Browsing: Health/Medicine

A Brief History On May 14, 1939, in Peru, 5 ½ year old Lina Medina became the youngest documented human mother in history. Giving birth to a 6 pound healthy boy, due to Lina’s small pelvis the birth was performed by Caesarian section. Digging Deeper Far from a hoax or myth, this case was well documented after her parents brought her to a doctor because of her odd weight gain. From that point on when it was discovered this Kindergarten aged girl was pregnant, she was the center of medical and media attention. The baby boy was named Gerardo in…

A Brief History On May 5, 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte, erstwhile Emperor of the French died on the lonely island of St. Helena, whispering his last word, Josephine. Digging Deeper The great man, a shell of his former self, in ill health served his exile on a desolate island. Little did he know, things would get worse. When Napoleon died in the custody of the British military, an autopsy was performed and the doctor snagged a souvenir for himself, the dead emperor’s penis. Apparently you could get away with that sort of shenanigans in those days. Napoleon is certainly not alone…

A Brief History On April 4, 1969, Dr. Denton Cooley performed surgery to implant the first artificial (temporary) heart in history! Digging Deeper Dr. Cooley was a renowned heart surgeon and founder of the Texas Heart Institute. Having worked with Dr. Michael DeBakey (another renowned heart surgeon that invented the pump that makes heart surgery possible), Cooley was part of the team that performed the first heart transplant in the United States as well as his artificial heart work.  He also pioneered techniques using artificial heart valves which reduced mortality in heart valve replacement surgery from 70% to 8%! Unfortunately,…

A Brief History On March 30, 1981, only a bit past two months into his presidency, Ronald Reagan was shot by a mentally ill assassin! Digging Deeper Reagan, riding the crest of popularity from being newly inaugurated and the Iranian hostage crisis having been ended on inauguration day, was in Washington, D.C. and had just delivered a speech to an AFL-CIO audience.  Outside the Hilton Hotel, Hinckley was waiting with a cheap .22 caliber revolver loaded with 6 rounds. Before Reagan could enter his limousine Hinckley fired all 6 shots at him, hitting the president with a bullet that ricocheted…

A Brief History On March 22, 1972, the US Supreme Court decided that unmarried Americans were allowed to have sex! Digging Deeper It is hard to imagine that so recently the commonly referred to as liberal state of Massachusetts had a law against distribution of contraceptives except by pharmacists or doctors and then only to married people! The Massachusetts law prohibiting “Crimes against Chastity” was on trial after a lecturer and advocate of population control through contraception purposely violated the law in order to mount the court challenge, known as Eisenstadt v. Baird. At issue was the right of unmarried…