Dr. Jacquelin Perry, Who Aided Polio Victims, Dies at 94

Dr. Jacquelin Perry, Who Aided Polio Victims, Dies at 94

Dr. Jacquelin Perry, a physician and researcher who shed light on the complexities of walking, and was a leader in treating polio victims in the 1950s and again in the ’80s when the symptoms of some returned, died on March 11 at her home in Downey, Calif. She was 94.

Her death was announced by the Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey, where she worked for more than 60 years. Dr. Perry earned wide attention for her work in analyzing the human gait, which she broke down into eight motion patterns governed by 28 major muscles in each leg. Her 1992 book, “Gait Analysis: Normal and Pathological Function,” became a standard text for orthopedists, physical therapists and other rehabilitation professionals.

To break walking, running, stair-climbing and other human ambulations into discrete components, illustrated with precise photographs, Dr. Perry used ultrasound studies, motion analysis and electromyography, which traces the nerve pathways through muscle using electric charges. “The author’s level of expertise and clear, logical presentation make this text a definitive reference,” Suzanne R. Babyar wrote in The Journal of Physical Education. A second edition, written with Dr. Judith Burnfield, was published in 2010.

In the mid-1950s, as one of the few women to rise to orthopedic surgeon in the United States, Dr. Perry developed surgical techniques for straightening curved spines and fusing shattered vertebrae. She collaborated with Dr. Vernon Nickel to come up with a new surgery for paralyzed polio patients after they had emerged from iron lungs. To provide stability for weakened necks, they invented a mechanical device that included a vest and a ring around the patient’s head, called a “halo.” The device immobilized the spine, neck and head and became widely used in hospitals.

In the 1980s, doctors began seeing former polio patients complaining of extreme fatigue, muscle weakness, debilitating joint pain, breathing difficulty and intolerance of cold. Dr. Perry was a leader in tracing the symptoms to the overuse of muscles and nerves in combating and recovering from polio. The condition became known as post-polio syndrome.

“The people just push themselves more than most of us,” she said in an interview with The New York Times Magazine in 1985. “They’ve put up with signs of strain to live a normal life. I always say people who had polio are overachievers, because so many of them are out to prove they can do just as well as those who didn’t have it. But now, the strain has accumulated, and tissues are aging prematurely.”

She traveled the world speaking about the syndrome, offering a simple remedy: rest.

Jacquelin Perry was born on May 31, 1918, in Denver and was raised in Los Angeles. “I knew at about age 10 I wanted to be a doctor,” she said in a speech in 2000. “I read every medical book in the Los Angeles library.”

She earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1940 and then joined the Army and trained to be a physical therapist. The Army assigned her to a hospital in Hot Springs, Ark., where polio patients were treated. She earned a medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco, in 1950, as one of seven women in her class of 76. After completing her residency in San Francisco, she was recruited by the Rancho rehabilitation center to start its physical therapy program for patients with polio and other diseases.

Dr. Perry was an active surgeon until a brain artery blockage forced her to stop operating. She then devoted much of her time to studying the biomechanics of walking. As part of her research, she investigated how muscles and joints behave when spinal-cord injury patients propel themselves in wheelchairs, and how below-the-knee amputees are able to walk with prosthetic feet.

Dr. Perry, who left no immediate survivors, taught at the University of Southern California’s medical school from 1972 to the late 1990s and established a scholarship there for the study of the human gait. She wrote more than 400 peer-reviewed papers and 38 book chapters, in addition to her classic textbook.

Though her advice to post-polio patients was to take it easy, she had little interest in doing the same. She went to work until the week before her death.

Health Hack: Natural, DIY Easter Egg Dyes

Health Hack: Natural, DIY Easter Egg Dyes

Easter Sunday is a little over a week away, so for today’s Health Hack we’re going to look at natural, non-toxic egg dye options. Decorating easter eggs can actually be a really fun, creative and de-stressing activity no matter how old you are or how you’ll be celebrating the holiday.

Whether your Easter weekend will be filled with children, family and traditional Easter activities or drinking wine, donning bonnets and making vegan chocolate rabbits in a friend’s apartment kitchen, make the brightest, most intricate, silliest, raddest Easter eggs you can dream upâ€"without using artificial colors and potentially toxic dyes. These eggs are for eventually eating, after all. You can keep things safe (and thrifty) by making your own natural dyes from things you probably already have in your kitchen.

For Orange, use yellow onions. mix 1 cup yellow onion skin (about 2 onions’ worth), 1 teaspoon vinegar and 3 cups water in a pot. Boil for one half hour, cool to room temperature, strain out the onion skins, then soak hard-boiled eggs in the dye for one half hour. {Via: Spoonful.com}

For Red, use beets. Combine 2 cups of grated raw beets with one tablespoon vinegar and 2 cups of water. Boil for 15 minutes. Let water cool, then add eggs; the longer you soak, the deeper the red color will be. {Via Rosalind Creasy}

For Yellow, use cumin or turmeric. Boil three tablespoons turmeric or cumin. “This isn’t an exact science, so add more ingredients or more water as you see fit,” write the folks at PCC Natural Markets. “Strain the ingredient (if necessary) and add one tablespoon vinegar to the dye. Allow the dye to cool a bit before (adding) the eggs.”

For Lavender, use Hibiscus tea bags.

For Blue, use purple or red cabbage.  Dice ¼ head of cabbage and add to 4 cups boiling water. Stir in 2 tablespoons vinegar. Let cool to room temperature and strain before adding eggs. {Via Cuesa}

For Green, use parsley and/or spinach. 

The Good Food Blog offers some good tips for creating different effects and shades when using natural, food-based egg dyes; check them out here. And see Big Sis, Lil Sis for instructions on how to use flowers and foliage to create prints on naturally-dyed eggs, like this:

For those who don’t want to go the DIY route but still want to keep things natural, check out these natural dye kits from Terrain and Eco Eggs.

North Dakota Allows Vote on Strict Abortion Limit

North Dakota Allows Vote on Strict Abortion Limit

North Dakota lawmakers passed a resolution on Friday to allow the public to decide whether the State Constitution should assert that life begins at conception, a move that would essentially ban all abortions in the state.

The measure, which will appear on next year’s ballot, comes a week after the Republican-controlled Legislature adopted a law that made abortion illegal once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which could be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.

Although the House on Friday struck down a bill that would have directly affirmed that life begins at conception, without a requirement of a public vote, it did pass legislation to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and to require doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a local hospital.

Abortion-rights advocates have criticized the bills and promised to challenge them, saying the measures violated the Roe v. Wade decision that allows abortions until the fetus is considered viable, usually around 24 weeks into a pregnancy.

“The thought that the politicians of North Dakota would put their own state through another ballot initiative that does absolutely nothing to advance the well-being of the people of that state is just unconscionable,” said Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

Senator Margaret Sitte, a Republican who sponsored the “personhood” resolution that passed the Senate last month and the House on Friday, said she hoped that it would lead to an end to abortion in the state.

“I’m hoping that it will be a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade,” she said.

The resolution does not need Gov. Jack Dalrymple’s approval, but the other bills do. Although he is a Republican who opposes abortion, his deliberation is a bit complicated.

With the threat of lawsuits, the state could be forced into a costly legal fight if he signs the bills into law. Mr. Dalrymple still has not acted on the fetal heartbeat measure. His office said Friday that it had yet to receive the bill. Once he receives it, he has three days to make a decision. The resolution regarding life at conception will be put up for a public vote whether to add an amendment to the State Constitution that says, “The inalienable right to life of every human being at any stage of development must be recognized and defended.”

Erik Eckholm contributed reporting.

Flu took a heavy toll on children this season

Flu took a heavy toll on children this season

The CDC says 105 children died of the flu this season, emphasizing the importance of vaccinating everyone older than 6 months.

The CDC says vaccination is the most important weapon against the flu.(Photo: Matt Rourke, AP)

The flu has claimed the lives of 105 children this season, says a report out today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Last year, a very mild year for flu, 34 children died, but this year, the deaths were more in line with a typical year. Flu seasons vary greatly in severity. In the 2003-2004 season, 153 childr en died, according to CDC numbers. The death toll is up to date as of March 16, but Michael Jhung, a medical officer in CDC's Influenza Division, said more deaths are possible: "Flu season is winding down but it's not over."

Of the children who died, 90% had not been vaccinated against the flu. "That's a remarkable number," Jhung said. Though this season's flu vaccine was not particularly effective in those over 65, it worked well in children, he said.

The CDC recommends an annual flu vaccination for everyone over age 6 months. Overall, 52% of all American kids got flu shots this year.

Of the children who died this year, 60% were at high risk from flu complications, either because they were under 2 or had a pre-existing medical condition, the CDC said. "The really telling proportion is the flip side of that: 40% of these deaths were in kids who were healthy," Jhung said.

The high number of children lost to the flu "is just profoundly sa d," said William Schaffner, a professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. "Here we are in the 21st century, and this ancient scourge visits us every year and can still have such a profound effect on our children."

Even with the best hospital care, some children don't survive a bout with the flu, said Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist. "It reminds us that this is a virus that doesn't just involve the throat and the chest," he said. "It involves the whole body."

Though the flu shot is less effective than other common vaccines, getting one reduced the likelihood that a child would need to see a doctor for the flu by 60%, the CDC said. "It's the best one we have," Schaffner said of the flu vaccine. "Every death prevented is worth it."

Flu hit the USA beginning in late October and early November, about a month earlier than usual, Jhung said. It peaked in late December and early January, when it usually peaks towards the end of January a nd into February. The flu started in the South, hit the Northeast, then worked its way west, but there were weeks where every region had elevated activity.

This season the flu caused "moderately severe" illness, especially in hard-hit places such as Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago and parts of the upper Midwest, Schaffner said. "Several parts of the country were really inundated with it," he said. "They were backed up in the emergency room."

The CDC has tracked flu deaths in children since the 2003-2004 season, when 153 kids died of influenza. Like this year's outbreak, the flu season that year was early and intense.

Influenza is unpredictable, Schaffner said. Last year, the mildest flu season on record, influenza killed 34 children. The H1N1 pandemic killed 348 children from April 15, 2009, to Oct. 2, 2010.

Regina Booth, a Colorado mother, speaks about the importance of flu shots through an advocacy group called Families Fighting Flu. Two years ago, th e flu killed her son Austin, a healthy 17-year-old. Before he died, Booth says, her family didn't bother with flu shots.

She said in a written statement, "Now there wouldn't be a flu season that goes by that I wouldn't get my children vaccinated to protect them."

The flu strains that will be in next season's flu vaccine have already been selected and vaccine manufactures are working on them, Jhung said. They will ship in August, and people can begin to get vaccinated in early September.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Last SlideNext Slide

Rivals Challenge Quinn on Paid Sick-Leave Bill

Rivals Challenge Quinn on Paid Sick-Leave Bill

Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, said parts of the bill on paid sick leave might cause “undue harm” to businesses.

Two Democratic candidates for mayor challenged Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, on her home turf on Friday, for blocking a vote over paid sick-leave legislation.

The two candidates, William C. Thompson Jr., a former comptroller, and Bill de Blasio, the public advocate, are, along with Ms. Quinn, leading contenders for the nomination to succeed Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Paid sick leave has emerged as a major issue dividing them.

Testifying in the City Council chamber, Mr. Thompson rebuked Ms. Quinn for keeping the bill, a favorite of liberal groups, from a vote. Mr. Thompson supports passing the legislation but postponing its start date by a year, which he said would strike a balance between business interests and workers’ needs.

“If it seems like we’ve been discussing paid sick leave for years, it’s because we have,” Mr. Thompson said, noting that he was skipping the beginning of a candidates’ forum on affordable housing in order to testify. “The only obstacle to this legislation is the speaker, who’s blocking this bill with an iron fist.”

Ms. Quinn, who spent a little less than an hour at the hearing, was not there to hear him. Before Mr. Thompson spoke, she held an impromptu news conference in a side room to say that while she supported the concept of paid sick leave, the current measure, which would require many small businesses to give their employees at least five sick days a year, was “not a version of paid sick leave I can support at this time.”

“Some very important specific legislative issues were raised,” she said, adding that she was open to further discussion.

She said parts of the current bill, which has the support of a supermajority of council members, might cause “undue harm” to businesses in a shaky economy. That argument may endear her to the city’s business groups, whose support Ms. Quinn has tried to cultivate this year, but delaying the legislation for months has left her vulnerable to criticism from liberals, turning the issue into one of her most delicate problems.

Shortly after Ms. Quinn arrived at the hearing, Mr. de Blasio reiterated his support for the legislation from a seat directly behind Ms. Quinn’s. Mr. de Blasio, echoing testimony from proponents of the bill, said paid sick days would not only provide workers with economic stability, but also keep sick workers from infecting others.

Without naming Ms. Quinn, Mr. de Blasio said the bill had been debated long enough. “I’m hoping this additional outpouring of interest,” he said, will “restore democratic processes to this town.”

Another Democratic candidate, John C. Liu, the city comptroller, joined Mr. de Blasio and Mr. Thompson at a rally in City Hall Park before the hearing, calling the bill “long overdue.”

In a further sign of the importance of the issue, all of the Democratic mayoral candidates except Ms. Quinn are scheduled to appear on Chris Hayes’s television show on MSNBC on Sunday morning to discuss the legislation. A spokesman for Ms. Quinn said the speaker was unable to attend.

At her news conference, Ms. Quinn said she would study two metrics â€" the unemployment rate and the failure rate of small businesses â€" while she decided how to move forward on the issue.

Business groups argue that high taxes and strict regulations already make the city inhospitable to small businesses, and they say the paid sick-leave requirement would damage businesses that cannot afford to compensate employees for days off, prompting them to lay off workers.

The bill’s sponsors, however, say it is a public health measure as well as a matter of workers’ rights. They have already modified parts of the bill in response to testimony from business groups in two previous hearings and said on Friday that they only needed a vote to put their work into effect.

Well: Recipes for Health: Greens With Beans

Well: Recipes for Health: Greens With Beans

Greens and beans are a natural combination in many parts of the world, but they haven’t necessarily caught on in the United States. In this weeks’ Recipes for Health, Martha Rose Shulman celebrates this healthful combination that can be turned into a hearty, high-protein, one-dish meal.

If you’ve been a longtime follower of Recipes for Health, you know how much I like combining beans and greens. They make a good, nourishing couple, and every peasant cuisine in the world seems to know this.

One of my favorite dishes from the Veracruz region of Mexico is a delicious black bean soup that brings together the beans and a local green that’s related to lamb’s quarters, for which I substituted spinach when I adapted it for Recipes for Health. I love to add greens to hearty minestrones and kale to slow-baked beans. One of my favorite dishes from the Southern Italian region of Apulia is bitter greens with dried favas, and I love a simple mussel or clam stew with beans and greens. You’ll find pomegranate molasses, lots of slowly browned onions and a garden of fresh herbs â€" mint, dill, cilantro â€" in several of this week’s recipes.

Here are five new ways to combine beans and greens.

Bean and Green Herb Stew: This dish is inspired by a famous Persian stew that is traditionally made with chicken and kidney beans.

---

White or Pink Beans With Beet Greens and Parmesan: A great way to use up your Parmesan rinds.

---

Baked Beans With Pomegranate Molasses, Walnuts and Chard: This Iranian-inspired rendition of baked beans is sweetened with pomegranate molasses, which you can find in Middle Eastern markets.

---

Black-Eyed Pea Soup or Stew With Pomegranate and Chard: A hearty Persian-inspired dish that can be a soup or a stew.

---

Large White Bean, Tuna and Spinach Salad: A substantial salad that is good any time of year.

---

City Health Officials Warn Some Men on Lethal Strain of Meningitis

City Health Officials Warn Some Men on Lethal Strain of Meningitis

It is a variant of a disease that can go from a fever and headache to a galloping rash and then to death within hours â€" so quickly that some victims have been found dead in bed before they could even get to a doctor. Over the last two years, it has appeared only among men, and they often got it, health officials say, through anonymous sexual encounters with other men found through Internet chat rooms or digital apps or at parties, making it all but impossible to trace the path of infection.

It is a unique strain of bacterial meningitis, so new it has not even been named, and it is particularly lethal â€" killing one out of three people instead of the one out of five who succumb to other strains of meningitis.

New York City health officials are growing increasingly worried that this strain of meningitis, which is an inflammation of the lining around the brain and the spinal cord, is so insidious that it could suddenly mushroom into a major outbreak, claiming many lives before anything can be done to stop it.

“It’s been sort of marching through the community in a way that makes us very scared,” Dr. Jay Varma, the deputy commissioner for disease control at the city’s health department, said on Thursday.

The department issued a warning this month recommending the standard meningitis vaccination for a particular subset of the population: “men, regardless of H.I.V. status, who regularly have intimate contact with other men through a Web site, digital application or at a bar or party.”

There have been 22 cases, all among men, of the unique strain since 2010, 13 of them last year and 4 this year, Dr. Varma said. Seven of them have died. Twelve were H.I.V.-positive, a possible risk factor. Ten of the cases were in Brooklyn â€" in neighborhoods as varied as Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Bushwick, Clinton Hill, Crown Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Dumbo, East New York, Prospect Heights and Williamsburg.

The meningitis vaccine is available at many health clinics, hospitals and private doctors’ offices, and is effective against the new strain. But it has not been easy for health officials to get the word out.

Many of men who are at risk may not identify themselves as either gay or bisexual, even though they are having sex with other men, health officials said. So it is hard to reach out to them through gay organizations, and it is hard to get them to come forward to be vaccinated.

The health department and the medical examiner have found that the current strain may have first surfaced in 2005 and 2006, in an outbreak that began with a 47-year-old woman from the Bronx. It circulated among drug users, especially crack-cocaine and marijuana users, because smoking disturbs the lining of the throat where the bacteria reside. Then it died down.

Meningitis is traditionally spread in places where many people come into close contact, like military barracks and schools. It was only in the second outbreak, which began in 2010, that epidemiologists made the connection with sex and realized the variant was circulating exclusively among men. “We know there is clearly some kind of social-risk factor, being very socially active with people you’ve met either through online sites or parties,” Dr. Varma said.

Many of those with the disease, he said, could not identify their sexual partners. “All they know is a screen name and a physical description,” he said, adding, “It’s another big challenge for us to identify how this disease is spreading.”

Experts: New Sports Concussion Rules a Game Changer

Experts: New Sports Concussion Rules a Game Changer

When Dawn Balzano's 17-year-old daughter Victoria took a ball to the head during a soccer game a couple of summers ago, she felt dizzy but kept quiet about it so she could stay in the game.

The next day, she took another vicious header in a game and though she complained of feeling queasy, her coach continued to keep her on the field.

Balzano said that by the time Victoria was hit in the head yet again during a basketball game a day later, she was disoriented and having memory lapses.

Join the ABC News Tweet Chat About Sports Concussions Today at 1 p.m. ET

"Even then the coaching staff didn't recommend a trip to the doctor, but she finally told us what was going on, so we took her to a pediatrician," Balzano said. "After two weeks of headaches, nausea and sensitivity to light, she saw a specialist who diagnosed a concussion. He ordered her to stay out of games and practice for a couple of months."

Victoria is among the million or so U.S. athletes who receive a blow to the head serious enough to cause a "concussion" injury to the brain each year, according to the American Academy of Neurology. Based on new guidelines for evaluating and managing concussions released Monday by the Academy, coaches and medical professionals will be expected to handle a case like Victoria's much differently than many have in the past.

The new guidelines call for any athlete suspected of having a concussion to be immediately removed from play and not returned until after an assessment by a licensed health care professional trained in concussion. The recommendations stress a gradual return to the game -- and only after all symptoms are gone.

"If in doubt, sit it out," said Dr. Christopher Giza, a children's neurologist at the University of California in Los Angeles and one of the lead authors of the guidelines that were published Monday in the online issue of the journal Neurology. "There is no set timeline for safe return to play."

The old guidelines, in use since 1997, grade the severity of concussion on a scale of I to III. Most experts classify a mild concussion when the athlete is confused but has full memory of the event as Grade I. Typically, the athlete is told to sit on the sidelines for a few minutes before returning to play.

Grade III concussions are characterized by loss of consciousness and memory loss for a period of time surrounding the events. Athletes diagnosed with a Grade II or III concussion are usually asked to stop play and practice for at least a week and return after being cleared by a physician.

The problem with the old guidelines, Giza said, is that they don't emphasize prevention and aren't very good at predicting how long someone might experience symptoms such as headaches, dizziness and memory deficits, which can plague someone after the initial injury.

"Sometimes an athlete who is knocked unconscious will recover quickly, while an athlete who gets what seems like a small bump on the head struggles for weeks," he said.

The new guidelines were developed by reviewing all available evidence published from 1955 through 2012. Neurologists, athletic trainers, rehabilitation medicine specialists, sports medicine experts, epidemiologists and a host of other specialty experts contributed to the final recommendations.