Polite Dissent

The Brave and the Bold #48 (June/July 1963)

One of my favorite days of the year: The Indianapolis 500 in the afternoon, and then the Coca-Cola 600 in the evening (plus barbecue, lots and lots of barbecue). I hope everyone enjoys their holiday weekend,

In the past years, it’s been the Avengers, the Justice League, and even the Legion of Super-Heroes. This year…

Happy Easter from the Uncanny X-Peeps

I’m off work and on vacation for the rest of week. Nothing exciting, mostly just staying at home and catching up on paperwork and CME — though I’m sure I’ll find the time to play a video game or two.

Posting will continue, but expect lighter, less substantial fare for the remainder of the week.

I’ve been pointing out examples of bad CPR and emergency resuscitation for several years now, but this one from Superman Family #171 takes the cake (so far, anyway). In the story, Supergirl is knocked unconscious by Black Canary’s “canary cry” and thrown into a river to drown. Batgirl jumps in and drags Supergirl to shore. She starts to perform rescue breathing on Supergirl but quickly gives up. So she drags her to the nearest car, uncaps the tire valve, and shoves it in Supergirl’s mouth. Miraculously, this restores her breathing to normal.

This is so over the top, I really can’t add anything except to point out that this would never work in real life, so please don’t ever try it (but hopefully you all figured that out on your own).

And finally, for those of you who only speak LOL:

All images from “Cleopatra, Queen of America” found in Superman Family #171. Script by Cary Bates. Art by Curt Swan. Scanned in from Showcase Presents Batgirl, Volume 1.

Tags: comics medicine batgirl supergirl rescue breathing cpr

With the U.S. Navy scheduled to shoot down an errant satellite later this week, I thought this would be a good time for a space-related PSA. This Captain America/Young Astronaut Council ad is from the back pages of Captain American #307, an otherwise forgettable issue featuring Nomad and Madcap.

The Young Astronaut Council was formed in 1984 to get children interested in space and science. According to their article on Wikipedia, they are “the largest youth aerospace organization in the world” (though I’m not sure that’s a title with a lot of competition). As far as I can know, the Young Astronaut Council is still in operation today, though you couldn’t tell it from their website, which I seem to be unable to access.

Click on the image to the right for the full ad.

For another relevant PSA, check out this one from Airboy #22 (May 1987) which takes an unkind look at the SDI program (”Strategic Defense Initiative” — i.e. the “Star Wars” program — a plan to shoot incoming enemy ballistic missiles out of the sky).

More PSAs

Tags: comics psa space captain america young astronaut council sdi

Apologies for the lack of a post last night, but there was a slight incident involving an overexuberant pet cat, her claws, and my eye, which necessitated a trip to the ER. Nothing serious — vision is fine, and within a few days I should be back to normal. In the meantime, however, I give myself 2 out of 10 on the Jonah Hex disfigurement scale:

Happy Groundhog Day!
Visions of years past.

How, exactly, does one hear dollar signs? Maybe Richie left his iPod on and it happens to playing the beginning of “Money” from The Dark Side of the Moon. Of course, this comic was published well before MP3 players, Walkmen, and even Pink Floyd.

Maybe it’s a not-so-subtle indictment of the medical profession by the folks at Harvey Comics: the doctor is hearing “dollar signs” when he should be listening to his patient. But then again, the doctor is using a horribly out of date stethoscope — even for 1964, when the comic was published — so he probably needs all the money he can get, plus he seems to listening to the xiphoid process and not the heart, so he’s not a very good doctor.

Or it’s just another vaguely humorous money-related visual gag the Richie Rich comics are famous for, take your pick.

Tags: comics medicine richie rich stethoscope

Thanks for stopping by from the Wall Street Journal Health Blog, and welcome to Polite Dissent, my blog that takes a look at medicine, television, comic books and how they all interact.

Here are some areas of special interest you might find worthwhile reading:

Medical Reviews of House
Medical Reviews of Comic Books
The Comic Book Drug Reference
Comic Book Public Service Ads and “Special Message” Comics
Psychic Nosebleeds (a catalog the increasing common cliche in genre fiction that nosebleeds are a sure sign of pyschic power)

Title: In Which Addison Finds a Showerhead

Tonight’s episode tried a little too hard to be clever and suffered for it. Plus, once again, we get a storyline involving Violet and her ex. Enough already! On the other hand, the medicine was a little better.

Dr. Sam Bennett and Dr. Violet Turner
One of Sam’s patients surprised a burglar in her house and is injured and traumatized from the incident. She asks Sam for a pill that will make her forget what happened. As the show progresses, Sam brings Violet in to talk to her and we discover that she was sexually assaulted by the intruder. Sam and Violet, in a miraculous single session, manage to cure the patient’s post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and then cause — and cure — PTSD in her husband.
As Violet suggests, there has been discussion that Propranolol (usually used as a blood pressure pill) may ease the psychological effects of the trauma, but will not erase the memories. There was a small study published in 2002 supporting this use of Propranolol, but the numbers were very small and the results did not seem all that impressive to me.

Dr. Addison Montgomery
Maya, Sam and Naomi’s daughter, comes to visit Addison with a friend from school because Maya is scared she may have gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease. Maya is tested but shows no sign of the infection. Later, Maya calls Addison frantically because her friend has collapsed in a pool of blood. It turns out that it was not Maya who was sexually active, but her friend, and this friend has a life threatening ectopic pregnancy. Addison rushes the girl into surgery and is able to save her life.
Ectopic pregnancies are pregnancies that occur outside of the uterus. They are most commonly found in the fallopian tube, but can happen anywhere in the abdomen. They can extremely dangerous and life-threatening, particularly as the pregnancy advances.

Dr. Pete Finch
Pete is asked by a former patient of his, a college track coach, to take a look at his star runner. She claims she is fine, but Pete hears wheezing so he brings her into the hospital for a pulmonary/cardiac stress test. During the test, she has a severe bronchospasm (think: asthma attack), and the Pete and the hospital chief of staff tell her that she needs inhaled steroids and “continuous neb.” (nebs = nebulizer, a machine that vaporizes medication so it can be inhaled) She refuses because a big track meet is coming up and she will not be able to compete while on those medications. When neither she nor the coach returns Pete’s calls, he travels to the college track to find her and arrives just in time when she collapses at the end of a race. While in the hospital, it is discovered that she has some “alkaloid” in her system. Pete finds out that she had visited another doctor who had given her some kind of herb, which along with the bronchospasm, nearly killed her and may prevent her from ever competing again. When Pete finds out that the coach is to blame, he slugs him.
The most common cause of bronchospasm is asthma. Exposure to nasty fumes or allergens (including food allergies and bee stings) can also cause it. Severe cases of bronchitis or emphysema can also lead to bronchospasm. If I had a world class runner who suddenly developed bronchospasm, I would wonder why this occurred all of a sudden. Asthma should have shown up much earlier in her career. It’s most likely that she has been exposed to something recently that caused it, and discovering the cause would solve many of her problems.
If the patient is in such severe bronchospasm that she needs continuous nebs, then it would be prudent to actually give her a nebulizer instead of just sitting around about it. Albuterol nebs are usually given every two to six hours in cases of significant bronchospasm. Rarely, they can be given continuously, but only in very severe cases (and these patients have bronchospasm so bad the patient is not able to talk, let alone argue).
The alkaloid she was given would likely be ephedra or ma huang — which would show up on athletic screening drug tests. In fact, any herb that would have an actual beneficial effect on her breathing would show up on a competition drug test. That’s a lot harder to explain away than a prescription medication.

Tags: television medicine private practice post traumatic stress disorder gonorrhea ectopic pregnancy bronchspasm

It’s not Nick Fury’s psychic nosebleed per se, but one from his eponymous series Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (1989 series). In this scene from issue #16, an evil scientist-wannabe has his mind overloaded when a malfunctioning spy satellite sends all its data directly into his brain.

All previous Psychic Nosebleed Zen posts

Tags: comics medicine nosebleed nick fury s.h.i.e.l.d.

Allow me to introduce the newest member of the Polite Family:

Aidan
Born 5:28 pm, weight 6 lbs 2 oz.

Posting will likely be spotty over the weekend and resume on Monday.

Brought to you by the Marvel Family from Whiz Comics #44 (July 1943) and Captain Marvel Jr #9 (July 1943)

In our post-MMR world, it’s unlikely you’ll ever hear a Gotham City thug say this again:

Yet another reason to be thankful for vaccinations.

Scene from Detective Comics #47 (January 1941). A vaccine against the measles first became available in 1963.
Script by Bill Finger with art by Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson, and George Roussos. Sure is a lot of yellow isn’t there?

Tags: comics batman measles vaccination

I’ve spent wasted the day playing Final Fantasy XII and reading Melanie Rawn’s new book Spellbinder.

Greetings everyone! I’m very happy to be back home from the hospital.

First off, I’d like to say thanks for all of the get well comments, e-mails, and thoughts. My wife and I truly appreciate them.

As for me, it looks like little permanent damage was done (except to my ego, which took a pretty solid hit). The cardiologist says that I can be back to full activity, including jogging and biking, in a month. In the meantime, I’ll just have to relax and catch up on reading, television, and a few other projects that have been stacking up.

Once again, thanks for all the kind thoughts and it’s good to be back!

Hi everyone. This is Scott’s wife and I am posting on his behalf. For the next few days Polite Dissent will not be updated. Scott is in the hospital after having a minor myocardial infarction (heart attack). He is doing fine now and I’m sure he will give you all the details when he can.

This year’s April Fool’s day post, including this new title graphic:

Today on Pullet Dissent, I’ll take a look at some notable entries from the recent San Diego Chicken-Con:

	Plucky Owner: M. Sterling An early season favorite from a long and distinguished line. Plumage looks good, though the beak is a little unimpressive. Grade: B+
	Kirk Owner: D. Wright Another strong contender from the California powerhouse. I expect multiple 4-H ribbons from the specimen, with a State Fair championship to top off the season. Grade: A
	Nitro Owner: K. Church Every since splitting off from the family fried chicken business, Church has been struggling to find the right competitor. This year, I think he’s finally done it, and his Nitro should give Kirk a run for his money. Grade: A-
	Funky Chicken Owner: D. Campbell A master of chickens from the 90s, Campbell has decided to have a go at current poultry as well. It’s a valiant effort, but ultimately I expect Funky to end up as soup. Grade: C
	Easter Dinner Owner: C. Sims Really, the less said the better. Grade: F

Tags: chickens competition 4-h state fair

Busy weekend with family obligations as well as St. Louis’s annual 5-mile St. Patrick’s Day Run.

See everyone Monday!

Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene ii

SOOTHSAYER: Beware the ides of March. CAESAR: What man is that? BRUTUS: A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March. CAESAR: Set him before me; let me see his face. CASSIUS: Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Caesar. CAESAR: What say’st thou to me now? speak once again. SOOTHSAYER: Beware the ides of March. CAESAR: He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass.

I keep seeing these television ads for the upcoming film The Bridge to Terebithia. The ads strongly play up the fantasy aspects of the story, making it seem akin to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe or The Lord of the Rings.

Now, I’ve read The Bridge to Terebithia, and the fantasy aspects make up only a tiny part of the story and aren’t really that integral to the plot.

This means that either:

1. The movie makers totally missed the entire point of the book, or

2. There’s going to be some upset parents and sobbing children who were expecting a light-hearted fantasy romp.

If you’re unfamiliar with the plot, and don’t mind it being spoiled, the wikipedia article sums up the plot well

Continuing my look at blockbuster mini-series. Today is a scene from the final issue of Kingdom Come. It shows what happens to Superman after being “shazam”-ed by Captain Marvel repeatedly. Bloody nose, bleeding ears, and burst blood vessels in the eye.

This one is a little iffy. It’s certainly not a classic “psychic” nosebleed, but is it a super-power related or magic-related nosebleed? I guess it all depends on how you interpret the damage Superman took. It wasn’t a direct blow to the face that caused the bleeding. Was it the magic of the thunderbolts? Or the sonic pressure from the thunderclap? Or a bit of both? I think it’s both, so I’m including it (the bleeding ears make me think it is barotrauma [pressure-related], but Superman’s suffered extreme pressures before without bleeding, so it must be the magic of the thunderbolts and the pressure of their thunderclaps).

Scene from Kingdom Come #4 by Mark Waid and Alex Ross

All previous Nosebleed Zen posts

Tags: comics medicine nosebleed kingdom come

I spent the latter part of last week with the Polite-wife and the in-laws in Las Vegas. Her family is great, so visiting is always something I look forward to, but it’s exhausting too, particularly at the holidays. While in Vegas, we had the chance to catch up with old friends as well as visiting my favorite comic book store, Alternate Reality.

We returned home early Christmas evening and spent the remainder of the night and the next day with my folks, celebrating our family Christmas. It was fun, there was plenty of good food, but it’s nice to be back in our house. I have the next few days off before working in the clinic New Year’s weekend, so I think I’ll relax, play some Lego Star Wars, and — maybe, just maybe — update the Comic Book Drug Reference and maybe try out some new CSS for this site.

I’ll resume regular posting Wednesday night with a look at Rabies in Jonah Hex, followed by a look at the best and worst in comic book medicine in 2006.

In the meantime so you can get your medical fix, this week’s Grand Rounds is being held over at Blogborygmi. (Grand Rounds is the weekly collection of the best medical blogging). In addition, the 2006 Medical Blog Award nominations remain open, so head over and check out the nominees so far, or nominate one or two of your favorites.

Most the radio stations, restuarants, and stores around here have switched to Christmas music, 24/7. Thought it’s overkill, I can survive it…for the most part. I remain convinced that these are the worst two Christmas songs ever:

• Little Saint Nick
  Contains the stupidest line of any Christmas song: Christmas comes this time each year.
• The Christmas Shoes
  You need an extra dose of insulin just to listen to this song. And the radio was playing the “special version” where a choir of young girls joins awkwardly in the singing.

To my favorites, this year add “Christmas Wrapping” by The Waitresses, a more-or-less one hit wonder band known best for “I Know What Boys Like.”

It’s that time again to look at what internet search engine queries brought people to Polite Dissent over the past two months. You’ll notice a couple of repeats on here, but that’s only because people keep asking for it. As always, my comments when appropriate (or even when inappropriate) are in green italics. (Previous seach posts can be found here, and it seems I missed September. I’ll have to correct that oversight at some point)

The U.S.S. Arizona Memorial
Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i
Picture taken on the boat ride to the memorial

Stood in line in the cold all night last night at the local Target to (succesfully) obtain the Nintendo Wii. Also picked up the new Zelda as well as “Trauma Center: Second Opinion.” Resultingly, I am very tired — and possibly chillblained — and plan on going to bed as soon as this week’s Midsommer Murders is over.

Regularly scheduled posting will resume tomorrow.

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In other news, I’ve got several items up for sale on eBay now. Included are a handful of video games (PS2 and Xbox), some comics, and several runs of manga including complete runs (to date) of Full Metal Alchemist, Scrapped Princess, Tarot Cafe, and Case Closed.

Polite Dissent was transferred to a new server today. This should hopefully speed up the loading time of the site. Unfortunately, it also screwed up e-mail for a time, so if you sent me an e-mail yesterday or today and haven’t heard back, it probably got eaten by the Internets. I also seem to having a problem accessing images I’ve uploaded today, so the normal Monday PSA will be delayed until I can figure it out.

Update: The error has been corrected. As usual, the mistake was on my end, and not the host. sigh

‘Nuff Said

Instead of lollipops, our office hands out stickers to children at the end of their appointment. I like to look through the catalogs to make sure we’re getting good stickers (particularly good super-hero stickers), and not just the Strawberry Shortcake ones. As I was flipping through the catalog yesterday, this caught my eye.

I haven’t decided if this is sheer genius or one of the most ridiculous ideas I have ever seen, but I’m leaning towards the former.

Tonka Truck Valentines! And some of the best (or worst) heavy-equipment-related Valentine’s Day puns ever. There’s a bulldozer (“You move me”), a grader (“You make the grade!”), a cement mixer (“You’ve got me all mixed up”), a backhoe (“I dig you”), and a steam roller (“…We’re on a roll!”).

I’m really not sure who the intended audience is, because I’m thinking most kids who are big into Tonka aren’t going to be that much into Valentine’s Day, but I still think this is genius.

(Here’s another view of the stickers, and ordering information if you’re so inclined.)

Tags: valentines tonka

I did a Century Ride today so now I’m dead tired and my legs are killing me. I doubt I have a substantive post in me tonight.

Instead, let’s just sit back and celebrate the St. Louis Cardinals winning the National League Central title for the third year straight. Playoffs start Tuesday in San Diego against the Padres.

Once again it’s time for my favorite holiday of the year: Talk Like A Pirate Day!
Being the good buccaneer that I am, I looted last year’s post (which was itself plundered from the year before that), and I’m reposting and updating it — and new additions are always welcome!

Comic-book pirates (and pirate comic books) off the top of me head (to be updated as I think of more):

• Crossbones
• The Psycho Pirate
• Occulus from Fantastic Four
• And in the Fantastic Four’s first encounter with Dr. Doom (FF #5), The Thing ended up becoming Blackbeard.
• Pirate Club
• The evil pirates from My Monkey’s Name is Jennifer
• The Starjammers
• The hilarious Scurvy Dogs (”The cow says moo…”)
• The abandoned Barbarossa and the Lost Corsairs
• El Cazador
• Street Angel #2
• Long John Silver and the Pirates (Charlton comic from the 1950s)
• Belit (and Conan, for a time) from the Conan comics (older Marvel volumes)
• The Black Pirate appeared in some of the 1940s issues of Action Comics
• There was the pirate comic-within-a-comic in Watchmen (Tales of Black Freighter)
• Buccaneers from the 1950s
• The similarly named Buccaneer, also from the 1950s
• The Golden Medallion, a pirate comic book put out by LEGO
• The Pirates of Dark Water A kids comic put out by Marvel based on the Hanna-Barbera cartoon.
• Terry and the Pirates. Sure it was a comic strip, but it’s been reprinted in comic book form several times
• Then of course there’s Colonia (pointed out to me last year by Laura, the “Scourge of the Seattle Seas”)
• Pirate Corp$
• Even Mickey Mouse is getting in on the act: Air Pirates Funnies
• Metrokitty (the “Feline Felon”) reminded me that there was a pirate as a suporting character in the Starman series (and in one of the Talking with David issues).
• Speaking of Disney, we can’t forget air pirate Don Carnage from Talespin
• Pirates appeares in at least one Spirit story
• EC’s Piracy
• Indiana Jones and the Sargasso Pirates
• Some pirates appeared (briefly, before being slaughtered) in Grendel: War Child #4
• Polly and the Pirates
• The Aquaman villains Cutlas Charlie, Captain Squid, and Captain Blackjack
• The subway pirates from Seven Soldiers: Manhattan Guardian

Tags: comics pirates talk like a pirate day

Time for the bi-monthly post where take a few minutes tolook back at what internet searches brought people to Polite Dissent for July and August. Mostly rather bland searches this time, but then I’m not sure anything will top May and June’s intravenous pumpkins. As always, there were plenty of searches for She-Hulk, Hawk, Dove, Dave Trampier, Wormy, and B’wana Beast. Plenty of House questions too. Then there were the usual searches for sex pictures involving any combination of the following: the Teen Titans (Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy — but no love for Raven), Kim Possible, Shego, Ron Stoppable, Danny Phantom, and/or Tanith Belbin.

Capitalization has been added to make the searches more readable, but the grammar and spelling are untouched otherwise to give the true flavor. My thoughts are added in green.

Vaguely Medical Searches

• Tiniest bacteria serratia Sounds like a title of a children’s book. [information on Serratia]
• Difference between the circumcision done by a quack doctor and medical doctor? Is this really a question you need to ask?
• Can a blow stop the heart rhythm instantly? Yes, under the right conditions, when the timing of the heart cycle is just right and a blow lands in the right place. This is known as Commotio Cordis and is thought to cause 2-3 deahts per year in Little League baseball.[more information on commotio cordis]
• Kissing fishes skin cure No idea here.
• If you don t test for it you don t have to treat it house of god The actual quote is: “If you don’t take a temperature, you can’t find a fever” and it is Law X from the back of House of God.
• mystery painful rash secreting string You’re probably thinking about Morgellons. [wikipedia entry on Morgellon’s Disease]

Supposedly Comic Book Searches

• XY the last man close.
• John Byrne pregnant I doubt it
• Women in the freezer comics Another example of being close but not quite right
• Senseless comics involving the devil Are there any other kind?

Miscellaneous Seaches

• Give me at least 3 valedictorian addressed I don’t know which is more disturbing, that someone is plagiarizing valedictorian speeches, or that they can’t spell “addresses” right. Or maybe it’s just somebody who’s looking for the home addresses of smart people so he can beat them up…
• Hats Somebody searches the internet for “hats”? And found my site? (Several times too, according to the logs).
• How do you spell polite? Just like that.
• I have telescopic vision Good for you.

Adventures in Spelling (presented with few comments)

• Cot having sex on tape
• 37 weeks pregnant cervix is thinning and pressure in Virginia
• Ohno Cryten birth control I assume they meant “Ortho Cyclen” but “Ohno Cryten” evokes much better imagery.

Fan Fiction Want List (presented without comment)

• Airwolf fan fiction
• Fanfiction kim possible giving birth
• Fanfiction kim possible vomit
• Extreme Justice fan fiction

And Last but not Least, the I-Really-Don’t-Want-To-Know Seaches (also presented without comment)

• How can i sudues my sister
• Woman groin picture without obstacle

In addition to working in the clinic and being on call this weekend, I signed up for a local biathalon (a run and bike one, not a ski and shoot one) several months ago and it happened to be this morning. Let me just say that I have a drastically different definition of “gently rolling hills” than the planners of the course. I’m also chafed in areas no person should ever be chafed (someday I’ll find a pair of bicycling shorts that I can run comfortably for fiver or more miles).

Thus, no time for psychic nosebleeds this weekend, but don’t worry, I’ve got some good ones for next weekend.

Yet more proof that the use or resistance of mental powers causes nosebleeds.

Tags: comics medicine nosebleed jay garrick flash jsa

I mentioned last post how poor the art was on Ben Casey #4. On first reading the comic, I noticed how much the one character looked like Sean Connery. Then I noticed how I kept seeing the same heads over and over again. Take a look a Ben Casey, particularly his head in the next few panels — it’s the identical head, just tilted slightly from panel to panel…

Here’s Ben looking pensive.	Here’s Ben flirting.
Here’s Ben taking charge.	Here’s Ben whining.

What’s that you say? You want to see some action shots? Sure thing!

Ben in a knife fight.

And Ben dancing.

Tags: comics medicine ben casey flashback week

A real world case this time: Michael Swango’s troubles were first noticeable during medical school at Southern Illinois University. Swango’s demeanor was brusque and he had no bedside manners to speak of. He seemed to have a peculiar fascination with dying patients. He also liked to take the easy way out, and was nearly expelled after being caught cheating during his OB/GYN rotation. In the end, the school let him graduate if he repeated the course work.

Despite a poor recommendation from the dean at the SIU School of Medicine, Swango was selected for a surgical internship at Ohio State University. That’s where the trouble really started. Nurses noticed that healthy patients on the floors where he was assigned happened to die…frequently. One nurse even caught him injecting some medicine into a patient who later became ill. The nurses reported their concerns to the administration, but they were brushed aside and only a superficial investigation was carried out. Despite being cleared by this investigation, Swango was not asked back to OSU because there were concerns about his skills as a physician and surgeon.

Swango returned home to Illinois and started working as a paramedic. Within a few months, the rest of the paramedics noticed that they would get violently ill whenever Swango brought any food in, or prepared the coffee. They investigated and found arsenic and other poisons in his possession, along with a book about poisoning. He was arrested, tried, and imprisoned for these poisonings.

After being released from prison, Swango worked various medical related odd jobs for a while, but eventually managed to bluff his way into a residency program in Sioux Falls. Things went well at first, but then he tried to join the American Medical Association. Unlike the hospital, the AMA performed a background check and discovered that Swango had no medical license and had a past felony conviction. About the same time, the ABC television show 20/20 aired a segment on Swangoand his poisoning conviction. When these were reported to the Dean of the University of South Dakota, Swango was summarily dismissed.

A short time later, Swango surfaced in New York at Stony Brook Medical School where he had been admitted as a psychiatry resident. Once again, his patients started dying for no apparent reason. When the dean at South Dakota heard that Swango had moved to New York, he called the administration at Stony Brook and Swango’s full history came to light. He was fired from yet another residency position. This time, the residency director learned from past mistakes and mailed a warning about Swango to every other residency in the nation.

A year later, Swango surfaced in Africa working as a physician in a rural hospital in Zimbabwe. True to form, his patients again started dying mysteriously. This time the police stepped in and he was arrested, but he skipped town before his trial date came. He hid out elsewhere in Africa and Europe and was close to taking another job as a doctor in Saudi Arabia when he was arrested at O’Hare Airport in Chicago.

Swango was extradited to New York where he was charged and convicted of practicing medicine without a license and fraud. While in prison for those charges, police were building other cases and he ultimately pled guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. This plea bargain allowed him to avoid the death penalty and extradition to Zimbabwe. All told, it is estimated that Michael Swango killed thirty to sixty patients.

• The Crime Library report on Michael Swango (like all Crime Library articles I’ve read, this one is full of hypebole and trips over its own attempts at flowerly language. Still it’s chock full of good information.)
• Timeline and Documents of the Michael Swango case from CourtTV
• CNN article on Michael Swango.
• An AMA Op-Ed about Swango.

Tags:medicine news michael swango.

It’s that time once again to see what searches have brought people across the web to Polite Dissent. Capitalization has been added to make the searches more readable, but the grammar and spelling are untouched otherwise. As usual, my snarky comments are added in green.

Comic Related Searches

• Is Superman’s girlfriend pretty? All that matters is that Superman thinks so.
• Batman parents disappointed Death and the Maidens I think we all were disappointed with that comic.
• Clark Kent’s 8 pack abs Two better than six-pack abs.
• Green Arrow Longbow rape I’m sure we all can guess what this search was in reference to. For the record, I always though she had been.
• Zatanna naked The return of a classic search term.
• Wonder Woman groin I have no idea what they were searching for here, but I hope I answered their question.
• Lana Lang underwear ditto.
• Does Carter Hawkman Hall have a doctorate? Good question.
• John Byrne Vision Scarlet Witch genitalia I blame Chris Arndt for this one.

Medically Related Searches

• Do drug testes screen for Ritalin? I’m going to assume you mean “tests” and not “testes”, but the answer is yes — I suspect someone takingRitalin would test positive for amphetamines.
• Differance between cyst and mass A mass is solid, a cyst is hollow.
• Why is clostridium perfringens likely to grow in gangrenous wounds? You have it backwards, it is the infection with Clostridium that is causing the gangrene.
• Rh negative celebrities I have no idea. I’m A-, do I count?
• Cleaning a wound bleach Please don’t. While it’s true the bleach would probably kill any nasty germs, it would also kill many of your own cells, severely impeding the healing process.
• Rash where butt hits toilet seat Probably because somebody smeared something on the toilet seat.
• Medical term when scrotal organ burst out Painful
• Will the pregnancy test aome out positive when using the IUD? If you’re pregnant it will.

Homework

• Macbeth soliloquy she should have died hereafter. OK, here you go. From Macbeth, Act V, scene v, spoken by Macbeth:

  She should have died hereafter;
  There would have been a time for such a word.
  To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
  Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
  To the last syllable of recorded time,
  And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
  The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
  Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
  That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
  And then is heard no more: it is a tale
  Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
  Signifying nothing.

To Each Their Own (presented without comment)

• Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable having sex
• funny sex comics with the Teen Titans and Kim Possible
• Peter Parker adult fanfiction Norman Osborne

Miscellaneous

• Comics of nose Huh?
• Intravenous pumpkins Double huh?
• Obsessive compulsive personality disorder getting married Hope for neat spouse, or failing that, a patient one.
• Homemade defibrillator These two words should not go together.

Watching, or rather listening to, the music of Superman Returns reminded me of how much I loved the soundtrack of the original Superman movie. I’m not just talking about an exciting title theme (like the Raiders of the Lost Ark theme), but a soundtrack where the entire album is a good listen.

In reverse order, here are my top three favorite movie soundtracks:

3. The Princess Bride
Great music, especially the title theme.

2. Superman
The title theme and Planet of Krypton theme remain two of the best movie themes ever, but the whole album is good. Heck, I even used the Planet of Krypton theme as part of my wedding music.

1. The Last of the Mohicans
The perfect movie soundtrack, from start to finish. It’s easy to picture the scenes in the movie just listening to the music, and the entire album is a good listen.

Tags: movies soundtracks princess bride superman last of the mohicans ponderables

Tonight on Fox, House repeats it’s third and fourth episodes of this year. The first one, Humpty Dumpty, is one of the better episodes of the year and well worth watching. The second one, TB or Not TB, is fairly pretentious and not much fun, despite the appearance of Ron Livingston from Office Space (and Sex and the City). So my recommendation is to watch the first episode of House tonight and then switch over and watch the season finale of The Deadliest Catch on Discovery for the second hour.

• A list of all prior House reviews

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Grand Rounds is the weekly collection og the best medical blogging on the ‘net. It always features fascinating stories, advice, and insight into the