Posts Tagged ‘ medical-center ’

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Doctors perform first hand transplant in DOD

A South Dakota bio-tech firm is using blood byproducts from cattle to develop new ways of treating injured soldiers on the battlefield.The technology could also save lives after natural disasters such as the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, company executives say.”It could help a lot of people in mass casualty situations where blood loss and wounds that need to get healed are a problem,” says Steve Tye, vice president of operations for IKOR Inc. “This is a drug that can be stored for years so it can be delivered on the first flights out there.”IKOR aims to use hemoglobin from cattle as its raw material to develop blood replacement products for injured soldiers, Tye says. The goal is to heal their wounds more quickly and effectively, partly because the products can help deliver oxygen to the wound.The cattle byproducts would come from packing plants, where much of the blood from cattle goes to waste as the animals are processed.The firm plans to develop and produce its products in Aberdeen, S.D., where it has its laboratories. Executives expect to collaborate with Northern State University in Aberdeen. Investors who provided funding for IKOR's start-up are from South Dakota, which is a main reason IKOR's work is being done in the state, says co-founder James Canton.Up to 50 percent of deaths on the battlefield are from severe blood loss, according to a statement from Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., who helped IKOR to secure $1.2 million in funding from the U.S. military to continue its research. Johnson included the money as part of the Defense Appropriations Bill which passed the Senate in December.Treating soldiers injured in combat now requires materials that are difficult to store on or near the battlefield, according to the statement from Johnson's office. IKOR's product requires no refrigeration, and can be stored and carried where it's needed, Canton says.Blood products which could be stored and then taken by medics to injured soldiers could be very useful, says Dr. Jeff Anderson, the state surgeon for the South Dakota Army National Guard. The Army's medical professionals are “always looking for innovation, always looking for new ways to best serve the greatest fighting force that the world has ever known,” says Anderson, who is also an emergency room physician in Mitchell, S.D.Getting rapid help for injured soldiers — or survivors of a disaster — is crucial if there's hope of stopping blood loss. The window of survival is usually an hour or less. That's because deaths from blood loss typically occur during the first hour after an injury, says Dr. Chris Carlisle, an emergency room physician at Sanford-USD Medical Center.Wounds left untreated are invaded by bacteria, Carlisle says. That has been a major concern in Haiti, where preventing deaths from infected wounds is among the most pressing public health concerns, according to documents from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Untreated wounds have led to deadly cases of sepsis, doctors in Haiti have reported.IKOR has obtained some patents already, and has about a half-dozen more patents pending, Tye says. It was founded in 2005 and has its laboratories in a 10,000-square-foot facility in Aberdeen's industrial park. IKOR also has an office in San Francisco, home of Tye's father and IKOR co-founder Dr. Ross Tye.IKOR has 10 employees now, and hopes to have well over 100 by the time production of its products begins.Tye says the firm's executives are in discussions with federal regulators as the technology is developed, a process which can take years. One upcoming milestone is federal approval to test the drugs on humans.

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Cattle blood used in treatment experiments

An astronaut who has logged more than 950 hours in the space shuttles Discovery and Atlantis visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Warrior Transition Brigade.

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Astronaut Visits Warrior Transition Brigade

FORT WORTH, Texas — An attorney for the Army psychiatrist accused of going on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood said Monday he wants his client’s mental evaluation delayed citing a potential conflict of interest with the exam panel.Army officials previously appointed a three-member board of military mental health professionals to determine whether Maj. Nidal Hasan is competent to stand trial and to determine his mental status the day of the November shooting, which left 13 dead and dozens wounded on the Texas Army post.The board is to start reviewing documents next week and begin evaluating the Army psychiatrist as early as Feb. 8, according to Hasan’s attorney, John Galligan. After the board interviews Hasan and conducts psychological testing on him, the findings will go to Army prosecutors by the end of February.But Galligan said one panel member taught at the medical school Hasan attended, although Galligan was unsure if that doctor directly taught or knew Hasan. Galligan declined to release any board members’ identities.In his motion to Army officials last week, Galligan said he also requested an all-civilian board, saying doctors with no military ties likely would be more objective and not worried about repercussions if their diagnosis was considered favorable to Hasan.Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates released an internal Pentagon review that found several unidentified medical officers failed to use “appropriate judgment and standards of officership” when reviewing Hasan’s performance as a student, internist and psychiatric resident.“Why would this same system evaluate one of its own in a case of this magnitude?” Galligan said Monday from his office near Fort Hood, about 150 miles southwest of Fort Worth.Fort Hood officials did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.Galligan also said he still has not received military files relevant to Hasan’s mental status, including academic and performance evaluations, records indicating Hasan was at risk of psychosis and minutes of meetings in which Hasan allegedly discussed his religious concerns.Galligan said he wants to present those documents to the board for its review.“I don’t know if it will help or hurt his case, but it’s something the board should have,” Galligan said.The exam is expected to be conducted at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where Hasan is undergoing rehabilitation for his paralysis. Authorities have said Hasan was shot and wounded by Fort Hood police.The sanity board will determine whether Hasan had a severe mental illness at the time of the shooting and, if so, his clinical psychological diagnosis; whether that prevented him from knowing at the time that his alleged actions were wrong; and if he is competent to stand trial, according to military law.

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FALLS CHURCH, Va. — In the wake of a mass shooting at an Army post in which a military psychiatrist is charged, the service’s top doctor acknowledged his service needs to improve how it manages medical officers, including using more candor in reviewing their officers’ performance.But Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army’s surgeon general, said there is no evidence his staff “could have predicted” that Maj. Nidal Hasan, the man accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, “could have become a mass murderer.”In the 12 years that Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, was trained and promoted to major, he may not have been “an ideal clinician, not an ideal professional soldier,” Schoomaker said. But, Schoomaker said, there were no clues of potential violence.“I don’t see anywhere in there [a recently released Pentagon review of the shootings] , and no one has ever intimated that we should have been able to see from what we saw that this man would have become the alleged mass murderer that he is or is accused of being,” Schoomaker said in an interview at his office this week.Hasan is accused of opening fire Nov. 5 at a Fort Hood soldier readiness center, killing 12 soldiers and one civilian, and wounding 43. He faces murder charges in a military court.Hasan had previously been ranked outstanding in officer performance, despite a shoddy record of medical performance and inappropriate discussion of his Muslim faith at work, according to government documents quoted by The Associated Press.Medical supervisors were not made aware that Hasan was e-mailing a radical Islamic cleric in Yemen, something uncovered by U.S. terrorism investigators in the months prior to the shooting.Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates released the findings of an independent review of the shooting conducted by former Army secretary Togo West and retired admiral Vern Clark. It recommends reviewing officer standards used by medical supervisors in Hasan’s case.“Some signs were clearly missed [in Hasan’s case]; other ignored,” the review concludes, urging that officers who supervised Hasan be held accountable. Gates directed Army Secretary John McHugh to act on the recommendations.On Thursday, McHugh appointed Gen. Carter Ham, who worked on the independent review, to investigate its conclusions and recommend any disciplinary actions necessary.Schoomaker’s remarks came during a wide-ranging interview about military medicine. He said that because of murder charges against Hasan and an ongoing Army review, he could not discuss Hasan’s case in detail and could not address whether Hasan should have been promoted.The controversy surrounding his staff’s handling of Hasan has hurt the medical department’s image as it tries to hire 519 more mental health specialists to deal with the growing demands of combat stress, Schoomaker said.Morale has slumped, he said, particularly among Army behavioral health workers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where Hasan did his residency and fellowship from 2003 to 2009.“The same system that delivered this alleged shooter has trained and career-developed professionally as officers, as well as clinicians, thousands of dedicated and really highly proficient practitioners,” Schoomaker said.

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USO officials plan to build family centers at the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Md., and Fort Belvoir, Va., to continue the USO’s tradition of bringing troops a piece of home.

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USO Plans Family Centers at Bethesda, Belvoir

An Air Force study at Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio hopes to determine if hyperbaric oxygen therapy shows promise in treating patients with mild to moderate traumatic brain injuries.

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Air Force Studies Brain Injuries

NORTH CHICAGO, Ill. — Officials say a one-of-a-kind federal health care center will be named after an astronaut who was commander of the Apollo 13 mission.The Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center will officially open in October next year.Two facilities in North Chicago will combine to create a health care center that will cater to veterans in addition to active military personnel and their families.Currently the two facilities are the North Chicago VA Medical Center and the Naval Health Clinic Great Lakes.The director of VA Center says he's honored to have the facility named after an American hero like Lovell.Lovell is a retired Navy officer who's one of a small group of people to have flown a mission to the moon.

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Health center named for Navy astronaut

A sailor who contracted malaria while on assignment to Liberia died Dec. 26 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

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Liberia-deployed Sailor Dies of Malaria

A Seabee with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3 died Saturday at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.Builder 3rd Class (SCW) Joshua Dae-Ho Carrell, 23, of Port Angeles, Wash., died due to complications associated with malaria.Carrell is survived by his mother, Rhonda; a sister, Shelly, and a brother, Jason.“Our heart goes out to Petty Officer Carrell’s family as they suffer the extraordinary loss of their loved one. We express our deepest condolences to Joshua’s family and will keep them in our prayers. The United States Navy has lost a brave sailor and loved son and brother,” said Capt

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Seabee dies from malaria complications