Posts Tagged ‘staff’
Doctor in Brazil suspected of murdering patients to “make space”
The Brazilian health ministry has begun a review of the medical records of 300 patients treated by a doctor suspected of killing seven terminally ill patients.
Prosecutors on Wednesday claimed Virginia Soares de Souza and her medical team administered muscle relaxing drugs to patients, then reduced their oxygen supply, causing them to die of asphyxia at the Evangelical Hospital…
Investigators are combing through 1,700 medical records of patients who died in the last seven years at the hospital, where De Souza headed the intensive care unit.
It is believed the deaths were a bid by the doctor and her staff to free up beds at the Curitiba hospital’s intensive care wing.
De Souza denies the charges. Her lawyer said investigators had misunderstood how an intensive care unit works and she would prove her innocence.
The 56-year-old widow was arrested in February and charged with seven counts of aggravated first degree murder.
Another three doctors, three nurses and a physiotherapist who worked under De Souza have also been charged with murder.
Yes, this could be politicians acting like they are medical experts. Could also be a new world record [yippee!] for a doctor eliminating patients taking up productive and profitable bed space.
Cripes.
Aides to Republican Congressman busted forging election petitions
What Republican election fraud really looks like
Four staffers of former U.S. Rep. Thad McCotter, R-Livonia were charged today in connection with the false nominating petitions that led to McCotter’s departure from Congress…
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette…He said the petition forgeries and cut-and-paste jobs on the petitions “would make an elementary art teacher cringe.”
Schuette said the McCotter staffers also likely did the same thing in the 2008 elections, using 2006 petition signatures.
“Let me tell you this, we find any other evidence, we’ll review it in the same painstaking … thorough fashion,” Schuette said at a late-morning news conference.
Schuette blasted McCotter for being “asleep at the switch,” and providing no guidance to his staffers…”They acted above the law as if it didn’t apply to them,” Schuette said.
There is no specific evidence that McCotter was involved in the petition fraud, so the former congressman, who resigned in July, was not charged.
“Their motive is immaterial,” Schuette said. “They set a standard of conduct that is disgraceful.”
RTFA for all the delightful details.
It is pretty hilarious that in an electoral season characterized by Republican officials in every state trying to get senior citizens, poor people, minorities thrown off the voting rolls because they are more likely to vote for Democrats, one of the biggest election frauds in the country is perpetrated by clowns working for a Republican Congressman.
Here in New Mexico, our Secretary of State did her big – “I think there are tens of thousands of illegals registered and voting…” – and after she finished wasting tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars she discovered exactly 19 people who probably registered to vote because they thought they were eligible – but, still never had voted.
This crap never ends.
Nursing home fire was started by meth lab in a resident’s room
A fire at a northeast Ohio nursing home Sunday that killed one and injured six others was caused by a meth lab that had been set up in one of the resident’s rooms…The deadly blast occurred in a second floor room of the Park Haven Nursing Home in Ashtabula at around 8:30 p.m., firefighters said, sending staffers scrambling to save the home’s three dozen elderly or disabled residents.
“I was taking a break, and I looked through the window and I saw an explosion of fire,” nurse Deanna Bigley told the local Star Beacon newspaper. “There was this guy and he was engulfed in flames,” she said. “One of our residents put him out, but then the fire started up and he had to be put out again.”
Witnesses say one nurse, 28-year-old Kristi Hance — who is reportedly pregnant — returned to the blazing building several times to help residents escape. “She just kept going back in to get people,” Bigley said. “The smoke was thick and black, but she went back in to help.”
Seven people, including three residents, two non-residents, and two others, were injured in the blaze. One man died from his injuries Monday…Police didn’t identify him, and it was unclear if he lived or worked at the facility.
Ashtabula fire Chief Ron Pristera told local station WKYC television that crews found evidence of a “shake-and-bake” style meth lab in the room where the fire started. “Shake-and-bake” is a fast but highly combustible way of making meth that involves mixing the ingredients together in a single bottle or container and then shaking it, according to news reports.
Meth heads who use the “shake-and-bake” method often end up with a few grams of meth — or a trip to the local burn ward…
In a Facebook post Monday, Hance praised her coworkers’ bravery. “I in no way acted alone!” she wrote. “Every single staff member on duty last night was completely fierce and totally heroic…We are their caretakers and that is what we are there to do.”
Kudos to the staff members who risked their lives for the people in their care. A normal instinct in a cataclysm like an explosion and fire is to get your own butt to safety.
Nursing home staff aren’t exactly the highest paid job category in the United States. But, these folks took their mandate of care seriously – with sufficient conviction to risk their own lives for the residents of the nursing home. I wish you well.
Angry members of the Sun staff await Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch faces revolt from his own staff…after journalists angry at the arrest of five senior colleagues accused the company of throwing them to the wolves.
The 80-year-old media mogul is due to fly into Britain this week to address workers at his Wapping plant and reassure them of his commitment to his remaining UK newspaper titles. But he is likely to receive an angry reception after five more journalists on The Sun were arrested as part of Operation Elveden – the police investigation into allegations of bribery.
The arrests early on Saturday morning were the second batch in a fortnight and sources close to the investigation have indicated that they are unlikely to be the last.
Journalists at The Sun yesterday accused the company’s Management Standards Committee (MSC), which handed a huge amount of information to detectives, of allowing a “witch-hunt” to take place.
One angry journalist said the MSC were behaving like “reptiles” in order to protect the reputation of Mr Murdoch’s parent company in the United States.
Ten senior journalists on the paper have now been arrested and bailed as detectives probe allegations that they illegally paid police officers and other public officials for information. But staff at the paper said many of the allegations were “pathetic” and related to matters many years ago where reporters had bought drinks for contacts in the pursuit of legitimate stories…
One source at Wapping said: “There is a real feeling of anger, deepening anger but also defiance about what is going on. But there is not the mood for a strike, as people are loyal to the paper but perhaps not the people who run it…”
It has also now emerged that the Sun’s parent company News Corp could face an investigation by officials under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The law allows American companies to be fined hundreds of millions of dollars for illegal activities overseas.
It would be pleasant change in political practices on the part of governments in both the US and UK to offer Murdoch something more than a powder puff spank on his poo-poo. He probably owns more politicians in the British Parliament than Exxon-Mobil does in the US Congress.
Chinese counterfeiting extends to complete phony retail stores
Extremely detailed knock-off Apple retail stores, complete with blue t-shirt-wearing employees claiming to work for the company, have been discovered in China.
According to the blog BirdAbroad, several counterfeit Apple stores have popped up in Kunming, China. One such location featured a winding staircase and employees in t-shirts with Apple logos and name tags.
“The name tags around the necks of the friendly salespeople didn’t actually have names on them – just an Apple logo and the anonymous designation “Staff,”” the report read.
The author called the store “the best ripoff store” she had ever seen, though there were several giveaways, such as the poor quality of the staircase and a sub-par paint job. Also, the stores do not appear to have upgraded to Apple’s Retail 2.0 layout that uses iPads as “smart signs.”
According to her, the employees at the store “all genuinely think they work for Apple.” After store security guards and employees prohibited her from taking photos, the author hinted that she and her husband were “two American Apple employees visiting China and checking out the local stores” and were then allowed to photograph the store.
A world-class “Har”.
Woman who told Obama she was exhausted – loses job
The woman who told President Barack Obama that she was “exhausted” from defending him and his economic policies and waiting for the change she expected after voting for him has another reason to be put out: She’s lost her job.
Velma Hart, the chief financial officer for AmVets, a veteran services organization based in Maryland, said Monday in an interview with CNBC that she was laid off as part of the nonprofit’s effort to cut expenses.
“I want to focus on the positive and be optimistic,” said Hart, who lives in Upper Marlboro, Md. “And assume that somehow things will work out, that there’s an opportunity out there with Velma’s name on it that’s right around the corner.”
Am Vets executive director Jim King told The Washington Post that the nonprofit was looking for ways to survive financially.
“It’s not anything she did,” King told the Post for a story that appeared online Monday. “She got bit by the same snake that has bit a lot of people. It was a move to cut our bottom line…”
Hart told CNBC that she still supports Obama and noted that the economy is improving, though she finds the prospect of unemployment “scary.”
I watched her on TV, this morning. She’s well aware from the work that AmVets does that it’s no longer unusual for someone to be out of work during this Great Recession for a couple of years.
Fortunately, she’s well-enough qualified that I hope she’ll be able to find a new job – or things will turn around enough for AmVets to bring her back.
School Board prez fiddles with, uh, inappropriate behavior
Detroit school board President Otis Mathis admitted Friday to engaging in “inappropriate actions” but tried to take back his resignation after he was accused of fondling himself during a meeting with the district superintendent…
He said medical issues may have contributed to the incident. “I need to pursue treatment. … I want to make sure that what happened doesn’t ever happen again…
“It’s over. He’s done. We have more important business to handle,” said Carla Scott, a member of the Detroit Public Schools Board of Education. “We can’t afford a circus.”
DPS police were investigating allegations by Superintendent Teresa Gueyser that during a meeting Wednesday, Mathis touched himself for 20 minutes, then unzipped his pants.
Gueyser, in a memo to the board, said she ended the meeting. “I told him that there was no reason for us to continue the meeting with that behavior,” she said…
Seems reasonable to me. I can think of a few places where such behavior might not be surprising; but, none of them include meetings of school board staff.
Which airline has worst food? Rude staff?
Southwest turns out to be the best – again
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission
Overall, air travelers’ level of contentment with carriers is on the rise, according to the University of Michigan’s latest American Customer Satisfaction Index for the airline industry. The findings are similar to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 North America Airline Satisfaction Study released last week…
“Airlines are creating more satisfied passengers, but the… data suggest this won’t last for long,” said Claes Fornell, founder of the satisfaction index, in a statement.
“Airlines are already beginning to charge higher fares. Flights are becoming more crowded, and the increasing number of carry-ons could lead to cabin congestion and delays.”
When it comes to individual airline satisfaction rankings, Southwest Airlines leads the pack for the 17th straight year, followed by Continental and American, according to the index, which uses customer interviews to come up with a score on scale of 0 to 100. United Airlines was at the bottom of the list…
Southwest’s flight attendants were also voted as the friendliest in the industry, followed by Delta/Northwest, JetBlue and American.
But the staff at Delta/Northwest seems to have as many foes as fans, because the airline was also ranked as the carrier with the least-friendly flight attendants in the survey. United and American were ranked second and third in that category…
As for which airline has served the worst food over the past 12 months, Delta/Northwest led the pack, followed by United and American.
Paranoid politicians and chickenshit voters have solved the whole question of air travel for me. As long as DHS and TSA are in charge of air travel – I won’t go anywhere I can’t drive in my pickup truck.
Obama’s standards slows staffing. Have a problem with that?
Daylife/AP Photo
Tim Geithner may be the latest political piñata in Washington these days, but — policy aside — there may be another reason he is the one fellow everyone is picking on at Treasury: He’s there alone.
President Obama’s ethics code requires that no lobbyist can work for an agency he may have lobbied.
Believe it or not, Geithner is the only confirmed official at his department. Some top nominees, even those who have served in government before, have decided to withdraw. Others are still pending as they go through arduous background checks that one pro-Obama Democrat calls “maddening vetting hell.”
The staffing problem is not just at Treasury, and it goes way beyond the time-consuming nature of extensive background checks. It’s also about overreaching anti-lobbyist rules.
Holler at your Congress-critter to support Bernie Sanders' bill to 
