Boy with kidney disease uses small idea to make a big difference

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(CNN)When a child is in the hospital for an indefinite stay, the one thing that might ease the pain of being there is a toy.

So when 10-year-old Kadin Hoven saw the toy bin at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA running low, he had an idea.

Kadin was born with non-functioning kidneys. He's already had two kidney transplants. He's currently waiting for a third.

Officially diagnosed with stage 3 renal failure, Kadin has spent a huge portion of his life in the hospital -- specifically, at Mattel. He's had procedures there for many years. While on a visit recently to receive an infusion, he noticed the toy bin was low.

"It made him really sad," Heidi Hoven, Kadin's mother, told CNN.

It gave him the idea to start a toy drive.

"You see a lot of drives, but there aren't a lot of toy drives for children in the hospital," Kadin told CNN.

Hoven, a kindergarten teacher, advertised the drive through her school, friends and family. Donations poured in, in the form of toys and cash. "We had family and friends out of state, people we don't even know, giving us checks," Hoven said.

It took six toy wagons and four volunteers to haul the load -- 281 toys total -- into the hospital Wednesday.

"Their jaws dropped," Hoven said, "They didn't expect to see that many toys."

And there's more, Hoven said. They are delivering another bunch next week.

"It's great to see patients want to give back," Stephanie Talley, a child life specialist at Mattel, told CNN.

The toys were given to the inpatient and pediatric care units.

Kadin's illness began when he was born. When Kadin was 9 months old, his father, Shawn, gave Kadin a kidney. When he was 5, Kadin's body began to reject it -- spurring a need for another. When Kadin was 8, Hoven donated her own kidney, but doctors had to remove it three weeks later because of complications.

But the Hovens said they are hopeful.

"We tell (Kadin) there's a reason for everything," his mother said.

Kadin is currently on dialysis five days a week, for 10 hours a day. But you'd never know it by looking at him.

He loves cross-country, gymnastics and parkour. He recently asked to try baseball. He even gives himself his own growth hormone shots.

The Hovens are able to give Kadin his dialysis at home, but other procedures, like infusions, have to be administered at the hospital. And sometimes those procedures can last several hours, warranting a need for a distraction, like a toy.

"If you are not in the hospital, you have no idea," Hoven said. "For those kids, it's a getaway. It takes their minds off their situations."

Suddenly, something small -- like a toy bin -- makes a big difference. It's a source of joy for kids who need it most. Kadin says his wish is to have the toy drive every year.

Despite Kadin's difficult ride with his health, and despite the effects of a brutal disease, Kadin says he is still thinking about other people. "He's a very selfless, caring little boy," his mother said. "If he sees someone in need, he is the first to take out his chore money and donate."

When asked how much of a difference he thought the toys made to the kids, Kadin said simply:

"Big."

Source: edition.cnn.com

NYC lawmakers pass a novel requirement for free tampons

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NEW YORK (AP) -- New York City is on track to become the nation's first city to require free tampons and sanitary pads in public schools, homeless shelters and jails after lawmakers approved the idea Tuesday amid a national discussion of the costs of having a period.

The proposal, which Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration supports, marks a new direction in activists' push to dismantle what they see as unfair financial barriers between women and needed sanitary products. New York state lawmakers voted last month to become the sixth state to eliminate sales tax on the items.

City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland's proposal would make pads and tampons free in restrooms that serve 300,000 schoolgirls, and it would guarantee the products' availability to 23,000 women in homeless shelters and add the force of law to jail standards about sanitary supplies.

Supporters say New York would lead cities by having a law, rather than more changeable policies, in a wide range of locales.

"They're as necessary as toilet paper," so they ought to be just as freely accessible, Ferreras-Copeland, a Democrat, said before Tuesday's 49-0 vote.

During the discussion, the council's female speaker waved a wrapped tampon aloft in the spirit of bringing a once-taboo subject into the open. Even a male lawmaker who found the subject a bit uncomfortable praised the proposal.

It's unclear when the mayor will take up the measure, which would provide an estimated 2 million tampons and 3.5 million pads per year in shelters alone. Once dispensers are installed, it's expected to cost about $2.5 million annually in the city's $82 billion budget.

To some extent, schools, shelters and lockups in New York and elsewhere already provide the supplies for free, and the issue has started bubbling up in various lawmakers' chambers. The Dane County Board in Wisconsin, for instance, voted late last year to experiment with providing free tampons and pads in some buildings in the capital county, an idea adapted from a test project that Ferreras-Copeland helped spearhead in 25 New York City schools last year. A Wisconsin state legislature proposal to require the products to be free in public schools and state buildings has stalled so far.

Advocates say the measure also would make the free sanitary supplies more readily available by putting them in restrooms, instead of nurses' offices, in schools with female students in sixth grade and up. Girls who need pads or tampons now have to scramble to try to get to the nurse and then the restroom in breaks between classes, says Lineyah Mitchell, a graduating senior at Brooklyn Technical High School.

Rather than do that and risk being late, girls learn to "know the friend in that class who has extra pads," Mitchell, 17, said at a rally before the vote.

Homeless shelters and jails already provide free menstrual supplies on request, according to the city administration. Women's advocates suggest the supplies are inadequate, but officials say they provide what's needed.

Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks, who oversees homeless shelters, applauded the proposed requirement Tuesday, saying it "expands on and enshrines into law" existing policies.

Meanwhile, New York's statewide sales tax exemption on menstrual supplies is awaiting Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo's signature, which is expected.

Several states have weighed eliminating the tax this year, with mixed results. While New York said yes, a Utah legislative committee voted down the idea in March.

Source: www.foxnews.com

Ohio teen dies from suspected brain-eating amoeba

An Ohio teen died Sunday after contracting a suspected brain-eating amoeba while swimming in North Carolina. Lauren Elisabeth Seitz, of Westerville, Ohio, was visiting the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte with her church’s youth music ministry group when she contracted the infection, WYFF4.com reported.

“They had one day of recreation where they stopped at the U.S. Whitewater Center and went whitewater rafting, and they had a grand day,” Jim Wilson, Seitz’s pastor at the Church of the Messiah United Methodist Church, told WYFF4.com.

Source: www.foxnews.com

Baby born with brain outside skull defies odds 7 months later

During a 20-week ultrasound, doctors told Bentley Yoder’s parents that their son was “incompatible with life,” and that he had a 0 percent chance of survival. Devastated, the Ohio parents considered terminating the pregnancy, but ultimately they decided to carry Bently to term.

“All the way through, I just kept having the feeling that it’s going to be OK, it’s going to be all right,” Dustin Yoder, Bentley’s father, said in a post on Thriving, a Boston Children’s Hospital blog.

In the ultrasound, doctors had detected that brain tissue was bulging out of an opening in Bentley’s skull and diagnosed him with encephalocele. The condition is a rare neural tube defect that occurs when the tube does not close completely during pregnancy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the condition occurs in one out of 10,000 babies born in the United States each year.

“I specifically remember asking, ‘Is there any chance he could survive?’ They said no— that in the best-case scenario, he’s going to be a vegetable,” Sierra Yoder, Bentley’s mother, said in the blog post. “They made it out like I was going to lose him at any point.”

The Yoders entered the birth excited for the limited time they were expected to have with their son and picked out an outfit to bury him in, but Bentley had other plans. The staff sent the family home with hospice but Bentley was feeding from the bottle, cooing and crying like any other child.

Source: www.foxnews.com

The Difference Between Postpartum Depression and Postpartum Psychosis

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Postpartum psychosis is more rare and involves symptoms like hallucinations

The high-profile quintuple murder case drew national attention in part because of the tragic deaths of the children—who ranged in age from 6 months to 7 years old—and the defense team’s argument that Yates suffered from severe postpartum psychosis, a condition that was then relatively unknown among the public.

Today, advanced research and federal legislation have helped shed more light on the treatment of both conditions, as well as provide more support and screening opportunities for mothers. Celebrity moms, including Nashville actor Hayden Panettiere and mother-of-two Drew Barrymore, have publicly spoken about their battles with postpartum depression. Panettiere in May told her fans on Twitter that the illness has “impacted every aspect” of her life and that she needed to take time to reflect on her health. As the conversations continue, here are the differences between the two conditions:

Postpartum depression

Both occur after childbirth, although postpartum depression is more common. About 1 in 7 women experience symptoms of postpartum depression, according to the American Psychological Association (APA). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number is closer to 1 in 10.

Symptoms vary depending on the patient but can include frequent crying, anger, anxiety, withdrawal from loved ones, the feeling of numbness or being disconnected from the baby and even sometimes thoughts of hurting yourself or the infant, the APA says.

Those symptoms can appear days or months after childbirth, and may have serious effects. The psychological disorder “can make it hard for you to get through the day, and it can affect your ability to take care of your baby, or yourself,” according to the APA.

Postpartum depression doesn’t go away on its own, but both mild and severe cases can be successfully treated with different forms of psychotherapy and antidepressant medication.

Postpartum psychosis

Postpartum psychosis is rarer than postpartum depression, and involves symptoms that include delusions or hallucinations and can put both the mother and her child in danger, health experts say. The condition affects 1 to 2 out of 1,000 women, and tends to present within the first two to four weeks after delivery, according to a study published in the Journal of Women’s Health in 2006.

The onset of postpartum psychosis is often sudden. In addition to psychotic symptoms, patients can also develop symptoms of paranoia, mood swings and confusion.

Some research suggests the women are most at risk for postpartum psychosis if they have a family history of bipolar disorder or schizoaffective disorder. In rare cases, postpartum psychosis can lead to suicide attempts. Even rarer are attempts at infanticide.

Yates, who is now in a Texas mental hospital, had tried to commit suicide at least once before she drowned her four sons and baby daughter on June 20, 2001. Her attorneys said she suffered from psychotic delusions and had repeated episodes of postpartum depression, TIME reported in 2002. She had multiple violent visions of murder before carrying out the killings.

Yates was convicted of capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison, but her conviction was overturned on appeal. She was found not guilty in 2006 by reason of insanity.

Source: time.com