Tuesday, September 30, 2008

UTMB

Ranjana and I have been working on this story for quite a while (since before the storm hit) and its set to run tomorrow. Heres a sneak preview:



Mr. Jesse Aiala moved from his hospital bed to a chair a few days after undergoing a liver transplant surgery. Mr. Aiala and his doctor, transplant surgeon Philip Thomas, were evacuated from UTMB in Galveston in a helicopter that flew him to Seton Hospital in Austin less than 48 hours after undergoing one of the most major surgeries possible today.

Seton does not have a liver transplant unit on site and was ill equipped to handle so many patients so quickly (about 90 patients were moved to the Seton hospitals over the course of a few hours), but their doctors worked with the UTMB doctors to quickly set up adequate care. According to his doctors, Mr. Aiala made a shockingly quick recovery.



Mrs. Barbara Aiala, Jesse's wife, laughs in the lobby of the hospital. "When I found out he was going to be here in Austin, I freaked out," she said.

"What a blessing," she said. "To have your physician to fly with you... this was great."


On a completely unrelated note: Is anyone else as bothered by the term "Gotcha Journalism" as I am?

I understand the connotation; twisted, manipulative and out of context quotes meant to imply something different than what the speaker was getting at. And I would never condone that kind of journalism. But I can't agree that Sarah Palin's fumbling and mumbling and inability to explain what she meant when she said that Alaska's proximity to Russia gave her foreign policy experience was "Gotcha Journalism." I don't think the questions were leading or meant to corner her, it was just a question that she couldn't answer.

"Gotcha" implies that there was some kind of work on the part of the journalists to make her look stupid. Wasn't Katie just asking the questions she was supposed to ask? The way Palin answers those questions are her responsibility.

I'll get off my political soap box now. Hah. We journalists aren't entitled to opinions.

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