Word: blood
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...there is one large brick building that looks a little out of place. Inside are hundreds of rows of jars exuding an unpleasant smell. They are full of Hirudo medicinalis, more commonly known as leeches. But few locals are turning up their noses at the presence of so many blood-sucking annelids. Leeches are the flourishing industry in Udelnaya, a bright spot in a Russian economy hurtling into recession...
...leech therapy, also known as Hirudotherapy, around the world. Demi Moore last year spoke about the cleansing effects of leeches; Britain's National Health Service buys 50,000 bloodsuckers every year; the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved leech therapy in 2004 because they proved beneficial in increasing blood circulation for patients who have had skin grafts. (See a brief history of leech lore...
...chance of scarring, to dentists, who apply them on gums to reduce swelling, and even to gynecologists, who use them to treat sexually transmitted diseases (Yes. You imagine right.). The oral cavity of the leech is rich with an anticoagulant, which allows the animal to feed continuously on blood but which also delivers the anti-clotting substance more effectively to the area of a wound than would a small injection puncture. Indeed, leeches are used very much like syringes. After a leech is used on a patient it has to be killed. "It's like a disposable syringe...
...outlook for a patient depends in part on acting fast: call 911 or drive the victim to the hospital; do not wait to reach your own doctor. The rest turns on the type of injury. Richardson died of an epidural hematoma, an accumulation of blood between the skull and dura, the tough tissue covering the brain. A subdural hematoma is blood between the dura and brain. Both injuries have a mortality rate of about 50%. Intracerebral bleeding, which occurs within the brain, is even more serious. "Patients get redlined to surgery in 15 to 30 minutes" if they have...
...Senate is in the midst of a terrible crisis, and I'm here to help. First of all, there's the minifridge. Is this caramel? Moose blood? I have no idea. But when I miraculously scrub it clean, all Senator Jon Tester notices is the Heineken minikeg in the garbage. In Montana, he explains, you don't throw away beer, even on office-moving day. In New Jersey, I tell him, you get pizza and beer when you help someone move. In Montana, I learn, people don't take obvious hints...