It’s a running joke in my family that, if we had the money, we’d build me a robot caregiver like Baymax from Disney’s “Big Hero 6.” Training human caregivers is nothing short of exhausting. Humans need food and sleep, they forget things, and most problematic of all, they have their…

While I understand that inanimate objects cannot have a mind of their own, there’s a lamp in my bedroom that would kindly disagree. I’ve had this lamp for a couple of years now. It’s set to a timer that turns on every night at 11 p.m. and stays lit until…

Mutations that cause spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) may trigger problems with how bone cells communicate, leading to abnormally weakened bones, according to a study done in mice and cells. The findings suggest that treatments aiming to normalize bone cell communication could help improve bone health in SMA patients, researchers…

In my previous column, I discussed how nurses are recruited and hired by a home health agency, as well as the interview and training processes necessary to work on my case. In this column, I’d like to explore what it takes for a nurse to remain in this role,…

Children with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) type 1 can survive an episode of pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome (pARDS), a type of life-threatening respiratory failure, according to a 12-year case series. While “pARDS remains a clinical challenge for SMA-1 children,” the researchers wrote, “the present series suggests survival is achievable…