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Daily digest May 28 2015

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Daily digest

UK's cancer death rates blamed on delays in sending patients for tests

Delays in testing for cancer at GP surgeries may be the reason why patients in the UK are more likely to die of the disease than those in comparable countries, according to authoritative new research.

As reported in the Guardian, cancer patients in the UK have a lower chance of survival than in Australia, Canada, Norway and Sweden – four of the five countries that have been compared with the UK in a series of investigations over the past six years. 

Research by the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership, launched by the then cancer tsar Sir Mike Richards in 2009, has shown that cancers in the UK tend to be more advanced when patients are first treated and the latest paper, published in the journal BMJ Open, finds that there are delays in the GP surgery. 

Read more on the Guardian website

‘21x drug dose killed patient’

A man with serious mental health issues died after a nurse gave him a medicine dose 21 times too strong, a court has heard.

Amanda Young, 40, had been helping Joshua Gaffney, 22, regulate drugs to control schizophrenia but a jury heard she and her colleagues had regularly given Mr Gaffney too much of the anti-psychotic drug clozapine, the Sun has reported. 

They were told Ms Young gave him 4,200mg in a glass when he should have had 200mg, roughly a teaspoon, in 2012 and the court heard Ms Young, a mental health nurse for 16 years, claimed she ‘did not see’ crucial warnings on the medication causing her to confuse the dosage. 

She denies a charge of manslaughter by gross negligence and the trial continues.

(£) Read more on the Sun website

Baby makes mum’s dying heart beat again

A mum who was close to death with a failing heart told how it started beating again after her sleeping baby was placed next to her, the Daily Mirror has reported. 

Holli Cheung, 36, suffered two cardiac arrests caused by a virus and doctors feared she would not survive without a transplant but three-month-old Jordan was brought to her bed and she made an astonishing recovery. 

Ms Cheung, of Buckinghamshire, said: ‘My baby saved me, he woke my heart.’

Read more on the Mirror website

Coffee safety warning: drink no more than four coffees a day - or two if you're pregnant

Drinking more than four mugs of instant coffee a day could be dangerous – and even healthy adults are at risk, experts said yesterday.

As reported in the Daily Mail, the risk is particularly high for pregnant women - who should have a maximum of two cups a day - and young people. 

In its first guidelines on caffeine consumption, the EU’s food safety watchdog has advised a daily limit of 400mg and the average mug of instant coffee contains around 100mg of caffeine.  

Read more on the Mail Online website