Of the victims, 36 were patients and two were doctors. It’s been reported that only three people managed to escape the one-story building; fire officials are investigating the cause, but say it appears to have originated in a wooden annex of the hospital before spreading to the patient area. Because most of them were under heavy sedation, the victims were tragically burned alive in their beds.

In an unfortunate turn of events, not only did the fire spread quickly because of the wooden structure of the building, but firefighters were delayed arriving on the scene by more than an hour because they were forced to make a detour.

The Emergency Ministry is looking into fire safety protocol as Russia has a notoriously tragic past; about 12,000 deaths were reported in 2012 alone.

Image: Ministry for Emergency Situations

Now, it appears that the 41st president of the United States may be going home soon. Bush family spokesperson Jim McGrath has announced that he and the family are “hopeful” that Bush will be coming home later this week. From McGrath’s Twitter feed:

Follow @jgm41

Jim McGrath
@jgm41

Update on 41: “We are hopeful that the President can be discharged this coming week, but we’re still taking everything one day at a time.”

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
19 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

An HBO documentary titled 41 revealed last year that Bush has been battling symptoms of Parkinson’s disease in recent years. He can no longer walk on his own and relies on a wheelchair for mobility.

Bush was released from the ICU just before New Year’s and has continued to recover. McGrath stated around one week ago that the elder Bush had watched college football during his stay, and that “he has taken pride watching wins by Texas A&M and Houston Texans.”

“President Bush remains in the intensive care unit at Methodist Hospital, where he continues to improve. The President is alert and, as always, in good spirits – and his exchanges with doctors and nurses now include singing. The Bushes thank everyone for their prayers and good wishes and, like their doctors, are cautiously optimistic that the current course of treatment will be effective.”

Bush has been in the hospital for more than a month now, battling a fever that’s cause has not been released. This week, Bush was moved into the ICU of the hospital for staff to more closely monitor his condition, which was considered “guarded.” He was visited on Christmas by his wife, former First Lady Barbara Bush, and his son Neil Bush and Family. Other members of Bush’s family, including former President George W. Bush and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, have also visited him during his stay in the hospital.

Bush is currently 88 years old, but was known to be healthy and active in the months and years before his current hospitalization.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Bush’s fever is not responding to treatment with Tylenol. The fever rose on Wednesday, December 24, but doctors are reported to have said Bush has improved since that time. Bush is now considered to be in “guarded” condition. The cause of the fever has not been released.

Bush was the 41st president of the United States, serving one term from 1989 to 1993. Before being elected president, Bush flew 58 U.S. Navy combat missions during World War II. He went on to become the director of the Central Intelligence Agency and President Ronald Reagan’s vice president from 1981 to 1989.

The Associated Press (AP) is reporting that Bush was visited on Christmas by his wife, former First Lady Barbara Bush, and his son Neil’s family. The other members of Bush’s family have also been able to visit him in the past month, including former U.S. president George W. Bush, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

Despite being 88 years old, Bush was known to be healthy and active in recent years. He celebrated his 85th birthday, just three years ago, by jumping out of an airplane:

Kevin Callahan, president and CEO of Exeter Hospital, recently released a statement to address the matter. He explained, “It is deeply disturbing that the alleged callous acts of one individual can have such an impact on so many innocent lives. As a result of his alleged actions, people in our community, who in many cases are the friends and neighbors of the 2,300 people who work here, now face the challenge of a potentially chronic disease.”

Kwiatkowski’s co-workers at the hospital stated the man frequently acted peculiar, as if he was up to something suspicious. During CCL procedures, he would often leave abruptly, which led some witnesses to theorize that he was on some sort of drug. One co-worker even stated that Kwiatkowski was once spotted on-duty with an extremely red face and foam around the corners of his mouth.

“The evidence gathered to date points irrefutably to Kwiatkowski as the source of the hepatitis C outbreak at Exeter Hospital. With his arrest, we have eliminated the menace this ‘serial infector’ posed to public health and safety,” explained United States Attorney John P. Kacavas.

Although Kwiatkowski stated he discovered he was carrying the virus in May of 2012, investigators eventually learned the truth: he actually tested positive for hepatitis C in June of 2010. What makes this story even more alarming is the fact that Kwiatkowski was once a traveling medical technician whose job took him to over six different states. No word yet if any of the other areas he visited have experienced the same problems.

“I am so proud of my daughter,” Elmer Town, Heather’s father, told WGRZ-TV. “I can picture her holding that little girl of hers. She died for her.” Town added that his granddaughter suffered a broken pelvis and broken ribs.

Heather Town died at the scene from the injuries that she suffered but her daughter Anne Marie is currently in stable condition at Tampa General Hospital.

“When they found her, she was literally holding her baby, her little girl,” neighbor Kim Bass told WTVT-TV. “They took the little child from her because she was having a hard time breathing and she had barbed wire on her and was in a very dense section of woods, about 50 feet back there.”

This was the ultimate sacrifice that this lady made for her child and I hope that little Ann Marie has a happy and productive life!

In what may be a first for a hospital, the Houston branch of Memorial Hermann hospital is live tweeting a brain surgery. The doctor in charge of the operation is Dr. Dong Kim while Dr. Scott Shepard Tweets out all the details with pictures of the surgery.

This is all pretty cool and I’m sure it’s really educational, but it’s just kind of gross. I’m sure those in medical professions or studying medicine are absolutely loving this, but I’m having a hard time just looking at the pictures.

Still, this just goes to show you that Twitter has become massively influential in how we communicate. I’m sure that Facebook would have something to say about a doctor updating a surgery live with pictures, but Twitter seems to be ok with it. It’s all in the name of education at least.

The surgery will last for four hours and the doctors will be Tweeting for the entirety of it. Here’s some of the hightlights of the surgery so far. Depending on where you work, some of the images linked in the Tweets may be NSFW.

And that’s the last we’ve heard from the surgery. It seems like the surgery is about over. If you want to get caught up and see all the lovely pictures of somebody’s brain, check out the recap page. Once again, some of these pictures may be considered graphic and NSFW based on where you are.

Do you think doctors should use social media to broadcast surgeries and other procedures? Does it open up new venues for medical education? Let us know in the comments.

[Thanks Reddit]

“It wasn’t anything to do with any ailments or any discomfort he felt,” Alastair Johnston, Palmer’s longtime business manager said. “The blood pressure was at a level where the doctor involved suggested that he go immediately to get more intensive evaluation at the hospital.”

While his overnight stay in the hospital was mostly for observation, it caused Palmer to miss the end of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where Tiger Woods won for the seventh time. Usually one of the perks of winning the tournament is getting to shake hands with Palmer on the 18th green during the trophy ceremony, but Woods had to forgo the honor this year. He later tweeted a message to the golf pro:

Fans sent well wishes via Twitter, as well:

On March 11, a gay man was shot in a Columbia Heights IHOP after an altercation with a group of people seated near him. According to a police report, says the Washington Blade, the victim was berated by the group–composed of two males and one female–who repeatedly called him and his companions “faggies”. When the victim got up to pay his bill, the three suspects blocked his path and a fistfight ensued, during which a shot was fired. The victim, who did not want to release his name to the press, is currently being treated for a gunshot wound to his liver and is expected to be released from the hospital next week. Police have released descriptions of the three suspects and have listed the assault as a “hate crime with intent to kill”.

The second incident occurred just one day later when a 29 year-old gay man was assaulted while walking home on the evening of March 12th. Witnesses say he was attacked by two or three males, who hurled anti-gay insults at the victim while the beating took place. They left him with head injuries and a brutally broken jaw, which was so seriously injured that the victim had to be given a breathing tube to keep his airways from closing. Incredibly, after the first set of attackers left him on the street, a second group came along and robbed him, taking his cell phone, wallet, and iPad. Luckily he had already managed to call for help before lapsing into a semi-conscious state.

The third assault happened just a couple of hours later when a transgender woman was attacked from behind by two males. She reported being hit and knocked unconscious. Because her police report indicated that she couldn’t remember whether anything had been said by her attackers, the police didn’t immediately file it as a hate crime. The victim says she believes that her transgender status was the reason she was targeted, however, and the assault has since been classified as such.

Hate crimes such as these are not an uncommon occurrence, unfortunately, and while groups such as GLOV (Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence) appreciate the efforts of local police to work as quickly as possible to find those responsible, they also want to make it known that preventative efforts must be in place as well.

“We appreciate [D.C.] Metropolitan Police Department’s prompt action regarding the recent attacks and we offer the victims our strongest support while recovering,” said A.J. Singletary, chair of GLOV. “We expect MPD to respond by increasing patrols in the affected areas and tenaciously investigating the crimes committed.”

GLOV also released this statement on the DC Center blog, on behalf of the Metro Police Department:

“On Sunday, March 11, 2012, at approximately 6:30 am, officers from the Third District responded to the IHOP located in the 3100 block of 14th Street, NW, for a report of a shooting. Upon their arrival, they located a victim suffering from a gunshot wound. Personnel from the DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services responded to the scene and transported the victim to an area hospital for treatment.

An investigation revealed that the victim and an adult black male subject were engaged in an altercation inside the IHOP restaurant.

It is believed that the adult male subject who was initially in the altercation with the victim was accompanied by at least two other black male subjects and one other black female subject. Detectives are requesting that anyone with information regarding this incident or the identity of these subjects is asked to contact MPD at the below listed number.

Anyone who has information regarding this case should call police at 202-727-9099. Additionally information may be submitted to the TEXT TIP LINE by text messaging 50411. DC Crime Solvers currently offers a reward of up to $1,000 to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for any assault with the intent to kill committed in the District of Columbia.”

Twitter was flooded by public response to these hate crimes, which have as yet been unsolved.

Kentucky interests your favorite writers here at WebProNews, as this is where we live and work. We’re jealous of the design of the California site, a straightforward approach that asks for a location, gives a list of hospitals, and visually shows how they rate while allowing visitors to look at more information if they wish.

The Kentucky site is pretty good. It’s been developed with what looks like a bureaucratic sensibility; I’m not saying it needed to have pastel colors and rounded corners, but visually it’s pretty obvious Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive weren’t in the approval chain for the look and feel of it.

People have to know which Area Development District contains the hospitals they want. In WebProNews land, Bluegrass is an instinctive choice. An option for selecting by city or zip code would be a lot easier here.

Choose an Inpatient Quality Indicator, then hit the Run button. Easy, but again, not instinctive even though the site explains the steps to generating a report. Anyone who is used to the typical web form approach with a Submit button at the bottom of a page may be glancing around before finding Run at the top left.

Results of a query appear in a table. Green text means a Risk Adjusted Rate of mortality is significantly lower than the national average. Red means significantly higher. Lower is much, much better.

It’s a good first effort on the part of the state. The site needs a lot more work on its user interface; people shouldn’t be able to pull up ugly Crystal Reports-related options like Prompts from the Refresh Data button link, because they will make no sense to the typical citizen.