After fighting for his life, holds mom finally newborn

Tommy Scott was not worried when his pregnant wife called to tell him she thought she was on the road with a migraine. But when he came home from work, Tommy found amber, 38 weeks pregnant, laying in their bedroom do not react with one eye open and the other closed, Moaning and vomiting.

"Rush of course everything through your head," Tommy told today's Natalie Morales. "I phoned 911 right away and the ambulance was there within 10 minutes and we were at the hospital right away. But it was crazy. "

Doctors determined that the 29-year-old Amber had a ruptured blood vessel in his brain — a condition that occurs in approximately six out of every 100,000 pregnancies.

Surgeons elected to deliver her baby by C-section, and then to operate on Amber's brain.

Initially, everything seemed fine as Amber started to come out of the anesthesia.  But then things took a frightening turn and she was once again responding. Realizing that the Ambers brain had started to swell rapidly, doctors removed part of her skull to protect her brain from being crushed against the bone.

A month later, Amber woke up, but was not well enough to talk himself. All the while watching her family visited regularly, showing Amber photos of baby, Adeline, she had yet to hold or even.

"We wanted to let her know the baby was okay," Tommy told today.  "Since day one we have shows her images."She started to smile a little.  She always smiles now. "

On Sunday, for the first time got Amber to keep her baby and begin to care for her.

"She kept the bottle and fed her," Tommy told today.  "She needs a little assistance, but the most important part, she grabbed the bottle and went right into the mouth. She knows what is going on. For the first time, smiled Adeline also. "

Amber is still got a long way to go. Doctors predict she will be in intensive rehab for weeks working to regain speech and motor skills.

But they say are positive signs.

"She now communicates with us," said Dr. Andrea Toomer, a doctor at West Jefferson Medical Center, just outside New Orleans, today. "She can tell us what she needs and what she wants, what Bothers her. She is able to ask questions about what is going on. "

It is enough for a start to Amber's mom.

"The fact that she witness Adeline now that she recognizes her, that makes me feel better," said Laura Rabalais today.

For Tommy, who had been looking forward to the day when he and his wife would be parents, it has been "bittersweet."

"Of course you satisfied," he told Morales. "I am happy that I am a father now. But of course I will be with yellow all the time, too.

"Amber was so excited for the last nine months. Her whole life, everything revolved around making sure everything was prepared for Adeline. It is so sad. But we try to include Amber in everything we can. We always tell her daily activities. We do our best to keep her informed. "

Tommy takes hope from the speed of Ambers progress so far.

"I never would have thought that we would be this much sooner, compared to where we were we first started," he told today. "She has motivation to get better, and I believe she will definitively".

More health today:
Aimee Copeland in ' high spirits ' in rehab
Fantastic MRI video shows birth from the inside
Dangerous ride? ATV deaths Prompt safety warning

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Intimidation Tactics? Prof demoted after criticizing university for PSA seminar

About 20 months ago, Dr. Michael Wilkes of UC-Davis and a colleague wrote an editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle, “PSA tests can cause more harm than good.”  He questioned his institution’s public event for men focusing on prostate cancer screening.  Excerpts of the editorial:

“Sadly, most men are never told the facts about the test, nor are they encouraged to make their own informed decision. The UC Davis course doesn’t even acknowledge a problem with prostate cancer screening. Its expert presenters – including two urologists and a professional football player (!) – will tell you that you need to “know your (PSA) statistics” beginning at age 40. …

We can’t say why UC Davis offers this course that ignore scientific evidence, but we wonder whether it just might have to do with money. Testing for and treating PSA-identified cancer is a large part of the practice of many urologists so it may not be surprising that urology groups take a far more positive stance on the test than almost any other doctors. They also fund a pro-PSA lobby that now includes the National Football League.

Health care spending is threatening to wreak greater and greater havoc on our economy. That’s not to say we shouldn’t invest in treatments that lead to improved health, even when they’re expensive.

And UC Davis, the NFL and surgical device companies have the right in our society to promote events in order to increase their profits. But we worry when companies and doctors with a conflict of interest sponsor what could be considered an infomercial endorsement to unsuspecting men without telling them they might end up being harmed as a result of a simple PSA blood test.”

Last week, InsideHigherEd.com reported that hours after that editorial was published, UC Davis administrators kicked off a series of steps to remove Wilkes from leadership positions he had held.  Excerpt:

Now, a committee on academic freedom at the university that investigated allegations of intimidation and harassment against Wilkes has found them to be true. The faculty committee said in its report, a copy of which was obtained by Inside Higher Ed, that the actions of the university administrators cast doubt on its ability to be a “truthful and accountable purveyor of knowledge and services.”

The group has asked the dean and other top officials at the university’s school of medicine to write letters of apology to the professor, admit to errors of judgment, stop proposed disciplinary actions against him and take steps to prevent future violations of academic freedom.

At the end of last week, the UC Davis Academic Senate Representative Assembly voted 52-0 to:

affirms the right of academic freedom of Professor Michael Wilkes and all other faculty to publish scholarly articles and professional expert commentaries that address ethics and societally relevant critiques.call upon the Dean, Executive Associate Dean, and the Health System Counsel of the School of Medicine of the University of California, Davis, all to:

1. Accept promptly and publicly responsibility for serious errors in judgment;
2. Write individual letters of apology to Professor Wilkes;
3. Rescind in writing all disciplinary actions that have been stated, proposed, or taken
against Professor Wilkes.

Also:

Resolved, That the Representative Assembly of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate expresses severe disapproval of the notion that the University of California may take legal action against professors whose scholarly publications or professional expert commentaries may be perceived by University administrators to be injurious to University interests.Resolved, That the Representative Assembly of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate calls upon the Chancellor of the University of California, Davis, within six months to:

1. Take concrete steps to prevent future violations of rights of academic freedom and
report to the Davis Division the steps that have been taken to this end.
2. Have the Dean of the School of Medicine take appropriate training to prevent
academic freedom violations.

Finally, in a 50-0 vote, the Assembly added a resolution:

That the Representative Assembly condemns Health System and Campus Legal Counsels for drafting inappropriate and apparently threatening letters that violated a faculty member’s right to academic freedom.

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