In the News

One in seven new parents experience depression and other anxiety conditions. The Hennepin Healthcare Foundation is hoping to combat this with the addition of the Lynne and Andrew Redleaf Center for Family Healing. Dr. Talee Vang is interviewed.

Digestive problems are common with bisphosphonate pills but can be addressed if patients take the pills with water and on empty stomachs. Long-term use also could result over time in bones becoming too brittle, though doctors have countered that side effect by only prescribing them in short bursts rather than in continuous doses, said Dr. Andrew Schmidt, chief of orthopedics at Hennepin Healthcare.

“I just don’t think people appreciate the number of influenza deaths, and the number of influenza cases that we have in the hospital, because they’ve perhaps been hearing it so often. But we should be taking it as seriously, because that’s what’s here now in our community.”  – Stacene Maroushek, MD.

Nan Lomen, RN with Hennepin Healthcare says it’s not too late to get a flu vaccine.

“There’s nothing in our body that makes us cold hardy,” Hennepin Healthcare emergency physician Dr. Ashley Strobel says.

Many doctors say quitting is not always an easy sell. Dr. Amy Anne Lassig, a head and neck cancer surgeon at Hennepin Healthcare in Minnesota, said about half of her patients continue smoking even after their cancer diagnosis. “Some are able to quit cold turkey but for other patients, it’s such a stressful moment in their life that many feel hopeless, go in the other direction and keep smoking,” she said.

“It depends a little on the virus,” says Dr. Stacene Maroushek, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Hennepin Healthcare.

“I just wasn’t expecting it that first step, it just like completely took me by surprise,” emergency room nurse Jen Herrmeyer said. She managed to get up, go back inside and get her yack tracks, to make it down the steps, sidewalk and into her car, for the slick ride to Hennepin Health Care for her shift in the ER.

“Gravity is really working for us during the day,” Natalie Ikeman, a physician assistant with Hennepin Healthcare, said.

WCCO spoke to Hennepin Healthcare pediatrician Dr. Krishnan Subrahmanian about masks and athletes.

“They are safe. We know that people are going to feel a difference in terms of their exertion and breathing,” Subrahmanian said. “Young athletes are going to have to communicate with their coaches and say, Hey, I might need a little bit more of a breather here and there.”

Saturday, Dec. 28, 2019, was one of the busiest days Dr. Bill Heegaard has ever seen in his years working at Hennepin Healthcare’s emergency department in Minneapolis. The ice storm that day caused lots of slips and falls, which resulted in injuries, some of them severe.

Dr. Helen Kim doesn’t just want us to know that one in seven new mothers and one in 10 new fathers experience potentially debilitating postpartum depression. She wants us to know what help and hope look like, because she sees it every day.

Dr. Krishnan Subrahmanian of Hennepin Healthcare hospital says that’s exactly what he’s seeing sick kids and adults.

“Last week was actually a big week for flu in Minnesota,” said Dr. Krishnan Subrahmanian, a pediatrician with Hennepin County Medical Center.

Dr. David Hilden points out average life expectancy is a prediction made at birth, not decades into someone’s life.

“The goal of Envision is to create health equity,” said Dr. William Walsh, a surgeon collaborating on the project. “It’s this belief that people need both a home and an accepting community.”

Mia Debbins, a senior outreach community health worker with the Hennepin Health Access Clinic, is part of a team of health care professionals and social workers that work with Nicole on a weekly basis.

Dr. Hilden says right now one in four kids in school are getting flu so its important to stay home if you’re sick.

Dr. David Hilden of Hennepin Healthcare says with the holidays around the corner one of the biggest ways to prevent the spread of flu is to wash your hands and get the flu shot — it’s not too late.

At Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, pediatrician Dr. Krishnan Subrahmanian says he’s seeing lots of patients testing positive for Influenza Type B.

“This year we’re seeing flu B and why this is important is flu B we know tends to spread a bit more quickly among young people,” he explained.