Word: armfuls
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Ellen Zane, who heads Partners Community Healthcare, Inc., the network arm, aims to increase that number to 850 in about five years -- though she faces intense competition from two other networks that are also signing up doctors at a frenzied pace. At times the competition gets bizarre: the 20-physician Concord Hillside Medical Associates in a Boston suburb was bought out by the Lahey Hitchcock network earlier this month. But Emerson Hospital in Concord, where the Hillside group sends many of its patients, is simultaneously negotiating to join the rival Partners network. "The situation is filled with fault lines...
Patient "X" is much more clearly ill. She has suffered a major stroke; her entire left side is paralyzed. It's obvious to everyone that she's severely impaired -- everyone, that is, except her. Ask her how she feels, and she responds, "Just fine." Point out her lifeless left arm, and she seems baffled. She can be convinced, through persistent effort, that the arm doesn't work. But a few minutes later, she has forgotten all about...
Another well-documented example of the brain's need to fill in the blanks is the phenomenon of phantom limbs. When an arm or a leg is amputated, the victim almost invariably "feels" sensations like pain or itching, often very strongly, in the missing limb. What's happening? The brain carries within it a mental map of the body, a well-formed sense of where every part is in relation to every other. That's why it's possible for you to extend your arm and then, with your eyes closed, bring it in to touch the tip of your...
...remains, and the neurons formerly responsible for processing sensations from it occasionally fire at random-the sensory equivalent of Mickey Mouse hallucinations. The brain also attempts to make up for the deficit physically, perhaps, suggests Ramachandran, by sprouting new sets of connections. Because neurons that process information from the arm are near those that handle the face, for example, these new connections can cause a blindfolded patient to think a gentle touch on the face is really a touch on a missing fingertip. Says Ramachandran: "Reorganization can occur in a period of weeks...
Speaking before Congress, several of these militia members lined up to explain the threats that compel them to arm and prepare for the eventual confrontation with a government gone mad. Along with murdering innocent civilians (and Vince Foster), the federal government, reports one militia leader, operates diabolical machines to create tornadoes to "confuse" midwesterners. That sounds reasonable. It looks like these wackos have been to Oz and back...