Author – The Durango Herald

Antibiotic resistance a real threat

I find old cemeteries interesting, both in terms of solitude and history. When I was younger, I had occasion to stroll through a few old cemeteries dating back hundreds of years....

DATE: Mar 1, 2015 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Two ‘omas’: Fascinating and incidental

Medical mumbo-jumbo – especially classification of anatomy, diseases and pathology – has roots going back several millennia to the Greek physician Hippocrates (circa 460 to 370 B.C.). ...

DATE: Feb 22, 2015 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Measles vaccine is smart choice

Late last month, health-care providers across the nation were notified about a significant national outbreak of measles. This multi-state outbreak of the virus, also known as rube...

DATE: Feb 15, 2015 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Wide access to naloxone could save lives

The horizons are expanding for a life-saving drug in Colorado. Naloxone is a safe, nonabusable drug that reverses the effects of an opiate overdose. When an overdose ...

DATE: Feb 1, 2015 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Blunt fetal trauma in pregnancy

Fortunately, fetal trauma in pregnancy is uncommon. The most common causes of blunt fetal trauma, in contrast to penetrating injuries such as stabbings or gunshot wounds, are mot...

DATE: Jan 25, 2015 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Save a life: Know the signs of heart attack

Do you know how to identify the symptoms of a heart attack? If not, learning them may be an important step to saving your life or the life of someone you love. Coronary heart dise...

DATE: Jan 18, 2015 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Beware, flu is spreading; protect yourself

According to public-health experts, we are in the middle of one of the worst influenza epidemics in the last five years. As of this writing, the Centers for Disease Control and P...

DATE: Jan 4, 2015 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

No one says night shifts are easy

Occasionally, I have described my career in emergency medicine as enduring 30-plus years of sleep depravation. Actually, it’s longer than that. In college, I worked several summe...

DATE: Dec 27, 2014 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Manage your medications responsibly

The development of medications to treat a broad range of diseases and unpleasant symptoms has accelerated in the past several decades. If you think about it, a century ago, with...

DATE: Dec 21, 2014 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Herd immunity is strong case for vaccination

When I was in medical training, I had the unfortunate experience of participating in the care of a small child who developed a serious bacterial infection caused by common bacterium known as...

DATE: Dec 14, 2014 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Quarantines used to protect against disease

One joke told many times in the emergency room goes something like this: ER doc to patient: “Sir, you seem to be pretty sick – headache, low fever, chills, malaise, nausea, aches ...

DATE: Nov 23, 2014 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Breakthrough offers promise of diabetes cure

Researchers have announced a scientific breakthrough, which might possibly lead to a cure for Type 1 diabetes mellitus. Diabetes mellitus is a disorder that results in elevation o...

DATE: Nov 16, 2014 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch