Faculty Bibliography

Brave One [Motion Picture] -- As her body heals, she remains more sensitive to light and sounds and no longer feels safe. Back on the radio, [Erica Bain] comments that she has turned into 'a restless stranger who keeps walking, eating, living.' Aside from these feelings of depersonalization, she is riddled with anxiety and fear, and she survives by taking Valium, smoking cigarettes -- and creating a new identity as a vigilante. [Jodie Foster]'s portrayal of a severe untreated case of post-traumatic stress disorder is striking but obviously quite exaggerated. 'She didn't get the help she needed,' the actress has said of her character, as an explanation for why she snapped. Although aggression and even violence can be the result of untreated PTSD, a complete transformation to killer vigilante is very difficult to believe. 'Post-traumatic stress,' she says, 'is a mismatch between what we think the world should be like and what it is really like. We aren't prepared.'

Death at a Funeral [Motion Picture] -- The reality: Despite being a farce, 'Death at a Funeral' accurately portrays many of the medical realities of mixed hallucinogens, and the onset of the drugs' effects could well be within several minutes. Hallucinations distort shapes, movements and the passage of time. 'Good trips' may include euphoria and heightened understanding; 'bad trips' may involve terror and despair. LSD, which typically lasts for eight hours, alters perception and cognition while causing wild emotional shifts and intensifying the senses. Ketamine (a PCP-like drug known in recreational drug circles as 'Special K') lasts at most a few hours. That drug, an anesthetic (numbing) agent, leaves users semiconscious. 'They lose their coordination while at the same time feeling they are stronger and impervious to pain,' says Jim Adams, an associate professor of molecular pharmacology and toxicology at USC. This paradox is the reason ketamine users often die from drowning, Adams says, and it may explain why [Simon] believes he can climb around the roof so easily. One rationale for mixing in mescaline, a much less potent hallucinogen than LSD, is that it tends to make the hallucinations last several hours longer, Adams says. This appears to be the case for Simon, who shows no signs of improvement over the course of the film

Heartland [Television Program] -- The premise: At St. Jude's Regional Transplant Center in Pittsburgh, transplant surgeon Nate Grant (Treat Williams) is having difficulty finding a heart that is the proper size and match for 14- year-old heart failure patient Leslie Walker. Grant's ex-wife Kate Armstrong (Kari Matchett) is the transplant coordinator, and she approaches the parent of a dying potential donor who turns her down. Walker's mother then attempts to overdose on her daughter's morphine so that her own heart can be used. Armstrong finally finds a match, Sarah Evans, 24, who is dying from car accident injuries, and obtains consent from Sarah's father. During the transplant operation, however, the harvested heart becomes ischemic (doesn't get enough oxygen), and after the operation, Walker develops an irregular heartbeat, for which she's given mechanical support as well as anti-rejection drugs. Grant considers performing a new transplant, but Dr. Bart Jacobs, former chief of surgery, recommends Grant give the current heart 'a chance to take.'

'Golden Door,' originally called 'Nuovomondo,' a film directed by Emanuele Crialese (in English and Italian, with English subtitles), arrived in U.S. theaters in June. The premise: At the turn of the 20th century, Salvatore Mancuso (Vincenzo Amato) immigrates to the U.S. accompanied by his mother and his two young sons, one of whom is a deaf mute. Crossing the Atlantic, the boat encounters rough waters and several passengers are injured; some die. Landing at Ellis Island, prospective immigrants undergo a series of medical and psychological tests, including puzzle solving, and a brief medical examination in which their hair and eyes are inspected and they're screened for hernias, genital lesions and a cough. The physicians seem concerned about mental deficiencies, not wanting the mentally infirm and those with low intelligence to 'mix with our citizens,' and they place a chalk 'X' on Mancuso's mother's jacket for not clearly stating the current date. The authorities consider deporting her back to Italy along with her deaf-mute grandson

The premise: Ann Lord (Vanessa Redgrave) is lying on her deathbed at home, attended by her daughters. Wracked with pain, she appears to be dying of some kind of cancer and is receiving intravenous narcotics. Ann begins to talk about events of 50 years earlier, reliving the untimely death of her former beau Buddy at the wedding of his sister, as she, Ann, jilts Buddy and spends the night with his best friend, Dr. Harris Arden. For the rest of her life, she has blamed herself for Buddy's death and, in a feverish state on her deathbed, relives that fateful night. The nurse in attendance tells her daughters that the characters Ann is talking to and about 'might be real people and they might not' -- she seems to doubt that the memories are real. Indeed, Ann is frequently confused and delirious as death approaches and, among other things, hallucinates that she is visited by Dr. Arden wearing a stethoscope and that her night nurse is in a formal gown

El Cantante [Motion Picture] -- [Hector Lavoe] doesn't go to drug rehab, and he is not compliant with his antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication regimen. In 1985, he is diagnosed with HIV -- a time when AZT and other AIDS drugs were not yet available -- but his physician tells him he may not develop AIDS for several years or at all. Ultimately, Lavoe develops AIDS and dies of its complications in 1993. The medical questions: How common was HIV among intravenous-drug abusers in the 1980s? Were there any AIDS drugs available in 1985? How frequently do untreated HIV cases progress to full-blown AIDS (with immunodeficiency and opportunistic infections)? What were the most frequent opportunistic infections affecting AIDS patients in the 1980s and '90s?

The premise: In this fourth attempt at putting Jack Finney's classic 'The Body Snatchers' to the screen, there is a new twist. This time, instead of plant-like pods, it's an alien virus-like particle attached to the wreckage of the NASA Shuttle Patriot, and it begins to spread rapidly through the human population. The virus (in the jargon of the movie) interferes with sweat, causes a 'cellular condensation,' a 'metabolic reaction' and alters the body's 'genetic expression' by the 'integration of alien DNA' -- while turning everyone into emotionless robots. REMAKE: Nicole Kidman stars in 'The Invasion,' in which a virus alters the body's 'genetic expression' and turns people into emotionless robots.; PHOTOGRAPHER: Warner Bros. Pictures

In several studies, transmission of TB has been demonstrated only in flights much longer than the ones Speaker took. In the early 1990s, six passengers and one crew member who had active TB (two knew they had TB but didn't inform the airline; the others found out after the flight) were studied by the CDC, and their 2,600 contacts were followed. Only a few cases of TB conversion were found from close contact - on flights longer than eight hours. These patients (as opposed to Speaker) were all highly symptomatic and had TB in their sputum, and yet no one got sick from the exposure. Although Speaker is the first TB patient to be quarantined in 44 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he doesn't pose a significant risk to others. Consider that there have been fewer than 50 cases of this extremely resistant TB in the United States over the past 14 years. Catching any TB requires very close contact. The risk is 20 percent for close contact with someone sick with active TB. But the risk is probably much less than 1 percent for passengers on any of Speaker's flights because he wasn't coughing, had no fever and was receiving some treatment. There has not yet been a single case of active tuberculosis resulting from exposure on a plane

Vaccines are better preventatives than invasive procedures. Millions of women infected with the offending virus can develop pre- cancers requiring removal. These women must be carefully screened as they live in fear of one abnormal Pap test to the next. Given a choice, most women would prefer a vaccine to this unpleasant routine, and the $360 cost of the vaccine is far less than the thousands spent on a biopsy or colposcopy procedure. The problem with combating the human papilloma virus in the United States isn't only cervical cancer or precancerous cells. The problem also is an epidemic of sexually transmitted genital warts. The CDC says HPV causes more than 6 million new cases of genital warts in this country every year. Gardasil is not only effective; it's quite safe. It is a non- infectious, mercury-free vaccine genetically engineered using viral particles and simple yeast. Studies in 11,000 girls have shown it to be without significant short-term side effects. Dr. William Schaffner, vice president of the National Foundation of Infectious Disease and chairman of the Department of Preventative Medicine at Vanderbilt University, says: 'I strongly believe this great cancer- prevention benefit should be extended to all girls and young women for whom the vaccine is indicated.'

'Dr. [Albert Herrera] talked to me for over an hour and asked about my job,' [Andrea Untrojb] told me by e-mail. 'He not only wanted to know about my physical pain, but wanted to find out what else could be causing my emotional distress. I told him that my job put such a strain on me that I was coming home crying every day, yelling at my kids and arguing constantly with my husband. Dr. Herrera reassured me that many suffered with this problem. He gave examples from his own life and told me what I could do to relieve the stress,' including routines, meditation and exercise. While doctors often blame their lapses in attention and rushed demeanor on time pressures exerted by managed care, others say they can only preserve their identity as healers by remaining engaged and caring, regardless of the reimbursement. Pauline Chen, transplant surgeon and author of 'Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortality' (Knopf, 2007), writes: 'That honor of worrying -- of caring, of easing suffering, of being present -- may be our most important task, not only as friends but as physicians, too.' As for the personal approach, [Linda Donald] is sold. 'If a physician is able to completely focus on you as a patient, the likelihood of an accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment individualized to you is much greater. Not just an 'it seems like this, and therefore let's try that and see what happens -- come back next week.' '