Pakistani Teen Activist Released from Hospital

                 Malala Yousafzai, a fifteen year old girl living in Pakistan who was shot in the head last October by the Taliban, has finally been released from the hospital in England where she was receiving treatment. The Taliban had targeted her because she had been openly speaking out for girls’ right to education. When she was twelve, the Taliban moved into the valley where she lived and closed down her school. She then became a highly outspoken critic of their opposition to girls’ education, claiming, “I have a right to education, I have the right to play, I have the right to sing, I have the right to talk, I have the right to speak up!”

                And for her public campaign for girls’ education, guess how she was rewarded? Well, one day on her way home from school, the Taliban sent gunmen into her van. They proceeded to shoot her at point blank range in the face. She was airlifted to England in critical condition for emergency treatment. Thankfully, it turns out that the bullet never entered her brain, only glancing off her skull, going through her cheek, and into her shoulder, leaving this teen activist alive and now ready to fight against the Taliban another day. She is very thankful for her health and attributed her miraculous recovery to God and the prayers of everyone. She claims to be getting better day by day and promises to continue her campaign, stating “I want to serve. I want to serve the people. I want every girl, every child, to be educated.”

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                This girl truly inspires me. I mean, she’s younger than I am and already she has accomplished more than I probably ever will! While I sit at home and worry about how busy my life is and how I need a break, Malala has been risking her life for a cause so near and dear to her and in the process getting shot in the face for her efforts, forcing her to spend months in the hospital recovering. Wow. Now THAT takes some guts!

                And if you’re thinking that she would never have been so outspoken if she knew her life was so at risk, you’re dead wrong. Malala apparently has used her time in the hospital envisioning a future confrontation with the Taliban, saying, "I think of it often and imagine the scene clearly. Even if they come to kill me, I will tell them what they are trying to do is wrong, that education is our basic right."

                It’s clear that for her, there are some causes that need to be fought for at all costs, even if that cost is your own life. It makes me think about my own life. Would I ever fight for a cause that could very possibly get me killed? Would you? It’s hard for most of us to imagine because we are so blessed to live in a country where getting shot in the head for being a human rights activist isn’t too likely to happen. But what if we were? Call me pessimistic, but I’m not so sure that there would be many of us that would speak out against human rights abuses if doing so could be so dangerous. I sure hope I’m wrong about that.

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Here's the original article: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/teen-activist-malala-yousafzai-discharged-hospital-article-1.1258866

And here's a video. So you can watch it, you know?

Duped by Doctors

            A forty one year old single mom was told by her Brooklyn hospital that she has stage 4 lung cancer and was given about six months to live. But that’s not the saddest part of this tale. Two years prior to her diagnosis, Laverne Wilkinson had reported to the same very hospital complaining of intense chest pain, thinking she was having a heart attack. An X-ray showing a sketchy-looking two-inch nodule in her right lung was disregarded, and she was given a clean bill of health and sent home with some pain medication. The information about the nodule in her lung was neither mentioned to her then nor during the two years of follow up appointments where she complained of chronic coughing.

            Last spring, when she went to the ER due to breathing difficulties, another X-ray was taken, this time showing that the same nodule from two years earlier had more than doubled in size and spread to her other lung, liver, spine, and brain. Diagnosis, take 1: suspicious nodule = nothing to worry about. Diagnosis, take 2: suspicious nodule = cancerous, patient will die in six months. Oops. Well, sorry! Better luck next time!

            To make things worse, it turns out that if Laverne Wilkinson’s cancerous tumor had been correctly diagnosed two years earlier, she could have been easily cured. However, since it wasn’t and had time to spread, grow, her chances of living another year are slim to none.

            As she grows weaker, she and her fifteen year old daughter Micalia have been taken in by an aunt and members of her church. She is distraught at what will happen to her “little girl” Micalia, who has severe mental disability and autism.

            In an interview, Wilkinson stated, that "doctors need to be more careful and realize they have the lived of their patients in their hands. They are human and do make mistakes. [But] if it were a mistake where I was going to lose a lung and still live [for the sake of my daughter], then I could deal with that."

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            I am quite shocked and disgusted by all of this. In a situation like this, there is no amount of monetary compensation that can right this grievous wrong. What good can money do when you know you haven’t much longer to live? And what will happen to her daughter? Wilkinson appointed a guardian for her when she dies, but many expect Micalia will be put in an institution due to her condition. And nothing can or will ever replace the endless devotion and extraordinary love that only a mother can provide.

            Now not only are my mom and dad both doctors, but practically all the adults in my family are involved in the medical career as well. I have had to sit through many a dinner where I have to listen to rants about how careless Doctor 1 is or how incompetent Doctor 2 is. And remember that time Doctor 3 forgot something and almost killed his patient? CLASSIC!

            So if recklessness and negligence are so common within the field of medicine, should we be concerned the next time we have a doctor’s appointment? Who can we trust if we can’t trust our doctors, the very people in whose hands we place our lives when we’re sick (and sometimes, even when we aren’t or at least don’t think we are yet)?

            Obviously, not all doctors are this shoddy, and most are in fact quite proficient at what they do. But because of times like these, I think it would be beneficial if there was a lot more instruction and warning given to med students during their residency (or whenever really, as long as it’s before they are unleashed upon the world on their own) on the dangers of medical malpractice. Not only will it ruin their careers, but more importantly it will ruin the lives of their patients and those who love them. Possibly creating more redundancies and fail safes into standard operating procedures at hospitals (in addition to the ones that already are in place) will eliminate or at least reduce the number of times these unfortunate incidents come up.

            What do you guys think should be done about this? Are any of you interested in medicine? If so, what do you think the best course of action is, if any at all?

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Read the original article here. Only if you really want to, of course. I mean, it's not like I'm going to make you read it or anything, but I thought it would be nice if I provided the link (or in this case, hypertext) for you guys if you wanted it. Even if just for kicks and giggles, you know?