March 22 top stories
It is March 22. Here are today’s top stories.
Pig kidney transplanted into living person for 1st time
Doctors in Boston said Thursday for the first time, surgeons have transplanted a kidney from a genetically modified pig into a living person. It is the first procedure of its kind. If successful, the breakthrough offers hope to hundreds of thousands of Americans whose kidneys have failed. So far, the signs are promising.
The local hospital said Richard Slayman, 62, of Weymouth, Mass., who is suffering from end-stage kidney disease, received the organ Saturday in a four-hour procedure. He is recovering well and is expected to be discharged Saturday.
Slayman said “I saw it not only as a way to help me, but a way to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive.
The procedure is the latest development in a fast-moving race to create genetically modified pigs to provide kidneys, livers, hearts and other organs to help alleviate the shortage of organs for people who need transplants.
Long-term care patient dies after left in scalding whirlpool
An elderly, non-verbal man died from burns he suffered after being left too long in a whirlpool of scalding hot water at a state-run long-term care facility in West Virginia.
Four nurses have been fired in connection with the patient’s death at Hopemont Hospital in Preston County.
During an investigation into the man’s death, it was revealed a malfunctioning thermostat on a water tank caused the water to get too hot. Hospital staff allegedly knew of the problem 30 days prior to the death and did nothing about it.
The man, who required round-the-clock care, was left in the whirlpool unattended for 47 minutes with a water temperature of 134 degrees.
Disability rights group investigating the man’s death told a news outlet “It looks like his skin has melted. Imagine you are in a whirlpool of scalding water for 47 minutes but you can’t verbalize pain. And even if you did there was no one there to intervene.”
It is still unclear if criminal charges will be filed against the four nurses who were fired.
U.S. sues Apple over illegal monopoly
The Justice Department on Thursday announced a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Apple, accusing the tech giant of engineering an illegal monopoly in smartphones that boxes out competitors, stifles innovation and keeps prices artificially high.
One of the attorneys said “Apple has locked its consumers into the iPhone while locking its competitors out of the market. Stalling the advancement of the very market it revolutionized, it has smothered an entire industry.
The suit takes aim at how Apple allegedly molds its technology and business relationships to “extract more money from consumers, developers, content creators and small businesses, among others.
Apple called the lawsuit “wrong on the facts and the law” and said it “will vigorously defend against it.” They said the lawsuit, if successful, would “hinder our ability to create the kind of technology people expect from Apple” and would “set a dangerous precedent, empowering the government to take a heavy hand in designing people’s technology.”
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For people with disabilities on public benefits such as SSI or Medicare, it's urgent you learn about ABLE accounts. These saving and spending accounts allow the disability and D/HH community to save more than $2,000 and while protecting eligibility for their benefits. It's a true game changer.
ABLE today partnered with the Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD) to create a 30-minute ASL presentation on how ABLE accounts work, who's eligible, and the ins and outs of ABLE. Watch a short preview below or check out the full presentation here: www.abletoday.org/asl.
ABLE today is a leading national public service initiative promoting the benefits of able accounts. Their website is full of information to learn more: www.abletoday.org
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California wants to pay doctors more to see Medicaid patients
When Hunter Morgan bought an optometry practice in Southern California three years ago, one of the first things he did was start seeing patients who use Medicaid, the government-funded health insurance program for low-income people.
Just five months later, Morgan said, he had to stop treating Medicaid patients because of the paltry pay. He charges $175 for eye exams, but the most he could get from Medicaid was about $40. That made it difficult to pay his staff and pricey rent in the upscale beach community in Encinitas, 25 miles north of San Diego.
While California’s Medicaid now covers about 15 million people, the rates it pays to doctors have not kept up. To pay doctors more, Gov. Newsom and the state legislature chose to raise taxes and vowed to use part of it to pay doctors more for treating Medicaid patients.
Newsom is proposing to raise rates to match those paid by Medicare, the federal government’s health insurance program for people 65 and older. That could mean California’s roughly 8,000 licensed optometrists would get a lot more money for Medicaid patients: roughly $130 per exam instead of $47. Most health care providers would get the same increases.
See Alex for a news brief. Here you go.
Israel-Hamas war updates
Thanks, Callie.
I have a couple of updates on the Israel-Hamas war.
U.S. Secretary of State Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu today. Blinken warned Israel that their security and their place in the world are in peril due to a lack of a clear strategy in Gaza.
The U.S. warned that there could be a perpetual occupation and insurgency.
The U.S. has warned Israel against sending their military into Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza because there are over one million Palestinian civilians sheltering.
Netanyahu said he feels he has to go into Rafah because there are still groups of Hamas fighters there.
Today at the UN Security Council, Russia and China vetoed a U.S. draft resolution that called for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza along with the release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas.
Axios said this was the fourth time since the war began in October that the Security Council failed to agree on a resolution. The U.S. vetoed three of the prior resolutions.
The key issues that cause disagreements are whether a ceasefire should be linked with the release of all hostages or whether there should just be an unconditional ceasefire.
The U.S. wants both things to be linked, but China and Russia don’t agree.
Thanks for that news brief. That is all the top stories for this week. Have a nice weekend and stay with the light!
Pig kidney transplanted into living person for 1st time
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/21/health/pig-kidney-transplant-living-person/index.html
Long-term care patient dies after left in scalding whirlpool
U.S. sues Apple over illegal monopoly
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/21/doj-sues-apple-over-iphone-monopoly.html
California wants to pay doctors more to see Medicaid patients
https://fortune.com/2024/03/21/california-medicaid-doctor-pay-rates/
Israel-Hamas war updates
https://www.axios.com/2024/03/22/us-ceasefire-resolution-veto-un-security-council
https://www.axios.com/2024/03/22/israel-gaza-netanyahu-blinken-insurgency-warning