Man to leave hospital with heart device
Fri, 20 Jul 2007 21:27:41 GMTBy CHERYL WITTENAUER, Associated Press Writer
ST. LOUIS - It took a record nine months in intensive care at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, but a Kansas man will be back home Saturday, thanks to an experimental heart-assist device that keeps his heart pumping.
Hospital officials said it's the longest stay the cardiothoracic ICU has had, and that a lot of technology was used to keep Wilson Guthrie alive. The lifesaving device is in clinical trials and hasn't been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
"We're very excited to see him go home," Guthrie's sister, Teresa Rico, a family practitioner, said. "He's a lot better."
Guthrie, 61, who has end-stage heart failure, was waiting at home for a heart transplant. But when his condition "profoundly deteriorated" last fall, he was airlifted to Barnes-Jewish for a temporary mechanical heart pump, "to see if he would turn around," his physician, Nader Moazami, said.
"I told the family he has a 90 percent chance of dying," said Moazami, surgical director of the hospital's and Washington University School of Medicine's heart transplant and artificial heart programs.
The mechanical pump, an external device that can only be used in an ICU, is intended to support a patient for a month or two. Over the next few months, his liver function and breathing recovered enough that Guthrie was ready for the next step. But what?
He was reconsidered for a transplant, but with his kidneys still in failure and with intermittent internal bleeding, he was disqualified. The temporary pump kept him captive to the ICU.
Guthrie's small stature made him unsuitable for larger heart pumps, which would not have fit into his body. The only option was the smaller HeartMate II pump, which wasn't approved by the FDA, and Guthrie's insurance company wouldn't pay for it — initially.
Through a series of letters and phone calls to the FDA and Humana Health Care, Moazami was able to persuade them to allow the compassionate use of the experimental device for Guthrie.
"We had no choice with this gentleman," he said. "He was too healthy not to do anything, but he was stuck in the ICU."
Once the new device was implanted, Guthrie recovered remarkably. His kidney function and physical strength returned, and he got out of the ICU. He has not yet regained his appetite, but "given what he's been through, this is minor," Moazami said.
"He's got nine lives. I think we've used eight of them."
Barnes-Jewish doctors are familiar with HeartMate II because the hospital is one of the institutions participating in the clinical trial.
A small pump implanted in the body, it is attached to a half-inch cable connected to a battery pack that recharges it. It's mobile. Moazami said one of his patients in the clinical trial delivers pizzas.
The device will stay inside Guthrie, and he should do well, as long as it's durable — perhaps as long as five years. When it fails, he'll either get a replacement or be considered for a heart transplant.
Barnes-Jewish is the only heart center in Missouri that offers the HeartMate II and a wide variety of other devices tailored to patient needs, Moazami said.
Armstrong to hold cancer forums in Iowa
Fri, 20 Jul 2007 21:36:26 GMTBy JIM VERTUNO, Associated Press Writer
AUSTIN, Texas - Lance Armstrong is pushing his cancer fight into presidential politics. The cancer survivor, activist and seven-time winner of the Tour de France announced he will hold presidential candidate forums on cancer next month in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
"For me personally, it's just to make sure that whatever candidates we have now, and then ultimately the two who want to be president, discuss the No. 1 killer in this country, just like they would discuss war or terror or taxes," Armstrong said in a video statement on his foundation Web site.
"I think whoever wants to be commander in chief ought to answer the cancer question," Armstrong said.
The forums are scheduled for Aug. 27 for Democrats with the Republicans the next day.
Organizers said every announced presidential candidate and all-but-declared Fred Thompson, a Republican, have been invited. Five have accepted so far.
"We'd like to see them all there," said Sean Mossman, spokesman for the LiveStrong Presidential Candidate Forum.
Mossman said the five who have confirmed attendance include Democrats John Edwards, a former North Carolina senator whose wife Elizabeth is battling breast cancer that spread to bone, and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico. The Republicans are Tommy Thompson, former governor of Wisconsin and former head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
"We feel very confident there will be more candidates coming on," Mossman said.
Armstrong, who survived testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain, has become politically active as a cancer activist since retiring from professional cycling.
In May, he played a significant role lobbying Texas lawmakers on a proposal to spend $3 billion in bonds on cancer research. The issue goes before Texas voters in November and Armstrong has said he'll be a visible presence in the campaign to get it approved.
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On the Net:
Lance Armstrong Foundation: http://www.laf.org
Indonesia to increase funding for AIDS
Fri, 20 Jul 2007 21:29:52 GMTJAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia will increase the amount of money it spends on fighting AIDS by 75 percent over the next three years, with the major focus on hardest-hit Papua province, the welfare minister said.
Indonesia has one of Asia's fastest growing HIV rates, with up to 290,000 infections out of 235 million people, fueled mainly by injecting drug users and prostitution.
Health authorities have warned that a failure to take prompt action in areas like Papua — where infections are 15 times the national average — could result in 1 million people infected with HIV within a few years.
Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie said late Thursday the government would increase the amount of money budgeted for the AIDS fight from $67 million last year to $263 million in 2010.
The government also wants to reduce its dependency on international donors, which have contributed up to 70 percent to the national AIDS budget, he said.
The main focus of the new spending would be on Papua, which now receives only 4 percent of the money budgeted for AIDS even though it is the
Businessman pleads in steroids case
Fri, 20 Jul 2007 21:28:32 GMTBy ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press Writer
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - A businessman pleaded guilty Friday to illegally distributing steroids and human growth hormone, admitting he paid doctors to write unnecessary prescriptions for hundreds of patients they never met or examined.
Daniel McGlone, 54, became the third and final defendant to plead guilty in the federal case, joining two doctors who were recruited to write the prescriptions.
He pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Providence to 50 counts, including conspiracy, illegal drug distribution, money laundering and health care fraud. He has agreed to forfeit the more than $830,000 prosecutors say he obtained through the scheme, which ran from April 2004 to August 2006.
McGlone, who operated American Pharmaceutical Group out of his apartment in North Brunwsick, N.J., advertised his company in publications geared to bodybuilders. When customers — including some from Rhode Island — contacted him, he advised them on which drugs they should take for weight loss, anti-aging and other purposes for which the substances were not approved.
McGlone then forwarded the orders to Victor Mariani and Ana Maria Santi to write the prescriptions. Mariani is a New York doctor, while Santi, who had lost her medical license years before, signed the prescriptions under the name of a retired doctor in California.
Mariani and Santi already have pleaded guilty in Rhode Island and are awaiting sentencing.
Among the pharmacies that McGlone used to fill the prescriptions was Orlando, Fla.-based Signature Pharmacy, whose owners were indicted in a larger steroid investigation brought by prosecutors in Albany, N.Y. The owners have pleaded not guilty and are not charged in Rhode Island.
McGlone's sentencing was scheduled for Nov. 2. Guidelines call for a prison term of three years and 10 months to four years and nine months.
McGlone and his attorney, Robert Mann, declined to comment as they left the courtroom.
