Body

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently received a gag gift of protective headgear after she suffered a concussion and blood clot near her brain after a fall. While Clinton can now make light of the injuries, a blood clot can be a serious health risk that can lead to death. Dr. James L. Frazier, III, a neurosurgeon at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, talks about the dangers. What causes a blood clot to form in the brain? A blood clot or thrombus can form in the arteries that supply blood to the brain.

The argument could be heard first, neighbors said. Then the police lights began flashing through their windows. Residents in Baltimore's Upton neighborhood, not unfamiliar with police activity, said they peered outside. A man they recognized as a neighbor lay on the concrete in just his boxer shorts, not moving much and apparently wounded, they said. "I heard the argument, and I came down to the first floor to look and saw all the police and the man laying on the ground. I thought it was a dead body," said Sanyika Fitzpatrick, a 15-year resident of Walton Court, a residential box of homes northwest of downtown and across Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard from Maryland General Hospital.

If the Black Eyed Susan were a race horse, it would be a sprinter. It makes one strong move, then fades quickly. The strong move occurs this weekend when the cocktail will be in demand at Pamlico Race Track, during both the running of the Black Eyed Susan Stakes on Friday and the Preakness Stakes on Saturday. Over these two days, about 25,000 servings of the libation, poured into commemorative glasses, will be sold at $8 apiece, track officials say. But as soon as Preakness weekend ends, so does the does the local thirst for the Susan.

Is the American body politic suffering from an autoimmune disease? The "hygiene hypothesis" is the scientific theory that the rise in asthma and other autoimmune maladies stems from the fact that babies are born into environments that are too clean. Our immune systems need to be properly educated by being exposed early to germs, dirt, whatever. When you consider that for most of human evolutionary history, we were born under shady trees or, if we were lucky, in caves or huts, you can understand how unnatural Lysol-soaked hospitals and microbially baby-proofed homes are. The point is that growing up in a sanitary environment might cause our immune systems to freak out about things that under normal circumstances we'd just shrug off. Hence, goes the theory, the explosion in asthma rates in the industrialized world, the rise in peanut and wheat allergies and, quite possibly, the spike in autism rates.

As Orb charged to the wire at Churchill Downs last weekend, he established his clear superiority to the other 18 thoroughbreds on horse racing's biggest stage, the Kentucky Derby. But compared to Derby champions of the past, Orb's time is less impressive - his 2:02.89 run doesn't rank among the top 10 in the race's history. It is slower than the times of many winners from the 1950s and 1960s, and well behind Secretariat's 1973 record. Blame the muddy track? Fair enough, but none of the past decade's Derby winners recorded a top 10 time either.

For nine days, Ross Hakim Telp asked police and news reporters to help him find his missing mother. The entire time, Baltimore prosecutors said at Telp's sentencing hearing yesterday, the 18-year-old knew precisely what had happened to Margo Antoinette Baker, 52, because he had stabbed her to death and dumped her body in Leakin Park. "Other relatives were hoping for a happy ending, when he knew all along there would not be one," Assistant State's Attorney Amir Gibbs said while asking a judge to sentence Telp to 33 years in prison -- the maximum penalty allowed under his agreement to plead guilty to second-degree murder and use of a deadly weapon.

You've probably heard of Swedish, hot stone and deep tissue massages, but at Mason & Friends Salon & Spa in Columbia, clients are receiving a different kind of massage therapy that claims to help the body repair itself. “Bowenwork helps the body remember how to heal,” says Wendy Seiler, a practitioner at Mason & Friends. Developed in the 1950s by an Australian osteopath, Bowenwork seeks to balance tension patterns in the body. During a  session, the practitioner places his or her fingers or thumbs over precise points on muscles, tendons or other soft structures.

ELKTON - Natural Resources police have recovered a man's body from the Elk River. The body, which police said had been in the water for some time, was found Thursday afternoon near the slips at Triton Marina Services. The Cecil Whig reported that officials had no reports of missing boaters or swimmers. - The Associated Press

Volunteers taking part in a cleanup at Leakin Park on Saturday morning discovered a decomposing body, police confirmed.  The body was discovered off of the 4900 block of N. Franklintown Rd., in the Southwestern District, at around 11 a.m. Police said volunteers were cleaning the area when they noticed what appeared to be a body in "severe stages of decomposition. "  There were no obvious signs of trauma or foul play, though a police spokeswoman said that was not unusual given the decomposition.

A man's body was pulled from Prettyboy Reservoir in Northern Baltimore County Thursday, police said. The body of a 26-year-old male who was reported missing Wednesday night, was recovered by drivers around 11:30 a.m., said police spokeswoman Cpl. Cathy Batton. His identity has not been released pending notification of his family. Police have not found any signs of foul play, she said, but the medical examiner will determine the cause and manner of death. Batton said the man's vehicle was found in the area, as well as his phone, keys and wallet.

Baltimore County police said a man was found dead in Chevy Blazer in White Marsh Saturday morning. An officer found the man unresponsive in the SUV along with three hand-written notes. The contents of the notes were not released but police spokesman Cpl. John Wachter said they prompted the officer to call for backup. The county's bomb squad and hazmat crews responded to the SUV, which was parked in the area of Crossroads Circle and Williams Court, near White Marsh Boulevard. "It doesn't seem like they recovered anything," such an explosive device from the vehicle, Wachter said.

A two-alarm fire engulfed a building containing several auto repair shops and the artist gallery Open Space in Baltimore's Remington neighborhood Wednesday night. One firefighter was sent to the hospital for minor injuries, and firefighters were evacuated after a portion of the building collapsed. The fire was reported about 6:30 p.m. and was still active as of 9 p.m. The building, at 2720 Sisson Street, also contains 22 apartments, but no residents were reported injured. Baltimore Fire Department spokesman Roman Clark said firefighters were trying to contain the blaze to the side of the building that housed four auto body shops.

Robert Jarrett Jr. was convicted Tuesday of murdering his wife, following a trial in which prosecutors described him as a "cold-blooded killer" who allowed his sons to walk over her body buried beneath their backyard shed for two decades. Howard County jurors handed down a guilty verdict on one count of second-degree murder after deliberating into the night, bringing an end to a years-long investigation. Prosecutors, who had pushed for a first-degree murder conviction, said they would seek the maximum penalty of 30 years in prison at Jarrett's sentencing, scheduled in August.

The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating whether the body of a man that washed up against a homeowner's pier in southern Anne Arundel County on Thursday is that of a crew member who went missing from a commercial container ship late last year. Officials with the state's Department of Natural Resources Police alerted the Coast Guard of the body, which was found in Deale, about 7:40 p.m. Thursday, said Lt. Peter Francisco, a Coast Guard marine investigator. "Whenever there is a body recovered, that's cross-referenced against all missing people that the Coast Guard has searches for," Francisco said.

Harford County Sheriff's deputies say they made a grisly discovery early Sunday morning after receiving a call at 9:30 a.m. asking them to check on the well-being of an Edgewood resident. Deputies arriving at the house in the 1700 block of Fountain Rock Way, found the home locked but could hear a TV playing inside, according to Harford County Sheriff's Office spokesman Edward Hopkins. No one came to the door, and as they continued their search, deputies observed blood and a body on the floor, officials said.

Baltimore City police say they are investigating a shooting late Saturday in the Dudley Avenue area. Police said that at 10:47 p.m., they responded to the 3300 block of Dudley Ave. for a report of a shooting and found an adult male, shot in the back and lower body. He was transported to an area hospital. Police did not identify the man, and there was no immediate information on his condition. Police said detectives are investigating. Staff Reports

When it comes to what the therapists call "body image," Marissa Massey doesn't seem to need much bucking up. Before the question was even asked, the inmate at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women had a ready answer: "I love my body. I do." If everyone had that much confidence, Saturday's event at the prison in Jessup might not have been considered necessary. Representatives of the Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt and the Girl Scouts set up shop at the prison yesterday to continue their campaign to resist what is considered a pervasive cultural obsession with an ideal body type, usually thin and thinner.

A partially buried body was discovered by a fisherman in a wooded area of Anne Arundel County Saturday. State police said a fisherman stumbled upon the body about a half mile from River Road, near the Patapsco River in a wooded area in Linthicum. Police have not released the person's identity or a cause of death. jkanderson@baltsun.com

When Howard County authorities said they found the badly decomposed remains of Christine Jarrett beneath a shed in her own backyard, they moved swiftly to charge her husband - long a suspect - with the murder. That discovery - two decades after her disappearance - is expected to become the focus of Robert Jarrett Jr.'s first-degree murder trial as it enters its second week. Though the body proved to be the tipping point for investigators in the field, it has also become a target for Jarrett's lawyers, who say it doesn't prove their client is guilty.

Mutter Museum may leave you shocked and horrified or amazed and fascinated. Either way, its collections of bones, bodies, body parts, plus tumors and other terrors, are unforgettable. The nation's finest and oldest medical museum - celebrating its 150th anniversary this month - bills itself as "disturbingly informative," and that is absolutely true. Specimens lining its wood-and-glass display cases reveal the effects of epidemics and diseases on the body, as well as an amazing array of human curiosities and anomalies.