Health Headlines
Infant takes first breaths on her own after undergoing rare double lung transplant
XiXinXing/Getty Images(HOUSTON) -- A 6-month-old girl born with a life-threatening lung disorder is now breathing on her own thanks to a rare double lung transplant.Kylie Overfield was placed on a ventilator immediately after her birth on Nov. 10, 2023, due to surfactant B deficiency, a rare genetic condition that causes abnormalities in the lining of the lung tissue, making breathing difficult, according to the National Library of Medicine.The condition, which affects roughly 1 in 1 million newborns globally, can lead to respiratory failure. In Kylie's case, the condition was so severe that doctors feared she wouldn't survive long after her birth, which came on a Friday, according to her mom, Ashley Overfield."They didn't think Kylie was going to make it," ... Read More
Major disparities exist in women of color’s access to breast cancer care, report finds
Isaac Lane Koval/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- A major new report shows stark disparities in breast cancer care, with non-white Americans and those without health insurance far less likely to be up to date with recommended screenings.Women under the age of 65 who do not have health insurance are 50% less likely to be up to date with breast cancer screening, according to the findings of the 2024 AACR Cancer Disparities Progress Report 2024, released Wednesday by the American Association for Cancer Research, a nonprofit organization focused on breast cancer research.The report also found that between 2015-2019 Asian and Pacific Islander women had the highest increase in breast cancer occurrences among all racial and ethnic groups.Black women are at a 40% ... Read More
Drug overdose deaths fell in 2023, 1st decrease in 5 years: CDC
Tetra Images/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Drug overdose deaths fell in 2023, marking the first decrease in five years, new provisional federal data published Wednesday showed.An estimated 107,543 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.This is a 3% decrease from the estimated 111,029 overdose deaths that occurred in 2022 and the first annual decrease in drug overdose deaths since 2018.Dr. Susan Sherman, a professor in the department of health, behavior and society at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ABC News it's "great" to see the numbers trending downward."If you think about it, the numbers are so crazy high that we were below 100,000 the ... Read More
Why a Texas divorce case could impact IVF care in the state
fstop123/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- An acrimonious divorce between a Texas couple fighting over their frozen embryos could end up having an impact on in vitro fertilization care in the entire state, and possibly a replay of the controversial court decision in Alabama that briefly ended IVF access in the state.Caroline Antoun has argued that life begins when an egg is fertilized and claims the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization -- which overturned Roe v. Wade and left it up to the states to regulate abortion care -- gives her a right to "custody" over their three embryos, despite previously signing over her rights to the embryos to her husband in the event of a ... Read More
Canadian wildfire smoke preparedness: How to make a DIY air purifier
Brais Seara/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- The damage of wildfires can expand far beyond the active blaze, as toxic smoke from Canadian wildfires crosses borders, enters homes and triggers health concerns, experts say.As of Monday, officials said at least 40 of the more than 140 active fires burning in the Canadian wildfires have been labeled "out of control," including one that started on Friday in British Columbia and has since spread to 4,200 acres.Most of the active wildfires, at least 90, are in British Columbia and Alberta provinces.However, as the string of wildfires rages in the North, the wildfire smoke spread to parts of the U.S., prompting Minnesota officials to issue the state's first air quality alert of 2024 on Sunday.Health ... Read More
KP.2 is now the dominant COVID variant. Experts say US may see a summer increase in cases
MoMo Productions/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- For the last few months, JN.1 has been the dominant COVID-19 variant in the United States, making up the majority of cases. A new variant, however, has taken over and may lead to an increase in cases this summer.KP.2, which is an offshoot of the omicron variant, currently accounts for an estimated 28.2% of COVID cases after making up just 1.4% of cases in mid March, according to data from the Centers for Disease and Prevention.Over the past four years, the U.S. has seen summer waves of COVID and this summer may also bring a rise in cases, but not severe as in past seasons."We've had four consecutive increases of COVID in the summers in ... Read More
Recipient of first pig kidney transplant dies nearly two months later
Rick Slayman being discharged two weeks after pig kidney transplant. - Massachusetts General Hospital(BOSTON) -- The 62-year-old man who received the first-ever pig kidney transplant in the world has died, his family announced on Saturday.Richard Slayman underwent the four-hour procedure in March at Massachusetts General Hospital and was discharged from the hospital two weeks later on April 2.The hospital emphasized there was no indication Slayman's sudden passing was due to the transplant."The Mass General transplant team is deeply saddened at the sudden passing of Mr. Rick Slayman. We have no indication that it was the result of his recent transplant," Massachusetts General Hospital said in a statement.Slayman a resident of Weymouth -- 16 miles southeast of Boston -- had been ... Read More
More than 100 kids left vulnerable to measles, polio after nurse falsified vaccine records
Jackyenjoyphotography/Getty Images(WEBSTER, N.Y.) -- An upstate New York nurse has been accused of falsifying vaccine records for more than 100 children across the state.The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) issued a $55,000 penalty against Sandra Miceli, a licensed nurse practitioner and registered professional nurse at Surviving Naturally in Monroe County.Miceli is accused of falsifying immunization records for 116 school-aged children for nearly 550 different scheduled vaccinations.Health professionals say that by lying about the vaccination status of dozens of children, Miceli left them exposed to numerous communicable diseases including measles, chickenpox and polio."Falsifying school-aged children's vaccine records endangers both the child and their peers, as vaccination is the best protection against preventable disease," NYSDOH Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald ... Read More
Hospice nurse’s frank conversations on dying go viral
Julie McFadden, a hospice nurse in California, shares information about death on her TikTok account, @hospicenursejulie. -- @hospicenursejulie/TikTok (NEW YORK) -- Death is something everyone experiences but few people want to talk about.One nurse is trying to break that stigma, taking to TikTok to talk frankly about death, from what a person feels while dying to how loved ones can best support a person in their final days."The death rattle is the most normal thing and to be expected at the end of life, however if you're not used to hearing it, it feels like the scariest thing you've ever heard," Julie McFadden, known as @hospicenursejulie on TikTok, says in one video with nearly 2 million views.McFadden, a California-based hospice ... Read More
Mental health support at crucial point for fire survivors on Maui
ABC News(MAUI, Hawaii) -- For the thousands of people who survived the Maui fires last August, the trauma of what they lived through still lingers.Lahaina painter Kirk Boes and his wife Laura have lived on Lahaina together for more than 40 years. They evacuated on August 8, only to return three days later. They were overwhelmed with grief at the destruction left behind.âThere's the initial disbelief, just denial,â Boes told ABC News. âI wasn't even registering what I was seeing. Then it hit me. What really did happen.âNearly half of the victims in the Lahaina fire died in Boesâ neighborhood, known as Kuhua Camp. Many of those victims were found on Boesâ dead-end street.âWe lost 19 of our neighbors just ... Read More
âThe pain is just so hardâ: Parents hope story of daughterâs death after consuming Panera beverage will save others
ABCNews.com(NEW YORK) -- On Sept. 10, 2022, Michael and Jill Katz received a devastating phone call that their 21-year-old daughter Sarah had collapsed while out to dinner with friends. They raced from their New Jersey home to Philadelphia, where Sarah was attending college.Sarah Katz had suffered cardiac arrest and was then transported to a nearby hospital, where doctors informed her parents that she had suffered another cardiac arrest and ultimately passed away."The pain is just so hard and so deep," Jill Katz said in an interview with "Nightline" about her daughter's death. "It's not something you get better from. Some people say oh time is all healing. It's not. There's no healing. It's just acclimation.""It's so many mixed emotions," Michael ... Read More
What to know about TB after outbreak in Long Beach sickens 14
KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- The City Council in Long Beach, California, voted Tuesday to ratify a local public health emergency order after an outbreak of tuberculosis sickened several people.The outbreak is linked to a single-room occupancy hotel, a form of affordable housing meant for low- or minimal income residents, according to the city's public information office.As of April 29, 14 cases have been confirmed and approximately 170 people have likely been exposed.Nine have been hospitalized and one person has died.Here is everything you need to know about TB, including how it spreads, what are the symptoms and how to prevent infection:What is TB?Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, according to the Centers for Disease ... Read More
How olive oil could lower risk of dementia mortality
Michelle Arnold / EyeEm/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- From vegetables and legumes to fish and fresh herbs, Mediterranean ingredients provide a wide array of health benefits, and the Mediterranean diet is consistently ranked the top overall diet.Now, researchers have found new health associations between consuming more than 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil a day and lower risk of dementia-related death.According to a new study published Monday in the journal JAMA Network Open, researchers from Harvard School of Public Health followed the dietary decisions of 92,383 health care professionals over 28 years and found that those who incorporated more olive oil of any kind into their diet lowered their probability of dying from dementia.The risk of disease-related death was also lowered when ... Read More
Woman says she lost 60 pounds after undergoing experimental weight loss procedure
Courtesy of Brooke Nelson(NEW YORK) -- Brooke Nelson said she was over 200 pounds and struggling to lose weight when she decided to take part in a clinical trial of a new, minimally-invasive weight loss procedure.Within six months of the procedure, Nelson said she had lost over 20 pounds and changed how she thinks about food."The constant just wanting of food has drastically decreased," Nelson told ABC News' Good Morning America. "There's still moments where I want a chocolate chip cookie, but there's a lot more moments when I find myself wanting something like greens."The procedure Nelson underwent is called endoscopic ablation, which the lead author of the clinical trial, Dr. Christopher McGowan, says targets ghrelin, the so-called "hunger hormone."According ... Read More
Battery-sized heart pump shows potential in helping kids waiting for heart transplants
The Jarvik 2015 15mm VAD, a miniature heart assist device, is shown. (Jarvik Heart, Inc.)(NEW YORK) -- New promising data finds that a small heart pump device the size of a AA battery could help keep children in need of a heart transplant alive and at home as they wait for a new heart.With this small implantable device, children can go home until their transplant date instead of waiting weeks or months in a hospital.The device is not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and will need more study. But experts say it's a real medical advancement for hundreds of children with heart failure.Every year, between 200 and 400 infants and children waiting for heart transplants are ... Read More
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