Medical

Michael Moore was the first person to save seventeen-year-old Scott Dolezal’s life last year. The Westminster Schools maintenance staffer just happened to come into work that Saturday, August 1. He just happened to drive his utility tractor the long way around campus to avoid disturbing parents who were watching preseason cross-country trials. And he just happened to glance back over his shoulder after he passed a runner along the wooded trail—at the very moment the runner toppled silently into a deep ravine, where he hung hidden and motionless, feet tangled in brush, suspended headfirst over a creek.

Jeremy had gone hunting, so two days after Christmas, Brandy Green rose late to make breakfast alone. She and Jeremy lived in a small, white-brick ranch house near Brandy’s parents in Ellijay. Together six years, married three, they were having trouble getting pregnant and Brandy had started fertility treatments. She thought about this as the coffee brewed.

Worried about the flu? How shortsighted of you. Malaria is what should be on your radar. According to the CDC, malaria cases have reached a 40-year-high. In 2011, 1,925 cases were reported in the United States. Ninety-nine of those cases were reported right here in Georgia.

Afraid to fly? Emory wants you. Researchers are conducting a clinical trial using virtual reality to tackle fear of the not-so-friendly skies. Although virtual reality exposure therapy has been used before, researchers are adding a new twist. They want to see if this will prevent a relapse.

Need knee replacement surgery or emergency help for a heart attack? The hospital you choose can make a huge difference in whether you have complications or literally make it out alive.

If your child plays football or soccer, cheerleading or lacrosse, no doubt you've worried about concussions. A study released last week in the journal Radiology is the first to find that even one concussion can cause changes in the brain with possible long-term consequences.

Earlier this month, when the federal agency that runs Medicare released a database of hospital prices, it felt as though closely held secrets had been unveiled. But soon, there were just more questions: Who charges the most or the least? Why are some costs so high? And if you have insurance, does it matter?

It’s doing surgery as though you were immersed inside the patient. It’s as if the patient was wide open. You can be a few feet away, but you’re right on top of the pathology and you can see precisely what you’re cutting.

Breast cancer was just Yolanda Mitchell’s first bad news. A decade ago at age thirty, the part-time model and boutique owner endured a mastectomy and monstrous doses of chemotherapy and radiation.“It’s been all downhill from there,” says the surprisingly cheerful Mitchell, as she ticks off a laundry list of the procedures and diagnoses she began to face.