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Health

I was home a day after a heart procedure. Less-invasive TAVR made it possible.

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I’m one of those heart-enhanced people. In January, I had cow heart tissue inserted into my aorta, which is the main artery that carries blood away from the heart to the rest of the body.

This fascinating and relatively new procedure doesn’t get much public attention but is saving — or at least enhancing — thousands of lives a year. Including mine.

My physical last year led to the discovery that my aortic valve was seriously narrowed. I’m a two-time winner at this — a physical in 2008 helped my then-cardiologist find that one of my coronary arteries was largely blocked, a problem that he solved by putting a stent into it.

That I’m writing this at 77 is a tribute to preventive screenings — and especially to paying attention to what they show you. It’s also a tribute to the amazing progress that medicine has made by creating new ways to deal with old problems.

This time around, the problem involved my aorta. The calcium buildup in my aortic valve had narrowed it significantly, which meant that my heart had to work harder to keep blood flowing.

From open-heart to transcatheter surgery

In the old days — before 2011 — replacing an aortic valve in the United States involved open-heart surgery: getting your chest cut open, spending about a week in the hospital and doing months of rehab. Not a lot of fun. Now, in many cases, including mine, you get to go home the day after having your valve replaced.

The procedure, called transcatheter aortic valve replacement — known by its acronym of TAVR (pronounced TAH-verr) — is performed by a cardiac surgeon and an interventional cardiologist. A catheter is inserted into an artery through the groin. The catheter carries a replacement valve made of metal and either pig heart tissue or cow heart tissue that is dropped onto your aorta.

I had my valve replaced on a Wednesday morning at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston N.J., which has an established TAVR program, and went home shortly after lunch Thursday.

It took only a few days to get back to my normal, feisty self. I was just amazed, and still am. As were various friends, who bombarded me with emailed cow puns.

That most people aren’t familiar with TAVR — which I’d never heard of until I found out that I might need one — is understandable.

It’s a procedure that was first performed in Rouen, France, in 2002 by interventional cardiologist Alain Cribier. The first TAVR in the United States was performed in 2005 at Beaumont Hospital in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak, Mich. Beaumont was chosen because of its reputation for working with cardiac stents, said Amr Abbas, director of cardiovascular research for the hospital. Abbas was part of the team that did the 2005 TAVR procedure, in which TAVR pioneer Cribier, who came from France for the occasion, also participated.

“People have an aversion to open-heart therapy,” Abbas said. “Being able to offer them TAVR has enabled us to save multiple lives.”

Number of TAVRs has risen

It took a while for TAVR to be offered to Americans — the Food and Drug Administration didn’t approve it until 2011. But the number of TAVRs has risen rapidly in the past few years, while the number of crack-your-chest-open surgeries — SAVR, for surgical aortic valve replacement — has fallen sharply.

John Carroll, an interventional cardiologist at the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, says there were over 80,000 TAVRs in the United States in 2020, the last year for which numbers are available, up from about 4,700 in 2011, the first year the procedure was available here. There were about 50,500 SAVRs in 2020, down from 71,500 in 2011. (Carroll’s numbers come from a national registry that’s unavailable to the general public.) This means that many patients who might have had to get open-heart surgery can now get by with a TAVR.

In addition to spending less time in the hospital and in rehab, the displacement of SAVRs by TAVRs saves patients — or more accurately, their insurers — a lot of money.

Beaumont Hospital is paid about $56,600 on average for a TAVR from insurers or from “cash payers,” a Beaumont Health spokeswoman said. It gets an average of about $62,600 for a SAVR. I’m using these numbers rather than Beaumont’s average “gross charge” numbers of about $235,900 for a TAVR and $261,000 for a SAVR because few, if any, TAVR and SAVR recipients or insurers pay what amounts to the list price.

I ended up with a TAVR (for which Medicare paid $50,886.39) because at my annual preventive visit last year, my internist said I needed to get a cardiac stress test. It was my first stress test in 10 years, which is a typical wait between such procedures for someone like me with no symptoms of cardiac trouble.

Much to my dismay, my current cardiologist didn’t like what she saw on the stress test and sent me for several other tests and scans. They didn’t turn out well, either.

I met with cardiac surgeons at Cooperman Barnabas in late December, who said that I needed a TAVR. We scheduled it for Jan. 10, but it was postponed to Jan. 12 because Cooperman Barnabas had to deal with many coronavirus patients.

This was the second time that my annual checkup helped solve a cardiac problem that I didn’t know I had.

The first time was in 2008, when one of my children, who’s an emergency room doctor, nagged me to go to my cardiologist because she didn’t like what my wife was telling her — which was that I seemed to be running out of breath while rehearsing out loud for my singing part at an upcoming synagogue service.

I felt fine, but to get my daughter off my case, I went to my cardiologist and got some tests. To my surprise and dismay, he said that even though my readings were within normal bounds, he didn’t like them because they were worse than they had been when I had my last preventive screening. He scheduled an exploratory procedure that showed a major blockage in my circumflex artery and that he resolved by inserting the stent.

If I had not had previous readings, which my cardiologist could see, who knows what might have happened? Nothing good, I’m sure.

I like to think that I learned something from that, which was why I wasn’t resistant about getting my TAVR in January.

Everything is going well, and I’ve got more energy than I did before my procedure. So maybe I was being affected by my messed-up aortic valve but didn’t realize it.

I don’t know, and I don’t think I care. I’m just happy to be where I am.

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Health

Gruesome Skull Discovery Contains The Earliest Evidence of Ear Surgery

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An ancient skull uncovered at a 6,000-year-old megalithic monument in Spain still holds signs of what would have been a brutal ear surgery.

Archaeologists suspect the patient probably had a double-sided acute middle ear infection, which can cause earaches and fevers. 

 

Without treatment, fluid can gather behind the eardrum, possibly causing a visible lump in the skull, hearing loss, or even life-threatening inflammation of the brain’s outer membrane.

While now a common procedure, prior to the mid-19th century ear surgery was performed only in desperate attempts to save lives. Though some interpretations of ancient writings hint at surgical interventions as far back as the first century CE, solid evidence is hard to come by.

This gruesome skull discovery suggests similar procedures could have even been carried out thousands of years earlier.

The skull in this case was found at a burial site called the Dolmen of El Pendónis, which was used in the fourth millennium BCE as a resting place for bones. Those who cared for the memorial appear to have purposefully separated the heads, limbs, and pelvises of dozens of corpses in a ritualistic attempt to ‘break individuality’.

Front and side view of the skull found at the El Pendón site. (Navarro et al., Scientific Reports, 2022)

As it turns out, they did their jobs a little too well. Because the skull was found on its own, it can’t tell us much about the owner. It belonged to a woman, but because there are no teeth or other limbs associated with her, it’s hard to say how old she lived to be.

Based on her lack of teeth and the fusion of her skull bones, researchers think she was probably on the older side for the era, somewhere between 35 and 50.

 

There’s also evidence she underwent some gnarly, early type of ear surgery.

Her ear infections must have been pretty bad, because without anesthetic, researchers predict a prehistoric ear surgery would have been unbearably painful.

To drill through the skull behind the ear, the woman would have needed to be held down and restrained, or given a substance that could make her less conscious of her reality.

However it happened, the surgery appears to have worked. The bones near both her ears show signs of deterioration, confirming an infection at some point, but they also show no signs of infection at the time of death. In fact, there was clear bone regeneration and remodeling, which is a common part of the healing process.

While both ears would have likely needed surgery, only her left side still shows knife marks cut in a sort of ‘V’ shape.

Scans of the right (a) and left (b) bones surrounding the ear. (Navarro et al., Scientific Reports, 2022)

The fact that these marks are missing on the right side suggests these wounds had already been mended when the woman died. And that means she probably underwent excruciating ear surgery twice in her lifetime.

“Based on the differences in bone remodeling between the two temporals, it appears that the procedure was first conducted on the right ear, due to an ear pathology sufficiently alarming to require an intervention, which this prehistoric woman survived,” the authors write.

“Subsequently, the left ear would have been intervened; however, it is not possible to determine whether both interventions were performed back-to-back or several months, or even years had passed. It is thus the earliest documented evidence of a surgery on both temporal bones, and, therefore, most likely, the first known radical mastoidectomy in the history of humankind.”

The study was published in Scientific Reports.

 

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Health

Procedure that converts organ blood type could make donor organs available for more patients 

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The waiting lists for organ transplants worldwide could get dramatically shorter thanks to a revolutionary new procedure that would make donor organs compatible with any patient no matter their blood type.

Canadian researchers with the University Health Network have developed a method that would convert the blood type of a donor organ to type O blood, the universal blood type, allowing it to be transplanted into anyone in need.

‘With the current matching system, wait times can be considerably longer for patients who need a transplant depending on their blood type,’ Dr. Marcelo Cypel, a thoracic surgeon who co-authored the study, said. 

Cypel created a method of pumping the lungs full of nourishing fluids to warm them up to body temperature before converting them to universal donor organs. 

Biochemist Dr. Stephen Withers, of the University of British Columbia, discovered a group of stomach enzymes that can be used to flush out the organ and remove the antigens, which is something blood type usually depends on – having the same antigens.

Doctors would no longer have to worry about transplant rejection because of blood type and they would be able to prioritize according to need rather than compatibility.

Each year, there are 130,000 Americans waiting for new lungs, liver, heart and other organs, but only 8,000 of those patients get the operations they need because of the shortage of available compatible organs, according to Fivethirtyeight. 

The new procedure would greatly increase the fairness around organ transplant allocations and reduce the number of patients who are overcome and die from their ailments because of the extended wait times. 

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Canadian researchers with the University Health Network have developed a method that would convert the blood type of a donor organ to type O blood, allowing it to be transplanted into anyone in need. Pictured: A pair of lungs

Lungs flushed with enzymes, pictured, and kept fresh by experimental methods responded well to new blood type introduced to the system

If this method clears clinical trials it would greatly increased the fairness around organ transplant allocations and reduce the number of patients who are overcome and die from their ailments because of the extended wait time. Pictured: A pair of lungs

Dr. Marcelo Cypel created a method of pumping the lungs full of nourishing fluids to warm them up to body temperature before converting them to universal donor organs

‘Patients who are type O and need a lung transplant have a 20 percent higher risk of dying while waiting for a matched organ to become available,’ said Dr. Aizhou Wang, the lead author of the research paper on the method.  

Wang and Cypel were able to convert a set of lungs with type O blood into an organ with type O blood at the Toronto-based Latner Thoracic Surgery Research Lab and Ajmera Transplant Center. 

Blood antigens prompt an immune response if they are in conflict with a patient’s naturally occurring antigens.

Blood type depends on the antigens on a person’s blood cells: type A blood has A antigens and type B has B antigens, while type AB blood has both. Type O blood has no antigens.

Each year there are 130,000 Americans waiting for new lungs, liver, heart and other organs, but only 8,000 of those patients get the operations they need because of the shortage of available compatible organs

If an organ with the wrong antigen is transplanted into a patient’s body, the body will trigger an immune response and reject the organ

Patients with type O blood in need of a lung transplant are 20 percent more likely to die because of the lack of compatible organs

Now that the experiment has proven successful, the doctors hope to move to clinical trials to test their theories on actual patients within a year and a half

If an organ with the wrong antigen is transplanted into a patient’s body, the body will trigger an immune response and reject the organ. 

This is why creating organs that are universally compatible is such a breakthrough. 

The new method was a result of a cross-disciplinary collaboration. 

‘Enzymes are Mother Nature’s catalysts and they carry out particular reactions. This group of enzymes that we found in the human gut can cut sugars from the A and B antigens on red blood cells, converting them into universal type O cells,’ Withers said. 

‘In this experiment, this opened a gateway to create universal blood-type organs.’

To test the theory, the doctors took two sets of lungs, one treated and one not, and added type O blood with A type concentrations to a set of disembodied lungs hooked up to circulatory system. 

The treated lungs tolerated the introduction of the new blood type, while the untreated lungs showed signs of rejection. 

Now that the experiment has proven successful, the doctors hope to move to clinical trials to test their theories on actual patients within a year and a half. 

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Entertainment

Nicolas Cage comments on Alec Baldwin’s deadly ‘Rust’ shooting: ‘Know what the procedure is’

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Nicolas Cage commented on the deadly “Rust” shooting and shared his thoughts on an actor’s responsibility to be responsible with firearms on movie sets. 

The death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of the indie-Western movie sparked a debate in Hollywood about whether real guns have any place on a movie set in an age where it is so easy to use fake guns and add things like muzzle flare in post-production. 

Cage appeared in a roundtable discussion with fellow actors Peter Dinklage, Andrew Garfield, Jonathan Majors and Simon Rex for The Hollywood Reporter earlier this week. At one point, the moderator mentioned the tragic accident and asked the panel where they land on the debate about firearms on movie sets. That’s when Cage explained that he believes it is an actor’s responsibility to be educated in the use of guns as part of their craft.

EMOTIONAL ALEC BALDWIN RECALLS ‘RUST’ SHOOTING

Nicolas Cage shared his thoughts on the deadly “Rust” shooting involving Alec Baldwin.
(Michael Kovac/Getty Images for NEON – Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images for National Geographic)

“I don’t want to cast blame anywhere, but I do think, and I’m not talking about anybody, but people don’t like the word movie star. We want to be humble actors. But a movie star is a bit of a different kind of presentation because you need to know how to ride a horse,” he explained. “You need to know how to fight. You’re going to do fight scenes. You need to know how to ride a motorcycle. You need to know how to use a stick shift and drive sports cars, and you do need to know how to use a gun. You do. You need to take the time to know what the procedure is. Those are part of the job profiles.”

He continued by noting that there is a place in production for stunt people to take over and handle the really dangerous stuff that requires outside expertise.

‘RUST’ SHOOTING: POLICE RELEASE FOURTH SEARCH WARRANT IN ONGOING INVESTIGATION

Baldwin fired a revolver on the set of “Rust” on Oct. 21, killing Hutchins.
(Fox News Digital)

“Now, the stuntman and the movie star are two jobs that co-exist, they co-exist,” he concluded. “Every stuntman needs to be a movie star and every movie star needs to be a stuntman. That’s just part of the profile… And that’s all I’m going to say about it.”

Alec Baldwin was holding a real gun on the set of “Rust” that he was led to believe was loaded with inactive dummy rounds. While setting up a scene with Hutchins and director Joel Souza, Baldwin drew the weapon and reportedly cocked back the hammer, causing it to go off and discharge a live round that should never have been on the set of the movie in the first place. In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Baldwin noted that he had worked with firearms on countless movie sets in the past and felt he knew how to handle them.

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When he was finished speaking, Majors complimented Cage for making his point about actors and stunt people so eloquently and agreed with the sentiment himself. 

Nicolas Cage spoke out about the debate over having real guns on movie sets. 
(Getty Images)

Meanwhile, “Game of Thrones” and “Cyrano” star, Dinklage, noted that there is a responsibility on behalf of the industry to make sure something like this never happens again. 

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“It can be avoided because look at what you can do with movies,” Dinklage explained “You know that also calls into question, are there too many guns in movies? We’ve all held guns in movies, probably, and I always think about that being anti-gun myself, but the character isn’t. That’s a very complicated thing. But that made it very clear that there has to be change, like, now. One hundred percent.”

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Entertainment

Linda Evangelista Reveals Model Gigs She Was ‘Forced To Decline’ After Procedure

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Evangelista accused the company of negligence, misleading advertising and not warning of potential adverse effects, Reuters reported Thursday.

She said her famous peers’ careers were still “thriving” while she could not work.

The lawsuit cited some specifics among the “significant modeling engagements” she was “forced to decline,” People reported.

Evangelista, 56, said she couldn’t reunite with fellow ’90s supermodels Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Helena Christensen, Carla Bruni and Claudia Schiffer for a Versace fashion show in 2017.

She also turned down an “Original Supermodels” reunion assignment for Dolce & Gabbana due to injuries and disfigurement that couldn’t be corrected by surgeries, People reported of the suit.

Evangelista, who graced hundreds of magazine covers in the 1990s and starred in George Michael’s “Freedom! ’90” music video, was treated several times in 2015 and 2016 to reduce fat on her thighs, abdomen and chin, according to the court papers obtained by Reuters.

But as Evangelista reiterated in an Instagram post, the so-called “fat-freezing” technique backfired and instead increased the fat as a result of “paradoxical adipose hyperplasia.” She claimed to be “brutally disfigured” and “permanently deformed.”

HuffPost has not heard back from Allergan, which acquired Zeltiq, in repeated requests for comment.

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Model Linda Evangelista says she was left ‘deformed’ after a cosmetic procedure that ‘destroyed’ her career

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Supermodel Linda Evangelista claims that she was “deformed” after undergoing a cosmetic procedure more than five years ago. 

Evangelista was best known for her modeling work in the 1990s, being the face of multiple fashion campaigns, walking catwalks and co-starring alongside fellow models like Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell in George Michael’s “Freedom! ‘90” music video.

However, she has not been in the public eye for quite some time, and on Wednesday the 56-year-old star took to Instagram to explain why. 

“To my followers who have wondered why I have not been working while my peers’ careers have been thriving, the reason is that I was brutally disfigured by Zeltiq’s CoolSculpting procedure which did the opposite of what it promised,” she explained. 

LINDA EVANGELISTA, 41 AND PREGNANT, APPEARS ON COVER OF VOGUE

The procedure she’s describing is often called CoolSculpting and has become somewhat routine at medical spas in recent years after receiving U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in 2010. Also known as body contouring, the non-surgical procedure is meant to take fat deposits and freeze them, thus reducing them within the body, according to Healthline. 

Model Linda Evangelista says she was left deformed by a cosmetic procedure. 
(Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic)

However, Evangelista claims that she suffered a known, but rare, side effect that results in increased fat cells in the area where the procedure took place. 

THE LOVELY AND TALENTED LINDA EVANGELISTA

“It increased, not decreased, my fat cells and left me permanently deformed even after undergoing two painful, unsuccessful, corrective surgeries. I have been left, as the media has described, ‘unrecognizable.’”

She went on to explain that the procedure resulted in the development of paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH). Healthline notes that no one yet knows why this happens, but that it is typically more common in men than women. It is reportedly found in less than 1% of total CoolSculpting cases. 

The side effect is not life-threatening, but the model notes that it has been a burden on her career. 

“PAH has not only destroyed my livelihood, it has sent me into a cycle of deep depression, profound sadness, and the lowest depths of self-loathing. In the process, I have become a recluse,” Evangelista wrote. 

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She concludes by making mention of a lawsuit but did not offer any more details as to who was at the center of it. 

Representatives for the model did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for further comment.

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“I am moving forward to rid myself of my shame, and going public with my story,” she concluded. “I’m so tired of living this way. I would like to walk out my door with my head held high, despite not looking like myself any longer.”



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Entertainment

Linda Evangelista Says She’s “Permanently Deformed” After Cosmetic Procedure – The Hollywood Reporter

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Linda Evangelista was one of the most famous and in-demand supermodels of the 1990s, recognized the world over for years of work that included countless campaigns, catwalks, Vogue covers and an iconic George Michael music video alongside Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington. But unlike her peers, not much has been seen of Evangelista in recent years and tonight she revealed the reason she disappeared from the public eye.

Evangelista, 56, came forward via an emotional Instagram post to claim that a routine and popular fat-reduction procedure called CoolSculpting made her permanently deformed, emotionally devasted, and ultimately a recluse. “To my followers who have wondered why I have not been working while my peers’ careers have been thriving, the reason is that I was brutally disfigured by Zeltiq’s CoolSculpting procedure which did the opposite of what it promised,” Evangelista posted this evening to her 906,000 followers.

She claimed that instead of reducing fat, the procedure increased fat cells and “left me permanently deformed even after undergoing two painful, unsuccessful, corrective surgeries. I have been left, as the media has described, ‘unrecognizable.’” In 2017, The Daily Mail ran with such a headline after she was spotted by paparazzi heading to the airport in New York.

Evangelista went on to say that she developed what is called paradoxical adipose hyperplasia, commonly referred to as PAH and said to be a side effect of the fat-freezing procedure. According to Healthline, PAH is “a very rare but serious side effect” that occurs most often in male patients. “This means the fat cells in the treatment site grow larger rather than smaller. It’s not fully understood why this occurs. While it’s a cosmetic rather than physically dangerous side effect, paradoxical adipose hyperplasia doesn’t disappear on its own,” the site says.

Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, CoolSculpting is the brand name for cryolipolysis, a non-surgical procedure that uses cold temperature to reduce fat deposits in certain areas of the body. It is also called body contouring and has grown in popularity in medical spas in recent years. Evangelista used the brand name and mentioned Zeltiq, a subsidiary of Allergan that markets and licenses devices used for cryolipolysis procedures.

Her post mentioned a lawsuit and an intention of “moving forward to rid myself of my shame” by going public with the story. “I’m so tired of living this way. I would like to walk out my door with my head held high, despite not looking like myself any longer.” It’s unclear if the suit has already been filed.

Evangelista immediately found support on social media from everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow and stylist Karla Welch to designers Brandon Maxwell and Jeremy Scott. The latter commented, “You are and always will be a supermodel, now adding super role model of courage to your glorious resume. I love you.” Posted Welch: “You are still the greatest.”

Maxwell posted, “I have always recognized you as someone who was physically beautiful, yes, but more importantly you really shone bright from within. It has been your sense of humor, your innate joy, and your ability to present so effortlessly the best in life that I’ve always been the most attracted to. In your darkest moments may you never forget the light you have sparked in so many, and continue to.”

Fellow model Karen Elson also commented: “Sweet Linda. I love you dearly, you are so brave and wonderful.”

The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Allergan for comment on the story.



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Entertainment

Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington recovering after emergency heart procedure: reports

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The last active original member of the classic Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd was recovering Saturday night after recently undergoing an emergency heart procedure, according to the band.

Guitarist Gary Rossington, 69, who has been playing with the band since its earliest days in Jacksonville, Florida, was resting at home with his family and expecting “a full recovery,” the band wrote Friday in a Facebook post.

Lead singer Johnny Van Zant told fans at a recent concert in Minnesota that Rossington had been sidelined because he had to “have an emergency stent put in his heart,” the website Ultimate Classic Rock reported.

Rossington has had a history of heart issues, having undergone surgery following a heart attack in 2015, and again to repair a heart valve in 2019, according to Rolling Stone magazine. The 2019 surgery forced the postponement of a Lynyrd Skynyrd tour, according to the outlet.

JOHN MELLENCAMP, 69, STEPS OUT WITH NEW GIRLFRIEND NATASHA BARRETT, 46

Rossington has missed a recent string of the band’s shows, including Friday night’s concert in Minot, North Dakota, according to Rolling Stone.

The band has brought in Alabama-based guitarist Damon Johnson to fill in while Rossington continues his recovery, AL.com reported. 

The band claimed in its Facebook post that the decision to proceed with its touring schedule came at Rossington’s urging.

Aside from Rossington, only drummer Artimus Pyle – who has been estranged from the group – survives from the band’s 1970s peak, when it was known for songs such as “Free Bird.” 

ROLLING STONES RELAUNCH US ‘NO FILTER’ TOUR AFTER PANDEMIC DELAY

In October 1977, a plane crash in Mississippi killed lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and siblings Steve and Cassie Gaines, a guitarist and background singer, respectively. After a hiatus following the plane crash, the band re-emerged as the Rossington Collins Band in the early 1980s, with Rossington’s wife, Dale Krantz Rossington, as its lead singer.

Members of the most recent lineup of Lynyrd Skynyrd, including lead singer Johnny Van Zant (front, second from left) and guitarist Gary Rossington (center).

But a few years later Johnny Van Zant formed a revamped version of his late brother Ronnie’s band, and they’ve been touring and recording ever since.

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Over the years since the crash, band members including Allen Collins, Leon Wilkeson, Billy Powell, Ed King and Bob Burns have died from various causes.

Rossington and the band performed on “Fox & Friends” in June 2018, performing a set of songs that included “What’s Your Name?” “Gimme Three Steps,” and “Sweet Home Alabama.”

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Entertainment

Prince Philip undergoes procedure for heart condition

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“The Duke of Edinburgh yesterday underwent a successful procedure for a pre-existing heart condition at St Bartholomew’s Hospital,” the statement read. “His Royal Highness will remain in hospital for treatment, rest and recuperation for a number of days.”

On Monday, he was transferred to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, also in London, for continued treatment of the infection and what the Palace said would be testing and observation for a pre-existing heart condition.
St. Bartholomew’s specializes in cardiac care, according to the hospital’s website, which bills it as “Europe’s largest specialised cardiovascular service.”

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, said Wednesday that Philip’s condition was “slightly improving” after his transfer, despite his treatment hurting “at moments,” according to PA Media.

“We keep our fingers crossed,” Camilla added of her father-in-law, according to PA.

Both Philip and the Queen have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

They have spent most of the past year at Windsor Castle, having moved away from Buckingham Palace during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in spring 2020.

The prince stepped back from public life in 2017 and has been taken to the hospital several times in recent years. In December 2019, he received hospital treatment for a pre-existing condition.

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Entertainment

Tessica Brown Recovering After Beverly Hills Surgeon Performs Procedure To Remove Gorilla Glue – CBS Los Angeles

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BEVERLY HILLS (CBSLA) – A Louisiana woman who has gained national attention after using Gorilla Glue in her hair was recovering Wednesday after undergoing a special procedure to have the glue removed from her hair.

Tessica Brown is seen on Feb. 10, 2021, after arriving in Los Angeles. (Getty Images)

Tessica Brown flew out to California Wednesday morning and then immediately went to the offices of plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Obeng to undergo what is expected to be an up to three-hour procedure to have the glue removed from her hair and scalp.

“The surgery went well,” Obeng, director of MiKO Plastic Surgery, said. “Tessica is doing well. She’s awake. The hair crew is doing her hair.”

After seeing her story online, Obeng reached out to Brown with the offer of performing a procedure to remove the glue using a special chemical treatment. The procedure would normally cost north of $12,000, but Obeng offered to do it for free.

“When I found out this was a reality, you can only feel compassion and sympathy for Tessica,” Obeng, director of MiKO Plastic Surgery, told CBSLA Tuesday. “The procedure will be to dissolve the polyurethane, which is Gorilla Glue is made out of,” Obeng said.

Brown’s ordeal started about a month ago after she ran out of hairspray and decided to use Gorilla Glue spray adhesive to hold her hair in place.

“I used this, Gorilla Glue spray,” she said in a video originally posted to TikTok.

However, Brown was then unable to remove the glue. She said she tried baby oil, cooking oil and shampoo to try to get the hardened glue off her hair, but nothing worked. She even went to a local emergency room, but the acetone wipes they gave her to breakdown the glue burned her scalp.

Obeng said the the procedure was very complication and comes with a recovery period of two to three months.

Tessica Brown, a Louisiana woman, posts about her experience attempting to remove Gorilla Glue adhesive spray from her hair. February 2021. (Credit: IM_D_OLLADY/Instagram)

Meanwhile, the Gorilla Glue Company released a statement Monday on Twitter offering its sympathies for Brown’s situation.

“We are very sorry to hear about the unfortunate incident that Miss Brown experienced using our Spray Adhesive on her hair,” the statement read in part. “We are glad to see in her recent video that Miss Brown has received medical treatment from her local medical facility and wish her the best.”

The statement went on:

“This is a unique situation because this product is not indicated for use in or on hair as it is considered permanent.”



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