Word: spinal
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...national average, but up to 20% of income is based on teams' achieving performance goals. If the cardiac group keeps its complication and readmission rates below a certain level, paychecks get fatter because costs decrease. Ditto for the pediatric orthopedic team, which must successfully treat kids for, say, spinal curvature without being too quick with the knife for those who don't need surgery or too slow for those who do. "We keep cash compensation flexible and incentivized," Steele says. "That takes away some of the insane piecework...
...seeds of this study were planted about two years ago, when a patient named Damir Janigro was being prepped for spinal surgery. Janigro, who is also a neuroscientist at the clinic, lay captive to the nerve-racking din of the operating room and in his frazzled state thought about how dentists often give their patients earphones to help ease anxiety. (See the top 10 medical breakthroughs...
...spinal cord is very sensitive and any minimal pressure on it, twisting or stretching, and it stops working - usually permanently," says the surgeon. The skull sits on the top vertebra "just like Atlas holding the world on his shoulders; that is what C1 does," says Bhatia, referring to the anatomical designation of the vertebra. In Wilhite's case, all of the ligaments that hold the skull on top of C1 were "completely torn" and there were small fractures to C1 itself. "It is very unusual today to have three healthy young people die in a car crash," says Bhatia...
...vertebra could have shattered when he was drilling the holes, the affable and precise Bhatia answers, "They don't shatter as long as you do it correctly." During the operation, a neurological team sent electrical impulses from Wilhite's brain to his arms and legs to monitor spinal-cord function...
...addition to having his skull unanchored and spinal cord put in mortal danger, Wilhite also suffered a brain injury called "brain shearing." While a concussion damages the part of the brain that strikes the side of the skull, Bhatia says brain shearing occurs when a powerful blow whiplashes nerve endings across the entire brain. At a charity game at Cal State Fullerton in July, the Wilhite family thanked the paramedics and doctors for saving Jon and offered their condolences and prayers to the Adenhart, Pearson and Stewart families. At the time, Wilhite spoke haltingly, walked stiffly and heavily favored...