Guest guest Posted January 15, 1999 Report Share Posted January 15, 1999 Greetings Everyone! Things are finally getting back to normal... and we are ready to resume our weekly ZAPPER UPDATE mailings. This will be a bit lengthy, as if to make up for nearly a month of silence. Here are the ZapNews Headlines... CNN: Father of Defibrillator Dies CNN: Half of Men, Third of Women Will Develop Heart Disease AHA/Health Central: Permanent Pacing Lowers Risk of Recurrent Syncope CNN/HealthCentral/Medtronic: More Airlines Load Defibrillators on Planes HeartInfo: Genes Predict Future of Long-QT Patients Ivanhoe: SVT in Children MedScape/MSNBC: Ultrasonography Predicts Heart Attack/Stroke Risk MedScape/MSNBC: Gene ID for SCD in Young People Dr Koop: Early Sonogram Spots Fetal Heart Defects Dr Koop: Heart Failure Epidemic MSNBC: Water Minerals May Trim Risk of Heart Attack Zapper BBS: CPI Safety Alert Details on the BREAKING NEWS PAGE: http://www.duff.net/zapper/zap2.htm Feeling bummed? My (SAD expert) wife tells me it's pretty normal this time of the year - at least in the northern hemisphere. And there is the down side of the slope after the high points of all the holiday festivities. The good news, unless it's severe, you don't need to change your meds. In any event, it's not a bad idea to chat with your doctor about it. Ultimately, we all have a lot to rejoice about: Thanks to medical science, we are still " Alive & Kickin'! " One of the people we (most ZAPPER readers) have to thank for being alive right now is Dr. M. Zoll. Without his research, pacemakers and defibrillators might still be on the drawing board. Dr. Zoll died last week at the age of 82. You can access details from our BREAKING NEWS page. If you are inclined to pray, thank god for this man and his work, and maybe do a good deed in his honor. Blood banks around the country are really hurting right now, thanks to bad weather and the holidays. If you can't give blood yourself... find at least three people who can... and convince them to make a donation. Most of the Y2K information lost last month to the Twi-Byte Zone has been re-retrieved. I am still waiting for information from one of the ICD makers... but I should be able to get the article online next week about the LACK of a threat to us and our implanted devices from the Year 2000 Computer Bug. I apologize for the delay. The first two Zap•Chat sessions of the new year have been really great. The variety of subjects with the collective knowledge and experience of the participants was really rewarding for everyone who took part. If you have not yet checked out our on-line *realtime* support group... please add this to your schedule: Thursdays at 8PM EST. I checked with Dr. Shepherd's office today. The ablation specialist at Bayfront Medical Center in Saint sburg is looking forward to joining us for a Zap•Chat soon, most likely in February. Dr. Shepherd is also one of a handful of Electrophysiologists authorized to do investigational of ICD's to treat Atrial Fibrillation. This coming week, January 21st, we hope to have our resident pharmacist, Dr. Ihab Barsom, online with us. Regular Zap•Chatter, Jeff (aka Waco,) had a great idea last night: A photo album of Zapper/Zap•List readers and subscribers. Cool idea! So email me your picture (JPG or GIF formats preferred) and I will compile them. If you don't have a digitized image, I'll scan what you have if you mail me a picture: Duffey Cybercations 13014 Royal Avenue Odessa, FL 33556-5713 Say: " Low Fat Cheese! " A lot of pictures are taken this time of the year by northerners who escape the cold weather by migrating to my part of the world. Many use Florida as a place to launch shipboard vacations. Many cruise ship lines are based on both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. I don't want to be a wet blanket if your winter plans include such an adventure, but I do want to share some information I found: In a recent study... A total of 7,147 people out of 196,171 passengers visited the infirmary, and 50 percent of the visits were due to respiratory tract infections and injuries, such as fractures or sprains. The most common potentially life threatening ailments were asthma, seen in 1.5 percent of patients, heart arrhythmia in 1.3 percent and the chest pain known as angina in 1.2 percent. Again, I don't want to scare anyone. But I do hope you take this information to heart when booking arrangements. Inquire about the onboard medical services available BEFORE you write a check or hand over a credit card! Here are some of the questions you might want to ask: • Is the infirmary or dispensary equipped with cardiac monitors and a defibrillator? • What is the experience of the Doctor and medical staff? • How extensive is the (cardiac) drug supply? • How are you able to quickly transport seriously ill passengers to shore? Several ICD support groups even sponsor their own cruises... with ALL he support you could want or need. Let me know if you are interested and I'll try to find such a program for you. Bon Voyage! Nearly 30 people have resubmitted Zap•Life forms. Thanks to all who have again taken the time to make a contribution to our project. That represents about 1/3 of the total database we had before the computer crash. So if you have not yet added your comments for inclusion in what we want to be a very helpful book... Please do so as soon as you have the time. Access the entry forms below: Zap•Life form Selector http://www.duff.net/zap3.htm ICD Recipients http://www.duff.net/zap3a.htm Family and Friends of ICDers http://www.duff.net/zap3b.htm Health Care Professionals http://www.duff.net/zap3c.htm Until next week... Stay well... Duffey ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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