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Twelve-year-old Johaine Hendricks from Erste River is battling bone cancer, hoping to fulfill his football dreams once his family can raise enough money for a prosthetic leg.

Diagnosis and Treatment

A seventh-grade student, Hendricks is currently not attending school as he undergoes chemotherapy. The situation began last July when he discovered a small lump just above his ankle during a football match. Initially, the doctor suspected it was a cyst.

Later, Hendricks was referred to Tigerberg Hospital, where various tests and an MRI revealed terrible news—he had bone cancer, known as osteosarcoma. Since Hendricks loved spending time on the football field, he frequently attended hospital appointments.

Surgery and Aftermath

Doctors determined that the cancer had spread, necessitating the amputation of his leg. In November, he underwent this life-saving surgery, resulting in the amputation of his leg. After the operation, hospital wards became his second home, and chemotherapy became part of his weekly routine, replacing school and time with friends.

The non-profit organization Kids-Can Cancer Foundation is raising funds to purchase a prosthesis and provide assistance to the family with daily needs. They noted that his dream is to kick a football again.

Emotional and Financial Burden

This journey has been an emotional and financial ordeal for the family. His mother, Jodie Daniels, is the sole provider, receiving help from her own mother to care for her son. The organization reported that his mother watched her boy cry not from pain, but because he felt his dream of football was over.

His mother writes that there are days when Johaine is exhausted and simply does not want to go back to the hospital. Nevertheless, together they find the strength to continue. Emotionally, this journey has affected the entire family, and financially, it has become almost unbearable. As the sole provider, Johaine's mother bears enormous responsibility for supporting the family while ensuring her son does not miss any doctor's visits. She is willing to make any sacrifices to ensure her son receives the best care.

Hope for the Future

Today, Johaine has overcome unimaginable obstacles, but there is one thing that can give him back some of the childhood that cancer tried to steal. The organization emphasized that the prosthesis will give him independence and self-confidence, as well as the opportunity to dream again. Kids Can Cancer Foundation appeals to the public to support this brave young warrior by helping with the prosthesis or recommending companies, organizations, or individuals who can assist.

The Molinette Hospital in Turin, located in northern Italy, announced that patient Elena, aged 67, has regained her sight following a complex operation.

Causes of Vision Loss

Previously, Elena completely lost her sight as a result of a serious road traffic accident. This accident caused irreversible damage to the optic nerve of her left eye, preventing light from being transmitted from the eye to the brain, even though the eye structures themselves remained intact. Furthermore, her right eye was already affected by macular dystrophy, and the trauma led to irreversible damage to the retina and corneal transparency.

Innovative Medical Procedure

According to the hospital, the complete destruction of the part containing stem cells made classical corneal transplantation impossible, condemning the woman to blindness. However, this previously considered insurmountable barrier was overcome by Professor Michele Reibaldi and his medical team after performing an extremely complex intervention that lasted about six hours.

Mechanism of Vision Recovery

During the procedure, doctors extracted and transplanted a complete anatomical block from the left eye into the right eye, which was no longer functioning. This block included the cornea, sclera, conjunctiva, and, for the first time in the world, the central part of the retina—the macula. Thanks to this 'biological transplant,' vision was restored using both affected eyes.

Initial Treatment Results

Michele Ribaldi, director of the university ophthalmology clinic at Molinette Hospital, commented that the evaluation of how effectively the implanted retina will function is now awaited, but the initial results look promising.

A large-scale study conducted by Dutch scientists demonstrated a significant increase in the incidence of type 2 diabetes among children and adolescents after starting antipsychotic medication. According to the researchers' calculations, every five years, nine additional cases were recorded per ten thousand residents.

Risks even with short-term treatment

It was found that an increased risk of developing diabetes was observed even after the treatment with antipsychotic drugs was brief. These findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Use of antipsychotics in adolescents

Antipsychotic drugs are widely used worldwide to treat various conditions in children and adolescents, including autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, as well as anxiety disorders and sleep problems. Existing observational studies and meta-analyses already indicate an increased likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes when taking these medications during childhood and adolescence.

Highest risk and uncertainties

Patients taking olanzapine and clozapine are at the highest risk. Nevertheless, many clinical aspects of this relationship remain unclear in most scientific works. In particular, it is not determined at what exact point the excess risk arises and whether it persists after discontinuing medication.

Study methodology

A team of scientists led by Ravish Nilish Gangapersad from Erasmus University Rotterdam studied the dynamics of the annual prevalence of type 2 diabetes among children and adolescents aged zero to nineteen who were receiving antipsychotic drugs. The study included 89,991 individuals who had been prescribed such medications at least once between 2006 and 2022. The average age of starting the medication was 13.6 years.

Trend in disease incidence

A significant increase in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes became noticeable as early as the first year of antipsychotic drug use. A statistically significant increase was recorded precisely during this period. Starting from the second year of therapy, the rates for women consistently exceeded those for men. By the fifth year, the difference in risk reached 16.48 cases per 10 thousand people in women and 5.5 cases per 10 thousand people in men (p = 0.008).

Final conclusions and recommendations

Sensitivity analysis and additional adjustments considering the use of other medications and socioeconomic factors confirmed the initial findings. In a comprehensive analysis, the difference in risk was 4 cases per 10 thousand population during the first year of use and 11.45 cases per 10 thousand people during the fifth year of observation. The authors believe that this data may be useful in clinical practice when prescribing antipsychotic drugs. Female adolescents over 12 years old constitute a particularly high-risk group, as even short-term exposure to the drugs can negatively affect metabolic processes, requiring an extremely cautious approach to psychopharmacotherapy in this age group.