Latest news with #June2022
CTV News
10 hours ago
- Climate
- CTV News
Toronto's heat wave officially settles in as officials warn of ‘dangerously hot' conditions
A man enjoys the sun on a hot day in Toronto on Thursday, June 23, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette Environment Canada's heat warning has officially settled in as experts warn 'dangerously hot and humid conditions' will grip much of the GTA this afternoon heading into Tuesday night. As of 5:43 a.m., the alert now suggests temperatures could reach 30 to 36 C, with humidex values between 40 and 45 and overnight lows of 21 to 25 C 'providing little relief.' This is the 'first significant heat event of the season' as officials warn it may extend into Wednesday if a cold front stalls. Residents are being advised to stay vigilant and protect themselves and others from heat-related illnesses. 'Take action to protect yourself and others,' the advisory read. 'Extreme heat can affect everyone's health.' Symptoms of heat related illness? Officials are warning residents to watch for signs of heat-related illness, including 'headache, nausea, dizziness, thirst, dark urine and intense fatigue.' Forehead sweat on man stock photo A stock photo of a man with perspiration visible on his forehead. ( studio) The warning emphasizes that 'heat stroke is a medical emergency' and instructs residents to call 911 if someone shows signs such as 'red and hot skin, dizziness, nausea, confusion and change in consciousness.' 'While you wait for medical attention, try to cool the person by moving them to a cool place, removing extra clothing, applying cold water or ice packs around the body,' the agency said. 'Drink water often and before you feel thirsty to replace fluids. Close blinds, or shades and open windows if outside is cooler than inside. Turn on air conditioning, use a fan, or move to a cooler area of your living space. If your living space is hot, move to a cool public space such as a cooling centre, community centre, library or shaded park.' Over 500 cooling spaces open On Saturday, Mayor Olivia Chow revealed that the city has opened over 500 cooling spaces across the region. Olivia chow Mayor Olivia Chow speaks to reporters on Saturday June 21, 2025 (CP24 photo). The spaces include libraries, community centres and senior homes, Chow said. In addition, city staff will be going door‑to‑door doing wellness checks on vulnerable residents in partnership with the Red Cross. The following six air-conditioned civic buildings are also open to the public while the heat warning is in effect: Metro Hall Scarborough Civic Centre Etobicoke Civic Centre York Civic Centre East York Civic Centre North York Civic Centre Additional information, including tips for beating the heat, can be found on both City of Toronto and Environment Canada websites.
CTV News
10 hours ago
- Climate
- CTV News
Heat wave officially settles in as Environment Canada warns of ‘dangerously hot' conditions
A man enjoys the sun on a hot day in Toronto on Thursday, June 23, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette Environment Canada's heat warning has officially settled in as experts warn 'dangerously hot and humid conditions' will grip much of the GTA this afternoon heading into Tuesday night. As of 5:43 a.m., the alert now suggests temperatures could reach 30 to 36 C, with humidex values between 40 and 45 and overnight lows of 21 to 25 C 'providing little relief.' This is the 'first significant heat event of the season' as officials warn it may extend into Wednesday if a cold front stalls. Residents are being advised to stay vigilant and protect themselves and others from heat-related illnesses. "Take action to protect yourself and others,' the advisory read. 'Extreme heat can affect everyone's health." Symptoms of heat related illness? Officials are warning residents to watch for signs of heat-related illness, including 'headache, nausea, dizziness, thirst, dark urine and intense fatigue.' Forehead sweat on man stock photo A stock photo of a man with perspiration visible on his forehead. ( studio) The warning emphasizes that 'heat stroke is a medical emergency' and instructs residents to call 911 if someone shows signs such as 'red and hot skin, dizziness, nausea, confusion and change in consciousness.' 'While you wait for medical attention, try to cool the person by moving them to a cool place, removing extra clothing, applying cold water or ice packs around the body,' the agency said. 'Drink water often and before you feel thirsty to replace fluids. Close blinds, or shades and open windows if outside is cooler than inside. Turn on air conditioning, use a fan, or move to a cooler area of your living space. If your living space is hot, move to a cool public space such as a cooling centre, community centre, library or shaded park.' Over 500 cooling spaces open On Saturday, Mayor Olivia Chow revealed that the city has opened over 500 cooling spaces across the region. Olivia chow Mayor Olivia Chow speaks to reporters on Saturday June 21, 2025 (CP24 photo). The spaces include libraries, community centres and senior homes, Chow said. In addition, city staff will be going door‑to‑door doing wellness checks on vulnerable residents in partnership with the Red Cross. The following six air-conditioned civic buildings are also open to the public while the heat warning is in effect: Metro Hall Scarborough Civic Centre Etobicoke Civic Centre York Civic Centre East York Civic Centre North York Civic Centre Additional information, including tips for beating the heat, can be found on the City of Toronto and Environment Canada websites.
Daily Mail
13-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
I was diagnosed with Alzheimer's after ‘overused' medical procedure caused my dementia
Sean Fischer's mother had been getting sicker for decades. She would ask the same question multiple times, be bedbound from migraines and unstable on her feet. The mystery behind her decades-long ailments was seemingly solved when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in June 2022. Sean said: 'We had spent countless hours fretting over what could be wrong, but not once did I think it could be early-onset Alzheimer's. That diagnosis belongs to other families, I thought. Not ours.' The Fischers met with renowned neurologists and prepared the then-61-year-old to participate in an Alzheimer's clinical trial for the drug varoglutamstat. Then came devastating news that meant Mrs Fischer wouldn't be eligible for the trial - she was suffering from a persistent leak of spinal fluid somewhere in her spinal system, but doctors couldn't pinpoint the source - and couldn't fix it. They believed it was likely a result of epidurals she'd received during childbirth - an injection in the back that numbs a person from their belly button to their thighs. It's a common pain relief option during childbirth and an estimated 61 percent of women who give birth receive an epidural. After suffering for more than a decade, doctors said a new procedure would allos them to inject dye into Mrs Fischer's spinal fluid to search for the leak - a small spot in the middle of her back. A few weeks after they sealed it, all of her symptoms went away and doctors said she didn't actually have Alzheimer's - the tiny spot in her back was actually the source of all her symptoms. Mrs Fischer's health battle began long before her Alzheimer's diagnosis. It started in spring 2001, when Sean said he received a call from his dad: Mom had pulled over on the highway, vomiting from a sudden, crushing headache. Her doctor called it a migraine, but months later she lost hearing in one ear and was diagnosed with Ménière's disease. She adjusted — avoiding movements that triggered vertigo, wearing a hearing aid in her forties, and taking daily meds for the headaches. Even as she quietly suffered, Sean wrote for The Free Press, she stayed steady for him and his brothers, never missing a soccer game, school musical, or packed lunch. In 2010, neurologists at Columbia University diagnosed her with a Chiari malformation, a structural defect where the brain is pushed through the opening at the base of the skull. They suspected the malformation was caused by a cerebrospinal fluid leak, sparked by her three epidurals from the births of each of her sons. Epidurals are extremely safe and are administered by inserting a needle in the space of the lower spine just outside the membrane that surrounds the spinal cord. It delivers anesthetic medication, which numbs the lower half of the body and blocks pain while allowing the patient to stay awake and alert. However, it can occasionally result in a leak if the needle punctures the thin, tough membrane surrounding the spinal cord containing the CSF, called the dura mater. When this happens, some of the fluid that cushions and protects the brain and spinal cord can leak out into surrounding tissues. It can only be patched up surgically. The leak had, over the years, led to a loss in cerebrospinal fluid volume, causing her brain to sink. This can lead to severe headaches, nausea and vomiting, hearing changes, memory problems, and double vision. 'I started high school in 2015, and around that time, I began to notice the quiet dislocation of my mom's mind,' Sean wrote for The Free Press. 'When we cooked dinner together, she would have trouble following recipes. She'd stare at her calendar for long stretches of time; making sense of it seemed to require more effort than usual. She started to repeat herself. 'By the time I left for college in Rhode Island, the phrase 'You already asked me that' had become a common refrain in the house I grew up in, but at first, we blamed her, telling her she needed to pay more attention.' She was seeing doctors for headaches, hearing, and anxiety, none of whom believed there could be a common origin. Her memory problems were worsening as well, which led to Mr and Mrs Fischer to to turn to NYU Langone Health's Center for Cognitive Neurology. 'My mom was tested extensively — and two months later came the diagnosis, with the finality of a punctuation mark. Alzheimer's. When it hit her that there was no cure, my mom was bedridden for three days,' Sean said. Hope came with the study. But then doctors called the Fischers and informed them that the CSF leak would not allow her to participate. Despair took over. But a few weeks later, Mrs Fischer's doctor called to tell them about recent medical innovations that would allow surgeons to find and fix the leak, allowing her to participate in the drug trial. Six months later, doctors inserted a probe through the femoral artery in Mrs Fischer's leg, fed it upward toward her spinal system, and sealed the leak. Sean said: 'Two weeks later, I visited home, and found Mom more alert than she had been in years. There was no absent look in her eyes. As the day went on, I waited for her to start fading—but she was still wide awake at 10 p.m. 'After three weeks, her vertigo was gone, and her physical therapist told her she didn't need treatment anymore, because she no longer had any balance problems. After four weeks, she told us she felt 20 years younger.' After six weeks, her problems with memory were gone entirely. 'And eventually, Mom's neurologist confirmed: She did not have Alzheimer's. The surgeons who fixed the leak were shocked. They had never seen a recovery like it,' Sean said. The family later learned that, a year before the procedure, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center had published a newsletter with the subtitle: 'Physicians Treating Dementia Should Look for Cerebrospinal Fluid Leak—A Treatable Cause of an Otherwise Incurable Condition.' The study followed 21 patients with headaches, severe fatigue, and diagnoses of Chiari malformation and dementia; nine were found to have a cerebrospinal fluid leak, and repairing it completely resolved their symptoms. In Sean's mother's case, countless specialists across multiple hospitals treated her symptoms in isolation, overlooking the root cause. But they chose not to place blame on any doctor or institution. It was the system that misdiagnosed her, and ultimately, the system that saved her. 'More than anything, we feel grateful that a scientific breakthrough came at just the right time; that the real cause of her suffering was found,' he said.
New York Times
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘O.K.!' Review: When the Abortion Clinic Cancels
In a shared dressing room of a theater somewhere in Oklahoma, an actress named Melinda is the first to arrive. It's 90 minutes before the curtain rises, and to the keen-eyed stage manager, Alex, she seems not quite herself. 'You look like you've been throwing up,' Alex says, getting it right in one guess, not that Melinda is about to admit that she is pregnant. She has an abortion scheduled, and no one needs to know. But in Christin Eve Cato's new backstage dramedy, 'O.K.!,' Melinda's timing is on a collision course with the rollback of reproductive rights. The date is June 24, 2022, and the U.S. Supreme Court has just overturned Roe v. Wade. Soon the clinic calls to cancel Melinda's appointment permanently, and the clear vision she had of her future clouds over with panic. 'O.K.!' is about how Melinda (Danaya Esperanza) moves through that fear as the clock ticks down to showtime, with the help of her fellow actors Jolie (Yadira Correa) and Elena (Claudia Ramos Jordán) and their collective reverence for tarot-card wisdom. Also instrumental: the calming competency of Alex (a very funny Cristina Pitter), who herds unruly cast members like cats. The barely glimpsed show within a show is a nonunion tour of a musical called 'Okla-Hola,' a parody of Rodgers and Hammerstein's cowboy-Americana classic 'Oklahoma!,' told from a Latino point of view. Melinda stars as Lori (a version of Laurey, of course, the farmhouse beauty pursued by two suitors), with the jaded, politically engaged Jolie as Titi Elder (a variation on Laurey's Aunt Eller) and the high-spirited, Spanglish-speaking Elena as Ada Ana (the inveterate flirt Ado Annie). In a corner of their dressing room stands a scaled-down, rustic farm windmill, which will transform into the tarot deck's glowing, 3D Wheel of Fortune. (The set is by Rodrigo Escalante.) Directed by Melissa Crespo for Intar Theater and Radio Drama Network, 'O.K.!' blends a loving critique of the theater with a historically minded explication of threats to women's health and autonomy, leavens it all with comedy and sprinkles it with the surreal. Tonally, that is quite a mix to pull off, particularly with the script's didacticism working against its drama. On Intar's intimate Manhattan stage in Hell's Kitchen, this uneven production of an ambitious play has its mind on the disappearance of rights in the American present and its past. When Roe v. Wade was overturned, Oklahoma reverted to a law from 1910 — around the time 'Oklahoma!' is set — that prohibits most abortions. What's interesting about 'O.K.!,' as an addition to the growing niche of shows examining abortion, is how firmly it plants itself at the philosophical crossroads between proceeding with a pregnancy and ending it. Melinda, who, at 36, is a New Yorker with a law-student boyfriend and anemic personal finances, had not meant to get pregnant. Barely past the theater industry's Covid-19 shutdown, unsure of her relationship, she does not believe she is ready for a child. Jolie, Melinda's longtime friend, encourages her to question that assumption — which, in this fraught context, could be read as searching for a silver lining in a loss of liberty. Reassuring her, Jolie says: 'It's your choice if you want to have a baby, and it's your choice if you don't. I'm just wondering if life would be over for you in case you're unable to get this abortion — and I think not.' Melinda receives similar counsel from the bizarre and wonderful Two of Swords (Pitter), a tarot card come to life, whose red-lit, fog-shrouded dance is the show's campiest moment. (Choreography is by Pitter, lighting by María-Cristina Fusté, costumes by Lux Haac.) The Two of Swords suggests to Melinda that she make a list of pros and cons. So, on the advice of a talking tarot card, that's what she does. Her considerations include dystopian possibilities if she seeks an abortion ('What if I get caught by the government of Oklahoma for trying to leave?' she says) and inescapable realities if she decides against one — like the need for day care. 'How much would that cost in New York City?' Melinda erupts. At the performance I saw, a woman in the audience answered her with an emphatic 'Mm-hm!' By play's end, though, Melinda has yet to leave that crossroads, mulling paths that looked very different just a day before.
Times
20-05-2025
- Times
Police Tasered 92-year-old one-legged care home resident, court told
A 92-year-old wheelchair-bound care home resident was sprayed in the face with pepper spray before being Tasered and hit with a baton by police officers, a jury has been told. PC Stephen Smith emptied almost a full can of pepper spray into Donald Burgess's face when he refused to stop holding a small, serrated cutlery knife, Southwark crown court heard. Burgess, who had one leg, was then Tasered by PC Rachel Comotto, police body-worn camera footage showed. He was taken to hospital after the incident and later contracted Covid and died 22 days later. Smith, 51, denies two counts of assault by using Pava spray and a baton, and Comotto denies one charge of assault by discharging her Taser. They are not being held responsible for Burgess's death. Burgess was a resident at a care home in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, when staff called police in June 2022 after they failed to persuade him to hand over a knife, which had a specially adapted handle. Paul Jarvis KC, for the prosecution, told the jury that the officers made no attempt to talk to staff, and instead approached Burgess and attempted to interact with him. Instead of trying to calm the situation down, they inflamed it, and the use of force was not justified and was unlawful, Jarvis said. The jury was told there was nobody within arm's reach of Burgess at the time and that it was clear he was not easily able to move. 'It ought to have been obvious by the fact he had one leg; that this was a man who wasn't going to be mobile,' Jarvis said. 'This was an elderly, vulnerable man who may not have understood what was going on. 'Rather than being met with understanding and sympathy, he was confronted by irritation and annoyance on the part of the defendants.' The resident was asked repeatedly to put down the knife. He was suffering from a urinary tract infection on the day of the incident, a condition that can make people confused. The jury was told that the resident was asked to give back the knife after he had been flicking his food and poked a member of staff in the stomach with it. Managers at the home had spent half an hour asking him to put it down. Burgess, who suffered from multiple health conditions including diabetes and carotid artery disease, had been a resident at the home since 2018. He had not been diagnosed with dementia, although the care home specialised in helping people with the illness. The court was told less than 90 seconds had elapsed between the time the officers arrived and Burgess being Tasered. Footage shows the officers asking him to put down the knife. When he did not move, Smith sprayed him with Pava, before using his baton and 12 seconds later, Burgess could be seen crying out in pain when Comotto fired the Taser. The knife was then removed from his hand. Jarvis told the jury: 'I want to make it clear — these defendants are not responsible for his death. He was an elderly gentleman who was unwell. The force used was unnecessary and excessive in the circumstances. The defendants assaulted Mr Burgess, causing actual bodily harm.' The trial was adjourned until Tuesday.
