Friday, December 3, 2010

Tips for parents of special education students | Somerville-Branchburg, NJ

Tips for parents of special education students

by Steve Reed on Nov 15th Comment Print | Email

School budgets are being squeezed and districts throughout New Jersey are looking to cut expenses.

But they can’t make certain decisions -- such as where special education students go to school -- solely on the basis of cost, said Evelina E.G. Padilla, an attorney with Hinkle, Fingles & Prior, a firm specializing in disabilities law.

Padilla spoke to about 12 parents and grandparents of special education students on Monday night at The Midland School, a Branchburg school that educates students with learning disabilities from 5 to 21 years old. She focused on the rights of parents and students in a time of cost-cutting by school districts.

"Let's face it - the districts are getting hammered,'' said Philip Gartlan, executive director of Midland. He said the parents of two children at the school recently fought district changes to their children's education plans.

Many parents may feel they have little or no control over the services that their kids receive. Many are intimidated by the prospect of "taking on" the system or the expense of hiring an attorney.

This article sheds some light on options you have as a parent when changes are made to a childs services that you do not agree with.

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BMT InfoNet | We're with you every step of the way.



BMT InfoNet Homepage:"Blood & Marrow Transplant Information Network is a not-for-profit organization dedicated exclusively to serving the needs of persons facing a bone marrow, blood stem cell or umbilical cord blood trans"
BMT InfoNet
2310 Skokie Valley Road, Suite 104,
Highland Park, IL 60035 •
888.597.7674
Fax: 847.433.4599
help@bmtinfonet.org
http://www.bmtinfonet.org

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Anatomy Gifts Registry

Anatomic Gift Foundation (AGF), Maryland:"The Anatomic Gift Foundation (AGF) is an independent Maryland non-profit, 501 (c) (3), organization and is governed by a Board of Directors comprised of community professionals."
Mailing Address
Anatomy Gifts Registry
500 McCormick Drive, Suite E
Glen Burnie, MD 21061
24 hour Phone Numbers
Toll Free 1-800-300-LIFE (5433)
(410) 863-0491
(410) 863-0497 FAX
Email info@anatomicgift.com
http://www.anatomicgift.com/

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Donate Life America

Organ and tissue transplants offer patients a new chance at healthy, productive, normal lives and return them to their families, friends and communities. You have the power to change someone's world by being a donor. It's about living. It's about Life.

Donate Life America board member joins transplant docs climbing Mt Rainier to promote the importance of registering to be an organ, eye and tissue donor! Follow them on twitter @DonateLife2day. A portion of their experience will be web streamed "live" at 5:00 PM (PDT) on WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1.
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The third annual National Donor Designation Report Card prepared by Donate Life America shows 86.3 million people were enrolled in state donor registries at the end of 2009. This represents an increase of 24.4 percent since 2007 and bringing us a step closer to the goal of 100 million designated donors. Click here to view the April 2010 Donor Designation Report Card.

Donate Life America:"Donate Life America, formerly the Coalition on Donation, was founded by the transplant community in 1992 to educate the public about organ, eye and tissue donation and avoid duplication of effort. Donate Life America assists in mobilizing the transplant community to educate the American public on the need for organ, eye and tissue donation and motivating the public to make an actionable donor designation. The organization publishes brochures, program kits and other materials; provides technical assistance and referral services; coordinates the national campaign for organ, eye and tissue donation; identifies measurable best practices and leads the Donor Designation Collaborative."
Donate Life America
700 N. Fourth Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219
phone: 804-782-4920
fax: 804-782-4643
http://donatelife.net

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Thursday, December 2, 2010

Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation

The Musculoskeletal Transplant
Foundation, the nation’s largest
tissue bank, changes lives by connecting donors with surgeons and transplant recipients. As a non-profit service organization, MTF is dedicated to providing quality tissue through a commitment to excellence in education, research, recovery and care for recipients, donors and their families. Since our inception in 1987, MTF has recovered more than 60,000 donors and has distributed more than 3 million grafts for transplantation.

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Organ & Tissue Donation, Direct Patient Care Links

ShareThis Buzz up!2 votes
See also: Caregivers, Chronic Care Nurses, Disability Services Nurses, Geriatrics Nurses, Home Health Nurses, Long Term Care Nurses Physical Rehabilitation Nurses

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New! Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation:"The Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation, the nation’s largest tissue bank, changes lives by connecting donors with surgeons and transplant recipients. As a non-profit service organization, MTF is dedicated to providing quality tissue through a commitment to excellence in education, research, recovery and care for recipients, donors and their families. Since our inception in 1987, MTF has recovered more than 60,000 donors and has distributed more than 3 million grafts for transplantation."
Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation
125 May Street
Edison, NJ 08837
Telephone: 732-661-0202
Fax: 732-661-2298
Customer Service Telephone: 1-800-433-6576
Customer Service Hours: Monday - Friday, 8:15 a.m. - 6:30 p.m. (EST)
E-mail Addresses: General information and questions may be directed to: Information@mtf.org
http://www.mtf.org/

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Donate Life America:"Donate Life America, formerly the Coalition on Donation, was founded by the transplant community in 1992 to educate the public about organ, eye and tissue donation and avoid duplication of effort. Donate Life America assists in mobilizing the transplant community to educate the American public on the need for organ, eye and tissue donation and motivating the public to make an actionable donor designation. The organization publishes brochures, program kits and other materials; provides technical assistance and referral services; coordinates the national campaign for organ, eye and tissue donation; identifies measurable best practices and leads the Donor Designation Collaborative."
Donate Life America
700 N. Fourth Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219
phone: 804-782-4920
fax: 804-782-4643
http://donatelife.net

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American Cord Blood Program:"While you are pregnant, your baby’s umbilical cord is a lifeline between the two of you. After your baby is born, umbilical cord blood can be a lifeline for someone else a child or adult with leukemia or another life-threatening illness. By donating umbilical cord blood, your baby can become a hero to a patient in need.
http://www.americancordblood.com/home.html

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Anatomic Gift Foundation (AGF), Maryland:"The Anatomic Gift Foundation (AGF) is an independent Maryland non-profit, 501 (c) (3), organization and is governed by a Board of Directors comprised of community professionals."
http://www.anatomicgift.com/

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BMT InfoNet Homepage...
Blood & Marrow Transplant Information Network is a not-for-profit organization dedicated exclusively to serving the needs of persons facing a bone marrow, blood stem cell or umbilical cord blood trans...
http://www.http://www.bmtinfonet.org

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Duke Transplant Center - Lung Transplant Home...
Transplant Center at Duke University Medical Center ...
http://lungtransplant.mc.duke.edu

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Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center:"The Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center has been established at McLean Hospital as a centralized resource for the collection and distribution of human brain specimens for brain research. Research over the past decade has shown that the study of human brain tissue is essential to increasing our understanding of how the nervous system functions. Most recently, postmortem human brain research has played a significant role in the development of a genetic test for Huntington's disease as well as a treatment for Parkinson's disease. Similarly, neurochemical and anatomical studies focusing on the biological nature of the severe mental illnesses are now emerging and bringing forth new hope for understanding the underlying brain mechanisms responsible for psychosis and other symptoms associated with these debilitating brain disorders. In order to perform research into the neurological or psychiatric disorders, it is vital to collect normal control tissue as well."
Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center
McLean Hospital
115 Mill Street
Belmont, MA 02478
1-800-BRAIN BANK, (1-800-272-4622)
http://www.brainbank.mclean.org/

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International Institute for the Advancement of Medicine (IIAM):"a non-profit organization whose purpose is to facilitate the placement of non-transplantable human organs and tissues for biomedical research and education."
http://www.iiam.org/geninfo/backgrnd.htm

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Living Bank Uniform Anatomical Gift Act Donor Form:"For more information about organ/tissue donation, contact The Living Bank at 1-800-528-2971. The organ and tissue shortage is a crisis, but it is a crisis with a cure. Remember, the only way your family will know your decision is if you tell them."
http://www.actec.org/pubInfoArk/livingbank.html

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Organ Donation, Frequently Asked Questions:
http://www.organdonor.gov/faq.html

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Second Wind Lung Transplant Association, Inc....
Second Wind Lung Transplantation Association...
http://www.2ndWind.org

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Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (Alaska):
http://www.touchngo.com/lglcntr/akstats/Statutes/Title13/Chapter50.htm

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Nursing Malpractice Case Studies:

June 20, 1999: Organ Donation Informed Consent, Is A Single Parent's Sufficient?
Organ donors are in high demand.  Frequently intended recipients can wait a lifetime for the critical matching organ.  In this case, two nurses obtained a consent from a child's mother.  When the father later expressed his disagreement, the child's corneas had been harvested and it was too late.
Andrews v. Alabama Eye Bank, 727 S. 2d 62 –AL (1999)
http://www.nursefriendly.com/nursing/clinical.cases/062099.htm

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Arizona Cuts Financing for Transplant Patients

Effective at the beginning of October, Arizona stopped financing certain transplant operations under the state’s version of Medicaid. Many doctors say the decision amounts to a death sentence for some low-income patients, who have little chance of survival without transplants and lack the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to pay for them.

“The most difficult discussions are those that involve patients who had been on the donor list for a year or more and now we have to tell them they’re not on the list anymore,” said Dr. Rainer Gruessner, a transplant specialist at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. “The frustration is tremendous. It’s more than frustration.”

Organ transplants are already the subject of a web of regulations, which do not guarantee that everyone in need of a life-saving organ will receive one. But Arizona’s transplant specialists are alarmed that patients who were in line to receive transplants one day were, after the state’s budget cuts to its Medicaid program, ruled ineligible the next — unless they raised the money themselves.

Francisco Felix, 32, a father of four who has hepatitis C and is in need of a liver, received news a few weeks ago that a family friend was dying and wanted to donate her liver to him. But the budget cuts meant he no longer qualified for a state-financed transplant.

He was prepared anyway at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center as his relatives scrambled to raise the needed $200,000. When the money did not come through, the liver went to someone else on the transplant list.

“I know times are tight and cuts are needed, but you can’t cut human lives,” said Mr. Felix’s wife, Flor. “You just can’t do that.”

Such high drama is unfolding regularly here as more and more of the roughly 100 people affected by the cuts are becoming known: the father of six who died before receiving a bone marrow transplant, the plumber in need of a new heart and the high school basketball coach who struggles to breathe during games at high altitudes as she awaits a lung transplant.

“I appreciate the need for budget restraints,” said Dr. Andrew M. Yeager, a University of Arizona professor who is director of the Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program at the Arizona Cancer Center. “But when one looks at a potentially lifesaving treatment, admittedly expensive, and we have data to support efficacy, cuts like this are shortsighted and sad.”

State Medicare officials said they recommended discontinuing some transplants only after assessing the success rates for previous patients. Among the discontinued procedures are lung transplants, liver transplants for hepatitis C patients and some bone marrow and pancreas transplants, which altogether would save the state about $4.5 million a year.

“As an agency, we understand there have been difficult cuts and there will have to be more difficult cuts looking forward,” said Jennifer Carusetta, chief legislative liaison at the state Medicare agency.

The issue has led to a fierce political battle, with Democrats condemning the reductions as “Brewercare,” after Gov. Jan Brewer.

“We made it very clear at the time of the vote that this was a death sentence,” said State Senator Leah Landrum Taylor, a Democrat. “This is not a luxury item. We’re not talking about cosmetic surgery.”

The Republican governor has in turn blamed “Obamacare,” meaning the federal health care overhaul, for the transplant cuts even though the Arizona vote came in March, before President Obama signed that bill into law.

But a top Republican, State Representative John Kavanagh, has already pledged to reconsider at least some of the state’s cuts for transplants when the Legislature reconvenes in January. Mr. Kavanagh, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said he does not believe lawmakers had the full picture of the effect of the cuts on patients when they voted.

“It’s difficult to be linked to a situation where people’s lives are jeopardized and turned upside down,” he said in an interview. “Thankfully no one has died as a result of this, and I believe we have time to rectify this.”

Across the country, states have restricted benefits to their Medicaid programs, according to a 50-state survey published in September by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. But none have gone as far as Arizona in eliminating some transplants, which are considered optional services under federal law.

Before the Legislature acted, Arizona’s Medicaid agency had provided an analysis to lawmakers of the transplants that were cut, which many health experts now say was seriously flawed. For instance, the state said that 13 of 14 patients under the state’s health system who received bone marrow transplants from nonrelatives over a two-year period died within six months.

But outside specialists said the success rates were considerably higher, particularly for leukemia patients in their first remission.

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Facing Cancer, Sharing Laughter, Theresa Brown, RN

It’s the rare patient who copes with the stress of cancer by being a comedian, but a few people do. I have always found these patients not only funny, but fascinating.

One patient, a middle-aged woman, very thin, with an elfin face, got bad news on morning rounds. With the medical team at her bedside, she gestured toward the physician, then looked at Todd, her nurse for that shift, and asked in an innocent tone, “Does he know about our baby?”

Theresa BrownJeff Swensen for The New York Times Theresa Brown, R.N.

Todd said he turned every possible shade of red, but it was the kind of comment we’d all come to expect from this sardonic patient. She told us that she wanted her tombstone simply to list all the men with whom she’d ever been intimate. When one particularly somber doctor made his rounds, she scolded him for failing to order her a nightly martini.

We don’t need Freud to point out the unconscious desire expressed by this spirited middle-aged woman, who, faced with her own mortality, joked that she was still a sexually active party girl.

Another patient managed to find his own dark sense of humor in the midst of a dreadful chemotherapy session. The particular drug he needed required that I sit in the room and slowly inject it into his intravenous line. We call it “pushing chemo” because the drug comes in huge syringes that we use to literally push chemo into the patient’s veins. It takes about 20 minutes to get all the drug in, and during the process I was swathed in special blue plastic gowns that covered me from head to toe, and two layers of thick blue plastic gloves, to protect myself from this toxic drug that can blister skin.

Not only was the patient completely unprotected, but I was shooting the drug right into his veins. That paradox was not lost on him, and he called the chemotherapy “poison.” To heighten the sense of irony, the drug resembles orange soda in color and consistency, but all the checks and double-checks we go through before administering it show it is not that sweet drink from my childhood.

The patient had a female friend visiting, and they were watching a television program about a white supremacist group. While I sat there, pushing the chemo into his veins, he started riffing on how he was the only African-American member of the group. It wasn’t so much what he said as how he said it, and he had me laughing so hard I almost cried. It was, of course, an unsettling topic about which to joke, but maybe that’s why he chose it, venturing into forbidden humor as a way to cope with the unsettling circumstances of his treatment.

I remember another patient, a union organizer, who was hospitalized for treatment during the months just prior to the 2008 presidential election. I had evening shift that day, and the patient’s frustration grew as he watched coverage of the campaign on television. He saw the election as potentially historic, and wanted to be out campaigning. Instead, his cancer kept him stuck in a hospital bed.

He started telling a series of off-color jokes that I won’t repeat. I was busy caring for patients, but while I was out of the room he would think up a joke for me, and then tell me the joke the next time I came in. Each time the joke would be more outrageous, and each time he would say, “I really cleaned that one up for you.”

I suppose I should have been offended, but I wasn’t. I’ve never been in the hospital with cancer, but I’m pretty sure I would find it exhausting and terrifying. As coping strategies go, I could handle his racy humor just fine.

At the end of James Thurber’s short novel “The 13 Clocks,” a prince and princess have achieved a fairy-tale happy ending. They are advised to “Remember laughter. You’ll need it even in the blessed isles of Ever After.”

And that is what I like to remember from caring for these patients — the laughter. A patient and a nurse, sharing some laughs, lifting for a few hours the dark cloud created by disease.

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Andrew Lopez, RN
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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

CDC - Seasonal Influenza (Flu) - Flu Information for Parents

Flu Information for Parents

Flu is more dangerous than the common cold for children. Each year, flu places a large burden on the health and well-being of children and families. An influenza vaccination is the best method for preventing flu and its potentially severe complications in children. CDC recommends that all children 6 months and older get a flu vaccine.

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Anonymous Doc:Patient is brought in by the cops, barely able to stand up by himself,

Here's a story:

Patient is brought in by the cops, barely able to stand up by himself, completely drunk. Blood alcohol level is almost 300. [80 is legal limit for drunk driving in most states.] Why we have to babysit drunks who don't actually have a medical problem we can treat is the larger question, but anyway...

We keep him overnight, next morning he's belligerent but doesn't seem drunk anymore. We're trying to discharge him. He doesn't want to be here anymore. We don't want him here. We're getting the papers together. We tell him it'll be an hour. He calms down.

An hour later, my intern goes to deal with the discharge. Comes back and tells me he doesn't seem right. Slurring his speech, can't sit up straight, etc.

I go and check on him. Yeah, he seems drunk again. We run his blood alcohol level again, and it's actually higher than when he came in, pushing 350.

We call hospital police to search his room. What did he sneak in here, and how?

They find nothing.

So we're baffled. My intern asks if something else might be going on, and I don't really have an answer. I don't know.

By habit, I squirt some sanitizing foam on my hands as I leave his room...

There's no foam in the dispenser.

It takes me a second.

No, can't be.

We look, shoved behind the door, the squeezed-dry, empty bag of hand sanitizer.

Alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

He drank a bag of hand sanitizer.

Awesome.

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******************************************************

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Andrew Lopez, RN
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38 Tattersall Drive, Mantua New Jersey 08051
http://www.nursefriendly.com info@nursefriendly.com ICQ #6116137
856-415-9617, (fax) 415-9618

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