The parents of a nine-month old baby diagnosed with meningitis said they had to wait two hours to see a doctor.

Ian Newland took baby Edward to Wexham Park Hospital (WPH) in East Berkshire.

Edward was seen by a triage nurse before being placed in a waiting room. He was seen two hours later when his tongue started to swell.

A statement from WPH said comment could not be made on individual cases but a triage nurse would "establish clinical priority".

Mr Newland said he was advised by his GP to take Edward to hospital if his symptoms got worse.

Hospital statement

He said: "He had a high fever, was vomiting, and was bringing his legs up to his chest and crying out in agony.

"A triage nurse assessed him and said we'd be seen by a doctor in one hour, and then put us on some chairs and that's where we sat for two hours.

"We made sure he was rehydrated and although he had a raging fever, to the staff, he looked like a healthy baby.

"When's Edward's tongue started to swell my wife alerted the doctors and that's when they saw him."

A statement from the hospital said: "Patients who arrive in A&E are all seen by an experienced triage nurse.

"They will undertake an initial assessment to establish the clinical priority for their treatment.

"Following triage, appropriate treatment is given and observations taken so staff can ascertain the best care pathway for patients."

Edward was diagnosed with meningitis and is responding to treatment.

Source: BBC News

health, kids, babies, meningitis

LOS ANGELES - A mother who is unable to move or speak — and possibly to understand — is the focus of an unusual, emotional court case to decide if she has visitation rights with her 3-year-old triplets.

A trial is set to start next month after a Los Angeles County judge on Tuesday ruled the parents of Abbie Dorn can fight for their daughter's right to see her children.

"They're not going to parent," Superior Court Judge Rudolph A. Diaz said. "They only want a right of visitation. They have the right to pursue that."

Dorn, 34, gave birth to a girl, Esti, and boys Reuvi and Yossi in 2006 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She suffered brain damage from complications of blood loss after a doctor nicked her uterus during delivery, according to a malpractice lawsuit that was settled for nearly $8 million.

Dorn was left unable to move, talk, eat or drink, and now lives with her parents, Susan and Paul Cohen, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. She receives hours of daily therapy at a cost of about $33,000 a month, funded by the malpractice settlement.

parents, parenting, parental rights

A three-year-old boy brought back from the dead after his heart stopped beating for three hours has told how he saw his great-grandmother in Heaven.

The youngster - who is named only as Paul - claimed he met his relative and she sent him back to Earth.

Paul was playing on his own when he fell into a lake near his grandparents' house in the town of Lychen, north of Berlin, Germany.

The child's grandfather later found him lifeless in the water.

Paul was quickly dragged to the shore but the youngster remained unconscious.

His father, who had had first aid training in the past, tried to resuscitate his son by giving him mouth to mouth and heart massage.

A helicopter took him to Helios hospital in Buch and doctors also tried to resuscitate him but he was unresponsive.

They were about to stop because the boy had been clinically dead for three hours and 18 minutes - but then a miracle happened.

The team managed to get his heart beating again, defying the laws of medicine.


Read More:Clinically Dead Boy 'Saw Granny In Heaven'

miracle, health, boy

FOXBORO (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - It seems like every night on the news, there's another bullying story. After we air those stories, we get so many e-mails from parents who are concerned about their kids who are getting bullied.

A Foxboro mother has spent the past four days going back and forth to the hospital to visit her eighth grade daughter who is there for emotional distress after months and months of bullying.

Police are now looking at this as a criminal harassment investigation...

children, teens, tweens, bullies, bullying

I have written about the

[The] school-based health clinic (SBHC) had arranged for her 15-year-old daughter's abortion. The high school student was given a pass, put in a taxi, and sent for an abortion during school hours -- all without the parents' knowledge. To add insult to injury, the teen was told that there wouldn't be any charge for the abortion if she concealed it from her family.

Was this legal?

Yes.

According to Seattle School District spokeswoman Teresa Wippel, "From a legal/procedural standpoint, it's a non-issue."

But this article isn't about abortion and ObamaCare. That topic has been and will continue to be widely discussed. Rather, it is about school-based health clinics, parental consent, and assisted suicide. That aspect of the new law has, until now, been under the radar even though it is part and parcel.

Under ObamaCare, there will be a massive expansion of SBHCs (Sec. 4101), creating full-service clinics across the country.

Until now, SBHC had been funded by state and private funds. With passage of ObamaCare, the federal government has entered into the fray. According to the NASBHC, passage of ObamaCare was "an unprecedented victory for school-based health centers" which will enable other communities to open school clinics.  According to the NASBHC, access to any service (sports physicals, for example) requires parents to sign written consent for their children to receive the full scope of services provided at the SBHC.

Kevin Jennings, the Obama administration's controversial (I'll share more on him soon)Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, is slated to keynote the organization's June convention with an address titled "Partnering Education and Health for a Safer School Environment."

Hundreds of millions of federal dollars will be directed to SBHCs.

The expanded clinics will provide on-site access during the academic year and 24-hour coverage through backup health providers to ensure access to services on a year-round basis when school is not in session. All of this will proceed with little or no parental involvement.

Learn More...

health care, health, abortion, schools, euthanasia

After months of intensive training, Fox began his journey on April 12th, 1980, in St. John's, Newfoundland. He received little recognition at first. When he initially approached the Canadian Cancer Society with the idea, for instance, it doubted that he could raise his goal of $1 million. But once the marathon was underway, Fox was quick to capture the attention of the nation and donations poured in. He ran, on average, 40km a day, the equivalent of a regular marathon. This was an astounding feat for any athlete, but a sheer miracle for a runner with just one good leg.

Fox persevered through pain, fatigue, and harsh weather in pursuit of his goal. He ran for 143 days and covered 5,342km before his odyssey came to an abrupt stop in Thunder Bay, Ontario, on September 2, 1980. Cancer had spread to his lungs, and he was forced to fly back to B.C. for treatment.

Despite an iron will and a nagging determination to finish the Marathon of Hope, Fox succumbed to the disease on June 28, 1981, at the age of 22. The young runner had so touched the hearts of Canadians that a national day of mourning was declared on the day of his death.

Though he never made it all the way to the Pacific coast, Fox's efforts were not in vain. His marathon raised $23.5 million for cancer research, encouraged hope in those touched by the disease, and inspired awe in everyone who heard the story. Annual marathons in his name are now held across Canada and around the globe, and to date over $400 million has been raised worldwide.

Learn more about Terry here

cancer, research, sports, athlete, inspiration

1st Place 2nd Place 3rd Place Prizes available!

You can use this for writing more stories, creating cool graphics, and reading other authors’ work online. When you want to capture real-life stories using photos, this'll come in handy. Tunes and videos can tell a story too…or inspire us to make up our own.

Writers Contest Certificate Plus, national winners will have their stories published on this Web site, and everyone who enters gets a PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest Certificate of Achievement.


Eligibility & Entry Guidelines

* Entrants must be in kindergarten, first, second or third grade.
* Children of employees of PBS, PBS stations or their affiliates, WNED, sales representatives, subsidiaries or parent companies, advertising/sales promotion agencies, and judges are not eligible.
* To be eligible, an entrant must be a legal resident of the United States. Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify ineligible entries; such entries will not be returned.
* Only one entry per person will be accepted; all subsequent entries will be disqualified.
* Only single author stories qualify (no co-authored stories).
* Stories can be fact or fiction, and prose or poetry.
* Any failure to adhere to these Contest Rules may result in disqualification from the contest.
* No purchase is necessary.


Word Count

* Kindergarten and first grade stories must have a minimum of 50 words and a maximum of 200 words.
* Second and third grade stories must have a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 350 words.
* The word count includes “a,” “an,” and “the,” but not the words on non-story pages such as the title page or those that enhance the illustrations.
* Text must be printed or written legibly or typed.
* Children who cannot write may dictate their story to be printed, written legibly or typed.
* Text may be integrated into the illustration pages or on separate pages.
* Non-English text must be translated on the same page and the translation text must adhere to word count.
* Invented spelling is accepted.


Format & Illustrations

* Stories must have at least 5 original, clear and colorful illustrations.
* Original art can include drawings, photographs, collages, and 3-D.
* Stories must be created on one side of the paper and numbered on the back of each page.


Official Entry Form

* Each entry must include the official PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest Entry Form, with the required signature of a parent/guardian (and, if appropriate, the optional signature of the sponsoring teacher), confirming that the story and art are original, and granting certain rights to the entry materials.
* The entry form must be complete and legible.

Learn More:Writers Contest . Prizes & Rules . PBS KIDS GO!

Download and print the complete rules to review before entering!
National Prizes: 4 laptops (~ $1,000), 4 cameras (~ $200), 4 MP3 players (~ $150).

Good luck! I didn't see a deadline, so hopefully it is ongoing...let me know how your child does!

contest, kids, k-3

Image via Wikipedia

MIDDLETON, Mass. -- A 6-year-old first-grader in Middleton is accused of molesting fellow classmates while the teacher's back was turned, Boston TV station WCVB reported."We've had sexually inappropriate behavior at the first-grade level between students," Superintendent Bernard Creeden said.The boy, whose name was not released by police or school officials, is accused of sexually assaulting at least 10 boys in his class.

The student, who is too young to face criminal charges in Massachusetts, even as a juvenile, was a student at the Fuller Meadow School. In an e-mail to parents, Creeden said the “aggressor” has been removed from zthe classroom."

He was pulling kids' pants down, threatening to beat them up if they said anything to any adult and touching them," said the parent of an alleged victim, who wished to remain anonymous. "He was massaging my son, asking him to pull his pants down or he was going to beat him up."

At a raucous public meeting Tuesday, during which police had to calm the crowd, parents accused Principal Malvena Baxter of knowing about the abuse a month ago. The school said it became aware of the incidents a week and a half ago and notified parents on Friday.

"A lot of parents that have first-graders are upset. They don't like that it was hush-hush," parent Jeanie Gioioso said.Police said the incidents may have started as physical bullying, progressed into sexual molestation and ended with the boy allegedly threatening his victims to keep quiet.

children, awareness, sexual abuse