A 67-year-old retired doctor has given birth in China — potentially making her the country’s oldest new mother.

The woman, surnamed Tian, gave birth to a girl on Friday at Zaozhuang Maternity and Child Health Hospital, where she had worked as a doctor before retiring, in the country’s northeastern Shandong province.

A hospital spokeswoman told CNN that Tian fell pregnant naturally after using her medical knowledge to self-administer traditional Chinese fertility treatments.

The baby was delivered via a cesarean section. “We were quite lucky, given that the mother was at an advanced maternal age and had a variety of complications,” Liu Wencheng, the physician in charge of the delivery, told state-run broadcaster CCTV. The baby reportedly weighed 2.56 kilograms (5.6 pounds) at birth.

Liu said that “during the cesarean section, we found that Tian’s ovaries were just like the ones of a 40-year-old woman. They hadn’t shrunk like a 60-year-old’s ovaries would have, which might explain how she got pregnant naturally.”

Tian and her child were transferred to an intensive care unit immediately after the delivery, but their vital signs were at normal levels as of Monday, the hospital spokeswoman told CNN.

‘Gift from heaven’

Speaking to the Qilu Evening News, Tian’s husband, a 68-year-old surnamed Huang, said the couple had decided to name their new baby Tianci, which means “gift sent from heaven.”

The elderly couple already have two grown children, a son and a daughter, and several grandchildren, he told the paper. Their eldest grandchild turned 18 this year.

The two children had objected to their parents having another baby. “My daughter even said that if I gave birth to this little baby, she would sever all ties to us,” Tian told CCTV.

Many older women are striving to have more children in China since its one-child policy was lifted in 2016, leading to a surge in demand for fertility treatments

Tian may now be the oldest woman to give birth in the country. According to the state-run China Daily, the previous record was held by a woman from Changchun, in east China’s Jilin province, who gave birth to a baby boy in 2016 at the age of 64.

In September, a 73-year-old woman in India gave birth to twin girls, conceived through IVF. Erramatti Mangayamma, a farmer from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, is believed to be the oldest person to give birth.

via: https://pix11.com/2019/10/28/retired-doctor-67-gives-birth-in-china-after-getting-pregnant-naturally/

Photo Credit: pix11.com

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s low-profile appearance Sunday night at Game 5 of the World Series came at a high-profile moment of his presidency. Yet he still drew loud boos and jeers when introduced to the crowd.

Wearing a dark suit and a tie, Trump arrived at Nationals Park just before the first pitch of the Houston Astros-Washington Nationals matchup. Hours earlier, he had announced that U.S. forces had assaulted the hiding place of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in the raid in northeast Syria.

A military success against a most-wanted enemy of the U.S. and its allies could have provided the president a rare moment of bipartisan comity, especially amid a divisive impeachment inquiry.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump entered a lower-tier box to the left of home plate as the game got underweay. At that point his presence wasn’t formally announced, but baseball fans in the section just below Trump’s suite turned to look toward the box as he arrived. Some waved at the president as he smiled and gave a thumbs-up.

At the end of the third inning, ballpark video screens carried a salute to U.S. service members that drew cheers throughout the stadium. When the video cut to Trump and his entourage and the loudspeakers announced the Trumps, cheers abruptly turned into a torrent of boos and heckling. Chants of “Lock him up!” broke out in some sections.

Trump appeared unfazed and continued waving. Later, some fans behind home plate held a sign reading “VETERANS FOR IMPEACHMENT”.

Until Sunday night, Trump had yet to attend a major league game as president even though the White House is a few miles northwest of Nationals Park. A dozen or so congressional lawmakers accompanied the president, according to a list provided by the White House, including Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and David Perdue Georgia.

“I think everybody is excited,” Nationals star pitcher Stephen Strasburg said before the game. “It’s the president of the United States. So there’s obviously beefed-up security. So usually the dogs that are sniffing in our clubhouse are these nice Labs that are super friendly. And today there was a German shepherd that I didn’t really feel comfortable petting.”

Nationals manager Dave Martinez said: “He’s coming to the game. He’s a fan. Hopefully he cheers for the Washington Nationals, and I hope he enjoys the game.”

Trump’s staff has long tried to shield him from events where he might be loudly booed or heckled, and he has rarely ventured into the neighborhoods of the heavily Democratic city. He won just over 4% of the vote in the District of Columbia in 2016.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said he discussed with Trump whether he’d like to throw out the ceremonial first pitch, but the president declined while citing the disruption that would cause fans getting to the ballpark.

Washington Nationals principal owner Mark Lerner told the Washington Post that Trump should be at the game, but he made clear that he did not invite Trump to throw out the first pitch, saying there were many other candidates that should be considered before Trump.

Jose Andrés, a prominent local restaurant owner and humanitarian, threw out the first pitch to a roaring, sustained ovation. He has a history with Trump, too, both in business and in politics.

Andrés has repeatedly opposed Trump’s immigration policies and his administration’s response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Four years ago, he withdrew from plans to open a restaurant in the Trump International Hotel in Washington following Trump’s controversial comments about Mexican immigrants during the presidential campaign. Legal action ensued and the dispute was settled in 2017.

via: https://pix11.com/2019/10/27/trump-draws-boos-when-introduced-to-crowd-at-world-series/

Photo Credit: pix11.com

Meredith) — A Georgia driver survived after multiple logs from a logging truck pierced the windshield of his SUV, according to authorities. 

Dramatic photos of the crash show the logs stretch all the way to the SUV’s rear hatch. 

The crash happened earlier this month on Oct. 11 in Cohutta, WTVC-TV reported. 

Fortunately, the driver suffered only minor injuries, according to the Whitfield County Fire Department. Transforming financial enterprises with innovation.Explore new business models based on integrated partner ecosystems that infuse financial services throughout customers’ daily lives.Ad By IBMSee More

The department posted several photos of the crash to Facebook, and many people were amazed the person behind the wheel survived. 

“All I can think about is Final Destination!! This person was truly blessed to escape with only minor injuries,” one person wrote.

It’s unclear what led to the crash and who was at fault. Fire officials also did not mention whether anyone will be charged.  

via: https://www.kmov.com/news/georgia-driver-survives-after-logs-pierce-windshield-of-suv/article_c95242ad-9939-5200-8a88-39fc57380528.html

Photo Credit: Whittfield County Fire Department

A Texas police officer shot his adult son Saturday, thinking he was an intruder.

Dispatchers received a call around 6 p.m. CDT from a man reporting a shooting at his home. The man said he was an off-duty Dallas officer who mistook his son for an intruder and accidentally shot him, according to a release from the DeSoto Police Department. DeSoto is a city south of Dallas.

When officers arrived on scene, they found the victim bleeding from his right forearm. The victim was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the release said.

“It was a startling situation, it was an accident,” Pete Schulte, DeSoto police spokesman, told CNN affiliate KTVT-TV. “And fortunately, we’re very happy that it did not result in serious bodily injury or death.”

No charges have been filed and no arrests were made, Schulte said.

“The DeSoto Police Department has treated this like every other case that we would have had and we would’ve handled it the exact same way that if any charges are appropriate later on, they’ll be forwarded over to the DA’s office for them to make a decision,” Schulte said.

The identities of the officer and his son are not being released until details are confirmed, the release said.

via: https://pix11.com/2019/10/27/dallas-police-officer-shoots-his-son-after-mistaking-him-for-an-intruder/

Photo Credit: Getty Images

NORTH CAROLINA — When a man in North Carolina was pulled over on suspicion of driving drunk, police didn’t believe him when he said he hadn’t had any alcohol.

The man, in his late 40’s at the time, refused to take a breathalyzer test and was taken to a hospital, where his initial blood alcohol level was found to be 0.2% — about 2.5 times the legal limit and the equivalent of consuming 10 drinks an hour. Despite the man swearing up and down that he hadn’t had anything to drink, doctors didn’t believe him either.

But researchersat the Richmond University Medical Center in New York eventually discovered that the man was telling the truth. He wasn’t downing beers or cocktails — instead, there was yeast in his gut that was likely converting carbohydrates in the food he ate to alcohol.

In other words, his body was brewing beer.

The findings were reported in a study in BMJ Open Gastroenterology. The man, whose identity has not been revealed, had a rarely diagnosed medical condition called auto-brewery syndrome (ABS), also known as gut fermentation syndrome.

Gut fermentation syndrome occurs when yeast in the gastrointestinal tract causes the body to convert carbohydrates ingested through food into alcohol. The process typically takes place in the upper GI tract, which includes the stomach and the first part of the small intestine.

“These patients have the exact same implications of alcoholism: the smell, the breath, drowsiness, gait changes,” Fahad Malik, the study’s lead author and the chief internal medicine resident at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told CNN. “They will present as someone who’s intoxicated by alcohol, but the only difference here is that these patients can be treated by antifungal medications.”

Researchers treated him with antifungal medications

Things weren’t the same for the man after he completed a course of antibiotics to treat a thumb injury. His personality started to change, researchers wrote in the study, and he experienced episodes of depression, ‘brain fog,’ memory loss and aggressive behavior that was out of character for him.

Three years later, after his suspected drunk driving arrest, the man’s aunt bought a breathalyzer to record his alcohol levels. She had heard about a similar case that had been successfully treated by a doctor in Ohio and convinced her nephew to seek treatment there too.

His basic lab tests turned out normal. But doctors found two strains of yeast in his stool: Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a yeast commonly used in beer brewing, winemaking and baking, as well as another fungus.

The man was successfully treated at the Ohio clinic and told to stick to a strict carbohydrate-free diet along with some special supplements. But after a few weeks, his symptoms started to flare up again. This time, no treatment seemed to work despite visits to numerous medical professionals.

At one point, the man became so inebriated that he fell and experienced bleeding in his brain. He was taken to a neurosurgical center where he spontaneously recovered in 10 days, researchers said.

“In this institution, his blood alcohol levels ranged from 50 to 400 mg/dL,” the researchers wrote. “Here too, the medical staff refused to believe that he did not drink alcohol despite his persistent denials.”

Finally, the man sought help from an online support group and got in touch with the researchers at the Richmond University Medical Center, who said in the study that they believed the antibiotics he took years ago altered his gut microbiome and allowed fungi to grow in his gastrointestinal tract.

The researchers then used antifungal therapies and probiotics to help normalize the bacteria in his gut, a treatment that he has continued. And aside from one relapse that occurred after he binged on pizza and soda without telling the researchers, it seems to be working.

And he can eat pizza again.

“Approximately 1.5 years later, he remains asymptomatic and has resumed his previous lifestyle, including eating a normal diet while still checking his breath alcohol levels sporadically,” the authors wrote in the study.

The condition is rarely diagnosed

There have only been a few studies documenting cases of gut fermentation syndrome and the condition is rarely diagnosed, Malik said. In the past, it’s even been regarded as a myth.

Gut fermentation syndrome was described in1912 as “germ carbohydrate fermentation,” and was studied in the 1930s and 1940s as a contributing factor to vitamin deficiencies and irritable bowel syndrome. A group of 20 to 30 cases popped up in Japan in the 1970s and the first US cases were reported about 10 years later.

There have been a handful of reported cases in recent years. A 2013 study described a case of a 61-year-old man who for years seemed to be drunk all the time before he was diagnosed with gut fermentation syndrome. In 2015, a woman in upstate New York had a DUI dismissed after presenting evidence that she had the condition.

The authors of the Richmond University Medical Center study recommend that doctors investigate for the condition especially when a patient shows elevated blood alcohol levels despite denying that they consumed alcohol.

Early signs of gut fermentation syndrome can include mood changes, delirium and brain fog, the researchers wrote, even before a patient starts exhibiting symptoms of alcohol inebriation.

The study says more research should be done on the use of probiotics as a treatment for the condition.

“This is a condition that is treatable with dietary modifications, appropriate antifungal therapy, and possibly probiotics,” the researchers wrote. “The use of probiotics and faecal microbiota transplantation could be considered for future studies.”

via: https://pix11.com/2019/10/26/no-one-believed-him-when-he-said-he-hadnt-been-drinking-then-researchers-found-his-body-was-producing-alcohol/

Photo Credit: pix11.com