Doctors

Legislation to legalize medical marijuana passed the House of Delegates Monday, sending the measure to the Senate. The bill would allow marijuana to be distributed through academic research centers by doctors and nurses. Similar measures have failed in previous years, but this year Gov. Martin O'Malley dropped his opposition and backed the proposal. Currently, 18 other states and the District of Columbia allows for the use of marijuana for medical purposes. The bill's sponsor, Del. Dan Morhaim, a physician and a Baltimore Democrat, has described Maryland's potential program as the tightest and most controlled of any in the country.

Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, but many don't recognize the warning signs. They may ignore the symptoms or mistake them for more benign ailments. Dr. Shannon J. Winakur, medical director of the Women's Heart Center at Saint Agnes Hospital, said women should be more aware of heart disease and how to prevent it. How are the warning signs of heart disease different in women? Warning signs of heart disease typically occur with exertion and go away with rest. The classic symptom of heart disease is a dull tightness in the center of the chest, which may or may not radiate to the neck, jaw, left shoulder or left arm. Women can certainly have these symptoms, but they also often describe sharp or burning chest pain.

On March 13th you published a letter written by reader Lois Raimondi Munchel titled "Stop the spread of deadly bacteria in nursing homes. " The letter was timely. It should send alarm bells ringing not only through the hallways of our nursing homes but also through our hospitals and our operating rooms. Not too long ago, at the NIH hospital, deadly Klebseilla bacteria resistant to all antibiotics, were found. Fifty percent of patients with this bacterial infection will die. These lethal, resistant bacteria have appeared in hospitals up and down the East Coast.

- Johns Hopkins Hospital's Dr. Ben Carson tested the political waters Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where many said he would be a popular Republican contender for the White House. Carson's speech was met with several standing ovations - with the most enthusiastic applause following a veiled comment about his plans after retiring from Hopkins. And he ranked well in a straw poll, where he was on the ballot against nearly two dozen of the nation's most prominent conservative voices.

Vernissia Tam gulped down half a glass of champagne at noon Friday and prepared to scream. She was about to find out what kind of doctor she would become, and where she would train. "No peeking," a Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine official told the Class of 2013. "The diplomas aren't printed yet. " After a countdown from 10 that took all of three seconds, Tam and her classmates broke the seals on letters revealing their fates, jumping into one another's arms for an embrace and congratulations.

Moira Mattingly had only been pregnant for about 24 weeks - still plenty of time, she thought, to pick a name for her daughter. So when she went to the hospital with some discomfort - small pains coming every seven minutes - the news that she was going into labor was alarming. The baby's lungs weren't fully formed, her skin barely so. Mattingly was also confronting sobering statistics: Babies born before 26 weeks, called micropreemies, can easily die and have a high chance of lifelong medical problems like cerebral palsy and blindness.

The Orioles have passed the halfway point in spring training and there is plenty that we still don't know about them, but you have to like what has happened at the Ed Smith Stadium facility so far. Almost nothing. The first four weeks have been surprisingly uneventful. There have been no major injuries and no big off-the-field problems, unless you count the fact that shortstop J.J. Hardy actually lost a game of ping pong the other day. The tone has been upbeat throughout, except the part where all the players in the Orioles clubhouse keep talking about the unfinished business to need to attend to in 2013.

Johns Hopkins will train China's next generation of doctors, researchers and hospital administrators under a new agreement with Sun Yat-sen University. The agreement was signed this week in the city of Guangzhou, where the university has affiliated hospitals, officials with Johns Hopkins Medicine International said. China's health system is growing rapidly and officials there hope Hopkins' expertise will help them develop a strong foundation for medical care.   Under the agreement, Hopkins researchers will teach courses at Sun Yat-sen.

The chief financial officer at Anne Arundel Medical Center is watching the fight over federal spending closely. If the federal government goes through with sequestration cuts beginning today, Maryland stands to lose millions of dollars in health-related funding that could leave hospitals such as Anne Arundel Medical Center looking for ways to make up lost revenue without weakening medical care. "We're here for the community and, like all hospitals, we are here 24/7 and will not jeopardize the care of patients," said Bob Reilly, the Annapolis hospital's finance director.

Fanya O'Donoghue had just learned she was pregnant when she happened to meet a group of nurses at a social gathering. She was looking for an obstetrician, and asked them whom they would recommend. "All six of them said, 'Dr. [Nikita] Levy,'" she recalled. Even now, after allegations that Levy photographed patients during exams, followed by the doctor's apparent suicide last Monday, O'Donoghue can't bring herself to believe those nurses steered her wrong. For her, Levy is still the kind, dryly funny doctor who drove through the "snowmageddon" of February 2010 when she went into labor with her firstborn - who shepherded her through her next pregnancy with twins and celebrated their happy deliveries.