| Poland loses abortion rights case
A woman was last week awarded damages by the European Court of Human Rights after she was denied an abortion in Poland even though her pregnancy put her health in danger. The decision produced widespread condemnation in Poland and efforts are afoot to tighten the already restrictive abortion law. The court awarded the 35-year-old mother of three, Alicja Tysiac, EUR 25,000 damages because she was denied the procedure. After becoming pregnant in 2000, her GP and three eye specialists warned her that the pregnancy could damage her eyesight or even result in blindness. Despite the warnings, the physicians refused to authorise an abortion. After having her third child, Tysiac suffered a retinal haemorrhage and a serious deterioration in her sight. She now suffers from severe myopia. .
LASIK for patients 40-69 years old
A new University of Illinois at Chicago study appearing in the online edition of the journal Ophthalmology reports on the safety, efficacy and predictability of laser eye surgery (laser in situ keratomileusis or LASIK) in patients 40-69 years old. "We are seeing an increasing demand for LASIK surgery for older adults, who present special challenges," said study co-author Dr. Dimitri Azar, Field chair of ophthalmologic research at UIC. In LASIK surgery, adjustments in correction are routinely made to compensate for the cornea's strong healing responses in younger patients, Azar said. Increased age has been previously associated with poorer final clarity of vision, as measured on an eye chart (visual acuity). "We were able to show that fine adjustments in the correction to the cornea in our older patients that compensate for differences in age-related healing resulted in reliable predictability of correction," said Azar, who is also professor and head of the UIC department of ophthalmology and visual sciences.
Three students hit by car in same night
Three students were hit by motorists while crossing South Orange Avenue Monday night, the latest in a series of accidents to occur in the area in the past two months.
According to police reports, seniors Michael Denardo and Mark Hannan and junior John DeStefano, all brothers of Sigma Phi Epsilon, were crossing South Orange Avenue heading north to University Court at approximately 9:50 p.m. when a blue Ford Taurus struck them and sped west down South Orange Avenue.
"I started running, not even knowing who was behind me," Denardo said, recounting the moment when he saw the car's headlights heading toward him.
Denardo received minor injuries to his foot while moving away from the car, but DeStefano was struck head-on by the vehicle and thrown approximately 50 feet from where he was walking.
High-definition Vision Clearly a Boon for the Eyes
Raleigh — High-definition television offers a crystal-clear image compared with older, standard TV sets. What if people with poor eyesight could see with new, crystal-clear vision?Doctors are doing just that with a new laser-and-lens procedure. Margaret Nehrke's eyesight was never great, but it got worse as she aged. "I couldn't read. I couldn't see anything without my glasses," said Nehrke. Now she sees better than ever thanks to a laser-and-lens procedure called "high-definition vision.""High-definition will give better color, better clarity, better contrast," said Dr. William Rand with the Rand Eye Institute in Miami. High-definition vision combines "Custom-Vue" LASIK surgery' with the latest lens-exchange techniques, and it can give almost anyone better than perfect vision.In TV terms, the new vision is like adding more pixels, more picture detail with more visual definition.
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