Results tagged “braindamage”

A Mexican day laborer is hospitalized with brain damage after being attacked somewhere in Williamsburg or Bushwick by three black men shouting "wetback." Mario Vera was riding his bike back home to Bushwick with groceries from a lower Manhattan food pantry when the young men hit him in the back of his head "with something hard" while yelling anti-immigrant slurs. The assault happened on September 23rd, but wasn't reported until last Friday, because Vera is an undocumented immigrant afraid to go to the police. (NYPD policy prohibits officers from sharing law-abiding immigrants' status with the Feds, but it has been known to happen.)

Charla Nash, the Connecticut woman who was severely mauled by a friend's pet chimpanzee, remains under sedation, according to her doctors at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. The Stamford Advocate reports that they revealed the extent of her injuries as well: Nash, 55, "lost her nose, lips, eyelids, hands and bone structure in her mid-face and suffered significant brain, eye and tissue injuries in the attack." The hospital said that while her injuries have stabilized, "critical issues still remain related to a significant traumatic brain injury and injuries to her eyes that threaten her vision." The Stamford, CT police say the toxicology results for 200-pound chimp Travis, who was shot dead after the attack, will be available in the next few days. The decision whether the police will charge Travis's owner, Sondra Herold, (the police's criminal investigation is continuing) will take weeks. Nash's brother Stephen told the AP, "She's tougn. I'm optimistic. I think she can do it."

Hold onto your chopsticks; the Times recently commissioned a toxicology report on sushi from 13 local establishments and got back some rather unappetizing results:

More than half of the restaurants and stores surveyed sold sushi with so much mercury that eating just six pieces a week would exceed the amount the EPA says can be safely consumed by an adult of average weight, which the agency defines as 154 pounds, 70 kilograms. People weighing less are advised to consume even less mercury.

Continue reading "Mercury Rising Higher in Tuna"