SUN DAMAGE? WHAT SUN DAMAGE?

This is enough to make us want to stay in the dark for the rest of our lives. From the New York Daily News:

The New England Journal of Medicine has published a shocking photo of a 69 year-old man with unilateral dermatoheliosis -- severe damage from ultraviolet rays on one side of his face. 

The unnamed man, who gave permission for his photo to be used in new stories, told researchers that had driven a delivery truck for 28 years. 

Ultraviolet A (UVA) had penetrated the window glass, damaging the outermost layers and sublayers of his skin.

Yeah, that's gonna leave a mark.

FRANCISCO FRANCO'S TESTICLE IS STILL DEAD, TOO

Spanish dictator Francisco Franco had one testicle.

Australia's News.com reports:

It is believed his loss stemmed from a war injury in 1916 when Franco was wounded during battle at El Biutz, near Ceuta, which today is a Spanish enclave on the Moroccan Mediterranean coast.

On June 28-29, 1916, Franco, then a captain, led an attack in the region which was then a Spanish protectorate and was hit in his lower abdomen and seriously wounded.

The paper, citing several authors of Franco biographies, added that such an injury would have affected Franco's reproductive organs and made him sterile.

Some of us are not too young to get the joke.

DEATH IN THE E.R. LOBBY

Edith Isabel Rodriguez died of a perforated bowel last month in Los Angeles. Tragic, but not news.

But her death is a national story for several reasons. Two people separately called 911 as Rodriguez was dying and begged for paramedics to help her.

Both callers were spurned by emergency dispatchers -- because Rodriguez was already at a hospital. In the lobby of the emergency room. Bleeding out for 45 minutes as medical staff ignored her and a janitor mopped the blood Rodriguez was vomiting.

A report in the Los Angeles Times details the two 911 calls. The first came from Rodriguez's boyfriend, who was told paramedics wouldn't respond to a hospital.

The second call was made eight minutes later. A different dispatcher fielded the call from a woman, identified by the Times as "apparently another patient" at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital:

"Ma'am, I cannot do anything for you for the quality of the hospital there," the dispatcher said. "Do you understand what I'm saying? This line is for emergency purposes only ... 911 is used for emergency purposes only."

The woman replied, "This is an emergency, mister."

The dispatcher cut her off. "It is not an emergency. It is not an emergency, ma'am."

"It is," the woman said.

"It is not an emergency," the dispatcher replied.

"You're not here to see how they're treating her," the bystander said.

"OK, well, that's not a criminal thing. You understand what I'm saying?" the dispatcher said. ...

The 2 1/2 minute call ended on a hostile note.

"May God strike you too for acting the way you just acted," the frustrated caller told the dispatcher, just before 2 a.m. on May 9.

"Negative ma'am, you're the one," the dispatcher responded before disconnecting. ...

[Sheriff's Capt. Steven M.] Roller said the Sheriff's Department does not have a policy for responding to calls for medical aid from hospitals. He said the two 911 calls weren't linked by dispatchers because neither was deemed to merit a response, and therefore neither was logged in the computer as calls for service.

The second 911 dispatcher received written "counseling" for being rude, according to the Times. Edith Isabel Rodriguez was buried Tuesday.

GREEN-BLOODED MAN

Medical staff at a hospital in Vancouver were stunned recently when a patient started spilling green blood.

According to Sky News:

Tests showed the 42-year-old man's red blood cells had been absorbing sulphur, causing the strange colouring.

The patient, a Canadian, had developed "compartment syndrome" in both lower legs after falling asleep in a sitting position.

It is caused by restricted blood flow.

The report says the patient - who had been taking migraine medication, which caused the sulphur - recovered well.:

Didn't Spock have green blood?

A NOT-SO-NUTTY STORY

Benjamin Houghton, 47, is an Air Force veteran. He had a potentially cancerous testicle -- the left one, a very important specific in the story.

Houghton had surgery at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center last June.

Doctors removed his right testicle.

Houghton and his wife, Monica, are suing. According to this Los Angeles Times report:

"At first I thought it was a joke," said Houghton, who recalls being told of the mistake immediately afterward, while he was in recovery. "Then I was shocked. I told them, 'What do I do now?' "

Dr. Dean Norman, chief of staff for the Greater Los Angeles VA system, has formally apologized to Houghton and his wife.

"We are making every attempt that we can to care for Mr. Houghton, but it's in litigation, and that's all we can tell you," he said. Norman added that the hospital has made changes in its practices as a result of the case.

Perhaps now is the time to explore testicular transplants, with Dr. Dean Norman donating one of his own to Houghton. An eye for an eye, and all that.