GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Hug university hospitals in Geneva late Tuesday 15 November said it is bringing charges for endangering life against lab workers and the union that is backing them in their hospital strike, following an incident today in the maternity unit. Urgently needed lab results were supplied to medical staff with delays of three to five hours, says the hospital, a clear violation of the guarantee to ensure basic services during a strike.
The hospital is also filing criminal charges against the lab workers’ union (VPOD-SSP) for inciting to endanger the lives of others for its threat to block the immuno-hematology transfusion unit Thursday.
Tensions between the hospital and the union rose Tuesday when the union announced that it will treat only blood units that the Hug buys. This, says the hospital, is only about 115 of the 500-700 needed a week not just by the hospital but also private clinics, doctors’ offices and elsewhere. The entire canton’s blood supplies will thus be “held hostage” says the hospital’s direction.
The other blood units are dealt with by the hospital’s lab, whose workers are striking; the union says the blood products will be treated and stored until after the strike.
But the Hug notes that in the meantime, this will put at risk several units, in particular emergency services, maternity, surgery and the pediatric unit.
CHUV in Lausanne
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The Chuv university hospitals, which have greatly tightened their financial auditing systems since a neurologist stole nearly CHF5 million to feed his passion for precious books, Wednesday 5 October faced a new theft. A woman who worked in the visceral (internal organs, especially digestive) surgery unit as assistant to the director of the César Roux foundation has been suspended after admitting to taking CHF100,000 to support her gambling habit.
The teaching and research in surgery foundation is not technically part of the university hospitals but is closely linked; since it is not legally part of the Chuv its financial operations are not under the same close scrutiny, a situation the Chuv noted Wednesday it intends to clarify and put in order. The employee had access to documents and had use of a bank card for the foundation, in the name of her boss.
It was only when the professor, her boss, was confronted by the shortfall during an annual audit by a privatr company that the woman was asked to supply receipts corresponding to the amounts she had taken out. She was unable to do so and she then admitted to the crime.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The first full-face transplant patient in the US appeared in public 9 May for the first time since his 15-hour surgery in March 2011. Dallas Wiens, 25, from Fort Worth, Texas, received an anonymous donor’s nose, lips, skin, muscles and nerves.
“I adapted to it very quickly,” Wiens told reporters at a news conference, saying that as time went on “I was able to smell again and breathe through my nose. Every step of the way was amazing.”
Although Wiens’ surgeon Bohdan Pomahac said the transplant results were better than expected, the team was unable to restore his sight, and it is not yet certain if Wiens will regain all of his nerve and muscle function.
Wiens was severely burned in November 2008 when he hit a power line while painting a church. The surgery took place at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachussetts and was paid for by part of a $3.4 million research grant from the US Department of Defense.
The world’s first full-face transplant was done in 2010 in Spain and the first partial-face transplant was done in France in 2005. In the past year several partial-face transplants have been done, in the US and Spain, but also in China.
The transplants require a donor and use human skin, but research, including work at Switzerland’s EPFL polytechnic institute in Lausanne, holds out hope that artificial skin may also some day provide options.
Links to other sites: BBC, EPFL, LA Times, Medill News Service
Hans Grugger, FIS, 2011 season
Update 5 / 23:00 Grugger’s condition critical, with thorax and severe head injuries, but life reportedly not in danger (videos)
Kitzbuehel, Austria (GenevaLunch) - Austrian skier Hans Grugger, 29, has been seriously injured after a crash on the Streif run during World Cup training in Kitzbuehel. The Streif is where skier Daniel Albrecht suffered serious injuries in a crash two years ago.
Dr Michael Blauth, head of trauma surgery, University Hospital Innsbruck, Austria, said Thursday afternoon that a team had operated on Grugger, who sustained chest and severe head injuries. TSR reports Thursday evening that a member of the Austrian team reports his life is not in danger, but that he has thorax and head injuries. The Innsbruck hospital says he will remain in intensive care for the night and no further reports will be available until Friday morning.
Disturbing television videos show his head hitting the ground hard before a long slide that ends with him lying motionless on the slope. Austrian TV commentators, watching the footage, went silent, then spoke but with very choked voices.
He lost control just seconds into the race after landing badly on an early jump, the difficult Mausefalle (Mousetrap). Didier Cuche, who came in first in the training run, said afterwards that the course was not to blame but rather a mistake made by Grugger, whose courage and skiing he praised. “The Mousetrap is a dangerous jump and if you don’t tackle it right, you’re sent flying,” Reuters quotes him as saying.
Grugger has won a number of top places in national and international races over the years, mainly in super-G and downhill. His most recent first place finish was in March 2010 in the downhill at the Austrian National Championships. He was out for most of the 2007-08 season after sustaining injuries in a crash in Bormio, Italy.
Swiss skier Albrecht only last week returned to competition. His recovery after weeks in a coma and a long rehabilitation programme has been labelled miraculous by a number of sports writers.
Albrecht’s accident occurred near the end of the Streif run. American skier Scott Macartney was also badly injured on the Streif, in 2008, close to the spot where Albrecht was later injured.
Links to other sites: Hans Grugger home page, biography with FIS (International Ski Federation), Streif downhill course description and FISAlpine profile of the Streif run
TSR video – if you are outside Switzerland you won’t be able to view this.
Swiss gov't will pay smaller share of cost of incontinence
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Opticians in Switzerland are unusually busy this week, reports 24 Heures, but it’s not thanks to Christmas shoppers: this is the last chance to get reimbursed CHF180 towards your new eyeglasses or contact lenses by your health insurance company.
Starting 1 Janaury 2011, a series of health care cost-cutting measures for the basic obligatory health insurance will go into effect.
These include: hospital patients will contribute CHF15 instead of the current CHF10 a day for basic hospitalization, glycemia measuring devices for diabetes patients will be covered up to CHF43 a year instead of CHF135, and the coverage for incontinence pads and pants will be reduced by about one-third for the least and most severe cases and about 10 percent for average cases.
Adults currently can ask to be reimbursed once every five years up to CHF180 for glasses and contact lenses, and children annually, but this will end for all age groups in January.
Insurers will no longer have to reimburse part of cost of glasses, contact lenses
The reductions in coverage will save the federal government CHF40 million a year in obligatory insurance payments, says Bern, about 10 percent of its expenditures in this area. The government covers some obligatory health insurance costs for people receiving disability insurance, social assistance or unemployment benefits. The change will, however, also affect consumers who pay their own health insurance premiums and costs, effectively passing the bill from the insurer to the consumer. Insurance premiums, which have been rising for several years, will go up again for most Swiss in 2011.
The government is, however, increasing coverage in two areas: girls and young women currently have human
papillomavirus vaccinations coverd if they are carried out as part of a cantonal vaccination programme, up to age 20. This will be extended up to age 26, until the end of 2012. Obligatory health insurance will also cover some stomach reduction surgeries in cases of morbid obesity with BMI (body mass index) over 35 (previously 40), if the person has followed a weight-loss programme for two years without losing weight.
Swiss health insurance FAQ, English, published by the federal government June 2010
Table: Swiss Federal Office of Health, 2008 statistical review, mandatory insurance system – total health care costs of some OECD countries, as a percentage of GDP (gross domestic product)
International sports, rugby
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Syd Nomis, 69, who played 25 successive Tests for the Springboks from 1966-71, becoming a legend in South African rugby, has had a leg amputated during a visit to his son Gary and family in Zurich.
The former sports star came down with pneumonia, then developed blod clots during his visit, according to South Africa’s Sports24, and he is recovering after surgery above the knee Sunday 26 September.
First reports are optimistic for two conjoined girls who were separated by a medical team in Melbourne, Australia during 27 hours of surgery. Krishna and Trishna, orphans from Bangladesh who were joined at the head, are doing well, although lead doctor Leo Donnan says they have a long road ahead of them, with risks related to recovering from the surgery but also a 50 percent chance of brain damage and 25 percent chance one of them will die. The girls are 2 years 11 months old. They were living at an orphanage in Bangladesh, where the risk of surgery was considered too great by the organization Children First Foundation, which is helping the girls.
Links to other sites: The Age, Melbourne (video), Times, UK, Royal Children’s Hospital page on the twins’ “incredible journey”
Budapest, Hungary (GenevaLunch) - Fernando Alonso will start on pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix after an incident-packed qualifying session which saw Felipe Massa taken to hospital by helicopter after crashing at 200 kph. The Brazilian Ferrari driver has undergone emergency surgery after suffering skull damage and concussion, reports the BBC. Ferrari says he will remain under observation in intensive care.
