#blairbigham

BY BLAIR BIGHAM (FGJ’17), ROBERT CRIBB, NOELLA OVID, DAVID LAO - At age 18, Kimberly could no longer come up with a reason to live. The Toronto university student locked the door to her parents’ garage, stepped onto a stool in the middle of the room and looped an electrical cord around her neck. READ MORE

BY BLAIR BIGHAM (FGJ ‘17) -- Canada’s refusal to support more than 100 developing countries in their efforts to rapidly mass-produce vaccine doses is un-Canadian. The federal government’s opposition to a proposal brought forward from India and South Africa on behalf of half the world’s countries is bizarre given that this once-in-a-century pandemic requires a global solution to save lives and restore economies. READ MORE. 

BY BLAIR BIGHAM (FGJ ‘17) - This past summer, a housekeeper arrived in the emergency department of Toronto General Hospital with palpitations and vomiting. The symptoms would make any emergency doctor worry about a heart attack, says Dr. Michael Szabo, a staff emergency physician at University Health Network in Toronto. In this case, it turned out that while cleaning a client’s house, the patient had helped herself to a cookie that contained cannabis oil – enough to get eight people high. READ MORE

BY BLAIR BIGHAM (FGJ ‘17) - Rick Santorum is clearly in need of a biology lesson following his puzzling assertion that the youth who filled Washington’s streets in protest of America’s infamously lax gun laws would have better spent their time learning cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), in case a shooting were to occur in their high school. READ MORE

BY BANDAR BAW, BLAIR BIGHAM (FGJ ‘17), AND TANISHQ SURYAVANSHI - The early part of 2018 has seen the rise of the “Tide Pod Challenge”, in which people have posted viral videos of themselves attempting to eat laundry detergent pods from a variety of brands. The number of poison control calls for laundry detergent pod poisoning in the first 15 days of 2018 already equalled all calls in 2017, thanks to internet viral videos. These ingestions pose a significant concern for the healthcare system, as care spans a variety of disciplines and is a presentation that many may not be familiar with. We visited the literature that was available, spoke to experts in pediatrics, toxicology and general surgery to present some key points clinicians should be aware of. READ MORE

BY BLAIR BIGHAM (FGJ ‘17) - One-third of the world's population is believed to be infected with tuberculosis, which kills nearly 5,000 people each day. It's not just a problem of poor nations; Canada has a TB crisis of its own in the North, where Indigenous populations have a 300 times greater rate of infection than that of other Canadians. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control receives reports of 10,000 new cases each year. READ MORE

BY BLAIR BIGHAM (FGJ ‘17) - Quebec’s recent announcement that it will trial test a helicopter ambulance service to transport trauma patients in rural areas to expert surgical care in Montreal and Quebec City has been met with enthusiasm. But anyone working in Canada’s air-ambulance network knows a few new aircraft won’t fix deep flaws in the system. READ MORE

BY BLAIR BIGHAM (FGJ ‘17) - Doug Ford continued to discriminate against LGBTQ students last week with his threat to punish teachers who don’t stick to the 1998-era sex-ed curriculum, which fails to mention sexting, same-sex couples and consent. He’s gone so far as to set up a snitch line that parents can call should they feel their kids are being taught modern issues. READ MORE