https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s4780019/audio/2022/06/sicklecelladults-feature-web.mp3 One night when Paul Gakpo was 9 months old, he fell sick and wouldn’t eat. His parents grew worried and rushed him to a nearby hospital the next morning. It was 1984. The doctors figured out baby Gakpo’s red blood cells were changing from the typical doughnut shape into the shape of a…
The U.S. is caught in a critical shortage of a drug known as contrast media that helps physicians diagnose conditions like a heart attack or stroke. Doctors perform about 50 million scans a year using the injectable drug, which is also used for cancer patients and gunshot and car crash victims. It helps them see…
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years — a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court’s landmark abortion cases. Friday’s outcome overturning Roe v. Wade is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states. The decision, unthinkable just…
https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s60/audio/2022/06/0617bvbirdfluweb.mp3 Nearly 5.5 million chickens and turkeys have died or had to be destroyed in Buena Vista County, Iowa, during the latest bird flu outbreak — more than in any other county in the nation. That’s impacted producers, as well as workers and their families. Colin Johnson has been around turkeys for nearly seven decades….
Teonna Woolford has always wanted to have six kids. “I don’t know where that number came from. I just felt like four wasn’t enough,” Woolford said. “And I never wanted an odd number of children. I don’t know. Six is a good number.” https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s4780019/audio/2022/06/sickelcell-fertility-feature-web.mp3 Listen to this story here. Woolford was born with sickle cell…
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, help is available. Contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 800-273-8255 or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. Updated June 16 at 2 p.m. SPRINGFIELD — Staff at Memorial Behavioral Health in Springfield, Illinois, are on call around the clock to…
SPRINGFIELD – At least 16 residents and six staff at the state-run veterans home in Manteno have tested positive for COVID-19 and one COVID-positive resident who was in hospice died Wednesday morning, according to the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs. All of the positive residents had received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine…
INDIANAPOLIS — Gary Gibson has a clear memory of his first conversation with his future wife Brenda Williams back in 1973. “Hello, my name is Brenda,” was the first thing Gibson remembers her saying. The second was, “I have sickle cell disease.” “I was like, sickle what?” Gibson said. https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s4780019/audio/2022/06/sicklecelldisease-story1-lackofresources-web.mp3 Listen to this story here….
SPRINGFIELD – Thousands more families in Illinois will soon be eligible for subsidized child care and child care providers will see a pay raise under a series of initiatives that Gov. JB Pritzker announced Thursday. Starting July 1, the state will invest more than $175 million in additional funding for child care and early childhood…
SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker has signed 401 bills sent to him this calendar year, leaving just 10 of those passed by lawmakers this year awaiting his action as of Monday. His most recent crop of signed bills from Friday, June 10, included a measure taking aim at wage theft in the construction industry and…
Dr. Meredith Niess saw her patient was scared. He’d come to the Veterans Affairs clinic in Denver with a painful hernia near his stomach. Niess, a primary care resident at the time, knew he needed surgery right away. But another doctor had ordered a chest X-ray instead. The test results revealed a mass in the…
URBANA – As the temperatures warm and people head out to local waterways, you are warned to avoid algal blooms. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and Illinois Department of Public Health say you, your family, and your pets should avoid touching, swimming, inhaling, or drinking water that looks like the following: looks like spilled, green…
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, help is available. Contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 800-273-8255 or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. HOUSTON — Jennifer Battle is open to just about anything to find people to answer the phones at her Houston-area crisis line. “It’s…
CHAMPAIGN – As Champaign Cycle slowly returns to its normal inventory, it’s experiencing price increases in bikes and bike parts that are indicative of the ongoing national bicycle shortage, which began after the sudden increase in sales at the beginning of the pandemic. As of May 13, a report from Statista found that Americans spent…
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Nancy’s ex-husband had been sober for almost a decade when the pandemic hit. Not long into lockdown, she said his behavior changed. Nancy quickly tied it to drinking. “He would basically sleep all day and be up all night,” she said. Side Effects Public Media is only using Nancy’s first…