currently 4:16pm Tuesday 6th January, 2009 (NYC, New York)
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February 2003 archives
The following are all the entries published for the month of February 2003. transplant nightmare
Monday 24 February, 2003 at 1:58PM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (3) I've been following a story via AOL news over the past week about a 17-year-old girl from Mexico who was undergoing a heart and lung transplant here in the US. After something like a 3-year wait, she went in for the operation with doctors saying she would only last another 6 months at best without it. Fair enough. I don't know how they could mess up something so basic, but they transplanted organs that were a completely different blood type from the girl. Of course her body rejected them almost immediately and she went into a coma and ended up on life support as a result. A stupid error like this would be enough in my mind to have a damn good case against the hospital for criminal negligence, but it gets worse. A few days later they found another donor (correct blood type this time) and went ahead with the operation. Funny how it usually takes 3 years waiting to get a donor and then they get one in a few days, probably trying to make up for their error and avoid a lawsuit. I bet the hospital legal team was having a fit. Anyway the operation itself appeared to be a success, but as a result of being on life support for so long the girl had suffered brain damage. A day or so after the operation, the doctors said she was brain dead with no chance of recovery, and then, according to AOL news, the hospital pulled the plug on the life support without informing her family first, and of course she died shortly afterward. I can barely perceive the level of incompetence and negligence that appears to have been displayed by the hospital working on her. I know President Bush is currently pushing for lawsuits against doctors and/or hospitals to have some sort of limit set on them, which I agree with in many cases, but this is one case where the patient appears to have died as a clear and direct result of incompetence and gross negligence, and I hope the people responsible get sued millions, have their medical licenses revoked and even get some time in jail. It's manslaughter. staten island explosion
Friday 21 February, 2003 at 1:00PM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (0)
Last night there was a fire at a Rhode Island nightclub when the band that was playing had a pyrotechnics display as part of their act, which accidentally set fire to the club. So far over 50 people are confirmed dead apparently, and there may be more. Not a good 12 hours. happy anniversary to the weasels!
Tuesday 18 February, 2003 at 8:12PM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (2) Happy anniversary to the Weasels! It's two years today since we 'hooked up'. Funny thing is, neither of us clicked until Fish and Thing sent us a congratulatory e-card earlier today (thanks guys, awesome card). We were both aware of it of course, but I thought today was the 17th (hey, I often don't know what day it is at the best of times, so you should be impressed). IceQueen knew it was coming up too but she is sick at the moment. Anyway we're both happy as ..as ..as two fluffy weasels. Yay us! record snow fall
Monday 17 February, 2003 at 11:28AM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (0) Well, they weren't kidding. It's still snowing full-on here. There's already over a foot (30cm) of snow on the ground and we're in the peak of the blizzard right about now. The weather people are saying it wont let up until late tonight, so who knows how much snow is going to on the ground by then? It's fortunate there is a public holiday today, or there'd be total mayhem out on the roads. I'll venture outside later on and have a frolic. I'll probably need to wear my snow guards that I use skiing (waterproof things that wrap around your lower leg and the top of your ski boot to stop snow going in your boots). Fun.
..update 6.30pm.. It's still snowing hard outside, but apparently it should be over soon... probably. Currently Brooklyn has accumulated 20 inches (over 50cm) of snow so far and NYC overall is about 1 inch short of breaking the record for the biggest snowfall on record since they began measuring (which is at least 130 years ago). Wow. Our swimming pool is only a few inches short of being totally filled with snow, and the pool is 6 feet deep at one end! The pic above was taken earlier today in Manhattan. the presidents day storm
Sunday 16 February, 2003 at 9:14AM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (0) Wow. I got up at about 8am this morning to 9°F temperatures with -9°F wind chill (about -12°C with wind chill of -23°C) ..brrrr. There is a huge snow storm on the way, due to hit NYC later today and last about 24hours. They're predicting over a foot of snow and are comparing it to the blizzard of '83 (I guess it was a memorable storm back then). Sounds like fun to me. I'll let you know what happens. ..update at 3pm.. kewl. -10°C and it's started to snow. I might go for a walk to the shops soon (only just down the road and around the corner a bit). It's very fine dry snow ...there's going to be some hellish powder skiing in the mountains later in the week. The weather channel is hilarious. Every 10 minutes or so they have this seriously dramatic music with bass drums banging away and huge orchestral crescendos and a full screen graphic saying 'The Presidents Day Storm!' in big bold dramatic font (it's Presidents Day tomorrow - a public holiday here). This is then followed by a current update spoken in urgent excited tones of where it's snowing at the moment and how much, with quick jumps to reporters supposedly in various locations standing in the snow stating the obvious (they're probably all standing in the same place and just pretending to be reporting from different places). This is of course interspersed with phrases such as 'We are now on high alert mode!' and 'we are now in severe weather mode!' etc etc. Major hype. I'm sure they could make watching paint dry seem exciting if they had a mind to do so. Damn funny. deleted
Thursday 6 February, 2003 at 10:10AM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (0) deleted happy birthday weasling! yay!
Monday 3 February, 2003 at 4:24PM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (0) Happy Birthday Weasling! Yay!
A few other famous people born on this day:
Other happenings on this day in history:
Wow. Most important of all is that today is IceQueens birthday! my harley davidson boots
Sunday 2 February, 2003 at 7:10PM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (0) It was my birthday recently and IceQueen got me some very kewl Harley Davidson boots. I wanted to pay for these myself but IceQueen insisted. She spoils me. My old Reebok Outdoors boots (very groovy $400 boots I got years ago in NZ made of gortex and suede - waterproof and warm as hell) are on their last legs, and as much as I love them, it was time to get something new for my feet for everyday wear before the Reeboks died completely. Actually I'll post a pic of them now so you can go 'ooh' and 'ahh' in appreciation.
Like 'em? I do. I have kind of wide feet so usually it takes a while to 'break in' new shoes for me, but these have been surprisingly comfortable right from the start. If anyone's interested, the model name of these boots is 'miner'. Real sad about the space shuttle disintegrating on re-entry yesterday. I was playing on the computer when I heard about it shortly after it happened. There's virtually zero likelihood of any terrorist involvement which I guess is a good thing in itself, but still, a tragic loss of life. |
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There's been a huge explosion this morning at the Staten Island Mobil oil storage facility. Apparently an oil barge with something like 100,000 barrels of oil exploded while unloading oil there. There's a massive dense black plume of smoke coming from it that brings back memories of 911 ..kinda scary. We're about 10 or 15 miles from it here, and the smoke from it has been coming directly overhead. The fire was initially huge, with flames going up to 500 feet it the air, although most of it has been contained now. Of course everyone immediately thought was terrorism, but in this case it appears to be an industrial accident. Curently two people are missing and one is hospitalised.
