Abdominal Pain

A Silver Spring woman has won a $2.35 million malpractice lawsuit against Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville after a misdiagnosis resulted in the amputation of several fingers, most of her right foot and left leg. Yesenia Rivera, 28, arrived at the hospital's emergency room in shock and complaining of severe abdominal pain on Aug. 3, 2006. She'd been diagnoses with kidney stones two days earlier and sent home, said Julia Arfaa, her attorney. Hospital staff, however, said they believed she had an ectopic pregnancy and did not treat the kidney problem until hours later.

Q: My family is planning to do a lot of camping and backpacking this summer. What should we do to avoid getting giardia infection from our drinking water?A: Campers and backpackers should carry drinking water with them and avoid drinking from streams. Giardia lamblia, the most common human parasite in the United States, can be carried by domestic and wild animals and can contaminate lakes, rivers and streams.Humans are usually infected when they drink water containing the organism.Giardia is a protozoa (a tiny moving organism)

When Alexander the Great stood at the gates of Babylon in 323 B.C., the story goes, a flight of ravens fell dead at his feet. It was a bad omen, according to the soothsayers. Within two weeks the conqueror of an empire that stretched from Greece to India was dead, at age 32, of a mysterious illness. Doctors and historians have speculated for centuries about the cause of this battle-hardened warrior's death. In 1998 two University of Maryland Medical Center physicians said he probably died of typhoid, which can cause the chills, fever, abdominal pain and delirium that Alexander suffered.

WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg went home from the hospital yesterday, and the court announced that the colon cancer for which she underwent surgery had not spread.Ginsburg, 66, had been at the Washington Hospital Center for 11 days. The court's statement did not say when she would return to work, noting that she was "recuperating at home."Kathleen L. Arberg, the court's spokeswoman, revealed a number of details about Ginsburg's illness and surgery on Sept. 17. She said the colon cancer had reached "stage two," indicating a high survival rate after surgery.

The state medical examiner's office has ruled that the death of a newborn who was found Oct. 4 in a Charles Village trash bin after his mother went for treatment at a local hospital, was a homicide by asphyxiation. Police say the investigation is continuing; the death is not yet reflected in this year's homicide count. Police said the 22-year-old mother, who was involved in a training program with a Christian volunteer organization, went to Union Memorial Hospital with abdominal pain, and doctors discovered during an examination that she had recently given birth.

Q: Should I pay attention to my wife when she says that we should not order Caesar salads in restaurants?A: The easy answer is to tell you that you should always listen to what your wife says. She may not be right on every occasion, but it is true that Caesar salad dressing, made with raw eggs, has been responsible for many outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness due to contamination of eggs with Salmonella bacteria. These bacteria pose no threat when eggs are properly cooked, but Salmonella may infect the intestine if you eat foods containing raw or under-cooked eggs.

At first glance, the case seemed routine: fever, chills and abdominal pain. The illness was fatal and many conditions could to blame. But the patient was extraordinary: a 32-year-old man with prior battle wounds, a male lover who'd died months earlier and a body that didn't decay for several days.One more thing. At the time of his premature death, this man had conquered the known world.The mystery of Alexander the Great's death is a question that has vexed scholars for centuries. Now, in a novel approach, physicians at the University of Maryland Medical Center have teamed up with a historian and developed a new explanation for what felled this mighty warrior: typhoid fever.

Appendicitis refers to an acute inflammatory process involving the appendix, which is a small, worm-like appendage of the first part of the colon, writes Dr. Jason Roland, co-director of minimally invasive and laparoscopic surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital. Anyone with an appendix is at risk for developing it. Here's how to spot and treat the condition: •Appendicitis occurs when the single orifice leading into the appendix becomes clogged, either with stool (known as a fecalith)

Former Baltimore Raven Orlando Brown died of a diabetic complication that is rarely fatal but can sometimes be quick to strike - and he might not even have known he had the underlying disease. The 40-year-old died in his Inner Harbor condominium Sept. 23 from diabetic ketoacidosis, but there were no signs he was taking insulin to treat diabetes or that a doctor had ever diagnosed him with the disease, according to the state's chief medical examiner. "We did not manage to find any evidence at the scene that indicated he had a medical diagnosis of diabetes," said medical examiner David Fowler.

Gastroparesis, otherwise called "paralyzed stomach," affects about 25 percent of people with type 1 diabetes and 10 percent of people with type 2 diabetes. People diagnosed with a neurologic disease, such as Parkinson's, and those who have had stomach ulcer surgery may also be affected. However, the largest group of individuals with paralyzed stomach suffers solely from this condition, without additional illness; they have what is called "idiopathic" gastroparesis. Dr. Linda Lee, board certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology and the director of the Johns Hopkins Integrative Medicine and Digestive Center, explains the disease and provides insights on symptoms, causes, diagnosis, treatments and prevention.