Singer Michael Jackson Dies

The popular singer Michael Jackson died today at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. The cause of his death will not be known until an autopsy is performed but his brother says that it may have been due to cardiac arrest. Doctors tried to resuscitate Jackson at his rented home in Holmby Hills for more than an hour. His body is now in possession of a coroner's office.

First Face Transplant Done in America

In Cleveland, reconstructive surgeon Dr. Maria Siemionow and a team of specialists performed the first face face transplant done in America by replacing 80 percent of a disfigured woman's face by using the face of a female cadaver. Many details of the surgery have not been released but surgeons that do this usually transplant skin, facial nerves, muscles, and other deep tissue.

Skin is considered an organ and it still runs the risk of the body rejecting it, as with other organ transplants. Recipients of transplants have the risk of deadly complications, such as the new facial tissue attacking the recipient's body and the recipient's body attacking the bone marrow or the transplanted face to cause inflammation at the area of the new tissue. They also have to take immune-suppressing drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent the body rejecting the organ. This raises the risk of cancer and other diseases.

This is the fourth one done worldwide. Two have been done in France and one was done in China. The first one was a partial face transplant done in France in 2005 on a woman who had been mauled by her dog and received a new nose, chin, and lips from a brain-dead donor. Another was done in France on man disfigured by a genetic disease. One was done in China on a farmer that had been disfigured by being mauled by a bear.

DMC of Rap Group Run DMC Has Surgery

The rapper DMC, named Darryl McDaniels, from the legendary rap group Run DMC was scheduled to have surgery done to remove blood clots at a New Jersey hospital on Friday. He had two major blood clots in his left arm and was suffering from pain and swelling when doctors discovered the clots. It is not known when he will be released from the hospital and he has already canceled a performance scheduled for the weekend.

Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy has Cancerous Brain Tumor

The senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor on Tuesday. It is expected that he has less than a year to live. Doctors discovered the tumor while doing tests after he had a seizure this past weekend and had to be hospitalized. Doctors say that he has a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe, which is the part of the brain that controls sensation, movement, and language.

Doctors say that he will stay in the hospital for a couple more days while they consider chemotherapy and radiation treatment. The possibility of surgery was not mentioned. Experts say that he will have three years to live at the most but it is very likely at his age of 76 that he has less than a year to live. He didn’t have any more seizures while in the hospital and was released from the hospital today.

Senator Edward Kennedy Suffers From Seizure

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the brother of the late President John F. Kennedy, has been hospitalized after suffering from a seizure. He was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital where doctors worked hard to try to find the cause of the seizure. He was flown to the Massachusetts General on Saturday after becoming sick and being treated in the emergency room of Cape Cod Hospital.

Luckily, he did not suffer from a stroke, as the physicians first thought and he is currently doing well. Over the next couple of days he will have more evaluations done on him to find the cause and what should be done to treat him.

Study Says Some People Having AIDS Aren’t Infectious

It is found in a recent study that AIDS patients that have been treated with the latest antiretroviral drugs can no longer infect other people through sexual contact. The drugs work so well that even though the patients aren’t cured, they make it able that only a small amount of the virus is circulating through the body. Researchers say that this fact prevents a HIV-positive person from transferring the virus through sexual intercourse.

The researchers also say that AIDS patients who took the drugs for at least six months can have unprotected sex with HIV-negative people without infecting them. Many activists and doctors don’t agree with doing this because it might have HIV-positive people having sex without informing their partners about their disease. If a HIV-positive patient missed a dose of their medicine, then they could be at risk of infecting their partners.

Doctors Stop Rare Disease by Splitting Teen’s Brain in Two

In the United Kingdom, doctors split the brain of a teenage girl, named Janine Leach, in two to stop a rare brain-eating disease from spreading. The girl has a disorder called Rasmussen’s Encephalitis which could cause up to 100 seizures a day when surges of electricity in her brain could make her nervous system misfire. She went through the operation to stop the seizures. The operation involved cutting away the diseased half of her brain, but leaving still leaving it inside of her skull to prevent the increased risk of blood clots. The operation stopped the seizures but made her paralyzed on the left side of her body. The doctors say that with physical therapy she has the possibility to walk again in the future.

Read More of the Story: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/womenfamily.html?in_article_id=501849&in_page_id=1774&ito=1490

Woman Born With Feet Facing Backwards

In China, a woman named Wang Fang was born with her feet facing the wrong way. She lives fine with her condition and doesn’t want to receive disability pension because she doesn’t see herself as disabled. She says that she can run faster than most of her friends and has a job as a waitress. After she was born, Doctors thought she would not be able to walk properly but she is doing fine.

See Pictures:

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/12_01/WangFang1EURO_468x330.jpg

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/12_01/WangFangEURO_468x612.jpg

Read More of the Story: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,314781,00.html

Girl Survives Rabies

It is reported in Fond Du Lac, WI that a girl named Jeanna Giese was bitten by a bat in church and was given rabies. She was not hospitalized until a month after she was bitten and doctors put her in a coma and gave her antiviral drugs and other medications to keep her nerve cells from dying. She spent two months in intensive care before returning home.

It is considered a miracle that she was able to live for a month without any vaccination. Usually rabies victims need vaccination very soon after they are bitten. Rabies is a viral disease that attacks the nervous system and is usually fatal once the symptoms start to develop.