Medical Treatments and Procedures

How the Low T Industry Is Cashing in on Dubious, and Perhaps Dangerous, Science

Alex Truman didn't think something was wrong until he returned to the gym. Before fathering his two kids, he worked out regularly and even made an early career of exercise. He had two degrees in health and fitness and ran gyms on the East Coast before he moved to Dallas and got into sales. Lean and ... More >>

Governor's Task Force Should Focus on Diseases You're Much More Likely to Get than Ebola

On Monday, Governor Rick Perry announced he will form a task force on preparedness and local response for infectious diseases that pose an active threat to Texans. The move comes in reaction to the recent Ebola case in Dallas, but many are saying that there are more important, and dangerous, disease ... More >>

The Military's Insurer Has Been Refusing to Cover This Little Girl's Therapy for Four Years

It's been more than two years since a federal administrative judge told Tricare, the Department of Defense-run healthcare program for military families, to pay for Kaitlyn Samuels' physical therapy. And for more than two years, Tricare has been stubbornly ignoring the decision. That's Tricare's pre ... More >>

It Really Sucks to Be Mentally Ill in Texas

Related: It Really Sucks to Be Old in Texas Texas' notoriously porous mental-health system is in the news even more than usual this week. At Parkland, the psychiatric ER is yet again facing allegations of patient abuse. Last weekend, Dallas Police shot and killed Jason Harrison, a 38-year-old sever ... More >>

Women vs. Big Pharma in the Battle Over Trans-vaginal Mesh

A simple procedure was supposed to help fix an embarrassing women's health problem. Instead it left women in pain -- and in a fight for their dignity.

The Flu in Dallas County is Killing About As Many People As It Usually Does

It's flu season, a fact you've probably noticed if you've experienced a bout of achy, feverish misery, or if you've seen the equally feverish news reports on the mounting death toll in North Texas, which reached 21 yesterday. To put this all in context, we spoke with Dallas County Health Director Z ... More >>

A Dallas Cryotherapy Center Accidentally Froze a Woman's Arm, Lawsuit Says

Many athletes, amateur and professional alike, swear by cryotherapy. The three-minute sessions, which take place in a chamber cooled to a chilly -220 degrees Fahrenheit, do wonders for muscle recovery, never mind the ambiguity of the scientific literature. It's like an ice bath, only better. So, wh ... More >>

Here Are Some Medical Procedures Texas Regulates Less Than Abortions

Placing tough new rules on abortion clinics is just common sense, according to common sense fanatic Rick Perry. He says that House Bill 2--the new law requiring all abortions to be performed in surgical centers, by a doctor with admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles -- will ensure "that ... More >>

A Cat Fight Over Declawing

A common surgery for pets becomes the next battleground for animal rights.

Dr. Christopher Duntsch, Plano Surgeon Suspended for Killing Patients, Gets Sued for Malpractice

All things considered, Mary Efurd is one of the lucky ones. She walked into Dr. Christopher Duntsch's Texas Neurosurgery Institute in Plano on July 25, 2012 and emerged with her life. The same can't be said at least two of his former patients, who died after Dunstch botched their surgeries, accordin ... More >>

Last Shot: The Questions I'm Tired of Answering About Cancer

[Editor's Note: Longtime concert photographer Andrew Youssef found out almost two years ago that he had Stage IV Colon Cancer. In that time, he has continued to shoot tons of music events for our sister paper OC Weekly on top of other freelance work and working a day job at a hospital, of all places ... More >>

A Tiger with a Runny Nose Turned into a Massive Case of Canine Distemper at a Big Cat Rescue in Wylie

The trouble started innocently enough, back in early May, when Cairo the tiger had a snotty nose. Vicky Keahey, the president of In-Sync Exotics, the Wylie rescue society where Cairo and several dozen other big cats live, wrote down the nose leakage in the cat's logbook on May 5. "I didn't really ... More >>

How Cancer Has Changed the Way I Photograph Concerts

[Editor's Note: Longtime concert photographer Andrew Youssef found out almost two years ago that he had Stage IV Colon Cancer. In that time, he has continued to shoot tons of music events for our sister paper OC Weekly on top of other freelance work and working a day job at a hospital, of all places ... More >>

Last Shot: Time Is Running Out

[Editor's Note: Longtime concert photographer Andrew Youssef found out almost two years ago that he had Stage IV Colon Cancer. In that time, he has continued to shoot tons of music events for our sister paper OC Weekly on top of other freelance work and working a day job at a hospital, of all places ... More >>

Kaitlyn Samuels, the Disabled Girl Whose Therapy Was Denied by the Military's Insurer, Has Found Help in an Unlikely Place: Congress

We've written about Kaitlyn Samuels twice: Once last February when her parents went before a military judge to argue that Tricare, the Department of Defense's health insurer, should cover therapy costs for their severely disabled daughter, and again in October after Tricare ignored the judge's order ... More >>

Slayer Helped Get Me Through Chemotherapy

[Editor's Note: Longtime concert photographer Andrew Youssef found out almost two years ago that he had Stage IV Colon Cancer. In that time, he has continued to shoot tons of music events for our sister paper OC Weekly on top of other freelance work and working a day job at a hospital, of all places ... More >>

Last Shot: A Concert Photographer's Battle With Cancer

[Editor's Note: Longtime concert photographerAndrew Youssef found out almost two years ago that he had Stage IV Colon Cancer. In that time, he has continued to shoot tons of music events for our sister paper OC Weekly on top of other freelance work and working a day job at a hospital, of all places. ... More >>

Darryl Johnston is Now Hawking a Medically Questionable Testosterone Booster

It's possible that there exists, somewhere, a human being manlier than former Cowboy Darryl Johnston. Maybe some real-world version of the Old Spice guy. But Johnston, a legendary fullback with a square jaw, three Super Bowl rings and the uber-masculine nickname "Moose," is certainly a close second. ... More >>

A Navy Captain's Increasingly Absurd Fight Against Military Insurer to Pay For Disabled Daughter's Physical Therapy

When Kaitlyn Samuels was 4 months old, her parents, Mark and Jennifer, worried that she couldn't reach for her toys. Doctors initially assured them that it was probably normal, but after two months brought little improvement they ordered a battery of neurological tests that revealed Kaitlyn had a ve ... More >>

'The Most Corrupt Apple Store in America' is in NorthPark

Gizmodo Wednesday had an anonymous tell-all from former employees of what it describes as "the most corrupt Apple store in America." Where might that store be, you ask? NorthPark. And how did the NorthPark Apple store earn such a notable distinction? Well, allegedly, according to some anonymous guy ... More >>

Man Sues Dallas Doc, McKinney Hospital After Losing Testicle, Length of Colon Due to Allegedly Botched Hernia Surgery

Pedro Hermenegildo didn't have insurance, so he paid Dr. Ricardo Rocha in cash to repair a hernia, a fairly routine, outpatient procedure. But according to a lawsuit filed against Rocha in a Dallas County district court last week, Hermenegildo lost much more than his hernial bulge. The surgery was ... More >>

Have Babies and Young Children, Dallas? You Might Want to Get Vaccinated Against Whooping Cough

Cases of pertussis, widely known as whooping cough, are on a "modest" uptick in Dallas County, county health officials say. So far this year, the number of cases is higher than in 2010 and 2011. And with the death of one infant this year, health officials say it's "very important for all adults who ... More >>

Disabled Girl's Treatment Coverage Depends on Definition of "Hippotherapy"

Mark Samuels, a captain in the Navy, and Jennifer, his wife, never imagined their first time in court would be fighting for healthcare benefits for their daughter Kaitlyn. The 15-year-old was born with an uncommon brain condition similar to cerebral palsy. She cannot communicate verbally and functio ... More >>

Film Critical of Komen, Pink Ribbons, Inc., Opens in Canada Today. No U.S. Date Set Yet.

​Amidst all the ruckus, resignations and double-talking over Susan G. Komen for the Cure's politically charged move to pull its breast-cancer screening funding from Planned Parenthood, you should also be aware: Dallas-based Komen's actually the subject of a documentary that opens in Canada today t ... More >>

How One Man's Witch Hunt Made Komen Decide to Cut Off Grants to Planned Parenthood

Perhaps you've heard by now: The Dallas-based Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation (don't bother clicking the link; the site's not loading) will no longer be giving grant money to Planned Parenthood, a move Planned Parenthood of North Texas says comes after "anti-women's health groups have repeate ... More >>

Center For Reproductive Rights Wants All Fifth Circuit Judges To Hear Sonogram Law Case

Rick Perry, signing the sonogram legislation​The saga of Texas's brand-new, Rick-Perry approved sonogram law continues. First, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a preliminary injunction issued by Judge Sam Sparks and allowed the law to go into effect. (That law, just to refresh, ... More >>

Judge OKs Texas's Sonogram Law, Making Governor Rick Perry Very, Very Happy

Texas's dandy new "sonogram law" -- which requires abortion-seeking women to look at a sonogram, hear a description of it from her doctor and listen to a fetal heartbeat -- is legal, a federal court ruled today. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a temporary injunction, issued by Judge ... More >>

Beating Up Babes in Toyland

Perry and Tea Party make a blue Christmas for needy kids.

Rick Perry's Manufactured Miracle

Rick Perry's Texas is a job-making, low-taxing oasis of prosperity. It's also pure fantasy.

Center for Reproductive Rights Has New Site For Lone Star Ladies and Other In Utero News

​Starting September 1, if you're a woman in Texas seeking an abortion, a few new things are going to happen at the doctor's office. You're going to be given a sonogram, have the image of the fetus described to you "in detail," and possibly be asked to listen to a fetal heart monitor (although you ... More >>

Hamilton and Cruz in Frisco Tonight? Might Be a Good Time To Take in a RoughRiders Game.

​John Blake just sent word: Josh Hamilton will return to the world of the baseball living tonight in Frisco, when he begins a rehab stint with the RoughRiders as Steve Buechele's second-place squad takes on the Midland Rockhounds. Hamilton, benched with a non-displaced hairline fracture of his rig ... More >>

The Picture's Kicking

Former Dallas Cowboys Running Back Ron Springs' Tale of Triumph Takes a Sad Detour Through Stagnation and Litigation

Turns Out, the Failed Superconducting Super Collider Was Kinda Super

How the SSC never became the world's largest skate park remains a mystery to science. It's been forever since the words "Superconducting Super Collider" were heard around these parts. Fifteen years ago Congress axed the project due to escalating costs -- what was supposed to run about $4 billion wou ... More >>

Rangers' Announcer Tom Grieve to Undergo Prostate Surgery

The Texas Rangers just announced that colorful color analyst Tom Grieve will undergo prostate surgery and miss 2-3 weeks of the team's TV broadcasts. They say these things are pretty common these days -- Mavs head coach Don Nelson and Rangers hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo come to mind -- but it's ... More >>

Dallas Has a Real-Life Dr. Gregory House in Dr. Richard Buch

Some call Dr. Buch a troubled genius. His ex-patients and hospital bosses call him trouble.

Three-Day Drink-On

You Say Can You C-Section?

In May 2006, The Dallas Morning News ran a piece about the rise in requested Caesarean sections amongst the area's "affluent, well-educated women." Turns out, according to the government, that was the year during which so-called maternal request Cesareans rose to an all-time high -- and the trend sh ... More >>

Why I Love Mark Cuban

Well, two reasons, actually. This one, natch; he's a great boss, by the way, no lie. And this one: This morning, the Mavs man had himself a colonoscopy, and then he went home to write about it. Why? I'm writing this post because I hated the fact that I was afraid of getting a colonoscopy. It honestl ... More >>

Shoot Up Your Kid

Is There a Sturgeon in the House?

Spent some time late last week speaking to N9NE Group founder Michael Morton (son of Arnie Morton, founder of Morton's The Steakhouse). We spoke of stainless steel, million-dollar kitchens and the Dallas efficacy of a N9NE Steakhouse in Victory Park, where cheap steak loots you 43 bucks and a cold-w ... More >>

Paging Dr. Hfuhruhurr

The BrainSUITE at Presby looks like something from Dr. McCoy's sick bay on the U.S.S. Enterprise. Not that we've ever seen Star Trek. Get our your datebooks: Says here that on November 30 at 3 p.m., neurosurgeons at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas will perform--during a live webcast, no less--a brai ... More >>

Monica at 10

A decade ago, Eduardo Greene abandoned his wife, his home and a successful restaurant, expecting a nightmare in pursuit of a dream

Best Blog

D magazine's FrontBurner

The Next Breast Thing

Build a better fake boob, and women will beat a path to your door, along with the occasional lawsuit

There's a "Can" in Cancer

Some of us might call it bad luck; he thinks of it as "25 minutes of new material"

From Russia, with bugs

Scientists from the former Soviet Union's top-secret biological weapons lab join with Dallas researchers to fight a common enemy: the deadly Ebola virus

Unacceptable Risk

Texas health officials say that mandatory childhood vaccinations against hepatitis B will prevent the spread of life-threatening illness. But which is riskier--the disease or the vaccine?

Letters

Prime cut

Religious circumciser Rabbi Michael Rovinsky is skilled, funny, and popular among both his Jewish and gentile clients. But is this mohel a brazen self-promoter who is maiming our children by doing God's work?