health and illness: June 2006 Archives

baby mirielle (pronounced by her mom as "mir ee ell ee" who was born with a tracheo-esophageal fistula, esophageal atresia, and possibly a heart defect. miri's condition is serious enough that she was airlifted to a major children's hospital and was expected to undergo surgery within 24 hours of birth. If all goes well, miri will be in the hospital for at least 3 months.

Medical Guesswork

Even today, with a high-tech health-care system that costs the nation $2 trillion a year, there is little or no evidence that many widely used treatments and procedures actually work better than various cheaper alternatives.

And even when we do have evidence that more expensive isn't necessarily better, we don't have the will to make the changes. Otherwise we would use qualified midwives to attend 80% of all births.