Two years ago, a top psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was so concerned about what he saw as Nidal Hasan's incompetence and reckless behavior that he put those concerns in writing. NPR has obtained a copy of the memo, the first evaluation that has surfaced from Hasan's file.I wonder if Hasan was a Christian or Jewish would he have gotten the same easy pass that he did.
Officials at Walter Reed sent that memo to Fort Hood this year when Hasan was transferred there.
Nevertheless, commanders still assigned Hasan — accused of killing 13 people in a mass shooting at Fort Hood on Nov. 5 — to work with some of the Army's most troubled and vulnerable soldiers.
Read the full story here.
National Capital ConsortiumA memo like that by a civilian hospital would destroy anyone's career, regardless of race or religion. But not in the military. What the US Army only wants is diversity for the sake of diversity. Not competency. Thus Hasan's passing grade and promotion.
Psychiatry Residency Program
Borden Pavilion, Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Bldg.6, Rm. 2059, 6900 Georgia Ave, NW
Washington DC, 20307-5001
XXXXXXX
Consortium Participating Instructions: Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, National Naval Medical Center, Malcolm Grow USAF Medical Center
May 17, 2007
Memorandum for: Credentials Committee
Subject: CPT Nidal Hasan
1. I am the program director for NCC Psychiatry Residency Training Program. I took over as PD in MAR 2007 and was Assistant PD from July 2006. I have been a faculty member of the residency since July 2004.
2. This memo is based on my personal knowledge of and the documented incidences in CPT Hasan’s Resident Training File.
3. The Faculty has serious concerns about CPT Hasan’s professionalism and work ethic. Clinically he is competent to deliver safe patient care. But he demonstrates a pattern of poor judgment and a lack of professionalism. In his PGY-2 year, he was counseled for inappropriately discussing religious topics with his assigned patients. He also required a period of in-program remediation when he was discovered to have not documented appropriately an ER encounter with a homicidal patient who subsequently eloped from the ER. He did successfully remediate this problem. At the end of his PGY-2 year, he was placed on administrative probation by the NCC GMEC for failure to take and pass USMLE Step 3 and to obtain an unrestricted state medical license by the end of his PGY-2 year; as a result he was not promoted to PGY-3 on time. He did eventually complete step 3 and get a license and was promoted to PGY-3. He was counseled for having a poor record of attendance at didactics and lower than expected PRITE scores. One year he failed to show for his PRITE examination at all. During his PGY-3 year, he was counseled for being consistently late to NNMC morning report. During his PGY-4 year, he was discovered to have only seen 30 outpatients in 38 week of outpatient continuity clinic. He was required to make this missed clinic time up using his elective. He failed his HGT/WGT screening and was found to be out of standards with body fat % and was counseled on that.
Lastly, he missed a night of call for MGMC ER and then did not respond to numerous pages by my office the next day.
4. Take together; these issues demonstrate a lack of professionalism and work ethics. He is able to self-correct with supervision. However, at this point he should not need so much supervision. In spite of all of this, I am not able to say he is not competent to graduate nor do I think a period of academic probation now at the end of his training will be beneficial. He would be able to contain his behavior enough to complete any period of probation successfully. My purpose in writing this letter is to give the credentials committee the benefit of full disclosure and the opportunity to modify CPT Hasan’s plan of supervision following initial privileging.
5. I did discuss this memo with CPT Hasan and informed him I would be adding it to his initial credentialing paperwork.
6. POC is the undersigned and may be reached at 202-XXX-XXXX or email at XXX/
Sincerely,
Scott Moran, MAJ, MC
Program Director
NCC Psychiatry Residency Training
Two Hours After Quitting.
Nicotine begins to leave your system. Some people may feel withdrawal pangs. This is a good sign. Your body is cleaning itself out. Hang in there. Within two days all the nicotine by-products will be gone.
After Six Hours.
Heart rate and blood pressure decrease (although it may take up to a month for them to return to their normal rates).
After Twelve Hours.
The carbon monoxide is completely out of your system. Your lungs work more efficiently and you can do more without becoming short of breath.
After Two Days.
Your sense of taste and smell sharpen. In addition, your breath, hair , fingers and teeth will be cleaner.
After One Week.
Most withdrawal symptoms are completely gone.
After Two Weeks.
Your circulation improves. So does your confidence level because you feel good about your progress. You begin to think of yourself as a non-smoker.
One To Nine Months.
Your body's overall energy level increases. Coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue and shortness of breath decrease.
Within Two Months.
Blood flow to your hands and feet improves, keeping them warmer. Your skin looks healthier.
Within Three Months.
The cilia (a hair-like cleaning system in the lungs) begin to recover and remove the mucous, so you can cough it up, cleaning your lungs and reducing the chance of infection. You may notice increased coughing for a few days.
After A Year.
Your risk of lung cancer is reduced and you have less of a risk of heart disease. Fifteen years after quitting, the risk approaches that of someone who has never smoked.
20 minutes after quitting.Yes it is worth it. I am pretty sure that murder committed during your quit is considered legal if the victim was smoking and blowing smoke in your direction. It would make an interesting case for the Supreme Court.
You begin looking for loopholes in your quit commitment, thinking about postponing the whole arrangement until after the next millennium begins.
After 8 hours.
You have already contemplated at least three murders and several other brutal acts of violence.
After 24 Hours.
Your city or town declares a mysterious and unforeseen water shortage, while municipal sewers are suddenly overwhelmed.
After one week.
You have consumed enough calories to sustain a Bengali village of 2000 for four years. Food shortages become critical within your region; pets and local wild animals become nervous.
After two weeks.
Quitzits establish early outposts on your face. Risk of Browser's Butt Syndrome (BBS) rises to equal that for 13-year-old boys with new computers and internet access. Smileys appear in your writing and begin to replicate :)
Within one month.
You have already begun to pester smokers and complain about the smell of their obnoxious cigarettes; IQ returns to low double-digits; Quitzits begin to function autonomously. Exclamation point shortages prevail across the land.
After six weeks
You may have experienced your first bowel movement since your quit began; if not, be patient, it will happen within a few more weeks.
After two months.
You begin to forget the pain and misery of the first week without cigarettes, and are wondering if you could, perhaps, remind yourself of what you've been missing; Quitzits establish territorial treaties with each other (with the exception of the Jewish and Arab Quitzits. They will be at war a bit longer).
After five months.
Intelligence returns to at least 60% of its pre-quit level; concentration remains a problem, at only 50%; carpal tunnel syndrome incidence exceeds all known levels for any keyboard-intensive occupation; you have typed more words than are contained within all the works of William Shakespeare, but with more flair and "sparkle".
After six months.
You wonder why you ever waited this long to quit.
It's way, way, worth it.
A fast-moving meteor lit up the night skies over most of Utah just after midnight Wednesday. Moments later, the phones lit up at KSL as people across the state called to tell us what they saw and ask what it was.
Scientists are calling it a "remarkable midnight fireball." The source of all the excitement was basically a rock, falling from space.
In addition to KSL, witnesses to the meteor quickly began call 911.
"I'm currently driving, but I just saw a giant blue flash in the sky, and it came down into the city," a caller from Ogden said.
A caller in Bountiful told dispatchers, "It flashed from the west, and it lit up the whole freakin' neighborhood."
A Salt Lake City caller said, "Ma'am, I'm not kidding you. I am terrified."
Professor David Kieda is chair of the University of Utah's astronomy department. He said the energy of the meteor coming into Earth's atmosphere was so powerful it has to be measured in Terawatts.
"It's almost like the consumption of the United States all at once. It was a fraction of a second," Kieda said.
When a meteor enters the atmosphere, it gives off a lot of heat and light. Folks at the Clark Planetarium say this rock was big--between the size of a microwave and washer-dryer unit.
Continue reading here.
Bolton says that we have entered a very critical period. Bolton speaks on the Obama administration’s attempt to internationalize gun control and threaten our 2nd amendment rights.
Go to NRA and enter “global arms treaty” on search function (top right of main page) to see the video.
Former U.S. ambassador discusses the U.N.’s anti-gun agenda. Ginny Simone speaks with John Bolton about the Obama administration’s position on the International Arms Trade Treaty and the consequences of such an agreement for American gun owners. Bolton says that there is no doubt that the “real agenda here is domestic firearms control,” and he explains that controlling civilian ownership is a priority for anti-gun countries such as Britain, Australia and Japan, among others.
The U.N. fears that If the Obama administration turns out to be just one term they must move rapidly on this treaty. The U.N. wants to move rapidly during this narrow window of opportunity.
Bolton warns that this is a very dangers time we are entering into:
There’s a lot the administration can do via executive agreement that won’t require Congressional approval at all. . . .
Obama is our first post American president . . .he doesn’t believe in American exceptionalism, . . .
Our adversaries around the world see this administration as weak, indecisive . . .we are in a very vulnerable period . . . They have been waiting a long time for this opportunity . . .they are going to drive to push through everything they can . . .
Bolton says that Obama wants to avoid a 2nd amendment fight by using his executive agreement powers.
What about Civilian ownership?
A very slippery slope especially with this administration. . .
Despite advances in treatment regimens and the best efforts of nurses and doctors, about 70% of all people with severe burns die from related infections. But aA little known fact about Tel Aviv University:revolutionary new wound dressing developed at Tel Aviv University could cut that number dramatically.
Prof. Meital Zilberman of TAU's Department of Biomedical Engineering has developed a new wound dressing based on fibers she engineered -- fibers that can be loaded with drugs like antibiotics to speed up the healing process, and then dissolve when they've done their job. A study published in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research – Applied Biomaterials demonstrates that, after only two days, this dressing can eradicate infection-causing bacteria.
The new dressing protects the wound until it is no longer needed, after which it melts away. "We've developed the first wound dressing that both releases antibiotic drugs and biodegrades in a controlled manner," says Prof. Zilberman. "It solves current mechanical and physical limitations in wound-dressing techniques and gives physicians a new and more effective platform for treating burns and bedsores."
Prof. Zilberman's new wound dressing, which does not yet have a formal name, is designed to mimic skin and the way it protects the body. It combines positive mechanical and physical properties with what medical researchers call "a desired release profile of antibiotics."
While the concept is simple, the technology is not. Skin, Prof. Zilberman explains, serves a number of vastly different purposes. "Wound dressings must maintain a certain level of moisture while acting as a shield," she says. "Like skin, they must also enable fluids from the wound to leave the infected tissue at a certain rate. It can't be too fast or too slow. If too fast, the wound will dry out and it won't heal properly. If too slow, there's a real risk of increased contamination."
Prof. Zilberman's new wound dressing, which does not yet have a formal name, is designed to mimic skin and the way it protects the body. It combines positive mechanical and physical properties with what medical researchers call "a desired release profile of antibiotics."
Unlike oral antibiotics, locally-applied antibiotics can target and kill harmful bacteria before they enter the body to cause further infection, sepsis, or death. "People who suffer from large burns don't usually die from the condition itself. The fatal culprits are the secondary bacterial infections that invade the body through these vulnerable burned areas," says Prof. Zilberman.
The new TAU dressing inhibits bacterial growth and is biodegradable, which helps doctors avoid constant wound cleaning and redressing, allowing the body to do the work on its own. "When administered at the wound, a doctor can give relatively high but local doses of antibiotics, avoiding any toxicity issues that arise when the same amount of antibiotic passes through the body," explains Prof. Zilberman, who worked on this research with Jonathan Elsner, her PhD student.
Prof. Zilberman is now starting the early stages of clinical trials on animal models. So far, her wound dressing has passed physical and mechanical tests in vitro and in bacterial inhibition tests in the laboratory. She is also seeking a strategic partner to co-develop the research and take it to the commercial stage.
Read the full story here.
In independent rankings, TAU's innovations and discoveries are cited more often by the global scientific community than all but 20 other universities worldwide.Israel is the 100th smallest nation in the world. It has a population of just a bit over 7 million people. It is the only true democracy in the Middle East. It has very few natural resources and is the size of New Jersey.
Internationally recognized for the scope and groundbreaking nature of its research programs, Tel Aviv University consistently produces work with profound implications for the future.
The night I meet with Gerry and Theresa Casey, Jerusalem is enjoying its first wintry weather of the year. However, for the natives of Sligo in the northwest of Ireland, the storm brewing outside is reminiscent of the type of climate they have tried to escape this past year to give their little girl Rachel, born with Down's syndrome and serious heart defects, a better quality of life.Rachel is a blessing for her family, never a burden. Looking at the face of that angel, how could any person deny life to her (or the thousands of others like her).
"We were told by doctors in Ireland that a warm climate could increase Rachel's life expectancy for up to five years," says Gerry, 40, who officially arrived here with Theresa, Rachel and the couple's three older children - Sean, nine, Emma, seven, and Louisa, five - in December.
Looking lovingly at his two-and-a-half-year-old daughter as she mischievously makes her way around the family's living room, the doting father adds proudly: "I really think it has worked, because today she stood up for the first time without holding on."
While this milestone might seem like only one small step for a child struggling with life-threatening health complications, for the Casey family it is the culmination of a year filled with great progress, adventure and a little bit of Irish luck.
The progress in Rachel's health and physical achievements was made possible by heart surgery performed at the Schneider Children's Medical Center for Israel in Petah Tikva and through a variety of therapeutic treatments and support she received at the Jerusalem-based Shalva Association for Mentally and Physically Challenged Children. The adventure came in the form of the family's unlikely cultural experiences this year and its daring travel across the entire region. The luck part stems primarily from Gerry's work.
A captain in the Irish Defense Forces, he is one of 11 Irish army officers posted to the Middle East as part of a 153-strong multinational United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) peacekeeping mission based in five countries (Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Israel) for observation purposes under the 1948 international agreement.
Finish reading here.
Women in their 40s should not get routine mammograms for early detection of breast cancer, according to updated guidelines set forth by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is worried that women might get upset if they discover a lump in their breast. May have undue worry when they have their annual mammogram. It is just easier to pat the poor, dumb creatures on the head and send them back to the kitchen to cook their hubby dinner. Let the men decide what the best type of medicine you need to have.
Before having a mammogram, women ages 40 to 49 should talk to their doctors about the risks and benefits of the test, and then decide if they want to be screened, according to the task force.
For women ages 50 to 74, it recommends routine mammography screenings every two years. Risks and benefits for women age 75 and above are unknown, it said.
A bright blue sky could not hide the gray shadows of pain that marked the eyes of the families of the victims of the "9/11" terrorist attack that found themselves in Arazim Park in Jerusalem on Thursday. They had gathered together with international dignitaries and Israeli leaders to dedicate a new monument to the their loved ones, who lost their lives in the senseless 2001 attack on America by the Al Qaeda terrorist organization.Strange how the people of Israel can design and implement a memorial to the victims of terror that will grow and bloom as time goes by. How strange that the designers never considered facing it towards Jerusalem, just on the road to the city. Nor does it face Mecca as the Flight 93 Memorial does.
Designed by award-winning Israeli artist Eliezer Weishoff and commissioned by the Jewish National Fund-USA/Keren Kayemet L'Israel (JNF-USA/KKL), the memorial depicts the World Trade Center and Pentagon through sculpture and landscape architecture.
Peoplefrom nations around the world lost their lives that morning, among them a number of Jews, including Israelis. Fewer Jewish New Yorkers than usual were present in the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, however, because many had stopped on their way to work to vote in fiercely-contested local primary elections.
The 30-foot high bronze sculpture commemorating the event and honoring the memories of the victims is composed of a waving American flag transformed into a memorial flame. The monument rests on a base of gray granite, part of which comes from the original Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan, destroyed in the mammoth airliner attack eight years ago. The sculpture, which was funded by the Bronka Stavsky Rabin Weintraub Trust, is surrounded by a circular, crater-like plaza and reflection area tiled in stone.
The Jerusalem monument is one of the first major international memorials to mark the terrible event and honor the memory of its victims -- and the only site outside of New York to recognize the names of every victim of the attack.
Memorial donor and native New Yorker Edward Blank explained that he funded the project as a means of expressing the myriad conflicting feelings he struggled with after the tragedy. "My wife died just a few days before 9/11," he said, "and then the whole world was sent reeling by the events of that day. I was looking for a meritorious way to recognize the many feelings I was having, and this memorial was the perfect fit."
U.S. Ambassador to Israel James Cunningham attended the ceremony dedicating the monument, as did U.S. Congressman Erik Paulsen, who led a delegation from the United States. They were joined by Israeli Cabinet ministers, Knesset members and many families of the victims of 9/11, as well as other distinguished guests.
Read the full story here.
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