The issue was raised up in class: what really matters in our society? I'd like to say freedom, justice, equality, family, etc. However, one look at today's media, and even newspapers, we see a totally different America. Magazines I can understand, because their purpose is entertainment, however what is found on newspapers as of lately slightly disturb me. Instead of focusing on greater, more important issues that are not only affecting us but the greater part of the world, we are commonly seeing focus on 'the presidential family dog'. I'm definitely not saying that material like this should be banned, however I am seeing a shift in our culture to being even more media-based. The information we are fed with are given to us because it is what the majority of 'us' demand. Should we allow the demand to continue growing? Especially in a day and age when information can travels very quickly and often time false or mislead information, I believe we must take a step back and carefully look at what kind of information we are being given. Then, perhaps we can also question what really matters in our society; what really matters to you?
Last week I was catching up on one of my favorite TV shows, Grey's Anatomy. The patient of the day: Dave, a 38-year-old who was hit by a drunk driver 12 years ago and suffered major trauma. The challenge of the day: giving Dave a completely new face. Not too long ago, at Brigham and Women's Hospital, a similar surgery took place by a team lead by chief plastic surgeon Dr. Bohdan Pomahac; the second total face transplant in the U.S. to be exact. '"This is not a life-saving, but this is a life-giving procedure," Pomahac said.' During the 17-hour procedure, doctors had to carefully remove the donor's tissue, muscles, and nerves that they then painstakenly had to attach to the recepiant. Of course this is easier said than done. Currently the patient is begining a long healing process. Although Dave is a fictional character, it's amazing how many people in the real world, like Dr. Pomahac's patient, share his story. And due to surgical breakthrough, they can have a second chance to live a normal life. With a new face begins a new phase.
High school. One of the first words I think of when I hear the word ‘high school’ is stress. Recently numerous researches have connected fatal heart attacks and coronary diseases to chronic stress. Shortly following the 9/11 terrorist attack and the 1999 Taiwan earthquake there was a noted rise in number of dangerous heart rhythms among heart patients. Stress from work, bad relationships, and death of a loved one are just some of the common causes of heart risks. Stress is almost literally causing ‘hearts to break’.
I have never even considered myself being at risk of heart disease, until now. Schoolwork, clubs, sports, jobs, and balancing them all out gives each and every high school student a daily dosage of stress.
I can’t help but worry that this will only become a growing issue. As the years go on, there will only be harder classes and bigger workloads. We don’t need to be told what we need to do in order to minimize the stress. Time managing? Prioritizing?
It will be hard to mandate doctors to start checking patients for stress levels, however it will be necessary for doctors and physicians to pay better attention to the connections between stress and coronary disease symptoms. Until then, the only way to lower the risks is tackle the stressors at the source.
A breakthrough in prosthetic arms can give thousands of people a second chance at a normal life. The new procedure is called targeted muscle reinnervation, and it allows the prosthetic arm to be moved automatically and almost as naturally as a real arm. Nerves remaining from an amputation are connected to muscle, most commonly chest muscle. Electrodes are placed over the muscle, and at cue, the brain sends signals to the muscles which trigger the prosthetic arm to move accordingly. The artificial leg had long been mastered, however the artificial arm remained a challenge until now. Because the new reinnervation technique is costly and requires surgical attachment and post surgical adjustments, it is not attainable to everyone. However, with rising numbers of amputations from diabetes and military injuries, this new technique is quickly gaining interest. Already it has been performed on dozens of patients including military personals. Hopefully, this procedure will make way for even better arm prosthetic techniques and become accessible to even more amputees.
It’s nice to see nations put aside differences and come together for a good cause once in a while. Recently a Malarial parasite is starting to show resistance to drug treatments in Cambodia. It has been noted that, what used to take the drugs only 48 hours to remove parasites from the bloodstream, is now taking over 100 hours. The treatment is a type of combination treatment using artemisinin (antimalaria drug extracted from a plant used in traditional Chinese medicine) and is by far the most effective treatment for malaria. The resistance has been worrying many doctors and scientists because there are currently no other treatments that surpass these. Previously, a resistance against what was once considered the “miracle drug” introduced after WWII, formed and spread from Cambodia throughout Asia and Africa. Since then, there have been numerous actions taken to treat Malaria patients such as the President’s Malaria Initiative ($1.2 billion program started by the Bush administration three years ago to cut malaria deaths in half in the countries affected worst). Now, more than ever, organizations are joining together to fight the disease and prevent the newly forming resistance from growing and spreading. The organizations include the World Health Organization and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Malaria takes hundreds of thousands of lives every year, and still thousands more continue to suffer from the disease. Malaria still remains an issue, perhaps even a growing one. But with the right recognition and united effort perhaps we can claim victory over the vicious disease.
I forgot how much I loved this book. Lately I had been so consumed with homework and extra-curricular activities that I haven't had the time to sit down with a good book. This week, for the first time in a long time, I found myself with a mug of hot chocolate on hand and a book in my lap. Tuesdays with Morrie. And ironically, it was a Tuesday. That's how I got to spend a Tuesday with Morrie.
I love this book because as much as it presents philosophical ideas, its greatest teaching is simply about love and as much as it is about death, it is about life. Love and Life. Two of my favorite topics. And one of my favorite quotes is this
"The problem, Mitch, is that we don't believe we are as much alike as we are. Whites and blacks, Catholics and Protestants, men and women. If we saw each other as more alike, we might be very eager to join in one big human family in this world, and to care about that family the way we care about our own." Morrie - Tuesdays with Morrie
Just a quick glance at the news, a skim of the newspaper and we see the horrors of the world. War, famine, disease, murder, lies, prejudice. I know it's said all of the time. It has become a cliche. "Love, don't hate" "Peace over War". But when I still hear about a judge sentencing a woman to jail solely for not taking off her religious burka in court, I think we need love. And when I see pictures of current day genocide refugees fleeing for their lives, I think we need peace. And when I read about two-week old infants being left to die in alleys among the garbage, I think we need life. We hear about it everyday, but does that mean it's okay for us to get used to it, to accept it? Is it just a part of the "culture"? I think to myself, how amazing and how wonderful would it be if we really could just come together into "one big human family in this world." And if we all could just give and take the kind of love Morrie did, wouldn't it be possible?
I knew that thousands of people died from starvation and disease, but I had never known thousands more died from the cold. When we wake up under toasty covers, when we are dressed with heavy fleece from head to toe, and when exposure to the cold is many times limited to 15 meter walks from heated building to heated car, it's hard to literally imagine the term "freezing to death." For refugees in Kabul, Afghanistan, however, this horrific term is a part of reality. Refugees like 8-year-old Farzana fight the cold daily. Because governments rarely like admit they need help from outside and are having trouble with growing refugee conflict, thousands who are in need are being denied valuable sources of food, shelter, and clothing. When a third of the country's population (9 million) is suffering from food shortages and hundreds are "freezing to death" in refugee camps, I think it's evident there needs to be dramatic change. The question is where do we start?
The issue was raised up in class: what really matters in our society? I'd like to say freedom, justice, equality, family, etc. However, one look at today's media, and even newspapers, we see a totally different America. Magazines I can understand, because their purpose is entertainment, however what is found on newspapers as of lately slightly disturb me. Instead of focusing on greater, more important issues that are not only affecting us but the greater part of the world, we are commonly seeing focus on 'the presidential family dog'. 
I'm definitely not saying that material like this should be banned, however I am seeing a shift in our culture to being even more media-based. The information we are fed with are given to us because it is what the majority of 'us' demand. Should we allow the demand to continue growing? Especially in a day and age when information can travels very quickly and often time false or mislead information, I believe we must take a step back and carefully look at what kind of information we are being given. Then, perhaps we can also question what really matters in our society; what really matters to you?
