Interesting Facts

According to  Professor Mark Wilcox, Clinical Director of Microbiology at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, whether you close the toilet lid before you flush, could have an impact on the spread of infections. (Seemingly leaving the lid up when you flush can allow a cloud of bacteria to explode into the air, settling on nearby surfaces. I won't go into the specifics, but they tested  the hospital superbug C. difficile, and  found that when flushing, bacteria was transported up to 10 inches above the toilet seat when it was open, and was found on the cistern, to the right and left of the toilet seat, and on the floor, in fact it was still detected in the air up to 90 minutes later, but when the lid was closed no C. diff. was recovered on any surface.  So, men, now you know why us women get so annoyed when you leave the lid up.) Source

A study of babies at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, in west London, found that overweight mothers 'give birth to fat babies'. (Newborn babies usually have about 700g of adipose tissue (fat tissue), but for each unit increase in maternal BMI (body mass index), this increased by approximately 7g with a huge build-up in fat in the babies’ livers. Maybe we need little pre natal treadmills.)

A hospital in Kent is going to remove the words "do not disturb" from tabards worn by nurses on drug rounds at a hospital in Kent. (Joyce Robbins, from the campaign group Patient Concern, said: "It gives out the wrong message, it's not meant to do this but it actually says 'don't bother me, I'm too important'. Ah, the power of words.) PS - This might be the shortest time an interesting fact has been true.

A hospital in Kent is providing their nurses with red "do not disturb" signs to wear when they give out drugs to patients. (Seemingly this is an attempt to reduce the number of mistakes made on hospital wards. Well good luck to them, I have a red do not disturb sign on Skype - but no one seems to take any notice of it.) po PS - read the next post (I honestly don't think I'm too important, but I am very busy.)

A broken heart can kill you. (Broken heart syndrome, known medically as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, is serious, patients present with symptoms such as heart-induced shock and abnormal heart rhythms which often require emergency treatment. It was first described by Japanese researchers in the early 1990s, but the good news is that it can be cured. Patients studied by researchers from two hospitals in Providence, Rhode Island were diagnosed with broken heart syndrome between July 2004 and April 2008, and even though a fifth were were critically ill and required emergency treatment to keep them alive, they all survived the first 48 hours and experienced a full recovery.)

A unique law in Nebraska, allows any adult, not just parents, to drop off children of any age at any state-licenced hospital. (It's called the safe-haven law, and it means that if little Johnny is being naughty you can tell him to behave himself, or you'll dump him. Not really an appropriate way to deal with parenting issues.)

The Royal Marsden Hospital was founded in 1851. (It was the first hospital in the world to be dedicated to cancer.)

powered by ODEO In the UK 30 hospital trusts are making more than £1m each from their car parks. (According to an Estates Return Information Collection's report, the top earners were Southampton University Hospitals at £2.41m and Cambridge University Hospitals, £2.26m. Overall, the NHS took £95m in charges but 74 trusts did not supply figures.)