medicine •

Australia Uses Herpes to Eliminate Invasive Carp Species

May 4, 2016 By Germaine Hicks Leave a Comment

Just plain, ol’, regular carp. With herpes.

Australia, while it may be the one place in the world where everything is trying to kill you, is also home to some of the most strange and unique animals on the face of the Earth. This doesn’t take away from the fact that even the sun is trying to kill you over there, but it is of great importance.

What’s strange is that even though the country has plenty of native species that are particularly dangerous, one stranger than the next, it’s the regular animals that generally cause no small amount of trouble. And it would seem like the more normal the animal, the more trouble it will cause.

You might remember that at some point the country had been so overrun with stray cats that they had to set poison traps in order to get rid of the millions of felines. Dingoes were also introduced to the country by seamen some four thousand years ago, and they quickly became a nuisance.

In possibly one of the strangest approaches to eliminate an unwanted species, Australia uses herpes to eliminate invasive carp species. Yeah. Herpes. You read that right. Australia is using herpes to get rid of an invasive species of carp that has taken over almost an entire ecosystem.

And following the tradition, carp is one of the most common species of fish in the world. As it turns out, this particular species is so invasive that it currently makes up about eighty or ninety percent of all the fish in the Murray-Darling River system in southeastern Australia.

According to a statement released by the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources in Australia,

Carp have major negative impact on water quality and the amenity value of our freshwater rivers and lakes. This affects all water users, including irrigators and regional communities. Carp also have a devastating impact on biodiversity, and have decimated native fish populations in many areas since they first became established as a major pest in the wild in the 1960s.

So, authorities have found a special strain of the herpes virus that only affects carps. They are set to release the virus in the water by the end of 2018, and they are expecting it to kill somewhere around seventy or eighty percent of the carp population. Of course, another program is already being developed in order to get rid of the millions of carp corpses that will take over the river.

While the Cyprinid herpesvirus 3 has been previously tested and even used since the ‘90s in China, it is expected that after using it for the first time the authorities will only be able to use it within two or three years. Otherwise, the remaining carps will quickly become completely immune to the virus.

Image source: Wikimedia

One in Three Antibiotic Prescriptions Is Unnecessary

May 4, 2016 By Deborah Nielsen Leave a Comment

We’ve grown too accustomed to antibiotics, and we now see them as the answer to everything

Most of us have heard since we were little that if you don’t take them only when needed, you can develop resistance to antibiotics. At least that’s what was going on in my household. In fact, things are little different. You don’t become resistant to the antibiotics, the germs you’re attempting to fight do.

This can also sometimes happen when the medicine is taken correctly, so if you take antibiotics without needing them you risk giving birth to antibiotic-resistant super bacteria. These types of germs can be fatal, and often are, even though creating them can be very easily prevented.

Unfortunately, even though most doctors know about this, they still recommend plenty of antibiotics to people who don’t really need them. And this only serves to empower more and more bacterial strains. In fact, the situation is so bad that one in three antibiotic prescriptions is unnecessary.

That means that about 47 million unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions are given to United States citizens every year. And according to the study, most of these are given for conditions that don’t even benefit from antibiotics – conditions like colds, the flu, bronchitis, sore throats, and other similarly mostly harmless diseases.

For the study, the team of researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Pew Charitable Trust looked over data from previous CDC studies, and analyzed the antibiotic use for the years 2010 and 2011. They revealed some pretty concerning statistics related to negligent antibiotic prescriptions.

Around 154 million visits to the doctor each year (about 13 percent) end with an antibiotic prescription. Half of these are pointless, since they are prescribed for viral illnesses. About four out of ten (44 percent) of these prescriptions are given to patients with acute respiratory conditions like pneumonia, asthma, allergies, and sinus infections.

Medical experts are growing increasingly concerned with this habit, as it has started leading to a concerning number of deaths and untreatable infections. In fact, antibiotic-resistant bacteria already cause some two million illnesses every year and are responsible for some 23,000 death every year in the United States alone.

The White House has announced a plan last year to reduce these terrifying numbers to half by 2020. If they were to succeed, that would mean somewhere around 23 million fewer antibiotics prescribed every year. And that is a genuinely worrying number, particularly for physicians who should know that what they’re doing is dangerous.

According to the researchers, the reason as to why so many antibiotics are inappropriately prescribed is because doctors are concerned about patient satisfaction, so if the patients demand antibiotics, they usually get them. Plus, the study didn’t even consider the number of antibiotics prescribed by nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, or by any other profession other than doctors, so you know the numbers are, in fact, much worse.

Image source: Pixabay

Chantix and Zyban Smoking Cessation Drugs Don’t Urge Suicide

April 25, 2016 By Rebecca McGhee 1 Comment

Smoking is one of the most unhealthy habits in which someone can partake. It is responsible for millions of deaths every year, particularly in the form of lung cancer or many other forms of cancer of the respiratory system. It also led to the rise of cancers as the number one cause of death in twenty-one states.

While some don’t really care about the long-term effects of smoking, others most certainly do. And while they would want to quit, they just don’t have the conviction, motivation, or willpower to do so. But medicine has developed a lot of different treatments to help people finally kick the nasty habit.

So why aren’t more people using these treatments, you might ask? Well, the answer is that except for psychological treatments and some nicotine substitutes, most anti-smoking medicines were unrightfully banned or black-boxed because of the constant efforts of the tobacco industry to have their clients addicted.

But finally, seven years after they were slapped with the strictest warning in the country by FDA regulators, multiple studies prove that Chantix and Zyban smoking cessation drugs don’t urge suicide. The two drugs were said to cause conditions which turned to be the regular effects of giving up smoking.

Given a black box warning, the two drugs are now in totally different states of production. While Chantix is about to re-enter mass production, this time with a totally different box, Zyban has been available as generic bupropion for almost ten years, and so it hasn’t been actively marketed in quite some time.

The conditions with which the anti-smoking medications were associated include, but are not limited to hostility, aggression, depression, changes in behavior, generally low mood, and suicidal thoughts and actions. While these symptoms scared off many doctors and smokers, they are merely symptoms associated with quitting smoking, regardless of which, if any medication you may be on.

Results were finally published online on Friday evening, resonating with at least forty earlier studies claiming the same thing – that the two drugs were not at all dangerous, certainly incomparably so to the habit users are trying to quit in the first place. Finally, FDA has seen the black-boxing as what it was – a move by tobacco companies to keep promoting their poison.

The study concluded that the negative effects felt when quitting smoking with the help of either of the two drugs were no different than for those using a placebo, and that is in the worst case scenario. One of the developers of the two drugs also wanted to share his story, saying how he was a lifelong smoker until he quit cold turkey after his entire family died one member after another as a result of years of smoking.

Image source: Pixabay

Magic Mushrooms’ Psilocybin Reduces Social Exclusion Pain

April 20, 2016 By Chen Lai Leave a Comment

We do not promote drug use, unless you really know what you’re getting yourself into

Even in the progressive and mostly open-minded society we live in, drugs are a subject of controversy and arguments. This is mostly caused by people clumping them all together under the moniker “drugs”, but also by continuous insistence of the United States government to keep them as illegal as possible.

And while marijuana might have won some traction in the past few years, with its recreational use becoming legal in a few states and its medicinal use in even more of them, other drugs that are just as useful and have as much potential are still universally banned.

And this is a shame, because if researchers were allowed to study those drugs even half as intensely as some people smoke tobacco or drink alcohol, we would have had the cures to many more mental diseases and issues than we do now. But finally, it seems like some researchers are given a green light to do some light experiments on these “dangerous narcotics”, and they discovered some pretty interesting things.

After last week a team of researchers discovered why LSD makes you feel one with the universe, this week we a have a different team that shows that the magic mushrooms’ psilocybin reduces social exclusion pain. In case you haven’t caught on, psilocybin is the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms, which are also colloquially known as magic mushrooms.

The study, led by postdoctoral researcher Katrin Preller from the University of Zurich, shows that the psilocybin in magic mushrooms greatly reduces the emotional response associated with being socially excluded. This works by attenuating the activity in the associated areas of the brain.

For the research, 21 participants had to play video games and take magic mushrooms. Of course, there’s more to it than that, but it just goes to show that you can still be paid for doing what you love. Anyway, the participants had to play a video game with what they assumed were two people but were actually two separate AIs.

As they were playing, the AIs were also including the participants in their conversation, but they gradually started ignoring them and only talking among themselves. The test was taken twice by each participant, once as they were given a low dose of psilocybin, and once more as they were given a placebo.

Expectedly, even if they remained aware during both circumstances that the two AIs (whom they thought to be people) were ignoring them, the participants reported far fewer feelings of exclusion when they were given the psychoactive substance.

Of course, the volunteers were also looked at in an MRI machine in order to have their brain activity studied. Three major conclusions were drawn from the brain scans, each related to how the substance affected the brain and how its regions communicated with each other.

First and foremost, there was far less activity in the areas of the brain that had to do with anxiety, stress, and depression. Next, instead of focusing on those areas, the brain instead made connections between areas that don’t normally communicate with each other, thus bringing forth some hallucinations and reducing negative feelings.

Last but not least, just like LSD and some other psychoactive substances, psilocybin was shown to increase subjective feelings of connection to the environment and to other people, something that leads to stronger empathetic connections between people and reduction of the egocentric bias. This allows you to better understand your peers, making it nearly impossible to get upset with them, and allowing you to feel a connection with everyone and everything.

Image source: Wikimedia

The Most Beloved Plastic Surgeries Among Americans

February 29, 2016 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

Buttock lifts and implants are the fastest-growing types of plastic surgery.

It seems like the most beloved plastic surgeries among Americans are butt implants and male breast reduction, according to a new report.

As far as we know, plastic surgery is a medical practice used to improve the aesthetic features of the body or restoration of body parts which get damaged due to accidents. Plastic surgery includes cosmetic and non-cosmetic surgeries, reconstructive surgery, aesthetic surgery, micro-surgery, etc.

However, buttock lifts and implants are the fastest-growing types of plastic surgery, according to a new report from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The organization’s annual report shared that from 2000 to 2015, the rate of people undergoing lifts rose by 252 percent.

In the past 15 years, cosmetic procedures have increased by 115 percent overall. Last year, the top five cosmetic procedures were breast augmentation, liposuction, nose reshaping, eyelid surgery, and tummy tuck; while the top five minimally invasive procedures were Botox, soft tissue fillers, chemical peels, laser hair removal, and microdermabrasion, Medical Daily reported.

Both men and women are undergoing various cosmetic procedures. Surgical procedures increased by up to 7 percent (1,912,468 surgeries), nonsurgical procedures increased by 22 percent (10,879,909 surgeries) and combined procedures increased by 20 percent (12,792,377 procedures) compared to the procedures performed in 2014.

Our survey findings paint a clear picture of a healthy aesthetic marketplace, with considerable growth among surgical and nonsurgical procedures alike.

Dr. James Grotting, president of ASPS declared.

Firstly, men are now opening their doors to aesthetic enhancements. The report says that more men are opting to undergo breast reduction, a procedure that removes excess fat in the breasts of people with gynecomastia.

This condition happens when there is too much fat stored in the breasts of males. In one year, the number of men choosing male breast reduction increased to 25 percent compared to the date gathered in 2014.

Secondly, women are problematic with fats being stored in the wrong places. A new procedure called fat grafting lets people choose a part of the body where they want their fat from undesirable places to be transferred. For instance, they want the fat in their love handles to be transferred to their breasts, face or buttocks.

In 2015, about 50,000 people underwent this procedure.

Moreover, since the formulation for Botox injectables was improved, more people opt for this procedure to reduce wrinkles caused by aging. In 2015, the number of procedures increased by 21 percent.

People who wanted to improve the appearance of their buttocks in 2015 increased as well, with 32 percent increase in buttock lifts and buttock implants performed compared from 2014. Other popular trends are nonsurgical skin tightening, tattoo or hair removal and liposuction.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons has nicknamed 2015 ‘the year of the rear’ for buttock implants or lifts being performed at record-breaking rates, but also because of the emphasis placed on celebrities with disproportionately large and perfectly round bottoms.

All in all, people choose to undergo plastic surgery for a variety of reasons, including to reconstruct areas of the body following an accident or invasive surgery, to correct birth defects or genetic imperfections, or to enhance one’s own appearance for self-esteem purposes.

Furthermore, a recent research has shown that lower ratings of self-esteem and life satisfaction as well as increased media exposure to cosmetic surgery via television programs play a role in a person’s decision to get plastic surgery.

Image Source: atlplastic.com.

Baby’s Fever Is Not A Sign Of Teething After All

February 20, 2016 By Deborah Nielsen Leave a Comment

Baby’s fever is not a sign of teething after all.

Turns out baby’s fever is not a sign of teething after all. A recent study, published in the journal Pediatrics, reveals that high-grade fevers are not a sign of teething. Rather, it might be a sign of another illness, and parents and doctors shouldn’t just ignore it.

Throughout history, parents, as well as practitioners, have attributed a number of maladies to teething. It was, perhaps, an easy explanation for the ever-changing behavior of an infant and illnesses during children’s vulnerable early years.

For hundreds of years, medical professionals believed that teething caused the deaths of children. When Lucy Jefferson, President Thomas Jefferson’s sixth child, died at age in 1784 at age 2 1/2, a letter from the doctor declared that she ‘fell a Martyr to the Complicated evils of teething, Worms and Hooping Cough.’

On another note, the 1842 Registrar General’s report of England and Wales attributed 12% of all deaths of children younger than 4 to teething. The 1891 ‘In Cyclopedia of the Disease of Children,’ a respected medical text of the time, stated that children that have been strong and healthy up to the period of dentition often droop and die, while the delicate or sickly ones pass through it with apparent impunity.

However, as medical care improved, it became increasingly clear that there were other reasons behind infant mortality, and teething was more annoyance than a sickness.

Now, every modern parent has been once through this. Somewhere between 2 and 12 months, the baby’s teeth make their grand, grumpy entrance.

Some babies are fussier than usual when they are teething. This may be because of soreness and swelling in the gums before a tooth comes through. Also, babies may bite on their fingers or toys to help relieve the pressure in their gums. They may also refuse to eat and drink because their mouths hurt.

Another symptom is fever, as one of the oft-cited symptoms of teething, not always by doctors, more often by parents sharing advice. a new analysis of the actual symptoms of teething shows that fever probably isn’t one of them. In other words: If the kid is teething and has a fever, chances are they’re also sick.

If a child has a really high fever, or is in significant discomfort, or won’t eat or drink anything for days, that’s a red flag for concern.

declared Dr. Paul Casamassimo, director of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry’s Pediatric Oral Health and Research and Policy Center.

However, the analysis didn’t completely dismiss a parent’s intuition. It found the most common symptoms of teething were swollen gums, drooling and crankiness. Symptoms shouldn’t last for more than three to five days, Casamassimo added, but he did acknowledge that it can feel much longer.

Thus, he stated that parents should always monitor their child, closely checking for other symptoms. ‘Symptoms are not a chronic thing. They come and go, and the job of the parent is to comfort the child, and keep their finger on the pulse of their child. Is the child eating? Staying hydrated?‘, the doctor added.

The study showed that teething can lead to a rise in body temperature still below 101 degrees Fahrenheit. Teething is also associated with decreased appetite, sleeping problems, diarrhea, rash and vomiting.

The question that still remains is: How to manage teething? There are a lot of old beliefs and advice here, too.

Dr. Paul Casamassimo strongly believes that a cold piece of cloth and some teething toys can ease child’s discomfort. But if it still didn’t work, parents can use infant pain reliever.

However, Casamassimo stated that parents just need to be careful about using pain reliever as it can cause tooth decay. Moreover, he pointed out that parents should stay away from topical anesthetics that contain benzocaine and lidocaine.

All in all, while it can be a trying time, the process of teething is normal. Of course, every kid is going to have it in slightly different ways, but parents should definitely pay close attention to the symptoms. If things get out of hand, the experts’ advice is to immediately call a doctor.

Image Source: shopgirl.com.au.

College Students Are Using ADHD Meds All Wrong

February 17, 2016 By Germaine Hicks Leave a Comment

A growing percentage shows that college students are using Adderall without a prescription.

It has come to the experts’ attention that college students are using ADHD meds all wrong. More precisely, the improper use of the stimulant is becoming a bigger problem among young adults, as a growing percentage shows that they are using the drug without a prescription.

The problem of studying all night for an exam or the need to learn faster is very ‘popular’ among young adults. As as answer to that problem, the simulant Adderall comes to rescue and it seems like its potential is being abused by students and young professionals who believe they need it for a better focus. New research finds misuse of the drug has been growing, and comes with many risks.

Of course, this is not the first attempt to understand the risks of using amphetamines. Previous studies have shown that the use can lead to a harsh range of dangerous side-effects, including dependence, sudden death and serious cardiovascular events, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

About this new study, we know that researchers looked at U.S. trends from 2006 through 2011 specifically regarding concerns and the misuse of stimulants among children and teens. Three national surveys were analyzed, which included those with information on the following: doctors visits, drug use and ER visits. These were used to track stimulant use with such drugs as Adderall and Ritalin/Concerta.

Data showed that over the six-year study period, treatment visits involving Adderall for adults between the ages of 18 and 25 did not change. However, non-medical use of the drug increased by 67% and emergency room visits skyrocketed by 156%. The trends for Ritalin did not change during this period.

On another note, the study found that the most common way of getting non-prescribed Adderall was from family and friends, two-thirds of whom obtained the drug by prescription.

In the light of the new findings, the experts give their best advice. Study co-author Ramin Mojtabai declared that these drugs should be monitored so as to reduce the risk of dependence and so that college-age students can better understand that potential side-effects of the medications.

Also, study co-author Ramin Mojtabai, a professor of mental health at the Bloomberg School, stated that drugs like Adderall should be monitored as is done with prescription drug monitoring programs to reduce the abuse of prescription painkillers.

Many of these college students think stimulants like Adderall are harmless study aids, but there can be serious health risks and they need to be more aware.

he added to his statement.

The conclusion of this study is simple: the awareness needs to raise and proper education is key to improving the problem.

Image Source: recovery.org.

Things You Certainly Did Not Know About Sneezing

February 12, 2016 By Brian Galloway Leave a Comment

What actually goes on during during a big ‘achoo!’ is a lot more complex than what meets the eye.

New research reveals things you certainly did not know about sneezing and you have to be aware of, starting now.

While popular notion holds that sneezing disperses a uniform spray of fluid, the new research – published in the journal Experiments in Fluids – suggests this is not the case. MIT researchers used high-speed video to stop more than 100 sneezes in action, capturing those fractions of a second where saliva flies from the mouth and into the air. What they found was that sneezes don’t project a uniform spray, but instead produce fragments of fluid that resemble paint being hurled toward a canvas.

To reach their findings, the team used two high-speed monochrome cameras to record more than 100 sneezes – induced by nose tickling – of three healthy participants who were placed against a black backdrop.The high-speed imaging allowed researchers to capture around 200 milliseconds of each participant’s sneezes and analyze them frame by frame.

From their analysis, the researchers found that as soon as fluid leaves a person’s mouth through sneezing, it combines with the simultaneously exhaled air to form a balloon. As this balloon moves through the air, it breaks into thin threads that divide into sprays of different-sized droplets. These droplets either stay in the air or fall to the ground.

Moreover, the team found that for subjects whose sneezes contained more elastic saliva, their exhaled fluid stayed in thin threads for longer, meaning it traveled farther before breaking into droplets. The team declared that the findings came entirely as a surprise.

These stills were captured with a camera operating at 6,000 to 8,000 frames per second. The stills show how the fluid from sneezes travels very quickly.

Lydia Bourouiba, an assistant professor at MIT who led the study, said the goal of the research was to determine the size of the droplets emitted by a sneeze. Bourouiba also states that understanding how sneezing disperses droplets can help researchers map the spread of infections through the environment, as well as identify individuals who may be ‘super spreaders.’

The findings of this research are built on those of another study from the MIT team, which was reported by Medical News Today in 2014. In that study, the researchers found that droplets from coughs and sneezes travel around 200 times farther than previously thought. The team hopes that their previous research combined with their new study will help identify individuals who are most likely to spread illness, as well as aid the development of disease prevention models.

Currently, the researchers are setting up a new lab space at MIT specifically designed to accommodate parallel experiments to understand various modes of disease transmission. This space will also include a smaller, climate-controlled chamber in which they will be able to visualize sneezes, coughs and other modes of disease transmission, in collaboration with medical partners.

All in all, it is very interesting how a simple sneeze can mean so much more than we initially thought. It seems like what actually goes on during during a big ‘achoo!’ is a lot more complex than what meets the eye.

Image Sources: globe-views.com; p.o0bc.com.

African Americans Are Less Likely To Receive HIV Medical Care

February 5, 2016 By Jason Leathers Leave a Comment

Black men with HIV are less likely than whites and Hispanics to receive consistent care.

CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recently reported that African Americans are less likely to receive HIV medical care. From 2011 to 2013, blacks living in the United States less frequently received ongoing HIV medical care than patients of other ethnicities, according to the same research.

African American males were less likely to receive consistent medical care than African American females (35 percent and 44 percent, respectively). Among African Americans, receiving consistent HIV care was highest among those whose HIV infections were attributable to heterosexual contact. Those who got consistent HIV medical care for three years were considered consistently retained in care.

From 2012 to 2014, the CDC funded HIV testing, linkage to care, partner services and behavioral risk reduction programs through 61 state and local health departments and 151 community-based organizations.

To gauge the impact of these interventions, researchers examined data collected from the National HIV Prevention Program Monitoring and Evaluation concerning testing events and related services collected during this time period.

The researchers then determined the rate of HIV test positivity and linkage to HIV care within 90 days among non-Hispanic black women with new infection.

The number of annual CDC-funded testing events during this time period ranged from 702,328 to 793,894, and women aged 20 to 29 years accounted for 44.7% of all tests among black women. New diagnoses decreased 17% from 2012 to 2014; however, HIV test positivity rates remained relatively similar year to year.

Among black women with newly diagnosed infection, linkage to care within 90 days of diagnoses increased from a rate of 33.8% in 2012 to 50.1% in 2014. The researchers wrote that while these increases are beneficial to black women with newly diagnosed HIV, more interventions within the group may be needed to reach the 85% linkage rate targeted by the National HIV/AIDS Strategy.

The experts pointed out that, in order to continue to reduce HIV-related health disparities for black females in the United States, increasing HIV testing efforts among this group is needed to increase the percentage of black females living with HIV who are aware of their status.

Dr. Eugene McCray, the Director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention sustains that,

in order to stop the HIV epidemic among African Americans, we must tackle the social inequities influencing HIV health outcomes and the disparities that persist at every stage of the continuum of HIV care, including identifying approaches to promote early linkage to and retention in care.

To help, the CDC is crafting a high-impact prevention approach that is funding HIV prevention services that target gay, bisexual and transgender youth of color.

The efforts include PrEP and HIV treatment as prevention, along with nearly $277 million in grants over five years.

Image Sources: hivos.org; projectq.us.

Miracles Do Happen: The Story Of Dominique Smith’s Heart

February 5, 2016 By Deborah Nielsen Leave a Comment

Dominique ‘Nikki’ Smith

One could say that miracles do happen: the story of Dominique Smith’s heart is the proof of that. When 49-year-old Vicki Olds’ daughter, Domonique ‘Nikki’ Smith, unexpectedly died at age 18 in June 2015, the grieving mother immediately offered to donate Nikki’s heart to her friend, Tanisha Basham.

Domonique ‘Nikki’ Smith, a 18-year-old, Valparaiso University student from Lakes of the Four Seasons, was pronounced dead in june 2015, after being found drowned. After investigating the case, the police declared in a statement, that the unexpected drowning was an accident. The girl was only 18 years old when she died.

As the grieving mother, Vicki Olds, said goodbye to her daughter, she learned that a longtime friend had a younger sister, called Tanisha Basham, who needed a heart transplant. Tanisha Bahsam had been on a waiting list for a new heart, because she had congestive heart failure, for 18 months. So the only thing grieving mother, Vicki Olds, thought to do, was donate her daughter’s heart to Bahsam.

Tanisha initially declined this selfless gift. But Vicki insisted. Afterwards, Tanisha underwent a successful heart transplant surgery at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. What’s even more amazing is that the heart was a 100 percent match.

Dr. Antone Tatooles of Advocate Heart Institute at Christ Medical Center, said in a press release that he’s never witnessed a heart organ donation with such clear direction.

Fortunately, the match was proper, the size was proper, and it was the right heart for her.

he declared, in the same press release. Tatooles added that Olds’ donation was ‘incredibly generous’ in helping save Basham’s life.

Vicki and Tanisha shared their emotional story at a news conference Tuesday.

To know that, this is my baby who lives inside Tanisha, it was the most overwhelming thing a parent could ever experience, but yet it was a blessing.

Vicki said.

Nikki’s mother and the beneficiary of the transplant, Tanisha Basham.

According to ABC News, Basham honors Nikki by keeping a photo as a screensaver on her phone to remind her of the good fortune of Old’s generosity.

The medical center also added that when Tanisha Basham goes to her frequent echocardiogram appointments, Vicki accompanies her ‘so she can see her daughter’s heart beating in the body of her friend.’

According to the same medical center, Smith’s donated organs saved the lives of four other individuals, including another family friend who received a kidney.

Image Sources: ytimg.com; townnews.com.

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