Medical Treatments and Procedures

Miami Man Contracts Guillain-Barré Syndrome, Nearly Dies After Getting Flu Shot

Three months ago, Michael Stec could bench-press 275 pounds. Now the 56-year-old struggles to walk, gripping tightly to the parallel bars at Mercy Hospital, his legs buckling underneath him like broken stilts.Most people never know how they get sick. But Stec says he can pinpoint the exact moment. H ... More >>

Georgia Has Inherited Florida's Old Pill Mill Problem

Florida -- and Broward County in particular -- used to be America's illicit pain pill capital until Florida politicians actually got around to drafting laws that effectively stamped out the problem. That hasn't stopped the pill heads of the South from getting their fix, though. The problem has now j ... More >>

Michael Salzhauer Hosts "Hunt For Your Treasure Chest," A Breast-Themed Scav Hunt, This Weekend

Dr. Michael Salzhauer is an outlier in the already strange world of Miami plastic surgeons. He's as talented as his competitors, but "Dr. Schnoz" is famous for his wacky stunts like his notorious "Jewcan Sam" video, a plastic surgery patient fashion show, and offering free Botox to his Facebook foll ... More >>

Gov. Rick Scott's Old Health Care Firm Faces Federal Probe For Unnecessary Heart Surgeries

What's the most despicable way you can imagine a hospital chain trying to make extra cash? Short of kidnapping people to harvest their organs, it might be performing loads of unnecessary heart surgeries, putting patients at serious risk of death. That's exactly what HCA, the hospital chain founded b ... More >>

Michael Salzhauer, Miami's Wackiest Plastic Surgeon, Risks Everything for Internet Fame

Couple Sues Miami Doctor Over Botched Circumcision That Left Son's Penis "Unsightly"

A husband and wife are suing their Miami doctor over a botched circumcision that left their infant son with a "unsightly... and permanently scarred" penis. Steven and Keka Lorenzana of Coral Gables filed suit against South Miami ob/gyn Lissette Molina on May 11. The suit claims that Molina botched t ... More >>

Reader mail: Quit chopping baby penises already

Circumcision activists square off against thousands of years of tradition

Obama's war on weed

In a strange about-face, the president tries to hack medical marijuana off at the knees.

Rick Perry: Awful politician, genius campaigner

The Duodenal Switch Twice as Dangerous as the Gastric Bypass?

​As some of you know, I've been looking into different weight loss techniques as of late. I'm currently on the Gastric Bypass Hypnosis Surgery program by Rena Greenberg, which I'll be posting a halfway point update on next week.As some of you may also know - I believe in natural methods for losing ... More >>

Weight Loss Surgery Comments Cause Commotion

​In response to all the WLS advocates (except for those who threatened my well-being):I was on the BariatricTV radio show on Blog Talk Radio Monday night as an invited guest to discuss my last Fuming Foodie column airing my views on weight loss surgery. We were able to have an honest, open, and ma ... More >>

In Cuba, Gay Man and Transsexual Set To Wed On Fidel Castro's Birthday

photo by Jonathunder via Wikimedia CommonsA transsexual who underwent Cuba's first state-sanctioned sex change operation and a gay man with AIDS are set to wed in Havana in three weeks, with Cuba's most infamous blogger serving as maid of honor. The ceremony is scheduled for Aug. 13, which also just ... More >>

Cancer Stricken Hugo Chavez Intends to Run for Reelection in 2012

​News of Hugo Chavez's mysterious cancer diagnosis has Miami's el Exilio buzzing over the possibility that the Venezuelan president, and one of Fidel Castro's biggest allies, will not be in office for much longer. In an interview today with the BCC however, Chavez admitted that he may need fur ... More >>

Where in the Hell is Hugo Chavez?

Help us find Hugo.​Where in the hell is Hugo Chavez?The normally voluble Venezuelan president has been missing for nearly a month. The official explanation is that he's recovering from surgery to remove a pelvic abscess in Cuba, but rumors abound.Is he pissing into the Mississippi to make it flood ... More >>

Surgeon Caught Stealing Equipment from Jackson Memorial Hospital

​The Jackson Health System has enough money problems at the moment. The last thing it needs is its own surgeons stealing medical equipment from the financially strapped public hospital system. Yet, Nir Hus, a surgeon and post graduate fellow at Jackson Memorial, has been arrested on charges of rep ... More >>

Deaths at Strax raise questions about the safety of cheap nips and tucks

Elton John and Rick Scott Spar Over AIDS Drug Assistance Program

Elton John in an ad for a MAC lipstick that benefits AIDS charities. ​Singer Elton John is just the latest in a long line of critics who have a bone to pick with Florida governor Rick Scott. Through his Elton John AIDS Foundation, the singer wrote a letter to Scott urging the governor not to make ... More >>

Commissioner Jose "Pepe" Diaz Recovering from Emergency Brain Surgery

While the rest of the Miami-Dade County Commission is waiting on the results of today's mayoral and commission seat special elections, Commissioner Jose "Pepe" Diaz is dealing with far more serious things. Diaz, who has served on the commissioner since 2002, underwent emergency brain surgery yesterd ... More >>

Some Republican Women Resent Latest Anti-Abortion Ultrasound Bill

​Despite the fact the Republican-controlled Florida legislature has had to deal with a myriad of issues, including the economy, immigration, education and a crackdown on Florida's deadly prescription pain pill problem, the legislators still found time to carve out a new round of anti-abortion meas ... More >>

Drugged Conscience Delivers a Double Dose of Brutality at Churchill's Pub This Week

​This week, Churchill's Pub hosts a pair of Drugged Conscience-sponsored concerts seething with heterogenous brutality. While the label and booking agency fits under the comfortably broad punk/hardcore banner, its showcases exemplify the manifoldness inherent in the operation's extreme music deali ... More >>

Operation Pill Nation Nets Midtown Pain Management

​In an effort dubbed "Operation Pill Nation," federal and local authorities executed the largest crack down on pill mills in South Florida to date. South Florida has become a hotbed of shady pain clinics dolling out prescriptions for powerful and addictive pain killers, and while most of these cli ... More >>

Rick Scott to Abolish Office of Drug Control as Pill Mill Fight Faces Uphill Battle

​Cracking down on pill mills was supposed to be one of the state government's biggest triumphs of the year. New legislation taking aim at regulating "pain management" clinics that wantonly prescribe addictive pain medications went into effect in October, but the government has blown several deadli ... More >>

Robotic Surgeon Creeps Us Out

McGillMan undergoing surgical procedure without a live doctor in the room​A recent "breakthrough" in modern technology and contemporary medicine may be a sign that machines will eventually overtake humans and control the world.A robot at Canada's McGill University Health Centre recently performed ... More >>

Miami Hospital To Be Sued Over Circumcising Baby Against Mom's Wishes

​Let's be honest. Even more than choosing a name, after the birth of a baby boy deciding whether to get the kid circumcised is usually the biggest decision parents have to make. Hey, that baby can go by a nickname or change it legally when he grows up, but once that foreskin is gone there's no get ... More >>

Former Cuban Political Prisoner Ariel Sigler Improving, Expects to Walk Again

​Cuban dissident Ariel Sigler Amaya is recovering slowly but successfully from his seven-and-a-half-year stint in a Castro prison.Sigler, 46, began physical therapy last week at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He remains rail-thin and wheelchair-bound but is already visibly healthier than when he first ... More >>

Donna Milo: Sex-changed and bound for Congress

A Man Who Became a Woman Who Can't Marry a Man is Running for Congress

Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking madness once made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This week, Luke tries to understand how a transsexual running for Congress can be against gay marriage.​A few weeks ago, I came across som ... More >>

Abortion Bill Requiring Ultrasounds Passes Florida House

a first trimester ultrasound image​After Democrats shut down the body yesterday and hours of heated debate (during which young children were advised to leave the chamber) the Florida House has approved controversial language in a health care bill concerning abortion. During the debate, one member ... More >>

A Canadian Politician Gets Heart Surgery in Miami: Does This Mean Socialized Medicine Sucks?

​Earlier this month, Danny Williams, the head of government in Canada's Newfoundland province, traveled to Miami Beach to receive heart surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center.Cue the predictable right-wing response taking digs at Canada's publicly funded, liberal-loved health-care system: "We keep ... More >>

Cardiac Comic

Cuba Allows Sex Change Operations On Country's Dime

via Sophia Lamar Will Kill YouCuban-American Transexual Sophia LamarMariela Castro, Raul's daughter and head of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education, announced yesterday that Cuba will reverse a ban on sex change operations on the communist island.Castro has identified 19 individuals ready t ... More >>

Robin Williams' Surgery a Success, South Florida Shows Should Be Rescheduled

Fans of manic stand-up chock full of random associations and funny voices can breathe a sigh of relief. After being admitted to a Miami hospital earlier this month in the midst of his "Weapons of Self-Destruction" tour, Robin Williams was transferred to Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, where he underwent s ... More >>

DJ AM

Burger King Pitches Penny To Tomato Pickers

DeFede Was Hours From Death

Hope Lodge to Close Its Doors

Let's Get Physical

Blunt Trauma

Pan American Hospital, an icon in Cuban Miami, is fighting for life as it battles its own employees

BEST PHARMACY

Midtown

Letters from the Issue of April 1, 2004

Foul-mouthed writers, fully trained midwives, and bunched-up panties

Cuts You Up

As the number of cesarean section deliveries in South Florida soars, some women use midwives to learn to trust their bodies and give birth naturally

Too Close for Comfort?

Cattle-ist for reform

Best Miami Fusion Player

Eric Wynalda

Letters

A Prisoner of Circumstance

Rachel Better never worried about her stateless status until the INS locked her up. Then it was too late.

News of the Weird

Skin Deep

Don't like your face? Your breasts? Your tummy? Get yourself new ones. Plastic surgeon Ernest DiGeronimo makes the kindest cuts.

Scar Tissue

Critics question Ernest DiGeronimo's credentials and advertising practices

All the Ooze That's Fit to Print

The venerated Weekly World News burns Miami's press with a local model's plastic-surgery meltdown