What’s the first thing that came to mind when you heard that Rick Santorum ‘s special needs child was in the hospital with pneumonia late last month? I bet all of Mitt Romney ‘s money it wasn’t Sarah Palin unless you are Sarah Palin. In an op-ed for “Newsweek,” a magazine she loves to hate , Palin ever so delicately tied her experience raising her son Trig , who has Down syndrome, to Santorum. Of the roughly 900-word article, 123 of them relate to Santorum and his daughter Bella who was born with Trisomy 18, a disability similar to Down syndrome. It’s all downhill from there. For more perspective, the names “Rick” and “Santorum” appear three times total and are all found in the first paragraph. The word “my,” in reference to Palin herself, appears 15 times throughout the rest. I didn’t bother searching for “I” and “I’ve.” Read the article here . h/t FishbowlNY
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Somehow, Santorum’s family troubles relate to Sarah Palin
Michelle Malkin was cracking me up on Twitter the other day, hammering Jay-Z for his Occupy hypocrisy with his leasing out of an entire hospital floor for Beyoncé’s delivery. And here it is at New York Times , ” As R&B Royalty Gives Birth, Security Irks Hospital’s Other Patients “: The couple were visiting their twin daughters in the neonatal intensive care unit at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan on Friday night, as they have done daily since the babies’ premature birth on Dec. 28. But when they tried to leave the sixth-floor unit to go home to Brooklyn at about 11 p.m., the new mother, Rozz Nash-Coulon, recalled, a burly security guard suddenly blocked their way. The familiar area outside the neonatal unit had been transformed: partitions had been put up, the maternity ward windows were completely covered, and even the hospitals’ security cameras had been taped over with paper. Guards with Secret Service-style earpieces roamed the floor. “We were told we could walk no further,” Ms. Nash-Coulon said Monday. And when she and her husband, Neil, demanded an explanation, she added, the guard claimed, unconvincingly, “ ‘Well, they’re handling hazardous materials,’ ” even as a large group of people screened from view were passing through the main hallway he had declared off-limits. It was just the first of a series of indignities that they and several other noncelebrity maternity patients say they experienced over the weekend, as Lenox Hill Hospital went all-out to protect the privacy of Beyoncé Knowles and Jay-Z, whose daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, was born there on Saturday. At one point, another father, Edgar Ramirez, 25, said, security guards kept him out of the neonatal unit for three hours while his wife and newborn were waiting for him. At another point on Saturday, a guard declared that “the floor is on lockdown,” Ms. Nash-Coulon said, and told her that if she left the neonatal unit, she would not be allowed back in to see her babies. “It was just really disgusting,” said Ms. Nash-Coulon, 38, who is still recovering from her C-section, while one of her twins remains in the hospital. “We really believe the hospital is culpable in this because they didn’t let us know what was happening. And the security of our children is at risk when you cover security cameras.” More at that top link. And at Human Events , ” Occupy’s Celebrity 1 Percent Backers .”
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Occupy Hypocrisy: After Beyoncé Gives Birth, Other Patients Protest
**Written by Doug Powers Hip-Hop empresario Jay-Z has expressed his support Occupy Wall Street in his own way before. If reports of the trip to the hospital for the birth of Jay-Z and Beyonce’s baby are accurate, he’s still standing behind the 99%… actually, way behind them, down the hall, past the security guards and up the elevator : To accommodate the influential couple’s demand for privacy at Lenox Hill Hospital, other new and expecting parents said they were essentially put on “lockdown” and even booted out of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) — on the same floor as Beyonce’s delivery “suite” — so the pampered songstress and her party could come and go unencumbered. “They just used the hospital like it was their own and nobody else mattered,” raged new dad Neil Coulon, whose efforts to see his premature, newborn twins in the NICU were disrupted by the birth of little Blue Ivy Carter. “They locked us into the NICU and would say, ‘You can’t come out to the hallway for the next 20 minutes.’ When I finally was able to go back out, I went to the waiting room and they’d ushered my family downstairs!” Congrats to the happy parents! And by “happy parents” I mean Jay-Z and Beyonce, because some of the other parents at the hospital still don’t sound very happy : Last night, at least four security guards stood watch at the hospital’s fourth-floor elevator bank, where new parents and grandparents were still voicing their frustrations over security measures that delayed or completely prevented them from visiting. “People are really upset and complaining,” said the hospital worker, noting that the medical staff has to “shut down” whenever there’s movement on Beyoncé’s part. But at the end of the day, there was another satisfied 99er courtesy of a fabulously wealthy OWS advocate: Coulon scoffed at the double-standard treatment. “I know they spent $1.3 million and I’m just a contractor from Bed-Stuy, but the treatment we received was not okay,” Coulon said. Cool it, dude — if you play your cards right you might be allowed up to the private suites and given the opportunity to purchase matching OWS onesies for your newborn twins. **Written by Doug Powers Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Noted Supporter of the 99% Occupies Floor of Hospital
And not to mention possession of dynamite. See JammieWearingFool, ” Six Mostly Peaceful Occupy Oakland Losers Arrested for Assaulting Police .” IMAGE CREDIT : The People’s Cube, ” OccupyPuncture: Wall Street Occupiers Stab NYPD Officer, Surround Ambulance Trying to Rush Him to the Hospital .” Because, you know, it’s just some strangers from outside the movement, or something.
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Occupy Oakland Protesters Arrested for Assaulting Police
An unpleasant new report claims that many hospitals in major metro areas are struggling with the growing problem of “permanent patients.” What’s a “permanent patient”? According to the New York Times they are mostly illegal immigrants or people who lack insurance or their own housing that the hospital cannot turn away. The Times defines a “permanent patient”: …[someone who has] been languishing for months or even years in…hospitals, despite being well enough to be sent home or to nursing centers for less-expensive care, because they are illegal immigrants or lack sufficient insurance or appropriate housing. Of course, having dozens of patients hanging around that long means these hospitals are absorbing the bill for millions of dollars in unreimbursed expenses annually. Unsurprisingly, the majority of these “permanent patients” are illegal immigrants because, as mentioned in the above, they have no housing or family in the area. “Medicaid often pays for emergency care for illegal immigrants, but not for continuing care, and many hospitals in places with large concentrations of illegal immigrants, like Texas, California and Florida, face the quandary of where to send patients well enough to leave,” writes Sam Roberts of the Times. What kind of cost are we talking about here? “Care for a patient languishing in a hospital can cost more than $100,000 a year, while care in a nursing home can cost $20,000 or less [emphasis added],” Roberts reports. Patients fit to be discharged from hospitals but having no place to go typically remain more than five years, says LaRay Brown, a senior vice president for New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation. She says that there were about 300 patients in such a predicament throughout the New York City area alone, most in public hospitals or higher-priced skilled public nursing homes, though a few were in private hospitals, according to the Times. “Many of those individuals no longer need that care, but because they have no resources and many have no family here, we, unfortunately, are caring for them in a much more expensive setting than necessary based on their clinical need,” said Brown. The report goes on to cite an example where one patient from Queens, NY, has been at the Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital and Nursing Facility for 13 years because the hospital has no place to send him. The patient, who is in his mid-60s, has been there since an arterial disease cost him part of one leg below the knee and left him in a wheelchair, according to the report. Or another example: Five years ago, Yu Kang Fu, 58, who lived in Flushing, Queens, and was a cook at a Chinese restaurant in New Jersey, was dropped off by his boss at New York Downtown Hospital, a private institution in Manhattan, complaining of a severe headache . Mr. Yu was admitted to the intensive-care unit with a stroke. Mr. Yu remained in the hospital for over four years until he was transferred last spring to the Atlantis Rehabilitation and Residential Health Care Facility, a private center in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, after the federal government certified him as a “permanent resident under color of law,” essentially acknowledging that he could not be returned to China and qualifying him for medical benefits. “This gentleman cost us millions of dollars,” said Jeffrey Menkes, the president of New York Downtown. “We try to provide physical, occupational therapy, but this is an acute-care hospital. This patient shouldn’t be here.” The fact of the matter is that hospitals in metro areas that host a large illegal immigrant population are unable to turn away patients who have neither insurance nor proof that they are in the United States legally– two things necessary for discharge purposes and reimbursements, said Chui Man Lai, assistant vice president of patient services at a New York state hospital. “These patients often arrive in the emergency room acutely ill and unaccompanied, and we have to treat them until they can be discharged safely,” Ms. Lai said. “The hospital is required, by law and its mission, to care for these patients.” But even worse than “permanent patients,” those who essentially live in hospitals already operating on thin budgets, are what some refer to as “pop drops”: grown adults leaving their parents at the hospitals so that they can go on vacation. “Hospitals are reluctant to complain publicly about such patients for fear of being perceived as callously seeking to dump nonpaying patients,” writes Roberts. “Elected officials are generally loath to be seen as encouraging illegal immigrants by changing reimbursement formulas. The issue was never addressed during the debate over national health care legislation.” Read the full report here. (ht/ Newser )
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Hospitals Stuck With Illegal Immigrants, Uninsured ‘Permanent Patients’ at Massive Cost
Just a few days after we reported a 13-foot Burmese python shocked a Florida family when they found it curled up in their pool, comes a story making that seem like routine pest control.
(Photo: Australia Zoo)
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‘Blood-Curdling Scream’ Brings Mother to Aid of Toddler Being Squeezed by Python
Former Penn State Head Football Coach Joe Paterno’s difficult year has gotten worse, in addition to losing his job following a child sex-abuse scandal involving his longtime assistant Jerry Sandusky and already fighting lung cancer, Paterno was hospitalized after a fall at his home Saturday that fractured his pelvis. Paterno was admitted to the hospital on Sunday and will not require surgery, according to the Associated Press. The winningest coach in the history of Division I football, Paterno was fired last month in the aftermath of child sex-abuse charges against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, who maintains his innocence. Paterno is not a target of the investigation. He originally injured his pelvis in August after he was blindsided on the field during preseason practice. It was determined that Paterno should remain in the hospital now to facilitate his regimen of cancer treatments while recovering from the pelvis injury, the AP was told. The 85-year-old hasn’t spoken publicly since his firing. Paterno was diagnosed with cancer several days after the firing during a follow-up visit to the doctor for a bronchial illness, his family has said.
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Paterno Hospitalized After Fracturing Pelvis
On Thursday, we paused to give thanks. Many of us probably offered up a prayer for our family, friends, and good food to eat. The guys in this video might have offered one up that had something to do with being alive. That’s because an observant Texas motorist noticed that, while stopped at a red light, there were two nearly identical Corvettes waiting to race. He turned on his camera in anticipation of something bad happening. As you’re about to see, he was right Here’s what the motorist pulled up to: The “race” started off well, with some screeching tires: It quickly went south when the driver on the right lost control: And predictably, this is how it ended: You can watch it all unfold below [content warning for some language]: The auto site Jalopnik reports that police have now issued arrest warrants for the the two drivers, after they were allegedly let off the hook when the accident first happened. It sites the forum LS1GTO and someone on there who claims to be a responding officer: We got a ton of information from this individual, all of which sounds credible enough (we’ve reached out to the Sheriff’s office for confirmation). Here’s the good stuff: They both tried to tell me they weren’t racing. The C5 claimed to be pushing 600rwhp… He claimed he dumped the clutch and thats why he lost control. Lol. Well, the driver on the left was 23 and called his parents immediately. As soon as we placed him in cuffs his mom started screaming to go to the hospital. So we sent him to the hospital and decided to cut the other guy loose due to the kid not going to jail. Warrants are being issued for both of their arrests now. We recieved [sic] a 911 call (from a witness) saying that a major accident just accused and the other corvette was attempting to leave the scene. And the other vette wasn’t drivable. Due to it being a major accident, we have to investigate. So there’s probable turkey number one, being bailed out by his mom. Despite being completely irresponsible and likely getting arrested, I just have this bad feeling (from experience) he may get his C5 back. By the way, if you’re like me, you’ve probably watched the video a couple times and think the best line is the bystander noting, “Let’s see how stupid these guys are.” Prophetic.
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Motorist Captures Drag-Racing Corvettes Crashing on Thanksgiving: ‘Knew That Was Coming’
