Health News

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Chris Gordon, 44, a teacher in New Ulm, Minnesota, woke up in March 2015 with a lump on his elbow. At first he was dismissed, but his condition deteriorated. He was airlifted to the Mayo Clinic where he was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, a bacterial infection that destroys skin, fat and tissues around the muscles. Once he was diagnosed, he required 65 days in hospital to save his life.

Experts at the British Society for Surgery of the Hand say they are regularly having to treat fractures, lacerations and dislocated fingers among people injured while walking their dogs. A single hospital - Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust – treated 30 serious hand injuries caused by 'dog lead or collar misuse' in just one year, the society reports. Pictured: How you shouldn't hold the lead (left) and how you should (right).

Hannah Dalton from Benfleet, Essex, was diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum, which left her bed-bound and unable to hold down food for the first six months of her pregnancy. The 30-year-old was confined to a wheelchair (pictured left) for the final three months and had to relearn how to walk after her second daughter Alexandra (inset) was born. Mrs Dalton threw up 50 times a day, with the faintest of smells and even noises triggering vomiting episodes. The business analyst became so malnourished from not being able to eat that clumps of her hair fell out. Pictured right: The mother mustered the strength to stand up with her first daughter Elizabeth toward the end of the pregnancy.

PHE said its renewed call was triggered by concerns about outbreaks of the virus, which can kill children if they aren't protected. Measles cases in England have more than doubled in the last two quarters, with 231 confirmed reports in the first quarter of 2019. In comparison, PHE data shows there was just 97 cases in the last quarter of 2018, and 143 confirmed reports in the quarter before. 'Measles can kill and it is incredibly easy to catch, especially if you are not vaccinated,' said PHE's head of immunisation, Dr Mary Ramsay.

Sara Toner, 21, from Spokane, Washington, was six months pregnant when she learned her son, Tyler (left and right), had hypoplastic left heart syndrome. This is a heart defect that makes it difficult for blood to flow through the body properly. Doctors told Toner that if she didn't immediately have in-utero surgery, her son's survival rate was below 10%. Surgeons at Boston Children Hospital performed at least five surgeries in which they inserted a tiny balloon in his valve to allow for blood flow. The surgeries increased Tyler's survival rate to 60% and he was born in May 2018. He's had six surgeries since birth, but has continued to thrive and just celebrated his first birthday.

Melissa Eaton, 39 (right), of Salisbury, North Carolina, and Amanda Seigler, 38 (left), of Lake Worth, Florida, have been infiltrating online groups. The groups suggest that feeding children chlorine dioxide, an industrial strength bleach, can 'cure' autism. It was popularized by former Chicago real estate agent Kerri Rivera, who claims to have reversed autism symptoms in more than 500 children. Eaton and Seigler, who each have an autistic child, take screenshots of the posts and notify local child protection agencies of child abuse. Poison control centers have warned that the chemical can irritate the eyes and skin, and even lead to a build-up of fluid in the lungs.

Sarah Cox (pictured left with husband Rob and son James), 32, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Raynaud's disease, which cuts off the blood circulation to her hands and feet, aged 17. The mother also suffers from scleroderma and lupus, two conditions which cause the immune system to destroy healthy cells. She was medically retired from her job as emergency call operator with the police in 2011 and has been forced to have most of her fingers and a toe amputated (top right, her fingers before and after amputation) to relieve the pain. Mrs Cox, from Kingswood, Bristol, was told she'd likely never have a child because the stress of pregnancy on her organs could kill her. But the defiant mother went on to marry, join the police force and have a child (bottom left, James looking after his mother in hospital).

Billy Caldwell's mother Charlotte, from County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, appeared on This Morning today to slam health officials as 'cruel' as she revealed her son, 13, will run out of prescribed medical cannabis tomorrow - with a new prescription unlikely without a fresh battle. (Pictured from left: Charlotte Caldwell on This Morning today, right Billy backstage at the ITV studios)

Coralynn Sobolik, who was 22 months old, was kissed goodbye by her mother, Meagan Sobolik, 29, who says, 'I'll love you forever'. In the tear-jerking video, doctors and nurses line the corridors to honour Coralynn while singing Amazing Grace. Coralynn, of New Hampton, Iowa, had been declared brain dead just one day earlier after a brief five-day battle with parainfluenza. Complications from the illness meant she suffered cardiac arrest three times before being declared brain dead. Three people will be saved by Coralynn, whose life support was turned off on April 22 before she donated her heart, liver and kidneys. (Pictured left, Coralynn before she was ill, and right, nurses in the hospital as Coralynn is wheeled into surgery).

The unidentified three-year-old, from China, was treated at the Central Hospital of Shenyang Medical College, in the north-eastern province of Liaoning. Medics promised the procedure would not affect the child’s development, and would preserve both the function and aesthetics of her hands (pictured before surgery left). Hand surgery specialist Dr Zhan Jie, who operated on her, said: 'The girl had two extra fingers on each hand - quite a rare patient.' Pictured bottom right shows a scan of her left hand, with two bones coming out of the enlarged digit. The surgery was complicated by the fact that the fingers we wanted to keep and those we wanted to remove weren’t clear and obvious.' (pictured top right, her right hand after surgery, and bottom left during surgery)

An investigation by Which? found four smoke alarms listed on eBay and Wish.com (pictured) failed to sound in every house fire test. The devices, among the most popular and affordable online, are useless in real fire scenarios and put lives at risk, the study found. The alarms made up 171 of the cheapest 500 listings for smoke detectors on eBay. On Wish.com, 28 out of 200 listings were for three of the alarms that completely failed to detect smoke in the tests. All of the devices were unbranded, made in China and sold through Chinese re-sellers.

Newsreader Jane Hill, 49, has revealed that she has been treated for breast cancer. Jane, who lives in north London, returned to BBC1’s News at One for the first time since November today (pictured main). In a series of tweets she said that she has been 'overwhelmed by so many lovely back-to-work messages' (inset) and added that her pass didn't work when she tried to get into the building this morning.

Your face and nipples are teeming with mites. Demodex, as they are called, are tiny creates that live near hair follicles - including the fine, invisible facial and nipple hair on all of us. They feed off the oils on your skin and mate while you sleep. A microscopic gif gives a visceral idea of how these bugs spend their time on your face: wriggling their eight legs and puckering its 'mouth', through which it ingests oils and skin cells. You will rarely see symptoms of your 'demodex infestation', but they can be a contributing factor to skin issues like acne.

Tom Ray (pictured without his prosthetics right, and left with his wife Nic and inset on their wedding day in 1998) was fit and healthy and living in Rutland in the East Midlands before he contracted sepsis at the age of 38 in 1999. He spent three months in a coma during which time his wife Nic gave birth to their second child Fred, a brother for Grace. Due to his illness, the family lost their business and had to sell their home. Mr Ray's sepsis – caused by a cut to his gum during a trip to the dentist, combined with a chest infection – came on rapidly and led to vomiting and a high temperature. He fell into a coma and when he awoke he could not recognise his wife.

Lynne McConnell, from Glasgow, had been wearing underwire bras (pictured holding one, left) - which are fitted with a thin strip of rigid material under the breasts - for 15 years. But in June last year a painful 'pea-shaped' lump formed in the middle of her chest. Mrs McConnell went to A&E; when the lump quickly grew into a huge, rock-hard cyst (top left). She was prescribed antibiotics when doctors mistook the cyst for an abscess caused by infection. But the tablets didn't work and she was forced to go to her local breast clinic a month later. She had to have the lump lump surgically removed, leaving her with an open wound (right) that couldn't be stitched up, needed dressing daily and took three months to heal.

British charity The Lullaby Trust has said influential mothers need to be careful what they post to their millions of followers because they may be promoting unsafe sleeping practices for babies. Kim Kardashian, Hilary Duff and Amy Childs, who have more than 150million Instagram followers between them – 139m of whom follow Kim – have all shared pictures on social media of their babies sleeping with loose bedding, on soft surfaces or while wearing hats. These may all increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, known as cot death, which kills five babies per day in the UK, according to the charity.

Alzheimer's Society has awarded £100,000 each to the 'How do I?' app (see right) and Juice Drops (see inset). The app reminds sufferers how to boil a kettle, for example, with 'how to' videos. Lewis Hornby created Juice Drops, sweets that are 90 per cent water, when his grandmother Pat, pictured left, was hospitalised with dehydration. The charity said the ideas could help up to 120,000 people in the UK living alone with dementia.

Jessica Cox, 36 (left and right), from Phoenix, Arizona, was born with no arms. Doctors have not been able to understand why she didn't develop arms in her mother's womb. It's not been confirmed, but it's believed that Cox was likely born with amelia, a rare condition in which one or more limbs doesn't form. In 2005, Cox began training to fly airplanes with dual controls, with one foot on the yoke and the other on the throttle. Cox became certified in October 2008 by the Federal Aviation Administration to fly an Ercoupe, a light aircraft with a single engine.

James Longman (pictured), 32, is a successful journalist whose work takes him to dangerous corners of the world. But on the Life After Suicide podcast (inset), he revealed that after losing both his father and grandfather to suicide, Longman wondered if he was 'destined' to take his own life - and once came very close, before reaching out to a friend and learning to speak out about the depression that he sometimes suffers.

Slade Thompson, five, from Renovo, Pennsylvania, had tonsil surgery last month. He woke up crying for his mother, but she couldn't enter the room until his team of nurses checked his vitals. Slade asked one of his nurses, Annie Hager, 35, if she would snuggle with him. Hager climbed into bed and held him for five to 10 minutes until he fell asleep (left). Slade's mother, Layla, snapped a photo of the moment, which has gone viral on social media. At a follow-up appointment a few days later, Slade and his mother brought flowers - which the boy picked out himself - for 'his Miss Annie' (right).

Tammy Le, 28 (left and right), from San Jose, California, was napping in the back seat of a friend's car when they swerved after another driver cut them off in April 2008. The then-17-year-old was rushed to the hospital where doctors discovered two vertebrae were shattered and her spine required reconstruction. Doctors told Le she was paralyzed from the accident and would be a quadriplegic for the rest of her life. Le has since regained some movement in her arms and hands and wants her recovery to inspire others to not give up hope.

Researchers from City, University of London, and Cardiff University collected images of adverts used by fertility clinics in the UK and Australia over recent years to pick out masculine stereotypes. Images include suggestions that donating sperm is noble like joining the military (top left, a British National Sperm Bank advert), heroic (top right, Aberdeen Fertility Clinic), that it could make someone a 'good man' (bottom left, Sperm Donors Australia) or is comparable to the masculinity of a typically male job like a firefighter (bottom right, Australian firm MedicineX).

First-grader Lauren Zehner (right) spent six days in hospital after she was bitten and was left unable to recognize her own parents for a short time. She was diagnosed with a rare condition called La Crosse encephalitis and received the treatment required for her to recover. Now her family (left) is warning other parents about it, and calling on their home state of Ohio to test mosquitoes for La Crosse.

Paul Mason, 59, who was from Ipswich, Suffolk, was 70 stone (980lb, 445kg) at his heaviest and once branded himself the heaviest person on the planet. He moved to Massachusetts in the US in 2014, where he ballooned in size from 19 stone (121kg) to 35 stone (222kg) despite having gastric band surgery. After being charged with stealing from supermarket Walmart and splitting from his fiancee, Mr Mason said he plans to return to Britain with his US visa about to expire. He wrote on his Facebook page last night: 'I need to return to the UK where I will be eligible for the assistance I need to get my life back on track.' In recent months Mr Mason has piled the weight back on, gorging on pizza and crisps all night following the split from fiancée Rebecca Mountain last year.

Lisa Ross (pictured left) thought she just had a migraine while bending down to pick up weights during a body-pump class on March 2 2017. With the pain soon becoming agonising, the now 35-year-old was rushed to A&E;, where doctors detected a brain aneurysm behind her right eye had ruptured. Mrs Ross, of Cumbernauld, Lanarkshire, went under the knife to stop the brain bleed, only for the swelling to trigger a stroke just two days later. In an effort to save her life, doctors were forced to remove part of Mrs Ross' skull to ease the swelling. Pictured right in intensive care

Ainul Mardhiah Ahmad Safiuddin has reportedly been receiving chemotherapy since she was just three months old but it has done little to prevent the growth engulfing her jaw (pictured left). Pictured right as a newborn, Ainul seemed healthy until the mass suddenly developed. The now nine-month-old is thought to have an extragonadal germ-cell tumour, which occurs when cells that ordinarily form sperm and eggs get misplaced in the womb. She is due to travel from her home in the state constituency of Ayer Molek, in south-western Malacca State, Malaysia, to London for an MRI scan and subsequent treatment.