Patty Cake Greetings From The Heart - Patricia Smith

04/08/2025

23/07/2025

The Secret Insurance Rate Making Process in Oklahoma An Analysis—July 22, 2025 In 2024, while homeowners insurance rates continued to dramatically rise in Oklahoma, insurance companies that charged those rates made record net profits: Progressive — $8.5 billion Zurich — $5.81 billion State Far...

18/07/2025

A new sculpture in Oklahoma City will commemorate Clara Luper and her historic sit-ins, with construction underway and completion expected by Nov. 1.

06/07/2025

In 2018, 22-year-old Grace Spence Green was walking through a shopping centre in London when a man landed on her and broke her spine.

The man had just jumped out of a third-floor window - and the impact left Grace paralysed from the chest down.

She woke up to find herself on the floor, with a body lying next to her. "I remember screaming and the sensation that I couldn't feel my legs," she says.

Grace was a medical student. She hadn't expected to end up as a spinal injury patient herself. But, she believes the bizarre accident has made her a better doctor.

As a trainee medic, Grace knew all about spinal injuries. Nonetheless, it took her a long time to accept what had happened to her.

"I just felt that, oh, I'm not one of them. I'm not disabled. I'm not going to be in a wheelchair. That's not me. They've got it wrong."

She often felt powerless, and unable to advocate for herself.

"It was very humbling suddenly being on the other side of the bed, how often I felt out of control of my situation, how often I felt like I didn't have any autonomy or any dignity."

She was sent to a rehabilitation unit, and gradually came to terms with the extent of her injuries. She also found camaraderie with other patients, like Vince, a scaffolder in his 40s:

"it's just a closeness that I haven't really experienced before because we've gone through this thing together, and now we call most days and he's coming to my wedding."

Grace also began to confront some of the prejudices she didn't know she'd had as a trainee medic - like the idea that disabled people had a lesser quality of life. Now, as a qualified doctor, she says her time in the spinal injury unit was the best placement she could have had:

"It taught me about dignity and autonomy... There's a real openness I find with patients, a kind of understanding I don't have to build."

As for the man who fell on her, Grace feels very little. "It feels like we were strangers, we collided, and we are just strangers again."

What she does know, is that by breaking his fall she somehow saved the man's life. So, rather than holding onto any anger towards him, she channels it into her biggest passion: advocating for change in the way society sees disabled people.

🎧 https://bbc.in/4knKQRp

17/06/2025

31/05/2025

24/05/2025

On May 24, 2022, 19 students and two teachers were killed in a shooting at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde.

Xavier Javier Lopez, 10
Amerie Jo Garza, 10
Uziyah Garcia, 8
Rojelio Torres, 10
Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, 10
Nevaeh Bravo, 10
Makenna Lee Elrod, 10
Eliahana 'Elijah Cruz' Torres, 10
Eliana 'Ellie' Garcia, 9
Alithia Ramirez, 10
Jacklyn "Jackie" Cazares, 9
Jayce Carmelo Luevanos, 10
Jailah Nicole Silguero, 11
Jose Flores Jr, 10
Alexandria "Lexi" Aniyah Rubio, 10
Maite Yuleana Rodriguez, 10
Tess "Tessy" Marie Mata, 10
Maranda Gail Mathis, 11
Layla Salazar, 10
Irma Garcia, 48
Eva Mireles, 44

29/04/2025

In a groundbreaking medical achievement, six-year-old Jace Broadbin, born blind due to a genetic condition called Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), has regained partial vision through a world-first gene therapy. This condition, caused by mutations in the AIPL1 gene, leads to severe retinal dystrophy and legal blindness from birth.

Jace underwent the experimental treatment in 2020 at Great Ormond Street Hospital and Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. The procedure involved a 60-minute keyhole surgery in which healthy copies of the AIPL1 gene were injected into his retina.

Within a month, Jace began responding to light, and soon after, he could identify toys and navigate his environment with greater ease. This treatment was performed on one eye to assess its safety, while the untreated eye continued to deteriorate as expected.

This advancement, published in The Lancet, marks the first effective treatment for the most severe form of childhood blindness and offers hope for future gene therapy developments.

23/04/2025

Rest in peace Pope Francis, thank you for everything you have done for our planet and all that you stood for. 🌻🕊️