When Sarah Easterling was pregnant with her first child 11 years ago, she was determined to find the purest products available to clothe and care for her son. “Infants, their bodies are are so small and they’re so vulnerable,” she says. “They are already subjected to so much. I felt like as much as I […]
Local health officials consider why Buncombe County leads the state in the percentage of unvaccinated children and also discuss how immunization builds a shield of protection on a community level.
When Carmen started first grade, it was apparent that she had a problem. Despite being a bright child, she struggled to make sense of the words on a written page. “She’s my second child,” says Carmen’s mother, Rachel Friel of Asheville, “and I could just tell from reading with her when she was in the first grade […]
Cancer Support Community is establishing a homelike facility in Asheville to provide support services for cancer patients and their families. Local nonprofit Journey to be FREE Naturally, founded by cancer survivor Catherine Desfosses, will work with CSC to help people face cancer together.
With technology developed for the video gaming industry, Mission Health is piloting a groundbreaking observation system designed to prevent costly patient falls. The Cerner Patient Observer allows technicians to watch vulnerable patients remotely, talk to them and call for help when they attempt to get out of bed and risk hurting themselves in a fall. “It’s […]
To save a life, Julia Killen endured six hours with each arm stuck with two needles that drew cells from her bone marrow. While the process involved some discomfort and inconvenience, Killen says the sacrifice was well worth the benefit to a blood-cancer patient who needed a transplant. The process started with a swab of her […]
With a new mechanical pump circulating blood through his body, Jim Hemphill can again play with his grandchildren and talk without straining to breathe. He also has no pulse. There’s no rhythmic beating with his new ventricular assist device, just a continuous flow. Hemphill is the first patient to have the device implanted in his […]
With a primary election less than four months away, North Carolina officials are scrambling to get ready for a controversial state law requiring photo IDs at the polls, even as a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality remains unresolved. Voting rights advocates fear the changes in how the state’s elections are conducted will create confusion among voters […]
North Carolina reached a milestone this year as a national and regional leader in solar energy, but the expiration of a key state tax credit threatens to undermine that success. Solar power installations in the state surpassed a combined 1 gigawatt in capacity for the first time recently, according to a clean energy census by […]
The head of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce says she’s hopeful that efforts underway to improve efficiency in the city Development Services Department will make it easier for developers to get their projects built. Kit Cramer serves on the Development Customer Advisory Group, which was created to provide input for improving the department. The […]
Developers have long complained about Asheville’s permitting process, and critics say their concerns were underscored this summer when Chris Brown dropped plans for a $2 million indoor trampoline park. City officials say they’re working hard to improve efficiency but have been hampered by a construction boom amid a serious shortage of qualified employees. “With all […]
Asheville is also seeing an upsurge in heroin use and overdoses, says Asheville police department’s Drug Suppression Unit. The department began tracking overdoses March 29, 2014, as they became strikingly more prevalent. Through July of this year, officers responded to 25 overdoses.
Bella Grace Yarrington, born Feb. 20 with a chromosomal abnormality, is alive and doing well at home with her parents in Weaverville after two major surgeries and pediatric palliative care at Mission Hospital.
Former state Rep. Nathan Ramsey has landed a job with the N.C. Department of Commerce nine months after his defeat in a bid for re-election.
A businessman says he backed out of a plan to locate an indoor trampoline park in Asheville because of delays in getting city approval for the project. Chris Brown, owner of Velocity Air Sports, says he had planned to develop the facility at a site on Sweeten Creek Road, but scuttled the effort in favor […]
The high school students craned their necks to get a good look at the mechanical mannequin that was about to give birth. “She’s contracting every three minutes now,” said Alesia Carpenter, a registered nurse. As manager of the simulation lab, she led the simulated birth in a Mission Hospital suite. A monitor displayed the makeshift mom’s […]
Desperate for something that would calm his shaking hands, Sylva resident Ted Kubit found relief in deep brain stimulation, a surgical procedure that involves drilling holes in the skull and implanting a device in the chest that sends signals to electrodes anchored in the brain. “It got to the point where I couldn’t even brush my teeth anymore,” Kubit, […]
Traffic along many of Asheville’s major corridors has decreased in recent years, figures from the N.C. Department of Transportation reveal. DOT officials say that’s due to the Great Recession, but some transportation experts see it as evidence that the state agency overestimates the need for new highway projects.
A new, specialized stent is saving the lives of stroke victims. If utilized within 3 hours of a stroke, the device can pull out clots in 80 to 90 percent of cases—an improvement over the previous success rate of 40 to 50 percent.
In the age of smartphones and the Internet, ham radio strikes many as an outmoded technology destined to go the way of eight-track tapes and film cameras.
With the Federal Aviation Administration still many months away from issuing rules on the commercial use of drones, Western North Carolina entrepreneurs are eager to offer customers a bird’s eye view. Thanks to high-resolution cameras and relatively modest cost, drones are considered a game changer for things like airborne surveillance and photography.
