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Opioid Overdose Deaths Spike In Maryland, Chicago, Likely Related To COVID Lockdowns

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Opioid overdose deaths spiked in some areas of the United States as the nation faced the epidemic of the novel coronavirus, a devastating double whammy.

Health officials in Chicago are saying that Cook County saw opioid overdoses skyrocket when more people were isolated in their homes.

“The interaction between COVID-19, the fear of COVID-19, and substance use and addiction are pretty much the worst combination I have seen in my career without question,” said Dr. Thomas Britton, President and CEO Gateway Foundation, ABC7 reports.

From January to the end of April, EMS overdose calls increased 72 percent. Over that same time period, over 331 people lost their lives to addiction, which is a 35 percent increase from 2019.

“People are scared that if they go to a treatment center they are going to develop COVID [and] if they go to outpatient, they are going to develop COVID,” Britton said.

He continued, “So the uncertainty of what you are using has increased dramatically. It has more fentanyl – 90% of the overdose deaths have fentanyl in them.”

The state of Maryland saw a similar 3-month period spike with 561 overdose deaths, The Baltimore Sun reports. The number is a 2.6 percent increase from the previous year.

“While it is simply too early to understand the precise effect that the coronavirus pandemic has had on state’s war against substance use, I can assure you that we recognize the threat that it poses to our progress in the fight and to some of our most vulnerable populations,” said Gov. Larry Hogan in a statement.

In 2018, Sara A. Carter produced the film Not in Vein to showcase the opioid epidemic’ss effect on our nation. Watch the eye-opening documentary here:

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Healthcare

Nebraska woman who detransitioned sues doctors who facilitated removal of ‘healthy breasts’ when she was a teen battling mental health

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Nebraska woman Luka Hein is suing Nebraska Medicine, the Nebraska Medical Center, and University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) Physicians who facilitated in her gender transition when she was a teenager; Hein has since detransitioned.

Hein, who is being represented by the Center for American Liberty, filed the suit last week, for removal of her healthy breasts when she was a depressed teenager who struggled with mental health.

“Proceeding straight to breast amputation in a depressed, anxiety-ridden, gender-confused adolescent, who was incapable of understanding the lasting consequences of her decision, constitutes negligence for which Defendants are jointly and severally liable,” the lawsuit states.

Fox News reports:

Throughout adolescence, Hein struggled with her mental health and traumatic experiences, including being allegedly groomed and threatened by an adult man. She had serious mental-health struggles at age 13. By 15 she was diagnosed with “gender identity disorder” and put on a fast track to have her breasts removed, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims that despite Hein’s history, doctors rushed her into gender transition without considering her psychological comorbidities. It says the defendants used deceptive euphemisms and unscientific terminology to sell gender-transition procedures to Hein.

For instance, their use of the phrase “masculinizing hormone therapy” was misleading as the process does not heal the patient but does “inflict harm that causes malfunctioning and malformation of the teenage body and brain,” according to the lawsuit. Testosterone injections, which Hein received as part of her attempted sex change, can cause many negative side effects including high blood pressure and permanent bodily changes such as the development of an Adam’s apple, deepening of the voice, abnormal hair growth, and male pattern balding of the scalp.

The lawsuit says defendants were also negligent in other ways, such as in their shifting from a standard medical diagnosis to the “affirming care” model, which embraces a person’s gender delusion as fact and discourages questioning.

Allegedly one doctor, Nahia J. Amoura, was prepared to go even further. “About a year after starting Luka on testosterone, Dr. Amoura recommended to Luka that she surgically remove her uterus in a partial hysterectomy as the next step in her ‘transition,’” the lawsuit states. The hysterectomy would have permanently sterilized Hein and created hormonal imbalances that would have required long-term medical follow-ups.

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