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01 Tennessee execution fails after inmate survives two lethal injection doses
Christa Gail Pike, a death row inmate in Tennessee, survived two doses of pentobarbital during a botched lethal injection last week. Witnesses reported that Pike remained conscious, asked if her arm was supposed to burn, and continued breathing and snoring audibly for more than 40 minutes after the second dose. Staff eventually ended the procedure and transferred her to a hospital. She is still alive.
Pentobarbital is a sedative that, in massive doses, is supposed to stop brain activity, breathing, and then the heart within minutes. When it fails, the usual suspects are a misplaced IV line (the drug leaks into tissue instead of the bloodstream), inconsistent drug quality from compounding pharmacies, or individual differences in how the body processes the drug.
02 Courts forced hospitals to give ivermectin. Most of those patients lived.
Attorney Ralph Lorigo told a Senate roundtable on September 28 that he represented 212 families across 40 states who went to court to get ivermectin for critically ill COVID patients when hospitals refused. He won 72 cases. Of those 72 patients who received the drug, only 3 died. In the 140 cases where he lost or couldn't get to court in time, every single patient died.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) called it "powerful evidence" and said federal regulators should have looked at it, even though it wasn't a randomized trial. The three who died after Lorigo won had already been on ventilators for more than a month.
One Texas patient won in court, but the hospital still refused treatment until he died. The FDA agreed in 2024 to strip its anti-ivermectin social media campaign after doctors sued.
03 Your memory may start slipping in your 50s.
Researchers scanned the brains of 61 healthy adults while they completed a memory test pairing faces with objects or scenes. Younger adults (18 to 30) got the pairing right about 36 percent of the time. People in their 50s got it right about 24 percent of the time. People in their 60s and early 70s scored around 20 percent.
The difference between the middle-aged group and the oldest group wasn't statistically significant, meaning the 50-somethings performed more like the 70-somethings than like the younger adults.
The brain scans showed something striking. In younger adults, the hippocampus (the brain region that forms and retrieves memories) stayed active in a pattern that helped lock in memories. That pattern weakened in people in their 50s and almost disappeared in the oldest group.
✿ QUICK HITS — ON OUR RADAR
Pennsylvania crossed 900 measles cases, adding 115 infections in a single week and reporting four deaths so far this year, the most of any state. Less than 1 percent of cases occurred in fully vaccinated people.
Most rural MAHA supporters say Trump hasn't improved health in their communities. An AP-KFF poll of more than 2,000 rural voters found 68 percent of those who identify with Make America Healthy Again feel the administration's policies have had no impact or a negative one where they live.
Dr. Nicole Saphier cleared the Senate health committee on a 12–11 party-line vote, the first surgeon general nominee to advance this term after earlier picks withdrew. She holds stock in several vaccine makers and has pledged to divest if confirmed.
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The heart valve that grows with your kid.
Children born with pulmonary valve defects have always faced a tough reality: as they grow, their replacement valves don't, which means repeat open-heart surgeries every few years.
The FDA just approved the first heart valve designed to expand as a child grows. Surgeons can implant the valve in a toddler at 13 millimeters, then widen it with a simple catheter procedure as the child gets bigger, eventually reaching adult size.
No more trips back to the operating room.