An Austin police officer has been suspended for 90 days after he reportedly failed to dispose of a hypodermic needle correctly and then lied to his supervisors about it.
A citizen spurred the investigation into officer Danny Johnson after complaining to a supervisor about how Johnson had treated her and handled the call.
Johnson responded to a March 26 call about a hypodermic needle in the 12100 block of Metric Boulevard, where a police memo explains Johnson disposed of the syringe he said was "old and cracked" with no needle attached.
However, Johnson's disciplinary memo said supervisors pulled in-car video that showed the syringe did have a needle. Department officials said Johnson not only misled his chain of command but also failed to comply with APD procedures for disposing of narcotic paraphernalia.
In addition, Johnson's supervisors said the video showed he had been rude and condescending with the citizen.
In a section about the department's "responsibility to the community," it oulines that the Austin Police Department "constantly works to establish direct contacts with the community we serve. Without 'grass roots' community support, successful enforcement of many laws may be difficult, if not impossible."
2011年10月19日星期三
2011年6月22日星期三
Improperly disposed syringe pricks visitor at AIDS testing centre
The AIDS counselling and testing centre (CTC) at Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital (IGGMCH) is proving to be more harmful than useful. The ground outside the centre's building is littered with used needles and syringes. The authorities refuse to take responsibility for this incorrect method of disposing biomedical waste.
The CTC provides free AIDS counselling and testing to patients. The area outside this centre is strewn with infected material. This area is regularly used by relatives of patients as an access road to the only bathroom in the hospital premises. On Tuesday, a man was accidentally pricked by one of the needles while walking down the pathway.
"When my friend got pricked in the afternoon, we immediately rushed to the counselling centre upstairs. The counsellor told us it was nothing to worry about. We went to the superintendent Dr Ajay Keoliya afterwards to report the irresponsible act and he also took the issue casually," said Jitendra Singh Thakur, friend of the victim.
"I got the information really late in the day and had to leave as I had an examination the following day. Moreover, I would not be of any help since the issue is not under my jurisdiction. The centre is run by the District AIDS Prevention & Control Unit (DAPCU)," Dr Keoliya told TOI.
The sanitation officer of the hospital Suresh Jhadode too said he knew about the incident but was helpless since that area was not in his jurisdiction.
Another senior officials at the hospital went a step further, and laid the blame on the people who passed by. "Patients and their relatives have no business coming this way; this is supposed to be a wasteland," he said.
Ideally, these needles and syringes should be cut or crushed before being disposed off in the incinerator. The way they are thrown on the ground outside the building, however, they seem to have been thrown out of the window of the counselling centre. This improper disposal of potentially harmful biomedical waste poses a danger of spread of infections.
"Being educated people, we knew the probable dangers of a small prick by a discarded needle. I wonder what a poor person with not much knowledge would have done under similar circumstances," said Jitendra.
District program officer Ganesh Periyar was on leave and did not know about the incident. However, he promised quick action.
"Our lab technician has been attending a training camp for the last ten days. We can't say for sure if the needles were thrown by our staffers. We stick to the universal norms of disposing our waste safely," he said.
Lab technician Atul Jangde said he never saw such a thing. "Had I noticed the needles when I was on duty, I would have notified the seniors and asked the attendants to clear it," he said.
Fortunately, after TOI spoke to senior officials, there was an inspection in the afternoon and everything had been cleaned up when TOI went to the spot again.
The CTC provides free AIDS counselling and testing to patients. The area outside this centre is strewn with infected material. This area is regularly used by relatives of patients as an access road to the only bathroom in the hospital premises. On Tuesday, a man was accidentally pricked by one of the needles while walking down the pathway.
"When my friend got pricked in the afternoon, we immediately rushed to the counselling centre upstairs. The counsellor told us it was nothing to worry about. We went to the superintendent Dr Ajay Keoliya afterwards to report the irresponsible act and he also took the issue casually," said Jitendra Singh Thakur, friend of the victim.
"I got the information really late in the day and had to leave as I had an examination the following day. Moreover, I would not be of any help since the issue is not under my jurisdiction. The centre is run by the District AIDS Prevention & Control Unit (DAPCU)," Dr Keoliya told TOI.
The sanitation officer of the hospital Suresh Jhadode too said he knew about the incident but was helpless since that area was not in his jurisdiction.
Another senior officials at the hospital went a step further, and laid the blame on the people who passed by. "Patients and their relatives have no business coming this way; this is supposed to be a wasteland," he said.
Ideally, these needles and syringes should be cut or crushed before being disposed off in the incinerator. The way they are thrown on the ground outside the building, however, they seem to have been thrown out of the window of the counselling centre. This improper disposal of potentially harmful biomedical waste poses a danger of spread of infections.
"Being educated people, we knew the probable dangers of a small prick by a discarded needle. I wonder what a poor person with not much knowledge would have done under similar circumstances," said Jitendra.
District program officer Ganesh Periyar was on leave and did not know about the incident. However, he promised quick action.
"Our lab technician has been attending a training camp for the last ten days. We can't say for sure if the needles were thrown by our staffers. We stick to the universal norms of disposing our waste safely," he said.
Lab technician Atul Jangde said he never saw such a thing. "Had I noticed the needles when I was on duty, I would have notified the seniors and asked the attendants to clear it," he said.
Fortunately, after TOI spoke to senior officials, there was an inspection in the afternoon and everything had been cleaned up when TOI went to the spot again.
2011年6月6日星期一
In the five-center study to be published in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy
“…Performing an EUS-guided biopsy with the new histology needle was feasible and safe for histopathology diagnosis of intraintestinal and extraintestinal mass lesions in this consecutive series of patients,” said the study in its conclusion. “It offers the possibility of obtaining a core sample for histological evaluation in the majority of cases, with an overall diagnostic accuracy of over 85 percent.”
Dr. Julio Iglesias-Garcia, the lead investigator of the study and associate faculty member at the University Hospital of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Gastroenterology department said, “the 19-gauge EchoTip ProCore needle by Cook Medical improves what is already an incredibly valuable diagnostic tool. The needle allows pathologists to sample a variety of lesions without compromising diagnostic accuracy, which could lead to earlier detection of GI malignancies.”
EUS is an established procedure for diagnosing GI cancers and determining the stage of their development. Most often, a very fine needle is used—but fine-needle aspiration (FNA) can have limited yield and sensitivity for certain kinds of tumors or in some anatomical locations and only procures a cytological sample.
The EchoTip ProCore needles circumvent this limitation by obtaining intact tissue samples2, allowing for a histological diagnosis rather than conventional cytological diagnosis based on individual cells. In addition to this advantage, the needles are designed to access difficult-to-reach tissue in areas of the GI tract such as the pancreatic head.
In the five-center study to be published in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the 19-gauge EchoTip ProCore retrieved adequate histological tissue samples in 89.5 percent of cases, and subsequent diagnosis proved accurate in more than 85 percent of total cases. The overall accuracy for detecting malignancy in EchoTip ProCore samples was greater than 92 percent. Moreover, 78 percent of the samples were collected with just one pass of the needle; in FNA, the recommended number of passes can be as high as seven. Researchers studied 109 patients with 114 intestinal lesions and/or peri-intestinal lymph nodes.
“Cook Medical’s EchoTip Ultra® line of needles are the world’s leading endoscopic ultrasound needles and are widely used for obtaining cytological and histological samples by EUS,” said Barry Slowey, global business unit leader for Cook Medical’s Endoscopy division, the industry’s only full-line supplier of endoscopic devices. “We’re proud to advance the technology in obtaining histological yields with the new EchoTip ProCore and further aid physicians in the early diagnosis and treatment of GI disorders.”
Dr. Julio Iglesias-Garcia, the lead investigator of the study and associate faculty member at the University Hospital of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Gastroenterology department said, “the 19-gauge EchoTip ProCore needle by Cook Medical improves what is already an incredibly valuable diagnostic tool. The needle allows pathologists to sample a variety of lesions without compromising diagnostic accuracy, which could lead to earlier detection of GI malignancies.”
EUS is an established procedure for diagnosing GI cancers and determining the stage of their development. Most often, a very fine needle is used—but fine-needle aspiration (FNA) can have limited yield and sensitivity for certain kinds of tumors or in some anatomical locations and only procures a cytological sample.
The EchoTip ProCore needles circumvent this limitation by obtaining intact tissue samples2, allowing for a histological diagnosis rather than conventional cytological diagnosis based on individual cells. In addition to this advantage, the needles are designed to access difficult-to-reach tissue in areas of the GI tract such as the pancreatic head.
In the five-center study to be published in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the 19-gauge EchoTip ProCore retrieved adequate histological tissue samples in 89.5 percent of cases, and subsequent diagnosis proved accurate in more than 85 percent of total cases. The overall accuracy for detecting malignancy in EchoTip ProCore samples was greater than 92 percent. Moreover, 78 percent of the samples were collected with just one pass of the needle; in FNA, the recommended number of passes can be as high as seven. Researchers studied 109 patients with 114 intestinal lesions and/or peri-intestinal lymph nodes.
“Cook Medical’s EchoTip Ultra® line of needles are the world’s leading endoscopic ultrasound needles and are widely used for obtaining cytological and histological samples by EUS,” said Barry Slowey, global business unit leader for Cook Medical’s Endoscopy division, the industry’s only full-line supplier of endoscopic devices. “We’re proud to advance the technology in obtaining histological yields with the new EchoTip ProCore and further aid physicians in the early diagnosis and treatment of GI disorders.”
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