A Nail in the Heart

We’ve learned about pencils, combs, and knives in the heart. Now we’ve got a nail in the heart.

Seventeen-year-old Matt Dexter was helping to construct a barn when he accidentally triggered a nail gun that was being lowered down the ladder to him. Matt was shot in the chest with a three and a quarter inch nail that punctured the right ventricle of his heart.

I dropped the gun and looked down and I could see the head of the nail stuck on the outside of my shirt. I wanted to take it out, but I was scared and didn’t know what to think really.

Fortunately, he left the nail in which served to seal the injury and prevent major blood loss. Matt took only a few days to recover and is awaiting the birth of his twins. Let’s keep the nail guns away from babies and dad!

Like this post? Why not read another? Every page you read at A Hearty Life in March is helping to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.

Tags: accident, freak accident, heart, heart disease, nail, matt dexter, diseases, illness, health

Celebrating One Year at A Hearty Life

One year ago this month, A Hearty Life was born. Since then, I have written 552 posts talking about the heart and the strange and wonderful things we humans do to it. Strange because it seems that more people than I ever thought get stabbed in the heart every day, including Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin. Wonderful because cardiovascular medicine has advanced steadily over the years, such as the use of statins, stents, and advanced imaging.

To celebrate A Hearty Life’s first anniversary, I will be donating US$1 per 1,000 page views for the month of March. In February, readers viewed over 50,000 pages. I hope to increase that even further this month and make a sizeable donation to the British Heart Foundation. I’ve selected the British Heart Foundation because I currently live in London, UK and want to donate to the community.

Thank you all for the continued support. I always love to hear from you in the comments or via email. Please help me spread the word and invite everyone you know to come read A Hearty Life. It will not only be good for their health, but also good for public health.

Tags: fundraiser, british heart foundation, heart, heart disease, cardiovascular disease, diseases, illness, health, medicine

A Hearty Life in 2006

A Hearty Life isn’t even a year old yet but it feels like I’ve been writing it for longer (is that a good thing or a bad thing?!). When I started looking in my archives of posts from 2006, I went straight to January then sheepishly realized I didn’t launch until March.

As part of today’s b5media Science and Health Theme Day, here’s 2006 in review. Others in the channel, which you can see in the right sidebar, are doing the same with a round-up at Breastfeeding 1-2-3.

• March 2006 – Welcome to A Hearty Life (Introducing A Hearty Life for the first time.)
• April 2006 – All About A Hearty Life (Answers to a full disclosure questionnaire.)
• May 2006 – The Purpose of A Hearty Life (Thinking about what makes A Hearty Life different than other health blogs and websites.)
• June 2006 – Boy Accidentally Stabs Self Through Heart (The first of several stories about people who get stabbed in the heart, including Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin. It’s more common than you think!)
• July 2006 – After a Heart Attack, Call an Ambulance! (A public service announcement.)
• August 2006 – Air Travel with Heart Medicine (Stricter security measures at airports may compromise your health. Be prepared.)
• September 2006 – Woman Dies of Heart Attack in ER Waiting Room (This post stirred up quite a debate as to what patients can expect in Emergency Departments.)
• October 2006 – A Hearty Brag (I love to hear from readers, especially if they’ve got something nice to say! Thank you, Amelie!)
• November 2006 – Kentucky Fried Chicken Stops Using Trans Fats (Trans fats was a big news maker in 2006. New York City has banned it and Starbucks has disavowed it.)
• December 2006 – Welcome FOX News Readers to A Hearty Life! (December was an exciting month for me because my other blog, Genetics and Health, was included in a FOX News Health list of Best Blogs: 10 Health Web Sites Worth a click and A Hearty Life was mentioned too!)

Thanks for reading A Hearty Life in 2006. I hope 2007 was be an even heartier year!

Tags: heart, heart disease, 2006, year in review, cardiovascular disease, diseases, illness, health

Steve Irwin Dies of Stingray Wound to the Heart

Freak accidents involving injuries to the heart might be the next new category here at A Hearty Life. Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin died on Monday, September 4, 2006 during a dive after a stingray struck him.

His producer, John Stainton, said:

He came over the top of the stingray and the barb went up into his chest and put a hole in his heart.

Our condolences to his wife and co-host Terri and his two young children.

Guardian Unlimited, September 4, 2006

Technorati Tags: heart, steve irwin, crocodile hunter, stingray, accident, heart disease, disease, illness, health

Father Accidentally Stabs Son in Heart

In a game of pretend gladiators with his police officer father, 11-year-old Conor Johnson was stabbed in the heart and died four short hours later. His mother, Sharon Johnson, claimed that his medical care was inadequate with no specialist cardio-thoracic surgeons available.

Ian Johnson, 40, told a coroner’s inquest how the four-inch stainless steel knife “slipped from my grasp” during some rough and tumble play with his son, Conor, 11, while he prepared dinner. The knife pierced the left ventricle of Conor’s heart.

What a horrible thing to happen to all of them.

Times Online, July 7, 2006

Boy Accidentally Stabs Self Through Heart

Four-year-old Brandon Clawson died in July when he tried to make himself a sandwich and ended up stabbing himself in the heart.

He climbed on a worktop, took a knife from a kitchen block and began to make a sandwich.

After laying out the bread, meat and salad cream he fell, with the knife puncturing his chest through his rib cage, passing into his heart and a lung.

This gives me the chills. Children are so unpredictable and accident-prone. I remember several years ago when a pre-teen was goofing around while doing homework and stabbed himself in the heart with a pencil. Luckily, his mom was a nurse and she kept him from pulling the pencil out before they could get to the hospital. If he had, he might have bled to death.

Poor little Brandon and his family.

Telegraph, June 6, 2006

Technorati Tags: heart, accidents, children, kids, brandon clawson, stabbing, disease, health

Supernanny Recap: 11-18-05, Part One

Sometimes, watching a Supernanny episode, you really feel for the beleaguered parents, who seem so broken down and hopeless after trying so hard. And other times, the parents are such dumbasses, you have no problem ridiculing them. Luckily, this last episode belongs in the latter category.

This week we have Laura and Stuart, parents of Matthew, Teagan, and baby Diesel (no, really. Diesel.) Matthew’s mother says that he is “the child from hell.” He hits, kicks, bites, stabs, and cusses up a storm. Looks like our fearless Supernanny has her work cut out for her. Will she survive? Only time will tell!

Supernanny Jo Frost arrives at the house…wait! WHERE IS her purple suit?! She’s wearing a brown suit with purple trim! Nooooo! Doesn’t Supernanny know I don’t like change? Isn’t she the one who’s always going on about people needing consistency? How can she do this to me?

If we’ve all recovered from the shock, let’s return to the show.

Jo says Matthew is too aggressive, which is polite Supernanny speak for “This child is a freakin’ psycho in serious need of a smackdown.” Immediately, Matthew starts beating up his mom. Let me just take a moment to say: Oh HELL no. My child would not hit me, you can count on that. Interesting to note: it’s a British family this time. It’s nice to know British kids are as rotten as the American version.

Little Teagan joins in the cussing. I know it’s very naughty behavior,but you have to admit, there’s something very cute about a two-year-old saying ‘bastard.’ And now comes the disturbing part, the part that truly turned my stomach: Laura, the mom, says in reference to her brat Matthew: “It’s hard to discipline him. He’s my baby. I worship the ground he walks on.” Did you hear that, people? The mother said she WORSHIPPED the ground her kid walked on. Forget the kids, Supernanny. It’s the parents who need a serious rewiring.

Segue: Come on, you can tell me. Deep down in your darkest, dirty bit of a heart, don’t you ever wish that Supernanny would just pitch a kid against the wall sometimes? Like that awful little girl a few weeks ago who pinched and scratched and kicked Jo? I’m against corporal punishment, but sometimes…man, just one brat against the wall. That’s all I ask for. Or one idiot parent against the wall. That’d be even better.

And now for some brilliant parenting: Dad, in response to Matthew’s attacking Laura, says: “Kick me instead, son. Kick me.”

What is WRONG with these people?

Now it’s time for the “family meeting.” I love this part because in the introduction, Jo always has to think of something nice to say about the family before she lays into them. Usually, she falls back on “You have beautiful children…” Which is what she does here. Then she adds, “Frankly, I’m disgusted that two such dumbasses were able to breed at all. People like you should be born with genitalia like a Barbie doll’s so you cannot reproduce and spawn your ignorance throughout the world.”

Not really. But it’s what I wish she said. So she gives the usual spiel about rules and limits, then adds that Matthew needs to control his anger, and will provide anger management lessons.

“Thank goodness,” Mom and Dad chime in. “We haven’t done anything, and we’re all out of ideas!”

What?! More changes?! The Naughty Chair is now The Chill-Out Chair. First the brown suit, now this? Jo, stop trying to be hip! The audience wants you back!

By the way, where the heck is Baby Diesel? They showed him for once second in the intro, and he hasn’t been in a single scene since. Who’s watching him?

On to Part Two.