fewer people taking their medicines. (Sheridan, 3/12)
The Washington Post:
The Great Recession Raised America’s Blood Pressure, Study Finds
As if we don't have enough to worry about — given daily political drama, volatile stock markets and North Korean nuclear threats — a new study suggests that living through such times of instability and societal upheaval can greatly worsen personal health. Using large data sets gathered before and after the Great Recession, researchers found significantly higher blood pressure and blood sugar levels in American adults. (Wan, 3/12)
The Washington Post:
Stem Cells Could Boost This Maryland Baby’s Heart And Chance For A Normal Life
Surgeons trying a new way to save the life of a baby born with half a heart stood over her open chest and waited for the FedEx box. Doctors in Miami had sent overnight two small vials of stem cells to the University of Maryland Medical Center. Now the Baltimore surgeons would inject the cells, derived from a donor’s bone marrow, into the tiny, defective heart of 4-month-old Autumn. (Cohn, 3/12)
The Washington Post:
Doctors Ignored The Signs Of A Deadly Condition, She Says. Now She Has No Legs Or Fingers.
It was supposed to be a joyous and memorable time: Magdalena Malec was pregnant with her third child, and her other two were no doubt counting down the days until Christmas. But by the time Christmas Day arrived in 2014, Malec had miscarried and been diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy. Malec, who had been sent home days earlier with medication to ease her discomfort, was now in agony and back at Luton and Dunstable University Hospital, 35 miles from London, according to an account from her attorney. (Bever, 3/12)
The Washington Post:
Doctors Find Air Pocket Where Part Of Man’s Brain Should Be
The 84-year-old man arrived in the emergency room with complaints that weren't uncommon for a patient his age. He had reported feeling unsteady over the past several months, culminating in repeated falls in recent weeks. In the three days leading up to his hospital visit, his left arm and leg had noticeably weakened. Still, there were no red flags in the man's medical history. He didn't smoke. He rarely drank. A blood test detected nothing abnormal. (Wang, 3/12)
The Associated Press:
More Flint Water Samples Show Elevated Lead Levels
Recent water tests at elementary schools in Flint have found an increase in samples showing lead levels above the federal action limit. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality determined that 28 samples tested in February were above 15 parts per billion of lead, The Flint Journal reported . That compares to 20 such samples in January. (3/12)
The Associated Press:
Delaware Flu Cases, Deaths Hit Record High This Season
The recent confirmation of two flu-related deaths has brought Delaware’s season total to 30, breaking the previous single-season record. The Division of Public Health said in a release Monday that two women, aged 83 and 84, died in the last two weeks of February. Both women had multiple underlying health conditions. (3/12)