Emergency Medicine

Marijuana Decriminalization Means More Kids Getting Pot Accidentally

Medical marijuana might have endowed your life with many benefits, not the least of which is no longer having to call for delivery from a dealer named Murder. But in places where it's quite easy to get, children can get their hands on it too. That, at least, is according to study from the Universit ... More >>

Assemblyman Mike Feuer, Candidate For L.A. City Attorney, Injured In Car Crash

Update: More detail below. Feuer is in ICU, suffered lacerated spleen and broken ribs.Assemblyman Mike Feuer, who is running for L.A. city attorney, has been hospitalized after a car crash this afternoon.According to his campaign, Feuer was on his way to the swearing-in ceremony for D.A. Jackie Lace ... More >>

L.A. Bus Rider Passes Out, Vomits on Herself -- and No One Calls 911 for Over an Hour

Have bus riders in Los Angeles become so jaded and antisocial that no one thinks to help a passed-out woman with vomit running down her chin for almost an hour-and-a-half? The Eastsider L.A. reported yesterday that Echo Park resident Jamie Goodwin boarded one of the L.A. Department of Transportatio ... More >>

Kim Kardashian Only Celebrity in History to Reject White Powder: VIDEO

When some celebrities have a night on the town in West Hollywood and white powder comes their way, it's more than all good: It's a party. When it happens to Kim Kardashian, it's an international incident -- enough to get the tight-lipped L.A. County Sheriff's Department to issue an official statem ... More >>

Miriah Cobb, Los Angeles 4-Year-Old, Found Hanging Dead in Bedroom Closet

The tragic death of 4-year-old Miriah Cobb in Westchester yesterday is being investigated by the LAPD's Abused Child Unit. A member of Cobb's family called 911 around 11:30 a.m. -- and when paramedics from the L.A. City Fire Department arrived, they found her hanging in the back of a bedroom closet ... More >>

Whitney Houston Found 'Underwater and Apparently Unconscious:' No Comment From Police on Prescription Drugs

L.A. Weekly was the first news organization to report that it appeared Whitney Houston was discovered in a hotel room bathtub. That was confirmed today by the Beverly Hills Police Department. The department issued a statement saying that " ... information relayed to first responders was that Ms. Ho ... More >>

Explosion at Pacoima Commercial Building Injures Employees, Takes Out Roof

Google Maps​Updated at the bottom with news that the owner had been cited by California workplace health authorities in the past. First posted at 4:43 p.m. A large explosion seriously injured at least four people and took out a good part of a commercial building in Pacoima today, according to ... More >>

Avery Dean, L.A. Homicide No. 42: 22-Year-Old Man Shot Dead While Sitting in Car

Los Angeles TimesAvery "Ton Ton" Dean​By Ryan Deto A group of friends, including 22-year-old Avery Dean, piled into a car on the 11400 block of South Vermont Avenue in the early morning of February 20. Dean, known affectionately by his friends as "Ton Ton," was in the driver's seat. At 1:18 ... More >>

Ecstasy-Related Emergency Room Visits Up 75 Percent Nationwide

bossyilooDropping ecstasy appears to be on the rise.​If you think controversial rave parties in L.A. have gotten younger and more ecstasy-crazed, there's new evidence to back up your notion. A study released today by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration says e ... More >>

Overdose Victims at Next Electric Daisy Carnival Rave Will be Held On-Site and Kept Away From L.A. Emergency Rooms

Does this guy need to visit the emergency room? A scene at Electric Daisy Carvinal 2008, posted at the website Ravelinks.​One of the scarier aspects of public officials' attempts to whitewash some of the seedier facets of raves (young people passed out, overdosing and in need of physicians' ca ... More >>

Whose Dole Is It, Anyway?

Death Of 10-Year-Old L.A. County Resident Amanda Cooper Might Have Involved Sexual Assault

Authorities were investigating a 10-year-old's death in L.A. County.​A 10-year-old L.A.-area girl is dead, and authorities are investigating whether she was killed as part of a sexual assault. Sheriff's deputies were called Saturday morning to a residence int he 4800 block of 132nd Street in ... More >>

Paramedic's Stabbing Story Reportedly Has Holes

​The story of a Los Angeles Fire Department paramedic who said he was stabbed for no apparent reason at a downtown hotel last week has raised "red flags" with police sources who indicated to Fox 11 News that parts of the account didn't add up. Charles Anthony MacDougall, who had been schedule ... More >>

Darlene Robles, L.A. Homicide No. 82: Video Surveillance Captures Hospital Body Dump

Los Angeles Police Department detectives are asking for the public's help in identifying two males and a female suspect who dropped off 17-year-old shooting victim Darlene Robles at a hospital emergency room shortly before she died April 6. Van Nuys homicide detectives just released video footage ... More >>

BREAKING: Big Star's Alex Chilton Dead at 59

We just received confirmation of this. More forthcoming. UPDATE: From the Memphis Commercial Appeal paper, from Chilton's beloved hometown: Pop hitmaker, cult hero, and Memphis rock iconoclast Alex Chilton has died. The singer and guitarist, best known as a member of '60s pop-soul act the Box Top ... More >>

Brittany Murphy Autopsy Inconclusive

​The county coroner's office completed its autopsy on the body of actress Brittany Murphy on Monday but came to conclusions and deferred its decision on the cause of her death until a battery of tests, including "toxicological tests and tissue studies" come back, according to a coroner's state ... More >>

'SNL' Brittany Murphy Spoof Pulled From Website

Abby Elliott as Brittany Murphy on 'SNL.'​NBC apparently pulled the online clip of a Saturday Night Live spoof of Brittany Murphy from a site, Hulu, the network co-owns. The move on Monday came a day after the actress died following cardiac arrest at her home in the hills above the Sunset Stri ... More >>

Prevent Bagel Related Injuries: Make Your Own Kitchen Guillotine

www.guillotine.dk/a real guillotine​Who knew bagels were so dangerous? The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Bagel Related Injuries (that's BRI to you) are extremely common, so common that inventors are busy, as we speak, trying to invent a new bagel slicer. Last year, according t ... More >>

South L.A.'s Hospital Of Horrors To Reopen

The UC Board of Regents on Thursday agreed to help reopen one of the most troubled medical institutions in state history, Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital. The move followed an offer by billionaire doctor Patrick Soon-Shiong, who put $100 million in loan guarantees on the table in an effort to ... More >>

'Valley-wide Outbreak' Of H1N1 Happening Now

Hospitals in the San Fernando Valley are experiencing a spike in patients reporting H1N1 "swine" flu symptoms, leading one administrator to call it a "Valley-wide outbreak" of the virus. Three Providence hospitals in the valley -- Holy Cross, Tarzana and Saint Joseph -- are reporting a 10 percent i ... More >>

Emergency Room Blues: My Own Private Public Option

About eight or nine years ago a colleague at the Weekly mentioned that she went to see a doctor at her HMO because of a headache. She left hours later after being given an MRI and a thorough examination for what was basically a cold. That, she said, was why health-care costs were so high. At the tim ... More >>

Murder Was the Case: L.A. Homicide No. 223, Man Found on Valley Street

Around 2:10 a.m. September 3, Los Angeles County Sheriff Department deputies, who were driving through the city of Los Angeles, found a man who was  "down and unconscious" on the corner of Jardine Avenue and Foothill Boulevard. A rescue ambulance was called to the scene but paramedics could no ... More >>

Murder was the Case: LA Homicides No. 117, 118, Man and Woman Found Dead in Encino Home

A man and a woman were found shot to death in a home in Encino today, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. LAPD officers responded to a 911 call of shots fired in the 4800 block of Haskell Avenue near Ventura Boulevard at 12:36 p.m., according to Officer Bruce Borihanh. Police and fi ... More >>

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN-- THE LONGEST EVENT TITLE IN THE HISTORY OF THE L.A. WEEKLY!

Fest-ish Fun

Sympathy for the Van Man

Closing Martin Luther King Hospital

After Monday’s postmortem, why are so many crucial questions unanswered?

Cliffhanger at MLK

Will Juan Ponce’s brain-tumor nightmare be the last straw at “Killer King”?

Escaping With His Life

MLK-Harbor’s got a new name, the nightmare sounds the same

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu

Things That Make You Go "Whoa!"

The 4400 among us

Dante's Inferno

The divine dark comedy of The Death of Mr. Lazarescu

Air Angels

Public Enemies

King/Drew gets closer to extinction, while Crenshaw High gets de-accredited. But folks are fighting back

No Second Act?

After county’s vote to close the trauma unit, King/Drew supporters ponder their next move

Right To Life

King/Drew supporters make their last stand

B as in Betrayal

Loss of King-Drew trauma unit upsets residents who voted for Measure B

L.A.’s Secret Agents

Time for Steve Cooley to stop county supervisors from breaking the law

Tough Love for King/Drew

Supervisor Burke loses Round 1 in bid to save trauma center

There They Go Again

County supervisors skirted Brown Act by deciding King-Drew’s fate behind closed doors

Code Red

King-Drew supporters wonder if this is the beginning of the end

Pulling the Plug

The long, sad road to King-Drew

Life, Literature and the ER

Life, Literature and the ER

Market Massacre

A deadly day in Santa Monica

Dr. G’s Hard Medicine

Will L.A. County’s top public doctor be remembered as the man who resuscitated health care for the poor or left it gasping for air on the operating table?

Close Encounter: And a Spider Sat Down Beside Her

Letters

Waving the Waiver

It’s nonsense to send people with colds to ER

Doctor’s Appeal

King-Drew doctor wins discrimination case