The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Stroke" ...
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Hospital Group
New York's 11 municipal hospitals are ridden with false records created by staff to cover up medical mistakes. In one instance, after gangrene was left untreated on a stroke victim, it became necessary to amputate his leg, yet no report was written. Hundreds of citations and complaints have been filed against the city hospitals, but few disciplinary measures have intervened.
Tags: New York; hospitals; operations; mistakes; botched; reports; false; faked; staff; cover-up;
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Hospital Sexual Assaults
The reporter investigated sexual assaults on patients at hospitals in the Phoenix area, and the reporting led to criminal convictions for three hospital staff members. In March 2008, the station received an e-mail saying staff at a Scottsdale hospital didn't call police after a stroke patient told them she was sexually assaulted in her bed. After the original report aired, other people came forward with similar stories. After a public records request from the police department, the reporter found sex crimes against patients at about a dozen Phoenix-area hospitals. Most cases were never solved. Ptosecutors criminally charged employees at the original Scottsdale hospital with violations of Arizona's vulnerable adults law. Three were convicted and one received jail time. Several hospitals in the Phoenix are have reviewed and improved their patient security as a result of these reports.
Tags: public records; sexual assault; hospitals; Arizona; Phoenix; patient assault; hospital patients
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PRP Football Player Dies
A 15-year-old football player collapsed at practice and died three days later. Jefferson County Public Schools found nothing wrong, but reporters found witnesses of the practice while watching a soccer game next to the football field. Coaches were overheard denying the players' requests for water during practice.
Tags: heat stroke; Max Gilpin; dehydration; head coach; spectator; exhaustion;
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Dangerous Remedy
Robert Little of The (Baltimore) Sun reported that the U.S. Army has injected over 1000 soldiers wounded in Iraq with a medicine designed for hemophiliacs despite the fact that it is dangerous for people with normal blood. It can give them blood clots that could cause strokes and heart attacks. It costs $6000 per dose. Civilian doctors "have largely rejected it as a standard treatment for trauma patients." Army doctors say, in their experience, the drug saves lives by stopping hemorrhaging. Little says “Doctors in Iraq's emergency rooms, however, almost never care for their patients long enough to see firsthand whether blood clots or other complications have developed." Little reports that "the drug has never been subjected to a large-scale clinical trial to verify that it works and is safe for patients without hemophilia."
Tags: military medical system; Iraq; coagulant; Institute for Surgical Research; Germany; military hospitals; Food and Drug Administration; FDA; U.S. Department of Defense; DoD; Marines; Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs; U.S. Army Surgeon General; HIPPA; actionable intelligence; Recombinant Activated Factor VII; Novo Nordisk; coagulopathic bleeding;
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Prescription for Trouble: Common drugs, hidden dangers. Tens of millions of people at risk.
This article investigated twelve common types of prescription drugs that are linked to serious risks, including heart attacks, cancer, strokes and suicide. The risks were undetected or underestimated when the drugs were initially approved for use. Many of the drugs are still not properly disclosing the risks in advertisements. The article uncovers widespread problems in the drug safety system and proposes needed reform.
Tags: medicine; drugs; FDA; health; drug companies; FOIA; side-effects; Food and Drug Administration; pharmaceuticals
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Rating Hospital Health Care
More than 3,000 U.S. hospitals are rated on how frequently they adhere to standard treatment for heart attack and heart failure patients.
Tags: heart attack; stroke; heart failure; health standard; hospital; medicare
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Merck Suppressed Vioxx Dangers
NPR reveals how Merck conducted a sophisticated campaign to hide the health risks of Vioxx from physicians over many years. This was done long before it pulled the painkiller from the market in 2004 because of a study that showed that Vioxx increased the risk of heart attacks, strokes and death.
Tags: Merck; Vioxx; painkiller; pharmaceutical industry
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Dose of Denial
After decades of researching cold and diet remedies and discovering that these medicines could cause a stroke, major pharmaceutical companies continued to sell these drugs in the markets. This LA Times story describes the life of Tricia Newenham who took this medication and is now mentally disabled after suffering from a stroke.
Tags: Pharmaceutical companies; drugs that cause stroke; Tricia Newenham; diet remedies; cold medicines; FDA; FDA regulations; PPA; phenylpropanolamine
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A Dose of Denial
This article focuses on the dangers of phenylpropanolamine, or PPA, and the lengths that drug makers took to keep it on the shelves even though they knew risks associated with the ingredient. PPA is an ingredient in many popular over-the-counter cold medicines, such as Triaminic cough syrup, Alka-Seltzer Plus, Dimetapp, and diet aides such as Dexatrim and Acutrim. Although studies showed a link to hypertension and stroke, drug makers kept putting the drugs in consumers' hands.
Tags: Bayer; Food and Drug Administration (FDA); Yale Hemorrhagic Stroke Project
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The Trials of an Artificial Heart
The quest for replacing a failing human heart with a mechanical device received a boost when a company named Abiomed developed AbioCor. The initial clinical trials of this grapefruit-sized plastic-and-titatnium machine were encouraging. However, it was later found that five of the seven persons on whom AbioCor was tried, died. Abiomed officials argue that the artificial heart is proving its worth, however, they also acknowledge that a flaw in the device's attachments to the body might have led to the formation of blood clots causing fatal heart strokes.