Chelsea’s in tears after visit to mum Hillary Clinton in hospital
Hillary receiving blood thinners to dissolve clot
Former president Bill Clinton later arrived at the hospital and also appeared concerned when he left shortly afterwards
Chelsea Clinton also appeared distressed and close to tears today as she left the hospital where her mother Hillary is being treated for a blood clot.
Former president Bill Clinton later arrived at the New York Presbyterian hospital and also appeared concerned when he left shortly afterwards.
However, the US Secretary of State’s doctors said they were confident she will make a full recovery.
She is being treated with blood thinners in an attempt to dissolve the clot in her head just behind her ear.
Mrs Clinton, 65, was admitted to a hospital in New York last Sunday when the clot was discovered during a routine check up following her fainting collapse which led to her suffering from concussion.
The clot she is suffering from is one of the few types that can be treated with blood thinners and doctors stress she has not suffered any brain damage.
Mrs Clinton fell ill with a stomach virus last month and her condition worsened when she fainted as she recovered at home.
She was forced to cancel a trip to North Africa and the Middle East that had been planned for the next week.
Some Republican opponents had accused her of faking her concussion to avoid a row over September’s US consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya.
She had been due to face questions in Congress over security failures surrounding the assault that killed ambassador Chris Stevens and three others.
She was scheduled to return to work this week before the clot was discovered.
She will step down as Secretary of State later this month as planned, after President Barack Obama’s second inauguration, and is now seen as frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.
Mrs Clinton previously suffered a blood clot in her leg in 1998, while she was First Lady. At the time she blamed it on frequent flying.
She said later: “That was scary because you have to treat it immediately – you don’t want to take the risk it will break loose and travel to your brain, or your heart or your lungs.
“That was the most significant health scare I’ve ever had.”
As America’s top diplomat, Mrs Clinton is believed to be the most-travelled Secretary of State in history, having visited 112 countries in her four years in the job.
Exceptional Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai wins Tipperary peace award
Malala Yousafzai the Pakistani schoolgirl is being recognised for her courage, determination and perseverance has won the 2012 Tipperary International Peace Award.
In a statement, the Tipperary Peace Convention said it is recognising Malala’s courage, determination and perseverance, along with the impact she has had on so many across the world.
The schoolgirl has become a symbol of resistance against the Taliban’s efforts to deprive girls of an education in her country.
Last October, the 14-year-old survived after being shot in the head by the Taliban for her human rights work.
Malala campaigned for girls’ rights and came to public attention in 2009 by writing an online diary.
In the diary, she wrote about life under Taliban militants, who had taken control of the Swat Valley and banned the education of girls.
She received death threats over the diary, but said in 2012 it was worth the risk.
The Pakistan Taliban said they attacked Malala because she was a western-minded girl and secular.
The Tipperary Peace Convention said: ”Malala’s courage has proved to be an inspiration around the globe.
“The right to education is denied to 61 million children of primary school age around the world and the hopes of these children are represented by the courage, determination and by the voice of Malala Yousafzai.
“The Taliban tried and failed to silence her and have instead amplified her voice.”
Previous recipients of the award include former South African president Nelson Mandela, former US president Bill Clinton, former prime minister of Pakistan the late Benazir Bhutto, and former President of Ireland Prof Mary McAleese and her husband Senator Martin McAleese.
Patients face brutal insurance hike with Reilly hospital beds charge
Health premiums could soar by up by as much as 50%
After a year of devastating increases in insurance costs, the bitterest pill has been left to swallow at the end.
Health insurance customers are facing massive premium hikes in 2013 because of a new scheme spearheaded by James Reilly.
The health minister is to allow hospitals to charge insurance firms every time their customers use public beds — a move that will see premiums rise by almost 50pc.
The plan means all insurance customers who spend a period in hospital will be hit with charges — whether they stay in a private bed or not.
The increases will come at the worst possible time for hard-pressed families, who are already dealing with the effects of December’s Budget.
The Department of Health has confirmed that the new scheme is tied in with Budget 2013 — as Dr Reilly desperately tries to deal with the overrun in spending.
As a result of the scheme, public hospitals will charge insurers every time their customers use State-owned beds.
The move will especially hit insurers, as they will not be allowed to negotiate the price of a public bed.
Hikes
Experts say this will prompt insurers such as VHI, Aviva and Laya Healthcare to ramp up premiums by up to 50pc.
The State-owned VHI has already indicated that the scheme will see its customers face premium hikes of up to 45pc. Firms are currently charged €75 a day when their customers avail of a public bed and over €1,000 a day for the use of a private bed.
It’s now likely some insurance companies will carry out a redesign of their policies.
Dermot Goode, of www. healthinsurancesavings.ie said that Dr Reilly’s scheme “will definitely lead to higher premiums”.
“Given that the public hospitals will now be able to charge around €1,000 per night instead of €75 per night for these beds, the impact will be significant. There is no doubt that this will be passed on,” he added.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health confirmed that Budget 2013 has already made provision for the income expected to be generated by Dr Reilly’s scheme.
The news that more premium hikes are on the way come at the end of a brutal year for health insurance customers who were hit by a series of punishing increases.
Around 2.1 million customers have seen the cost of their health insurance increase by 20pc over the past year.
Some 54,000 customers dropped their private cover in the first nine months of 2012 — on the back of the 66,000 who abandoned policies in 2011.
Cancer diagnosis changes peoples outlook on life
The study was part of a high profile Scottish government cancer campaign
A new study has offered a snapshot of how being diagnosed with cancer led many people to make positive changes to their lives.
Two thirds of the cancer survivors surveyed said they had done something they never done before after being diagnosed.
Half got involved with a charity, while 39% went on a dream holiday.
The figures were disclosed by the Scottish Government’s £30m detect cancer early campaign.
They suggested those affected by cancer felt a renewed sense of the importance of family and loved ones in their lives after they discovered they had the disease.
Three-quarters said their children made them keep going while getting treatment, and 71% said their partner motivated them to get through the tough times.
Tourist attraction
Some 44% appreciate their life because they lived to see the birth of their grandchildren, and a third say that seeing their children graduate made them glad to be alive.
Almost two-thirds spent quality time with their family following diagnosis and 35% told people that they loved them.
Survivors also treated themselves to one-off experiences, with 39% going on a dream holiday and 43% visiting a major tourist attraction they had always wanted to see.
Other things people did following diagnosis include ending an unhappy marriage, starting a business and learning to play the piano.
The statistics also disclosed how people’s view of cancer and its prevention altered after the experience of having the disease.
Three-quarters said their attitude towards cancer had changed since being diagnosed, and nine in 10 survivors said that since going through treatment, their attitude towards surviving cancer has improved.
Almost 60% noticed the cancer symptoms themselves, or by self-examination, while a quarter had their cancer detected through a screening programme.
Before they were diagnosed, 40% took part in screening programmes but after their experience with cancer, 80% now get regularly screened.
The research involved 150 cancer survivors from across Scotland, mostly over the age of 55.
The campaign aims to increase the number of cases detected at the earliest stage of the disease by over 25% by 2016.
It is focusing on breast, bowel and lung cancer, the three main cancers that affect Scots.
Death rates
Breast cancer is the current focus of the campaign and is the subject of a television advert featuring actress and comedian Elaine C Smith whose mother died from the illness.
The ground-breaking health campaign is the first in the UK to show real pictures of women’s breasts that have been affected by cancer.
It carries the message that lumps are not the only sign of cancer and that people should be aware of any changes to their breasts.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Scottish women, accounting for almost 30% of female cancer cases in 2010.
The number of people diagnosed with breast cancer is projected to rise to around 5,180 a year from 2018 to 2022, compared with around 4,430 a year in 2008-12.
Deaths from breast cancer have fallen 21% in the past 10 years.
Other figures out recently show that cancer deaths have reached their highest number in almost 20 years, despite a fall in mortality rates for the disease.
Overall cancer death rates have fallen 12% over the past 10 years.
The total number of deaths rose to 15,375 in 2011, the highest since 1993. This is linked to Scotland’s ageing population, as cancer is relatively common among older people.
A total of 4,178 deaths in 2011 were from lung cancer, more than any other form of the disease.
Colorectal cancers killed 1,526 people in 2011, with 1,041 breast cancer deaths and 900 prostate cancer deaths.
But between 2001 and 2011 the overall cancer mortality rate fell 15% for men and 7% for women.
New smartphone camera promises end to out of focus shots
The blurry smartphone photographs could become a thing of the past, as 2013 will see the introduction of new camera technology that will allow snap-happy owners to focus on any object in the frame, after they have taken the shot.
Toshiba, the Japanese electronics giant, has revealed it is working on a camera module for smartphones and tablets that contains half a million tiny lenses. Each captures the field of view with a different focal length, so that photographers can choose how to focus the image after the fact.
The compound lens structure has been compared to an insect’s eye and the whole camera component, which is due to go into commercial production by the end of the year, currently measures roughly one cubic centimetre.
Similar plenoptic, or light field, technology is already available to consumers from Lytro, an American start-up spun out ofStanford University that introduced its fist camera at the end of 2011.
The development prompted a wave of excitement among photography enthusiasts but has so far failed to take hold in the mainstream, where smartphone photograph is increasingly dominant. Lytro’s devices are cameras only and a relatively unwieldy oblong shape to accommodate their pioneering optics.
It is Toshiba’s breakthrough in shrinking light field optics to a size suitable for smartphones and tablets that has excited the gadget world. Although at one centimetre thick the module would bulge the latest smartphones and tablets, the history of electronics shows that further miniaturisation is likely.
“Here’s hoping that it finds its way into a device outside of Japan,” said Engadget, a leading consumer electronics news website.
Smartphones have driven sales of standalone digital cameras down by a third since the introduction of the first iPhone five years ago, according to market analysts.
While the quality of the images smartphones produce remains well short of what a dedicated camera is capable of, their convenience and connectivity of a smartphone has seen them become many owners’ main camera.
Manufacturers have continually introduced improvements in hardware, with higher-megapixel sensors, and software, such as shake correction, in an effort address the shortfall.
