On Another Vein - Diseases and Conditions Affecting Children

Whenever I come across a disease, condition or affliction, where the target is children, I can't help but to speak up as these types of conditions always are tearjerker material. I knew from prior readings that some newborns/toddlers faced such major operations as kidney, liver and heart transplants but I never knew to the extent that the medical conditions that warranted these transplants existed. So I shall start a thread or discussion about (in laymans terms -I'm no expert) on pediatric conditions which occur abnormally but have a man-made cause, which in my opinion is the worse. If you can pre-emptively repair or fix a known problem which might adversely affect the life or lives of newborns or pre-age children, I say, spare no expense. If that condition is allowed to exist and fester and a child is affected to the point of serious injury or death, I say, go after the culprit(s) with both hands and both feet. Let us discuss pediatric medicine and specifically renal diseases and pediatric nephrology.


What is Pediatric Nephrology?

Nephrology is the scientific study of the kidneys, particularly their functions and diseases and a nephrologist is a physician who specializes in the kidneys. The kidneys remove waste from the body (urine), filter toxins from the blood and help regulate the concentration of certain elements in the blood. Children whose kidneys have become seriously impaired require immediate and specialized medical care. (From
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center)

The various diseases of the kidneys that pediatric nephrologists treat are:

Chronic kidney failure, Congenital urologic/nephrologic disorders, hematuria, hypertension (ACE Inhibitors), in utero kidney anomalies, kidney stones, renal stone disorders, renal transplants, urinary tract infection, nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, neutropenia. This information was referenced by the Mayo Clinic

It is not the suggestion that pediatric nephrologists are the causes of unnatural nephrology events or causes. They are very specialized and well trained and their area of medicinal practice usually is achieved by spending 11 years of training prior to achieving residency in this field. The causes that I refer to are injuries to the fetus during slips and falls, accidents such as auto or vehicular crashes, environmental conditions such as exposure to toxic and chemical environments during pre and post natal care and incorrect prescription of drugs with known side effects.

These are instances where the most thorough or successful personal injury attorney, medical malpractice or even product liability lawyers' services need to be utilized. To see a pregnant woman slip and fall and the fetus become injured because a pavement was not shoveled, a mopped floor was not flagged as having a slippery surface when wet or a cracked sidewalk not repaired is inexcusable. To have to relegate a newborn to a life of kidney dialysis, stones, diabetes and total or chronic kidney failure because of a preventable injury, should be prosecuted in court against the offender, so that the parents of the child can be sure that the child receives the necessary medical care, which is not inexpensive and can have a respectable quality of life.

Next Up: Ace Inhibitors - Their Use and side effects


Guide to Renal Conditions and Diseases Affecting Children

Changing Landscape of Brooklyn Part 2 (Hospitals)

During my last walking tour of downtown Brooklyn, I passed by this building, which is a condo development on the corner of Carlton Avenues and Greene Avenues:






It is an obscenity what they are asking for this building, which I suspect is a pre-capitalization on the Atlantic Yards/Nets Stadium project, which is only a few blocks away

Considering that the neighborhood is rich with history such as the old Brooklyn Eye & Ear Hospital, (see the old ad in a medical journal):



[Graduate Course in Ophthalmic
Plastic Surgery
The Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital will present
an intensive course in Ophthalmic Plastic
Surgery, April 24 through 26, 1974. For registration
and further information please contact
Dr. Vernon Dressier, Administrator, Brooklyn Eye
and Ear Hospital, 29 Greene Ave., Brooklyn,
N. Y. 11238.

or the old Adelphi Hospital at 50 Greene Ave (where this writer was born). Both are now high-end rentals/coops/condos. See the photo: and this headline in the New York Times of 1942:

"To stimulate interest among parents to purchase war stamps and bonds for their babies, the Adelphi Hospital, Greene Avenue and Adelphi Street, Brooklyn, held a baby health and beauty contest yesterday. Four "victory babies," winners in the competition, received paid-up war stamp books, which may be exchanged for bonds".



Now, both of these hospitals were in a simpler time: no stray bullets hitting innocent men, women or children, no medical malpractice claims or personal injury attorneys laying in wait at the entrance of the hospital. In fact, on Greene Avenue, one could leave ones door open in the early evening and nite in the summer to catch the breeze coming off of Fulton Street. Now, we have such behemoth-type hospitals such as Woodhull, which exist to only justify themselves. New York City government has taken going to the hospital for emergency care an adventure and it is no wonder that overbilling to medicare, New York personal injury, wrongful death and medical malpractice claims are through the roof in Brooklyn and the rest of New York.




A Photo of Woodhull Hospital

Up Next: Kings County Hospital