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Today's Science Times has two really fascinating pieces.
First, the story of the first child ever to be rescued from parental abuse by law. Mary Ellen McCormack, orphaned, was adopted by a couple in Manhattan. When the father died and the mother remarried, the mother (apparently overwhelmed and unhappy) took to beating her daughter. "Mamma has been in the habit of whipping and beating me every day. She used to whip me with a twisted whip--a rawhide."
Neighbors brought her to the attention of the Department of Public Charities and Correction, which administered orphanages, jails and asylums. Since there was no law against child abuse, the social worker, Etta Angell Wheeler, brought the girl's story to the founder of the ASPCA. He hired a lawyer, the mother was charged and tried, and in the end, Mary Ellen was adopted by Wheeler, grew up, and married and had a family of her own. And was a good mother. And out of all this came legal reform and the establishment of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
You know, for some people, anyway, the Good Old Days weren't.
The second story: a man underwent 43 hours of surgery to remove a tumor the size of a football which had threaded itself around his liver, pancreas, intestines and stomach. They had to cut away parts of the pancreas, intestines and stomach, then remove the entire liver and spend hours detaching the tumor from it. Then they reinstalled the liver, repaired all the damage done in excising things, and closed him up. About 35 hours in, the man was in bad enough shape that they temporarily halted surgery, covered him up, and let him recuperate in the ICU, but when he'd stabilized they took him back in to surgery and finished the job.
5000 stitches, a surgical team of dozens, and a pretty good prognosis, going forward. Just: wow. I don't know this is a cost-effective way to manage such an illness (the man has money to spend, apparently, and a fierce desire to live) but as a technical feat it's stunning.
First, the story of the first child ever to be rescued from parental abuse by law. Mary Ellen McCormack, orphaned, was adopted by a couple in Manhattan. When the father died and the mother remarried, the mother (apparently overwhelmed and unhappy) took to beating her daughter. "Mamma has been in the habit of whipping and beating me every day. She used to whip me with a twisted whip--a rawhide."
Neighbors brought her to the attention of the Department of Public Charities and Correction, which administered orphanages, jails and asylums. Since there was no law against child abuse, the social worker, Etta Angell Wheeler, brought the girl's story to the founder of the ASPCA. He hired a lawyer, the mother was charged and tried, and in the end, Mary Ellen was adopted by Wheeler, grew up, and married and had a family of her own. And was a good mother. And out of all this came legal reform and the establishment of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
You know, for some people, anyway, the Good Old Days weren't.
The second story: a man underwent 43 hours of surgery to remove a tumor the size of a football which had threaded itself around his liver, pancreas, intestines and stomach. They had to cut away parts of the pancreas, intestines and stomach, then remove the entire liver and spend hours detaching the tumor from it. Then they reinstalled the liver, repaired all the damage done in excising things, and closed him up. About 35 hours in, the man was in bad enough shape that they temporarily halted surgery, covered him up, and let him recuperate in the ICU, but when he'd stabilized they took him back in to surgery and finished the job.
5000 stitches, a surgical team of dozens, and a pretty good prognosis, going forward. Just: wow. I don't know this is a cost-effective way to manage such an illness (the man has money to spend, apparently, and a fierce desire to live) but as a technical feat it's stunning.