Health
Health Coverage on Weekend America
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Second Skeleton
Basketball season is starting for kids around the country. Parents can expect their kids to come home with scrapes, bruises, perhaps even the occasional sprained elbow or jammed finger. For one family, the consequences can be much more severe. Even the slightest injury to eight-year- old Justin Henke can inflame a dormant and destructive disease lurking within his genes.
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January Joiners
All right, so it's January, right? That means you're very likely to be in one of two groups: new member at the gym or old member at the gym who can't get on one of the elliptical machines at the gym because some new member is on it. Dang new members. The online slang compendium UrbanDictionary.com has a name for this phenomenon: "January Joining." It defines a "January Joiner" as someone who "joins the gym in January as part of a New Year's resolution and by February is back to being a couch potato."
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Changing the Emergency Room
The New Year brings a new president and the prospect of change to the U.S. health care system. Reformers want more people to have affordable care and health insurance. Massachusetts isn't waiting for the rest of the country on this issue. They're already pursuing universal health care for all residents. It hasn't been fully implemented yet, but ERs there are already changing how they deal with patients with chronic conditions.
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Weekend Soundtrack: "12 Diablos" by We
It's time to listen to your weekend soundtrack - the songs that bridge the gap from Friday to Monday. This week our story comes from Charles Wommack. His weekend soundtrack is the song "12 Diablos" by the group We.
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Donation Day
We're taking a look at stories that have stayed with us through the year. One of our producers, Marc Sanchez, received a FedEx package in early spring, and soon as he read the return address, he knew that they had found him. "They" are the National Marrow Donation Program. And Marc was going to have to face something he didn't even know he'd been avoiding.
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Running Across New Hampshire
I drive along Route 9 as the sun dips behind the mountains. I'm looking for two runners - Nate Sanel and John Lacroix - who are somewhere along this road, on their way to running 124 miles across the state of New Hampshire. Or at least, attempting to do so. When I finally spot them, they're 12 hours and 60 miles into their run - almost half-way done.
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Survivors of Suicide
Today is the 10th Annual National Survivors of Suicide Day. For survivors, getting over the grief, anger and the lingering questions left after a suicide can be difficult. Doug Merrill has lived through the suicide of eight people - most of them teens - in the bedroom community of Bowling Green, Ohio, just south of Toledo. Weekend America's Desiree Cooper went to hear his story of survival.
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A Sweet Potato Mystery
As Thanksgiving approaches, we approach a mystery of the produce aisle. The truth is, most of us have never seen a yam. The yams in the market are actually sweet potatoes, but a different kind of sweet potato than the vegetable next to it labeled a sweet potato. It's kind of confusing. Weekend America's Ochen Kaylan helps us sort it out.
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Kids and Stress
Children who spent their early years in orphanages offer researchers a unique opportunity to see how chronic adversity primes the brain's stress response system. New research comparing adoptees to children raised in biological families, or those adopted early from foster care, gives some surprising results.
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First Weekend Home: After the Coma
Traumatic brain injury - or an injury caused by a severe blow to the head - is the leading cause of death and disability for children and young adults. One of the most common causes of those injuries is car accidents. That's how high school student Justin Logan wound up in the hospital a few months ago. Reporter Tori Marlan followed Justin out of rehab and through his first weekend home in his mother's care.
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Campaign Addiction
The presidential campaign has been hard to avoid lately as we really get into crunch time. But following it can take many forms. Some Americans keep a casual eye on it. For others, it's different - the race is an obsession. But you've got to know where to draw the line. When does an interest in current events become dangerous to your health and happiness - an addiction?
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Conversations with America: Dr. Hugh Hill
Here at Weekend America we've asked writers and thinkers what they believe should be on voters' minds as they cast their ballots this election year. Our essay today comes from emergency room physician Hugh Hill. Dr. Hill has worked in emergency rooms for 28 years, dealing with the insured and uninsured alike. The patients he sees on a daily basis have shaped his view of the politics of health care in the United States.
