Part Four

As no one wants to be sick and no one ever chooses to give up those things in life which bring joy, friends should avoid to blaming the patients for their limitations and respect their new boundaries by acknowledging their losses and supporting their need to say “No” when facing huge efforts.

Part Three

It is hard enough to have to cope with a chronic illness. But what is worse than this? Being a patient who is suffering from symptoms that initially are defying diagnosis and,  therefore, misdiagnosed as a fake or mentally disturbed person.

Part Two - FIBROMYALGIA Syndrome (FMS)

FMS (Fibromyalgia Syndrome) is a complex, chronic rheumatologic condition, characterized by spontaneous, widespread pain in the soft tissues, like muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Fatigue, sleep disturbance and extensively distributed areas of tenderness known as tender points are key factors. The name fibromyalgia comes from ‘fibro’ meaning fibrous tissues (such as tendons and ligaments), ‘my’ meaning muscles, and "algia" meaning pain. Unlike arthritis, FM does not cause pain or swelling in the joints. Because FM has few symptoms that are outwardly visible, it has been nicknamed "the invisible disability" or the "irritable everything" syndrome.

What do Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), also called myalgicencephalomyelitis (ME), multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), or E.I. for environmental illness, fibromyalgia, and the Gulf War Syndrome have in common? Quite a lot.

Post Mortem On A "Shaken Baby Syndrome" Autopsy (pdf file)

The Fantasy of “Munchausen by Proxy” Discredited

Two years ago the first “Mother’s Day Manifesto” asked if intelligent people would check behind the scientifically baseless, emotion-loaded myth of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSP) a quarter century after its embarrassing birth in Lancet.

Bryant Arroyo was arrested in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on 26 September, 1994 in connection with baby Jordan’s death. On 10 May 1995, he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Dr. Wayne K. Ross testified at Bryant’s preliminary hearing and trial that Jordan was killed by blunt trauma to the chest and abdomen, and that the manner of death was homicide. Moreover, Detective Larry Mathias and Detective Solt from the Manheim Township Police Department alleged that Bryant confessed to them that he killed Jordan because he had an anger problem, was angry with his cousin at the time, and took it out on the baby. The Commonwealth presented to the jury an eight-page confession typed out by Det. Solt.

Well-meant child-abuse laws have given rise to many inappropriate accusations of shaken-baby-syndrome, without any real evidence that the infants were ever shaken or assaulted in any way.

Analysis Of Causes That Led To Baby Alan Ream Yurko’s Cardiac Arrest And Death In November Of 1997

PART ONE: OVERVIEW

Kathleen Butcher is a 40-year-old, white woman, and the mother of five children. She was accused of, and arrested for, killing Alexa Marie Shearer by vigorous shaking of the head and blunt trauma to the head and abdomen. Alexa was a 15-month-old toddler, who suffered from cardiac arrest and apnea on November 16, 1999 in Kathleen’s house in Howard County, Maryland. Kathleen was her daycare provider and she had cared for Alexa ever since she was two months old.

A Case Investigation

Air Force Reserve Master Sgt. Clarence L. McNamer lost his hair in June of 2000, two months after receiving his fifth shot of the anthrax vaccine (AV). He received five anthrax shots and a typhoid shot within an eleven and half month period (Table 1). The AV was manufactured by Bioport, Inc., Lansing, Michigan. McNamer is a 51 year-old white male with 31 years of service in the U.S. Air Force Reserves. His duty is that of a flying crew chief on a C-5 aircraft at Travis Air Force Base in California. McNamer has also worked at Travis Air Force Base since 1972 as an aircraft fuels hydrant specialist and an aircraft maintenance technician.

SUMMARY

Lisa Mullenax and her husband Alejandro Mendez were accused of killing their three-and-a-half-month-old Baby Lucas by blunt force trauma to the head (Shaken Baby Syndrome). The baby suffered from cardiac arrest and apnea on August 27, 2002 and his father immediately sought the assistance of a neighbor who contacted the Medical Emergency Service (MES) asking for help. The MES resuscitated the baby, treated him with epinephrine, and transported him to the Centre Community Hospital. Lucas stayed about one hour in this hospital, and then he was airlifted to the Geisinger Medical Center. Lucas was pronounced brain dead after six days following his arrival to the Geisinger Medical Center. In the hospitals, several physicians examined Baby Lucas and no evidence of traumatic injuries to the head was observed. In addition, Lucas’s head region was examined by CT scans on August 27^th and no bone fracture was found. Lisa and Alejandro were accused of killing their Baby Lucas based only on the autopsy findings of an old-healed rib fracture and bleeding in the retina of the eyes, brain, and the subdural space.

Though initially I was bedridden with the illness that my first physician diagnosed as ME (it was before the name "CFS" had been devised) I did have one long remission of several years.  It wasn’t sufficient to enable me to return to work and school; but I could drive, food shop, go out to the library, a movie,

Drug-Free Relief From Chronic Pain

The human body is miraculous. Although we have accumulated an enormous encyclopedia of information about it, the body’s function remain far too complex for human understanding. Nonetheless, the body still manages to operate

MORE SETBACKS FOR CFS/GWS RESEARCH

You can find just about anything on health these days on the internet. The hard part is to decipher some of the complex medical issues, particularly when it comes to many of the chronic diseases. For the most part, their origin and the nature of their progression remain a mystery.

I am constantly on the prowl in search of new victims. I do not discriminate---health care workers, teachers, students, airline personnel, teens, moms, dads, and innocent children are my prey. If you are dynamic and have a lust for life, I will seek you out, and I will find you.

THE NEGLIGENCE CONTINUES

Today a patient came to my office who gets sick when she is near perfumes, paints, exhaust fumes and cleaning agents. Most people, including doctors, think such symptoms are purely psychosomatic, or "all in your head." You won’t find this illness described in textbooks--yet-- but there are a number of articles, and even a journal dedicated to it. There is also a specialty, environmental medicine, that focuses on adverse reactions to chemicals and foods, as well as other allergies.

Autism is one of several behavioral and developmental disorders exhibiting defects in learning, language and behavior that merge, in the more severe cases, into mental deficiency. No specific brain lesion, anatomical or metabolic, has been defined as causal and the diagnosis is purely clinical (based on observed symptoms). However, children with brain lesions due to the disorder tuberous sclerosis are at particularly high risk of having autism. This indicates that brain lesions, regardless of the cause, may induce autism-like symptoms.

BOGUS SCIENCE ON PARADE

On February 26, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld closed the Pentagon’s "Office of Strategic Influence," following a spate of bad publicity. "The office has been damaged so much that it could not operate effectively," Rumsfeld said. The Office’s mission was to spread disinformation abroad.

Is CFS A Physical Or Mental Illness? Why The Confusion?

What Is chronic fatigue syndrome? Is it a physical disease or a psychiatric disorder? Or is it both physical and emotional? Are people really fatigued, or do they just think they are?