Health

ABC News Medical Correspondent Dr. Darien Sutton walks through Rock Creek National Park in Washington, D.C. with Walk with a Doc board member Chaun Hightower. (Paul Dougherty/ABC News) (NEW YORK) — A community health initiative that partnered with the National Park Service has doctors writing a “prescription” for wellness by getting more people outdoors. “When […]

Texas Children’s Hospital (NEW YORK) — A 4-year-old girl was discharged from Texas Children’s Hospital on Thursday after waiting on the organ transplant waiting list for 1,025 days, or nearly 3 years. The staff at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston lined the halls on April 18 to give 4-year-old Arctura, who received a donor heart […]

Flavio Coelho/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — Misty Stamm was working tirelessly to figure out the details: waking up early, the hourslong drives, booking hotels and finding doctors who could legally administer gender-affirming hormone therapy to her 16-year-old transgender daughter. Stamm is living in one of the 24 states where legislation is restricting gender-affirming health care […]

Carlos Duarte/Getty Images (LOS ANGELES) — Two couples have filed lawsuits against in vitro fertilization provider Ovation Fertility alleging its clinic destroyed their embryos when a lab employee wrongly used hydrogen peroxide instead of a sterile solution in an incubator. The couples allege that the clinic still used the embryos despite knowing they were nonviable. […]

SimpleImages/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — Heat-related emergency room visits increased in 2023 in the U.S. compared to previous years, according to new federal data. Between Jan. 1, 2023 and Dec. 31, 2023, there were a total of 119,605 ER visits for heat-related illnesses, with 92% of those visits occurring between May and September, according to […]

ATU Images/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — Racial and ethnic disparities in health care are evident in every state, even those with robust health systems, according to a new analysis from the Commonwealth Fund. In the analysis from the organization, which is aimed at promoting equitable health care, researchers found health system performance is markedly worse […]

ABC (NEW YORK) — Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist Venki Ramakrishnan sat down with ABC News Live to discuss the science and ethics of extending the human lifespan. In his new book, “Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality,” Ramakrishnan explains why we may not want to lengthen our lives […]

Thir Sakdi Phu Cxm / EyeEm/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — The New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has released a health advisory after multiple cases of human leptospirosis — an infection that is associated to exposure to rat urine — have been reported so far this year in New York City. There were […]

Grace Cary/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — A trade association is calling on melatonin makers to follow new guidelines on labeling and packaging for their products amid a rise in emergency room visits and calls to poison centers for accidental ingestion of melatonin by children. The new guidelines, announced Monday by the Council for Responsible Nutrition, […]

CDC.gov (NEW YORK) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — alongside the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and local and state health departments — is continuing to investigate after 19 people across nine states have experienced harmful reactions after being given botulinum toxin injections. The injections were either counterfeit or administered by unlicensed […]