http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/04/health/ebola-us/index.html
Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States, is now in critical condition, a Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital spokeswoman said Saturday.
The Liberian man had previously been listed as being in serious condition. Hospital spokeswoman Candace White offered no new details other than his condition.
Earlier, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Duncan was in intensive care.
About 10 people are at "higher risk" of catching Ebola after coming into contact with Duncan but have shown no symptoms, health officials said Saturday.
The group is among 50 people being monitored daily, but the other 40 are considered "low risk," said Dr. David Lakey, the commissioner of Texas department of state health services.
The nine people who had definite contact with the Ebola patient -- including family members and health care professionals -- have been monitored and show no symptoms or fevers, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Saturday.
"We have already gotten well over 100 inquiries of possible patients," Frieden told reporters. "We've assessed every one of those ... and just this one patient has tested positive ... We expect that we will see more rumors or concerns or possibilities of cases, until there is a positive laboratory test, that is what they are."
Health officials did not provide details on the location of those being monitored or where they interacted with Duncan.
Monitoring includes a visit from a public health expert and temperature checks twice a day. None of them has had symptoms of Ebola so far, according to Lakey.
The latest figure is a drastic reduction of a number that started at 100 after initial talks with Duncan and hospital officials.
Duncan landed in Dallas on September 20, and started feeling sick days later. He made his initial visit to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on September 25.
Thomas Duncan, was diagnosed in the US. I feel that most of us were only concerned because we were scared that we were going to get the deadly virus. I had not really heard about Ebola until it came to the United States. maybe this is a wake up call. I feel bad for the people who have Ebola especially the people in Africa who we give little attention to. Of course it scares me more that its not only in the united states, but in Dallas.
"We are not surprised by their actions," Al-Ga'oud told CNN. "Their religious leaders have given them an order to kill all of our tribe and take everything that we own because we are fighting against ISIS."
He said nine children and six women were killed in Saturday's attack.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department condemned the ISIS attacks.
"This proves, once again, that (ISIS) does not represent anything but its warped ideology and provides more evidence, if any were needed, why our coalition partners, including Iraqis from every background, must work together to defeat these terrorists," Jen Psaki said at the department's daily briefing.
The Albu Nimr, who number in the tens of thousands, are ready to fight to take back the town of Hit, Al-Ga'oud said Saturday. The city was seized last month by ISIS fighters after weeks of fighting the tribesmen.
Hit and neighboring Ramadi were holdouts in the Sunni-dominated Anbar province after ISIS swept in from Syria, taking town after town in the western province. Albu Nimr tribesmen were among those who fought them until they began running of out weapons and supplies.
Al-Ga'oud said an attack is "imminent," adding that "we are getting the support we need," in an apparent reference to backing by Iraq's central government.
A 2003 Brookings Institution report observed that, though most Iraqi Sunni tribes were loyal to Saddam Hussein in the days when he ran the country, the Albu Nimr tribe had mounted a protest against the former Iraqi strongman in 1995 after the execution of a noted member. The protest was put down by paramilitary forces loyal to Saddam.
In general, however, Saddam respected the Albu Nimr.
Since Saddam's fall, they've been tapped to oppose al Qaeda in Iraq. They were also part of last year's Sunni uprising against the former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his Shiite-dominated government.
They have been fighting ISIS but say they haven't received much support from the Iraqi government and international coalition members.
Kirby said U.S. advisers were working hard to improve the competence and capability of Iraq's army.
"The Iraqis are pushing back. They are going on an offensive against (ISIS) throughout the country," he said. "Now it is not a major offensive, but they are reaching out to some areas."
ISIS militants killed more than 300 members of a Sunni tribe in a recent series of executions, the Iraqi government said Monday.
Some of the 322 people executed were women and children, Iraq's Ministry of Human Rights said. The dead belonged to the Albu Nimr tribe, known for its fighting skill.
Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said Washington hasn't been able to confirm those figures, but "we have no reason to doubt their authenticity."
The latest incident came Saturday when 75 members of Albu Nimr were taken from their homes and killed in the desert near the town of Hit, said one of the tribe's leaders, Sheikh Nabil Al-Ga'oud.
It has been unusual for ISIS militants, who refer to themselves as the Islamic State, to kill women and children.
Brittany Maynard worked as a volunteer advocate for the nation's leading end-of-life choice organization, Compassion and Choices. She lived in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, Dan Diaz, and mother, Debbie Ziegler. Watch Brittany and her family tell her story at www.thebrittanyfund.org. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- On New Year's Day, after months of suffering from debilitating headaches, I learned that I had brain cancer.
I was 29 years old. I'd been married for just over a year. My husband and I were trying for a family.
Brittany Maynard shares a moment with her bridesmaids.
Our lives devolved into hospital stays, doctor consultations and medical research. Nine days after my initial diagnoses, I had a partial craniotomy and a partial resection of my temporal lobe. Both surgeries were an effort to stop the growth of my tumor.
Brittany Maynard and Dan Diaz on their wedding day. She had been married a little more than a year when she was diagnosed with brain cancer.
In April, I learned that not only had my tumor come back, but it was more aggressive. Doctors gave me a prognosis of six months to live.
Because my tumor is so large, doctors prescribed full brain radiation. I read about the side effects: The hair on my scalp would have been singed off. My scalp would be left covered with first-degree burns. My quality of life, as I knew it, would be gone.
After months of research, my family and I reached a heartbreaking conclusion: There is no treatment that would save my life, and the recommended treatments would have destroyed the time I had left.
I considered passing away in hospice care at my San Francisco Bay-area home. But even with palliative medication, I could develop potentially morphine-resistant pain and suffer personality changes and verbal, cognitive and motor loss of virtually any kind.
Brittany Maynard and Dan Diaz
Because the rest of my body is young and healthy, I am likely to physically hang on for a long time even though cancer is eating my mind. I probably would have suffered in hospice care for weeks or even months. And my family would have had to watch that.
I did not want this nightmare scenario for my family, so I started researching death with dignity. It is an end-of-life option for mentally competent, terminally ill patients with a prognosis of six months or less to live. It would enable me to use the medical practice of aid in dying: I could request and receive a prescription from a physician for medication that I could self-ingest to end my dying process if it becomes unbearable.
I quickly decided that death with dignity was the best option for me and my family.
We had to uproot from California to Oregon, because Oregon is one of only five states where death with dignity is authorized.
I met the criteria for death with dignity in Oregon, but establishing residency in the state to make use of the law required a monumental number of changes. I had to find new physicians, establish residency in Portland, search for a new home, obtain a new driver's license, change my voter registration and enlist people to take care of our animals, and my husband, Dan, had to take a leave of absence from his job. The vast majority of families do not have the flexibility, resources and time to make all these changes.
I've had the medication for weeks. I am not suicidal. If I were, I would have consumed that medication long ago. I do not want to die. But I am dying. And I want to die on my own terms.
I would not tell anyone else that he or she should choose death with dignity. My question is: Who has the right to tell me that I don't deserve this choice? That I deserve to suffer for weeks or months in tremendous amounts of physical and emotional pain? Why should anyone have the right to make that choice for me?
Now that I've had the prescription filled and it's in my possession, I have experienced a tremendous sense of relief. And if I decide to change my mind about taking the medication, I will not take it.
Having this choice at the end of my life has become incredibly important. It has given me a sense of peace during a tumultuous time that otherwise would be dominated by fear, uncertainty and pain.
Now, I'm able to move forward in my remaining days or weeks I have on this beautiful Earth, to seek joy and love and to spend time traveling to outdoor wonders of nature with those I love. And I know that I have a safety net.
I plan to celebrate my husband's birthday on October 26 with him and our family. Unless my condition improves dramatically, I will look to pass soon thereafter.
I hope for the sake of my fellow American citizens that I'll never meet that this option is available to you. If you ever find yourself walking a mile in my shoes, I hope that you would at least be given the same choice and that no one tries to take it from you.
When my suffering becomes too great, I can say to all those I love, "I love you; come be by my side, and come say goodbye as I pass into whatever's next." I will die upstairs in my bedroom with my husband, mother, stepfather and best friend by my side and pass peacefully. I can't imagine trying to rob anyone else of that choice.
I believe that Brittany is very courageous for what she has done. I also think that this is another eye opener to what should be legal. in only a few states you are allowed to do this and i believe that you should be able to do this in every state. If you are dying and their is no way to stop it, you should be able to go out the "easier" way. of course loosing life is never easy but why go through pain when you can peacefully end life. Brittany's life was ending, it was inevitable. she made the decision to go to orgeon where it was legal to end her life on her own in a peaceful way. I feel so bad for her and her family and no one should go through this, but i do believe that it is a lot easier than dying a painful death with no hope. If i was in her situation i do not know what i would do, knowing myself i think i would try to fight till the end but it would be very hard to go though so much pain in my last days.
Before the final whistle at Monday night's game between the Indianapolis Colts and the New York Giants, trumpeter Chris Botti had already won.
The Grammy-winning musician was on the field at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, to perform the national anthem for November 3's "Monday Night Football." No vocals, as we've become accustomed to -- just Botti and his instrument.
What transpired was so affecting that it left viewers with chills and brought Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne to tears.
"I'm just blessed to be out there," Wayne later told ESPN. His performance during Monday night's game pushed Wayne to eighth place on the all-time receiving yards list, ahead of James Lofton.
"It's an emotional game, man, and sometimes it comes out," Wayne continued. "An old wise guy once told me you shouldn't hold back your tears. Tonight was a night with the tears."
Botti, a native of Portland, Oregon, became devoted to playing the trumpet at 12 after hearing Miles Davis perform "My Funny Valentine." Now 52, Botti's not only built a successful career as a trumpeter, he's also worked with some of the music industry's biggest names, from Frank Sinatra and Paul Simon to Joni Mitchell and Natalie Cole. His most recent release, "Impressions," won the Grammy for best pop instrumental album in 2012.
After his showing at MetLife, many are also saying that Botti turned in one of the best performances of "The Star-Spangled Banner" ever heard.
WOW! This is just so amazing. Chris Botti played the star spangled banner this Monday night and he did a killer job! Chris is a grammy winning trumpet player and he sure proved it this Monday. Of course i believe marvin gayes renditions of the national anthem is unbeatable, but this is one of the best ive ever herd. Chris does a great job of changing it up while still keeping the national anthem roots in the song. Great version, gonna go listen to it once again!
Please do not copy and paste an entire story into the blog. That is what the link is for. Also each story should be in a different post. In your analysis please try to relate the story to APUSH.
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