Health News
Here’s a brief round-up of a few health-related news stories hitting the headlines, from a baby that survived the odds and calls for medicinal marijuana in the UK, to horrific homeopathy ingredients and a foxy friend keeping a recovering patient company post-op.
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Some Great News : Birthday Celebrations After Baby’s “Zero” Chance Of Survival
Lily and Ashley from Essex, UK, were thrilled when they discovered they were expecting a baby. They had heartbreaking news at the 16 week gender reveal scan: the doctor told them the child had “a zero percent change of survival”, with a rare pelvic ureteric junction obstruction condition and two dilated kidneys that would likely burst before she was worn. The devastated couple had already gone through five miscarriages and weren’t prepared to give up on their unborn child.
Another doctor made the suggestion of surgery after she was born. Little Ruby was born in 2020, sent straight into the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to be monitored, and a few months later went into surgery.
Baby Ruby was given no chance of survival, and yet she is now at home with mum and dad, thriving and having just celebrated her first birthday in February. Read more about miracle baby Ruby here.
Not Even Sedation Can Keep This Little Guy Down!
3 year old Messiah Ferrell went into hospital needing a procedure to reset the bones in his arm after breaking them. His mother, Little Messiah Ferrell, from Kentucky, was in the room with her little boy, thinking he’d be off to the land of nod in no time after the doctor administered sedatives for the procedure. Nope. This adorable little boys seems determined not to sleep, even with the doctor trying to coax him into lying back and resting.
I wonder what he’s usually like at bed time?
Homeopathy Horrors – From Sperm Whale Vomit to Penile Gonorrhoea Discharge
This is a story that’ll make you investigate products before you buy them. There are lots of great homeopathy products and brands out there, but of course there will always be dodgy companies and dubious claims mixed in.
The Mail Online discovered and flagged up numerous products being sold by Amazon and listed as genuine medicines, but none of them were proven to work on any illnesses. In reality, they contained the likes of sperm whale vomit, rabid dog saliva, breast cancer cells, the pus of scabies blisters & syphilis, and even the penile discharge of men with gonorrhoea.
Yum! Feeling sick yet? Always flag something up if you think it’s dangerous or suspicious, and if you’re in doubt, don’t buy it. A thorough Google search can usually dredge up more information on the brand, reviews, ingredients and so on. Read more about the revolting alternative ‘medicines’ and their ingredients here.
Foxy Friends
A sweet story here. 70-year-old Geoff gave a poorly fox cub a new lease of life last year. After Geoff underwent eye surgery a couple of months ago, little Woody the fox hasn’t left his side. They’re now best buds as Geoff recuperates 
. See the sweet foxy photos here.
A Grim Milestone : Over 5 Million Patients Awaiting NHS Hospital Treatment
As of June 2021, the NHS waiting list has hit an unfavourable milestone, with over 5 million patients waiting for routine treatment.
NHS England’s data suggests that some patients have waited two years for “routine operations” like knee and hip replacements, with figures rising steadily since the pandemic began. Over 436,000 patients have waited longer than 2 weeks for treatment. The number of patients waiting routine treatment in England has increased by around 50,000 in just a single month.
Delays have become commonplace worldwide while dealing with Covid19, but many patients have been put on the back-burner for potentially life-changing or life-saving treatments and surgeries.
Many patients have struggled to even get a GP appointment in the UK, with practices declining face-to-face visits in favour of online triage and telephone appointments. There are also patients reluctant and worried about seeing their doctor given the risk of coronavirus, and those who don’t want to feel they’re a burden when the public is continually told how much strain the system is under.
Experts worry there’s a time bomb of undiagnosed illnesses during this time, and that’s in addition to the many patients awaiting treatments. The current figures from NHS England show 5.12 million people waiting for NHS treatment, which is the highest figure ever recorded.
Critics urge this backlog be dealt with as a top priority but fears are being voiced that unlocking the country on the so-called “freedom day” could see the already-rising Covid cases soar even further, scuppering plan to deal with the backlog if hospitals are put under further pressure. While these figures relate to NHS England, it’s a situation that’s likely affecting hospital care worldwide during this time of crisis.
Boy, 9, Pleads For Boris Johnson To Help With Medicinal Marijuana
Little Thomas Braun, age 9, has written a letter to No 10 Downing Street pleading for his brother Eddie to be allowed medicinal cannabis. Eddie suffers from complex and severe epilepsy with up to 100 seizures in one day. The family could look at private medical marijuana, but this would cost up to £2,000 per month when it should, in theory, now be available on the NHS. Braun has urged Boris Johnson to help, but unfortunately this is just one case among many.
Medicinal cannabis was legalised for UK use on the NHS in 2018. Since then, only 3 people have been granted it. There are many desperate people wanting to see if this could help them or their loved ones, yet are unable to even try it. Cannabis has proven life-changing for a myriad of conditions, from seizures to migraines. We come across cases like this one in the news where a family tries to get media attention to force the hand of the NHS, something which should absolutely not be required.
For most patients, medical marijuana isn’t even an option a doctor or specialist would consider thinking about, even if you have exhausted other options and have begged to try this as a last avenue. Clearly the system is not working. Was this just a publicity stunt to save face without ever really intending on allowing patients to access it?
Have you come across these health news stories already, or has another headline caught your eye recently?
Caz ♥
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23 comments
The NHS sounds like it needs a complete overhaul to be even remotely functional.
Everything about homeopathy is messed up. It seems to be a common misconception that they’re just another kind of herbal product, but no, they’re things like gonorrhea. Granted, it gets diluted so much and shaken to give the water memory (!!!) that there probably aren’t any actual gonorrhea beasties left in it. But you might be that lucky person who does get beasties…
I think I’d have to agree with you there on overhauling the NHS. Unfortunately any changes they’ve tried to initiate over the years just seem to make things more frustrating for staff and patients, and most schemes have been an utter waste of money. It’s the people making these decisions that are really not helping matters.
Gonorrhoea beasties, delicious. If they put that in a readable-sized font on the front of a bottle I doubt they’d sell as many ????
Your healthcare sure looks dismal. When the government steps in the healthcare isn’t the best. Our Veterans healthcare system is awful. Same kind of thing. Hurry up and wait and wait and wait.
Have a fabulous day, Caz. Big hug. ♥
Yes, when the government and other bigwigs out of touch with the needs of society step in, it becomes political and a total shambles. I’m sorry the veterans healthcare system there is so dire. They need more input from real people who use these services as well as the staff working in them. Otherwise they throw money at it, waste it and makes things worse in the process.
I hope you have a relaxing weekend, Sandee! ???? xx
How on earth do ‘companies’ obtain these ingredients… why? I can’t stop scrunching up my face with cringe! ????
It does make you wonder how anyone would ever, ever think of trying out such ingredients in the first place. What makes you think, “oh I know, I’ll try some penile discharge from a guy down the road with gonorrhoea” or I”‘ll visit the beach and see if a whale’s puked up some yumminess to put in these pills”? Bizarre indeed! xx
Purely for shits and giggles surely? Probably is shit in there somewhere! Xx
Baby Ruby ???????????? Thanks for sharing these stories, many of which I hadn’t heard here in Canada
My pleasure, Christy. I’m really glad there were some new stories here that you’d not come across before ???? xx
Some lovely stories amongst the grim and ????
I avoided the doctors since Covid, where I could. I only had a nurse appointment last year, that I didn’t need and so she did the other I would have had later in the year to save coming back.
Then later in the year, my repeat prescription was telling me to make an appointment for that and so I was leaving a message via a message based system to say I already had it and so I wasn’t coming in, explaining why, which I was limiting places I didn’t need to be to protect my mum. It needed sorting so I could get a repeat, which it was.
Before this Christmas, I probably won’t be able to avoid a routine check with nurse. So that will be about November time I think, if that’s the case.
Sounds like a good idea to avoid things like this if you don’t need it, it’s all extra exposure to places and additional risk. I wish they’d make allowances so that appointments or prescriptions are more convenient for patients to save numerous trips to the GP practice or pharmacist that could be done in one go. I can’t avoid the doctors unfortunately but I would if I could! A lot of things can be done, or should be able to be done, on the phone or online, like reviewing the repeat prescriptions as you mentioned. I hope you can get away with just the one visit later this year xx
I loved the story snippets. So inspiring! But the nasty ingredients in the homeopathy meds are so disgusting! Blech! The NHS sounds like a nightmare to deal with. I sincerely hope that gets better.
Glad you liked the news snippets, Kymber! The homeopathy ingredients are pretty shocking, aren’t they? I don’t imagine many people would buy the products though if they told people clearly on the front of the bottle what was in them! Hope you have a restful weekend lovely ???? xx
Oh, that baby…wow, what an incredible story.
I’ve never really been interested in homeopathy treatments. I’m even less so now. Eugh!!!
The waiting list situation is so concerning. I really don’t see how it can improve any time soon. Things were bad enough before the pandemic.
Isn’t it ridiculous that people are unable to access medical cannabis? It’s probably safer and more effective than some meds that are prescribed, yet it’s a big fat no. I know it won’t help everyone, but surely it should be available for some cases. Makes me kind of annoyed.
So you’re not interested in some rabid dog saliva tablets, Liz? I don’t know why not ???? I’m being made to trial more tablets for chronic migraines, this time some beta-blockers, despite me having low blood pressure. The chemicals and the risks are quite high and the chance of them working is small, and then I think about cannabis… much less risky, and a lot of people find it significantly helps migraines. It’s mind-boggling people can’t even try it – legally – to see if it helps. xx
No, they don’t really appeal to me, lol!
I hope the beta blockers help, but do you have a BP monitor?
I also have low blood pressure and was put on to beta blockers years ago for heart palpitations. They helped, and they also seemed to help my migraines a bit. They didn’t really make my low BP any worse. However, a few years later, I was put on to meds for my facial pain and the two meds combined dropped my BP significantly. I felt ill, but that was nothing unusual. I kind of staggered into my GP’s surgery and my BP was dangerously low. She got a bit of a shock that it was so low. I guess the dangers of feeling crap all the time is that you don’t always notice that there’s something wrong and act on it until it can become dangerous.
So, I have my fingers crossed they help your migraines, but do keep a check on your BP.
I’m so sorry about the waiting list for routine treatments. I know no health care system is perfect, but I it bothers me how many Americans want us to switch to a totally government-run system. They don’t realize how long they will wait for routine treatments if that happens.
I can see the draw for many with government-led systems for “free” access to healthcare, but it’s paid for in taxes and the resulting care is not what you’d expect. As you say, the wait for treatment may come as a shock to those wanting a government-run system in the States. But the prices paid over there, with or without insurance, is awful. It prices people out of the care they need, and there is something incredibly sick and wrong about that. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Ann. xx
Lulu: “So I guess now we know that what the fox says is ‘Thank you, Geoff!'”
Thank you, Geoff ????
Quite a sweet pair of friends! x
Re: That homeopathic stuff being sold on Amazon, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go throw up now. But at least it sounds like if I catch the vomit in a bucket, I can dilute it down and sell it for a tidy profit as a homeopathic antiemetic …
Mix the vomit with cat poop and call it a “super strength” homeopathic antiemetic.
Awww, now I want a fox!