Blood

The photographs beamed onto a courtroom screen showed a scrawny, emaciated toddler, his body covered in bruises and abrasions, arms and legs limp, eyes half-closed, mouth agape. Andrew Patrick Griffin was two months shy of his third birthday when the picture was taken in the emergency room at St. Joseph Medical Center on Dec. 26, 2007, about an hour after he was pronounced dead. In Baltimore County Circuit Court yesterday, the boy's mother, Susan J. Griffin - who, along with her husband, John J. Griffin, is accused of first-degree murder - began sobbing when a prosecutor showed the photographs.

Hemorrhoids are swollen and inflamed veins in the anal area. Also called piles, this common condition can be quite painful. Often a modification in diet is all that is needed to reduce the discomfort, says Dr. Robert Akbari, colorectal surgeon at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson. What causes hemorrhoids? They are largely blamed on the low-fiber Western diet, which is constipating. People who strain a lot with a bowel movement are more prone to develop them. Pregnancy, with changes in hormones and bowel movements, can lead to hemorrhoids.

Each year, about 1 million people in the United States have stents put in to treat clogged coronary arteries - a procedure some might not have needed, according to a recent study. Although stents relieve angina, they were found to be no more effective in eliminating the risks of heart attack, stroke or death than drug treatment alone. Americans want to believe that modern medicine is sophisticated and evidence-based, but this study underscores how little we know when we make most medical decisions.

Freedom Fund event to hear Ulman Howard County Executive Ken Ulman will deliver the keynote address at the 28th Annual Freedom Fund Banquet sponsored by the Howard County Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The banquet is being held at 6:30 p.m. today at the BWI Airport Marriott, 1743 West Nursery Road. The theme is "Valuing Our Vote/Voting Our Values." The county executive will celebrate the accomplishments of the local branch and thank its members for the investment they are making in the future of the county.

Blood found on the bottom of a Harford County man's car links him to a second woman who was among four found dead in fields around Aberdeen last year, a revelation that came yesterday during a hearing leading up to the man's murder trial later this month. Charles Eugene Burns, 35, is charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Lillian Abramowicz Phelps, a 43-year-old Elkton woman whose body was the first of four found last year. Burns also has been charged with attacking and sexually assaulting six other women.

Baghdad -- Marching under blood-spattered banners, mourners carried coffins yesterday through streets still littered with pieces of flesh and debris, as the death toll from three consecutive days of attacks on Shiite Muslim pilgrims climbed to 188. At least 30 people were killed in fresh attacks yesterday on some of the more than 1 million pilgrims streaming to the holy city of Karbala for weekend rites commemorating the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of...

Gluten-free cooking to be topic Monday The Columbia Art Center, 6100 Foreland Garth, Columbia, will present a life enhancement lecture, "The Art of Gluten-Free Cooking and Living," from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday. Local author Jules Shepard will share insights and conclusions she has developed over years of experimentation with gluten-free flours. Those newly diagnosed with gluten intolerance, their families and friends, as well as those who have been living with it for years are welcome to bring questions and share their insights.

Though the blood of Lillian Abramowicz Phelps was found on the bottom of a suspect's vehicle, prosecutors lack evidence that the man is responsible for her death, defense attorneys told jurors yesterday. The contention came during opening statements as the trial of Charles Eugene Burns, a 35-year-old laborer charged with first-degree murder, began in Harford County Circuit Court. Burns has been charged with sexually assaulting and attacking six other women, and linked as a possible suspect in the deaths of three others.

Although more than 30,000 people in the U.S. are infected with Lyme disease each year, Dr. Robert Edelman says most infections can be avoided or, if not, then treated. "Even [with] a tick that has been feeding on you for one day, your chance of getting Lyme disease is remote, because it takes two to three days of feeding to infect people," he says. "Besides, four out of five ticks are not infected." Some ticks are difficult to see. When I'm checking my body, what areas should I pay closest attention to?

A CARNIVAL atmosphere filled the air as thousands of people crowded the halls of Wilde Lake High School for the 50+ Expo on Friday.The first-time event, sponsored by the Howard County Office on Aging, provided one-stop shopping for information on everything from financial planning, employment opportunities and Medicare benefits to surfing the Internet and housing.Volunteers met visitors at the door and handed them program guides to the more than 100 exhibits and seminars, as well as bags to hold the giveaways -- key chains, smoke detectors, rulers, whistles, refrigerator magnets and brochures.

Karen Meyer, dressed in pink for breast cancer awareness month, gave blood Wednesday at the Red Cross Donor Center in Timonium as part of a new partnership between the relief agency and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation. Meyer was participating in the first-of-its-kind partnership between the two Maryland nonprofits that urges donors to give hope and give blood. "We have never done something like this," said Robin Prothro, executive director of Susan G. Komen Maryland. "It is a perfect combination of missions and maybe it will open the door for other partnerships."

Brian Boyle wants to run along the streets of the city that helped him learn to walk again. He doesn't mind the pain of the 26.2-mile Under Armour Baltimore Marathon. He has had more than his share in the past five years. The St. Mary's College of Maryland senior has no illusions about placing among the elite finishers in the 4,000-runner field. Just hearing his heart thump and feeling his lungs expand and contract means more than the feeling of breaking the tape at the finish line. "I'll be there to celebrate life," Boyle says.

A record-setting 61 pints of blood were collected in early September at a blood drive held in downtown Annapolis at the request of an Anne Arundel County sheriff's deputy. The drive, at the Anne Arundel Medical Center Bloodmobile, collected blood from donors who work at the Anne Arundel County Court House and who live and work in the community. It was held at the request of a deputy - the Sheriff's Office is in the courthouse - who had received many transfusions for cancer treatment. He wanted to help replenish the blood supply in the area and others wanted to act in his behalf, according to the Sheriff's Office.

As many as 3 million Americans may now be immune to the West Nile virus thanks to antibodies they produced after being infected by the bite of an infected mosquito. And a tenth of 1 percent of the population - about 300,000 people - acquire new West Nile infections each year, most without ever experiencing any symptoms of the disease, according to a study in the current issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. "We do not see any indication that that trend will not continue," said Thomas R. Kriel, senior director of viral vaccines at Baxter International Inc., in Vienna, Austria.

Bedbugs are blood-consuming insects that were nearly wiped out in the United States in the mid-20th century. But they've made a dramatic comeback in the past decade. Size:: Practically microscopic at first, they can grow to the size of ladybugs, or about half the diameter of a dime. Lifespan:: Up to a year, with females laying up to 500 eggs. Gross factor:: About once a week, they seek a blood meal, preferably from humans. They gorge on blood for three to five minutes and then defecate most of the blood and shed their skins.

County partners with HHS on Web site Howard County Executive Ken Ulman says Howard government will be the first local jurisdiction to pilot a Web content syndication project with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. The content, "Quick Tips for Healthy Living" was developed by ODPHP for its Web site. Through the partnership, the content is now available on Howard County's Department of Health, Wellness Works Web site at howardcountymd.

No one was shot on Fairmount Avenue. It wasn't for a lack of trying. The gunmen who ravaged East and Southeast Baltimore Sunday night and early Monday, hitting at least 18 people and killing two at five locations, didn't spare this street. Bullets here didn't draw blood, but they found the sides of houses, car doors and hoods and rooftops. And a beleaguered Police Department ran out of plastic evidence cards used to mark the shell casings. At the scene of an earlier shooting, where a dozen people were injured at a backyard cookout, the technicians had used 31 cards.

Here's a classic good news-bad news study from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: It appears that more than three decades of strong anti-drunken driving messages and stronger enforcement are having some impact. In a 2007 survey, NHTSA found that the percentage of drivers on weekend nights who have a blood-alcohol level higher than the prevailing national limit of .08 percent has fallen to 2.2 percent. It's still pretty scary that one in 50 drivers on the road is drunk at those times, but that's an improvement from the downright terrifying 7.5 percent that prevailed in 1973, when the first such survey was taken.

Peering into the front window of their future home, all that AMY Grace and Karen Blood could see was a center spiral staircase. They were hooked. The couple's friends thought they were crazy to leave their lush, suburban environs north of the city for a building that was broken up into office space and needed a total rehab. But the two women wanted both the Federal Hill neighborhood and the challenge of renovation. They purchased the 16-foot-wide by 70-foot-deep two-story rowhouse on a 120-foot deep lot for $72,000.

An undrafted rookie who doesn't even have his name on the back of his jersey yet, Robby Felix understands his chances of making the Ravens this season. But beating those odds doesn't worry the team's newest center. Just six months ago, Felix suffered a stroke, a frightening medical ordeal that changed the 22-year-old's life forever. "I think about it a lot," Felix said Wednesday after his second NFL practice. "I'm scared of having another stroke. But I have to fight through it and go on with my life."