Actress Brittany Murphy Dies

The actress Brittany Murphy, who starred in the movies "Clueless," "8 Mile," and "Just Married," has died at the age of 32 of a heart attack. Her close friends say that she had a drug problem and was addicted to prescription drugs, including Vicodin. They say that she became dependent on painkillers after having a series of plastic surgery operations. Before her death, she had been taking prescription medication for flu-like symptoms and was very sick when she went into cardiac arrest. She was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, where she pronounced dead on arrival at 10:04 a.m. on Monday. Many different prescriptions were found in the home that were prescribed to her, her husband Simon, Monjack, and Murphy's mother. The LA County Coroner's office will perform an autopsy and toxicology report on her against her husband's wishes.

Singer Kelis Acquitted of Charges

Kelis, a singer and wife of rapper Nas, has been acquitted of all charges against her in an incident that happened in Miami where she was accused of disrupting a police operation by going towards the officers screaming racial profanities at them. The incident started when authorities were talking to men in March of 2007 in the South Beach nightclub district and they claim that Kelis rushed towards them and said that one of the men was her husband. She was charged with disorderly conduct while resisting arrest without violence. A jury acquitted her of the charges on Thursday.

Scientists Developing Surgical Robot for Surgeries

There are scientists in London that are developing a surgical robot that could help surgeons do complex surgical procedures without having to cut into the patient’s skin. A team at the Imperial College has been given $4.5 million to build and test a surgical robot that is called the “i-Snake”.

The robot is made up of a long tube that has special motors, sensors, and imaging tools inside of it. It would be inserted through the patient’s mouth or other orifice and would eliminate the need for a keyhole surgery, where several cuts would be made. The i-Snake would cause less invasive treatments, surgeries would be faster, and recovery times would be quicker.

Read More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7155635.stm

Woman Awarded Money For Waking During Surgery

On Wednesday, a court awarded a woman, from the southern Austrian province of Carinthia, $11,000 because five years ago she woke up during major abdominal surgery and was unable to tell the doctors how much pain she was in. She had originally demanded more than $57,000 in compensation for mental and physical suffering. The court rejected that amount because they said there wasn’t enough proof that the woman regained full consciousness during the operation. Her lawyer tried to argue the fact that the anesthesiologist forgot to attach a tube that was supposed to be used to keep the woman sedated. The woman said that she could fell the surgeons using a scalpel and other pieces of instruments but she wasn’t able to talk or move.

Child Born With Four Arms and Four Legs

In India, a team of 13 surgeons have started operating on a two year old girl named Lakshmi Tatama who was born with four arms and four legs. She had a parasitic twin that stopped developing after birth. The twins are joined at the pelvis and both have a pair of arms and legs but only Lakshmi has a head. Her parents see her as a reincarnation of a Hindu goddess but she needs the operation if she is going to live past her adolescent years. The operation will last for 40 hours and the family isn’t being charged anything for any of the costs.

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