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 "surgery" ...
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The State of our Maternal Health
In California, the health of pregnant women has been getting worse over the years and the maternal death rate is even worse that Bosnia's. The story investigated the causes behind what is making women sicker. One finding included showing that women in California are at a greater risk of having a cesarean surgery at for-profit hospitals where there is a financial incentive to perform this procedure.
Tags: pregnant; pregnancy; cesarean; hospital; maternal; maternal death
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First, Do No Harm
This investigation focused on lax supervision of doctors-in-training, patient harm and alleged billing fraud at Dallas' premier medical school complex and its primary teaching hospital, which are financed largely by taxpayers. It also examined more broadly questions about medical training, patient care and healthcare fraud at teaching hospitals around the United States.
Tags: doctor training; patient harm; patient care; Medicare fraud; health care; healthcare; Dallas; medical school; hospital; billing fraud; surgery
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Do It Yourself Plastic Surgery
Prescription strength chemicals and other procedures should not be done at home without a doctor. A number of websites are selling such products at a discount rate and many people are buying them and facing devastating consequences. These products are unapproved and experts say using these can result in “blindness, paralysis, or death”.
Tags: Botox; syringes; prescriptions; drugs; money; medications; medicine; Federal Drug Administration (FDA); skin
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Government Orders Columbia to Tell Patients 'True Nature' of Drug Study
Columbia University Medical Center conducted a study with experimental surgical fluid on patients undergoing open heart surgery. Subjects were not made aware of the risks of potentially fatal bleeding caused by the fluid. Some of the study's subjects were poor, Spanish-speaking patients who were enrolled without giving formal consent. At least two patients died and more than two dozen required transfusions.
Tags: Columbia University Medical Center; open heart; surgery; fluid; internal bleeding; fatal; study; experimental; emergency room;
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Transplanting Too Soon
The series found that each year hundreds of patients have liver transplants when they don't need them and might never will. One in 10 patients dies when they could have lived longer without the surgery.
Tags: liver; transplant; surgery; wait list; hospital; donor
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"Prescription for Profits"
The Wall Street Journal examined whether nonprofit hospitals, which account for the majority of hospitals in the U.S., deserve the billions of dollars in annual tax exemptions they receive. The Journal's series revealed that, far from struggling financially, many nonprofit hospitals have become profit machines while shirking their charitable missions. Among the series' findings: Some pay tens of thousands of dollars upfront' others have closed facilities in poor inner cities and built new ones in affluent suburbs; and one hospital put patients' lives at risk to increase its lucrative liver-transplant business.
Tags: charitable causes; medical service; patient care; hospital taxes; nonprofit hospitals; Amish; Mennonites
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Coronary: A True Story of Medicine Gone Awry
The book "investigated and documented the roles played by physicians, hospital administrators and corporate executives in a ten-year scheme to defraud Medicare and private insurers of tens of millions of dollars by performing unnecessary invasive tests and heart surgery" on patients.
Tags: medicine; hospitals; health care; health; Medicaid; surgery; fraud; Tenet Healthcare; federal investigation; Redding Medical Center;
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University of Louisville let Steve Henry go after work complaints
"The story outlined the reasons Dr. Steve Henry, a former Kentucky lieutenant governor and a candidate for governor and U.S. Senate, was no longer practicing medicine at the University of Louisville's hospital. Henry had essentially been fired after surgical residents working under him complained he repeatedly missed surgical procedures he was supposed to supervise and on several occasions was not available while on call."
Tags: Steve Henry; surgery; candidate lies; uncredited practioner; falsifying information
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Medical Secrets
Dr. Richard Austin is a Toronto-area gynecologist who has gained a reputation for botching surgeries. This story happened when 14 women "claimed they suffered emotional and physical harm after going under his surgical knife." After the initial story was published, more women came forward to tell about how they had also suffered injuries, often to their bowels, during procedures such as hysterectomies.
Tags: Medical malpractice; surgery; surgical injuries; hysterectomy; complications from surgery
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Three Commentaries
The Memphis Daily News' Lindsay Jones turns her eyes on many topics in these commentaries. First, she writes about a woman who had brain surgery years ago, and her attempts to cope with the after-effects now she has no insurance coverage. Jones contrasts this with Governor Phil Bredesen's "illness from a suspected tick bite and his trip to the vaunted Mayo Clinic." Also, Jones writes of the midterm Senate race pitting Harold Ford, Jr. against Bob Corker; and also the experience of being a Wal-Mart shopper.
Tags: Harold Ford, Jr.; Bob Corker; Wal-Mart; governor Phil Bredesen; medical insurance; Kim Fields; cancer survivors; pre-existing conditions