Sunday, August 21, 2005

A robotic system at Stanford Medical Center was used to perform a laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery successfully with a theoretically similar rate of complications to that seen in standard operations. However, as there were only 10 people in the experimental group (and another 10 in the control group), this is not a statistically significant sample.

If this surgical procedure is as successful in large-scale studies, it may lead the way for the use of robotic surgery in even more delicate procedures, such as heart surgery. Note that this is not a fully automated system, as a human doctor controls the operation via remote control. Laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery is a treatment for obesity.

There were concerns that doctors, in the future, might only be trained in the remote control procedure. Ronald G. Latimer, M.D., of Santa Barbara, CA, warned “The fact that surgeons may have to open the patient or might actually need to revert to standard laparoscopic techniques demands that this basic training be a requirement before a robot is purchased. Robots do malfunction, so a backup system is imperative. We should not be seduced to buy this instrument to train surgeons if they are not able to do the primary operations themselves.”

There are precedents for just such a problem occurring. A previous “new technology”, the electrocardiogram (ECG), has lead to a lack of basic education on the older technology, the stethoscope. As a result, many heart conditions now go undiagnosed, especially in children and others who rarely undergo an ECG procedure.

Monday, June 11, 2018

On Saturday, in Rajasthan, India, Jodhpur district’s rural police arrested 26-year old Nawab Ali Qureshi for allegedly slitting the throat of, killing, his four-year-old as a “sacrifice” for Allah in the Islamic holy month of Ramzan.

Four-year-old Rizwana was the eldest of the two daughters of Nawab Ali Qureshi. She was killed in Piparcity on Thursday night. According to police, Rizwana’s mother Shabana had found her daughter missing, at about 3 AM, and later found Rizwana in a pool of blood. Shabana later lodged a complaint. “Investigation revealed the suspicious role of the father. His psychological questioning helped reveal clues. Ultimately he confessed to his crime”, read the police statement. Initially, Ali Quereshi blamed a cat for slitting the throat and killing Rizwana.

Rizwana was taken to a hospital but was pronounced dead. The police used dog squad and forensic science laboratory teams for investigation. Nawab Ali Qureshi was arrested after police interrogated the family members. They ruled out the likelihood of an outsider’s involvement. Qureshi had confessed his crimes to police saying he had “sacrificed” his “most beloved possession” and the devil had gotten into him when committing the crime.

“I had to sacrifice my most beloved possession for Allah” ^{((hi))Hindi language: ??? ???? ???? ?????? ???? ?? ?? ?????? ?? ??? ????? ??}, quoted police superintendent Rajan Dushyant from Qureshi. The accused told the police, “I am a devout Muslim and I love my daughter more than my life. For several days she was at her grandmother’s place and returned on Thursday. I took her to the marketplace and bought sweetmeats and fruits. In the night, I took her to the courtyard downstairs, recited a kalima, killed her, and went back to sleep upstairs.”

Rizwana’s postmortem and burial ceremony were on Friday.