Medical Treatments and Procedures

Drugs, Sex & the Rockets: 5 Reasons Why a Hospital Stay Sucks

No one likes a hospital stay. That's pretty much a given. But why don't they like it? We need research! Luckily (sorta), I've had some experience lately -- a six-week stay that ended in January, and a surprise return visit last week. So let me offer my five reasons why staying in a hospital sucks. ... More >>

Last Shot: A Concert Photographer's Battle With Cancer

[Ed. Note: This post originally appeared on Heard Mentality, the music blog of our sister paper OC Weekly. Longtime concert photographer and OCW contributor Andrew Youssef found out almost two years ago that he had Stage IV colon cancer. In that time, he has continued to shoot tons of music events f ... More >>

Annise & the Kiss-In

Pradaxa Lawsuits Consolidated in Beautiful East St. Louis, Illinois

Families suing the maker of anti-clotting drug Pradaxa will have their cases consolidated in an East St. Louis, Illinois, court -- a decision the Texas-based law firm leading the suits is calling a coup. Pradaxa hit the U.S. market in 2010, hailed by manufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim as a major le ... More >>

Lone Star College Doesn't Want State-Mandated Vaccines to Stand Between It and "Thousands of Dollars" in Student Tuition

An administrator at Lone Star College, apparently spooked by the number of perspective incoming students who hadn't yet provided proof they received their state-mandated meningococcal vaccine that protects against meningitis, has told employees at her North Harris County campus to hand students an e ... More >>

Pradaxa Patients Can't Stop the Bleeding

There's only one really bad thing about the anti-clotting pill Pradaxa. You can't fall or get cut while taking it because once you start bleeding, there's almost no way to stop it. There's no reversal agent, no antidote.

Cover Story: Is the Blood-Thinner Pradaxa a Savior or a Killer?

Approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2010, a blood-thinner called Pradaxa was a great leap forward in the treatment of a heart disorder called atrial fibrillation. Or at least that's how it was marketed. There was just one slight problem: Unlike the drug it was meant to replace, Pradaxa ... More >>

Breaking It Down: The Hard Stuff

Painkiller addiction is one of the largest and fastest-growing problems among today's younger veterans.

Texas's Sonogram Law Gets New Lease on Life

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the temporary injunction on Texas's so-called sonogram law, clearing the way for abortion providers to enforce the new mandate. The law, championed by Senator Dan Patrick, requires a sonogram whenever a woman seeks an abortion. The law requires the wom ... More >>

Miracle Faker

Rick Perry is right: America can learn from Texas. He's just wrong about what the lesson is.

Doctor Doctor

Billy Cohn wanted to be a rock star, and he is — as a trombone-toting heart surgeon and medical inventor.

Johnson & Johnson Hip Replacement Lawsuit Spearheaded by Houston Attorney

​A "medical disaster" has occurred and a Texas attorney is, in his opinion, working to clean up the mess. Ed Blizzard is a heavy-hitting, Houston-based pharmaceutical injury lawyer and mass tort litigation expert. As a chief negotiator in a 1990s case against Dow Corning -- which was found to ... More >>

Abortion Sonogram Hearing: Novel Arguments from Plaintffs, So Judge Wants More Briefs

Novel arguments from abortion-rights supporters, judge says.​Opponents trying to block the state's new so-called sonogram bill may have a tougher road in Texas than they've had in other states. This morning's hearing in Austin, before U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, did not produce an immedia ... More >>

Texas Mandatory-Sonogram Bill: Court Challenge Ramps Up Tomorrow

Group says new law "imposes stress and emotional strain on women as they prepare to undergo a medical procedure."​The legal challenge to the new bill that forces women who are seeking an abortion to get a sonogram begins for real tomorrow, with a hearing on a temporary injunction barring enfo ... More >>

Christina Clardy: West U Doctor, Two Others Convicted in $30 Million Medicaid Fraud

Christina Clardy among those convicted.​Christina Clardy, a 61-year-old West U doctor, was convicted with two other people of running a massive Medicaid-and-money-laundering scam that somehow involved Nigerian tankers, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced today. Kenneth Anokam, 56, and Niger ... More >>

Five Texas Sluts Worth Admiring

SlutWalk Houston is right around the corner, and we've decided to celebrate, (Hair) Balls out. In case you're not familiar with the march, SlutWalk was born of a Toronto police officer's comment that women should avoid "dressing like sluts" in order not to be raped. It's a chance to stop the cycle o ... More >>

A Possible Houston Cure For Crack Addiction Runs Into Red-Tape Problems

Thomas R. Karsten believes he has a vaccine for coke​While a Houston doctor thinks he has found the cure for cocaine addiction, bureaucratic red tape is hindering the vaccine's approval and building doubts for its future success. "My hopes are pretty simple: number one, find some company in t ... More >>

Mandatory Abortion Sonograms Bill Passes: Ladies, Get Ready For Your Close-Ups

Dan Patrick has reason to smile; women, not so much.​Any woman seeking an abortion in Texas will be forced to undergo a sonogram and be asked if they want to view it or listen to the fetal heartbeat, thanks to a bill that passed today and that Governor Rick Perry says he can't wait to sign. P ... More >>

Nikki Araguz: Lawsuit Says Widow Of Heroic Wharton Firefighter, Was Born A Man

Photo from Facebook Nikki and Thomas Araguz​Nikki Araguz was the wife of Thomas Araguz II, a captain in the Wharton Volunteer fire deprartment who died earlier this monthfighting a blaze at a historic site.Nikki is now being sued by Thomas' mother and ex-wife, who claim he never knew that N ... More >>

Obama's Screwing Texas Out Of Swine Flu Vaccine!!!! Or Maybe Not

​Is Obama trying to kill Texans as revenge for not voting for him?Quite possibly, if you believe a list of swine-flu vaccine information getting e-mailed around. (And yeah, we're calling it swine flu, you H1N1 snobs.)What's being e-mailed is a list of vaccine doses shipped, broken down by state. C ... More >>

Getting the Spin from BARC: Things are just rosy at the pound, according to the Chronicle

Highlights from the Blog at HOUSTONPRESS.COM

The Chronicle's Columnist, Buying BARC's Spin

Photo by elvissaToday's Chron column by Lisa Falkenberg, headlined "Finally, a bit of good news out of BARC," might have been more accurately titled "When Public Relations Attacks!" What the column lacks in actual news value and insight, it makes up for by highlighting what might be one of BARC's th ... More >>

BARC Wants More City Money Now, Or Dogs And Staffers Will Die

The Bureau of Animal Regulation and Control vaccinated only eight percent of animals on entry between July 2008 and January 2009, according to a BARC supplement asking for additional funding from the city. "Best industry standard is to vaccinate all animals entering a shelter, to minimize ... More >>

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

You’d be pissed too if all you got was a little lump where your vagina should be

Uninsured 20somethings Prefer The DIY Method

Linda, a 28-year-old blonde, walked into the tiny restroom of the tony Italian restaurant with a friend. Linda locked the door, and carefully filled a syringe with clear fluid from a vial and tied off her arm to find a vein. Her friend eased the needle under Linda's arm and pushed the syringe's cont ... More >>

Rick Perry's HPV Vaccine Has A New Market: Immigrants

The Fantastic Foreskin: Under the Knife

Surgeons not rushing to put back what they took away

Guilt Tripping

No, Thanks. We'll Take Cancer.

Bad Medicine for Bill White

Re: Behind the Scenes of a Conference Call

Feel My Pain

A reporter goes after the online drug business and gets wasted

In the Pink

Surgeons are sculpting labia, reconnecting hymens and inventing a new standard of beauty in female genitalia

Ground Zero

Houston's been the No. 1 city in America in the obesity crisis. But hype doesn't mean help.

A Figure to Die For

Community Health Systems cashed in big on the stomach stapling rage. It almost cost Kaye Parsley her life.

Child Support

The same extreme measures that saved Sidney Miller at birth also severely disabled her 11 years ago. Texas courts are still trying to determine who should pay for it -- and could set a legal precedent in the process.

Nature of the Beast

Plastic surgeon Billy Ringer has been sued ten times for malpractice. He's on probation for sexual misconduct. He sewed a needle into Colleen Guidy. But he's still in business -- cutting, vacuuming, rearranging and, it seems, injuring patients.

Hot Shots

There's a bull market on the meningitis vaccine. Are some doctors cashing in?

Rejection Slips

The INS defends our borders and deports immigrant criminals. Sometimes, though, in its zeal, it tosses out perfectly law-abiding, hardworking people too.

The Man Who Knew Too Soon?

Eight years ago Tom Curtis reported that AIDS could have been spread by an experimental polio vaccine grown on monkey kidneys. Scientists sniffed. Journalists scoffed. The story died. Now, a new book says the theory wasn't so stupid after all.

Letters

Letters

Dealing with Adversity

Immune to Reason

Hundreds of thousands of Texas children, including 250,000 newborn babies, are routinely vaccinated against hepatits B each year. Why? Good question.

Crushing the Opposition

Baylor and Fulbright & Jaworski -- with the help of a lame duck judge -- see to it that Bonnie Dunbar won't get a chance to tell all in court

Biological Disaster

Zonagen Inc. took its name from Bonnie Dunbar's groundbreaking research into contraceptive vaccines. Then, when she wasn't looking, the company took her research.

Trial by Video

AG Dan Morales may not have won in court, but he won where it matters -- on TV

Malpractice

Dan Morales' showboating witch-hunt against "bogus" doctors is indeed an "incredible story." Incredibly lame.

Bullet Proof

The D.A.'s office gets under the skin of an accused robber

Cut & Run

He made millions sculpting the figures of Houston women while dodging one of the largest malpractice judgments in Texas history. But after botching another surgery, can Dr. Gerald Johnson continue to operate?