Assessing Newborn Hyperbilirubinemia

A web based tool for evaluating newborn hyperbilirubinemia is now available at www.bilitool.org. It has a nomogram and guidelines for phototherapy and exchange transfusion. From this site you can also download a free tool for your Palm handheld device with the same features.

Another Ingestion by a One Year Old

This is an xray of a 1 year old girl who accidentally swallowed a metal pin from part of a door. It was taken within 2-3 hours of the ingestion. The pin is about 3 cm. The child was sent home and told to follow up with her PCP the next day.

The following day, the child was still well and the xray below was taken. It is not as good because it is a picture of the xray, but you can see the pin has moved on down to somewhere around the proximal colon. The child was again sent home with follow up planned for the next day.

The child had 2 bowel movements before the visit on the following day. No pin was found but the parents didn't inspect the feces very carefully. The xray on the third day showed that the pin had been properly expelled and the child had no complications.

Nude statue gets a toga

A beautiful statue of a nude young female is in the Hyatt in Kansas City, Mo.
She graces the central area of a large eating establishment.
We have seen her many times, but on our recent visit(6-06) she was covered in this "toga".
We were told that 2-3 times a year she must be clothed to satisfy certain groups staying at the hotel.
An interesting type of censorship of the arts.
Of course, this is a private hotel and not a museum and they can do what they please with their art.
One native of K.C. commented to me "this isn't Kansas City", but I could not help but believe it was Kansas City.