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🩺 Man hugs in the ER
PLUS: Low cost semaglutide, frontline tales, and dementia gains
Christina Apa, Ziming, Melody Tang & Kristen Morrison
March 31, 2024
Yup, we’re all feeling the pain of those high prices at the grocery store.
But as painful as that’s been, that’s nothing compared to the big-time markups Novo Nordisk has been adding to Ozempic. How big? A new study found that it costs only about $5 to produce, while it costs Americans nearly $1000/month for the drug. At the same time, it costs Canadians $155 and Germans $59 per month for the same thing. No wonder Big Pharma finger pointer Sen. Bernie Sanders put out a statement demanding they at the very least do a Walmart-style price match.
Now here’s the weekend roundup! (4 minute read)
Notable Numbers 🔢
73M: the number of past and present AT&T users who were affected by the company’s recent data leak. The company released a statement on Saturday announcing to the public that private information including addresses and Social Security numbers of their customers was leaked on the dark web. AT&T is investigating the leak and in the meantime contacting customers to reset their passcodes.
This might have been what happened.
49: people have died due to the Impella left sided heart pump created by Johnson and Johnson MedTech’s Abiomed. The company sent out an alert to more than 66,000 customers in the US warning them about the risk of heart perforation “due to operator handling.” This issue was first brought to physicians attention in 2021 but Abiomed didn’t share the information with the FDA, violating agency protocol.
14%: is how much gas prices went up since the beginning of this year in the US. Some states got hit harder than others like Utah where a gallon of gas has increased by 60 cents. There are many reasons to explain the hike, but the biggest one is crude oil which accounts for half the price. But it’s estimated that prices will eventually go down (by the end of the year.)
3.5M: people in the Americas have been diagnosed with dengue fever this year. It is three times the number of cases than last year. The virus, which often creeps up during the wet seasons, occurs when someone is bitten by an infected mosquito. Scientists say the rise in cases is due to rising temperatures and rapid urbanization, which can be linked to climate change.
Guess What I Saw Today
Saw a surgeon get upset that HE moved the patient table into the anesthesia area and the anesthesia nurse had the audacity to ask where she should sit. His response?
“Studies show people who stand tend to live longer. So if you think about it, I’m actually doing you a favor.”
Was called out for a middle aged woman involved in a "head vs pole". This charming young lady had an approx half meter length of pipe with bicycle wheel pegs inserted in the ends that was wrapped in purple duct tape that she had named the "purple people beater" and reportedly carried for self defense. After smoking a substantial amount of meth, followed by an equally substantial amount of cannabis to "settle my stomach from the meth", she got into a tiff with her significant other, stormed off and threw the aforementioned purple people beater at a tree with enough force that it bounced back and whacked her in the side of the head just behind the temple causing a brief loss of consciousness. Final rule out reported to the receiving ED: "head trauma secondary to flying purple people beater".
I had a young man, not much older than me, with no family or friends locally, come in w/ rectal bleeding and it turned out he had a large tumor from colon cancer. He just broke down crying, and the moment seemed right, so I hugged him. He sat there crying on my shoulder for what seemed like over a minute. He confided that he'd never had a man hug him before, that it wasn't the culture growing up in his family. He didn't know what to do or who to call, so I made him call his brother and his dad who he hadn't contacted in years, and they both immediately starting driving from out of town to see him. We got him admitted and he is doing well to this day, and has rekindled his family relationships.
These stories are sourced from Postcall readers as well as across the internet. Have a riveting tale of your own? Send us your best “Guess What I Saw Today” from the OR, ED, or clinic (anonymized, obviously).
Insight of the Day 💡
Many of us use reddit, the latest big tech IPO about a week ago. Investors are excited about its uniquely organized communities and the ability of those communities to generate content for training AI models.
But a good reference point for reddit is Facebook - when looking at the data, it becomes clear that Facebook is much better at extracting value from our attention.
Source: Chartr
Speed Reads 🚤
1: 🧠 According to a recent JAMA study, the decrease in dementia is because of an increase in brain size. The study examined 3,000+ brain volumes of people born between 1930 and 1970 and suggested that over the years there has been “improved brain development.”
2: 🦹♂️ A US district judge sentenced Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of failed fund FTX, to 25 years in prison on Thursday. The severity of the sentence is somewhat in the middle, compared to other corporate fraudsters. Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced to 11 years for committing fraud with with her blood-testing company, Theranos. Bernie Madoff, the mastermind behind a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, died in prison while serving his 150-year sentence.
3: 📈 Stocks had their best Q1 in five years. The S&P 500 ended Thursday up by more than 10%, marking its best start to a year since 2019. What’s driving all this consumer sentiment? The AI craze, record corporate profits, and optimism around cooling inflation are all contributing to the boom. The cherry on top was on Friday, when the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that several key gauges:
GDP and consumer spending grew in Q4 of last year
Home sales bounced back after a January slump
Jobless claims fell
Advertisers raised their full-year forecast.
4: 🦠 Mpox, more commonly known as monkeypox is on the rise in the US according to the CDC. There are about double the number of infections compared to the same time last year. Most cases reported are from partially vaccinated or unvaccinated people. Although the vaccine doesn’t fully prevent folks from contracting the disease, the CDC is urging folks to get vaccinated to reduce the spread.
5: 📖 Read: Boeing employees explain how the company sacrificed quality for speed. (New York Times)
Laugh of the Day 🤣
It’s an oldie but a goldie.
Game ⛳️
Say goodbye to Q1, with your favourite super-challenging crossword about medicine.
First question: What’s a fancy way of saying right-sided heart?
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