https://youtu.be/WDzXtkpSWd0 What do you think? Do you like it? Please leave a comment. … [Read more...]
Controversial Utah Cleft Palate Care -III
A summary of Part II re Cleft Palate Care at Primary Children's Part II deals with the the timing of jaw surgery in cleft lip and palate care at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake, Utah. At this children’s hospital, ProPublica asserts pediatric surgeons are taking controversial risks with how they care for kids with cleft lip and palate. Experimenting With Bone Grafts 'About seven years ago, spurred by what [Dr. Dana] Johns said was a “hypothesis we had,” Primary Children’s cleft team … [Read more...]
Controversial Utah Cleft Palate Care -II
A summary of Part I re Cleft Palate Care At Primary Children’s Hospital in Utah, pediatric surgeons are taking controversial risks with how they care for kids with cleft lip and palate. This is the conclusion of a ProPublica article of which the below is the second of three parts. I’m reprinting it in my blog because the article is disturbing. (I’ve added several new subheads in brackets below.) It is interesting that the recent article was penned by Megan Rose a crime reporter who … [Read more...]
Controversial Utah Cleft Palate Surgeries -I
As the beneficiary of an innovative cleft-palate team at Seattle Children's Hospital, I'm always interested in the progress being made regarding cleft palate surgeries. The innovation in my day was approaching the birth defect as a team effort from the minute a baby is born. Heretofore, most doctors did cleft palate surgeries without the input of dentists, orthodontists, speech therapists, and others involved in the decade-long treatment of the defect. [Contested Cleft … [Read more...]
The saga of the Titanium Rib and Dr. Mel Smith
I've had a lifelong interest in discrimination and birth-defects stemming from being bullied for my once-nasal cleft-palate speech. Hence I was interested when college classmate Alain Gunn wrote The Titanium Rib. The Discrimination Angle The book is about a device that allows infants born with defective chests and lung function to live. And it's a true story of two dedicated surgeons —one being a black man who endured discrimination as a trailblazer entering the lily white ranks of … [Read more...]
Adorable cleft-lipped boy adopts a cleft puppy—instant love.
Amid the 4 Ps confronting us Californians —pandemic, poverty, protests, and pyrotechnics* — comes a heartwarming story from Sydney Page at The Washington Post. Just what I needed, as a fellow cleft-affected person, to forget about the "plagues" which are depressing us in the San Francisco Bay Area. We've had to keep indoors (no outdoor masked activity) for twenty-something straight "unhealthy" Spare the Air days due to wildfires. Then a man who has a 2-year-old with a cleft … [Read more...]
Answering the question, Is the Joker a Psychopath?
I noted in a recent piece that I'd deal with the question, is the Joker a psychopath? Of course, it matters a lot which portrayal of the Joker we're talking about. Sheltering in place has given many people time to watch various movies. Of the many featuring the Joker, most have probably see Heath Ledger's The Dark Knight and/or Joaquin Phoenix's Joker. To keep things manageable, let's choose Ledger's version in The Dark Knight, knowing there's nothing ever definitive about a fictional … [Read more...]