Stories by Karen Springen
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Books: On the Road Again
The "Magic School Bus" series is flying back onto shelves. After a seven-year absence, the beloved series about an airborne schoolbus that takes kids on farfetched educational field trips is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a new book in September and possibly even a movie and a computer game. "The franchise doesn't need to be reinvented," says Deborah Forte, president of Scholastic Media. "It needs to be extended."The series, featuring the eccentric teacher Ms. Frizzle, continues to have a huge following. The TV-cartoon spinoff, for 4- to 7-year-olds, launched on PBS in 1994 and has become the longest-running children's TV science show ever. The series' Web site is Scho-lastic's most heavily trafficked site after Harry Potter; it gets 3 million visitors per month. Scholastic has sold 58 million copies of "Magic School Bus" books and 12 million related videos, DVDs and CD-ROMs over the last 20 years.Though there have been many spinoffs of the original 10-book series (there are... -
The Premature Birth Problem
Last year, one in every eight babies in the United States was born prematurely—a 30 percent increase over 1981 rates, according to a report released Thursday by the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine. The study notes that babies born prematurely are at greater risk for health problems ranging from cerebral palsy and mental retardation to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and crossed eyes. The report put the economic burden of preterm births at $26.2 billion last year—or about $51,600 per infant—most of that stemming from the costs of medical care. Dr. Richard Behrman, chair of the committee that wrote the report, is a clinical professor at Stanford University and at the University of California, San Francisco, and a pediatrician who has been treating premature babies since 1965. He spoke with NEWSWEEK's Karen Springen about the growing and mysterious problem. Excerpts:NEWSWEEK: Why such a big jump in premature births?Richard Behrman: We know many factors that... -
Yes, People Like Me Do Get HIV
A decade ago, Regan Hofmann was shocked to learn that she had contracted HIV—the virus that causes AIDS—from her boyfriend. Then a 28-year-old editor, Hofmann hardly fit the stereotype: she was a white, well-educated, straight divorcée in a monogamous relationship. Worried about the reaction she would get from friends and colleagues, she only revealed her status to her immediate family and to her boyfriends. Four years ago, she began recounting the reactions she got from those she disclosed her status to in an anonymous column for POZ, a health and lifestyle magazine for HIV-positive readers.Six months ago, she stopped writing anonymously and decided to go public—very public—with her status. She became editor in chief of POZ, and made herself the cover girl of the April issue. Now, as POZ editor and member of the board of directors for the National Association of People with AIDS, she is working to spread the message to all Americans about the importance of getting tested. With June... -
Health: Bitten By the Bug
At least 20,000 Americans a year are afflicted with Lyme disease, a bacterial infection caused by ticks. If left untreated, the infection can spread to the heart, joints and nervous system. Later this year, the Infectious Diseases Society of America is expected to recommend that doctors prescribe a single dose of antibiotics to people whose tick bites put them at high risk for the disease. Here's how to lessen your odds of getting infected: Insect repellent should contain DEET, which wards off ticks with its smell. Dress in light colors so it's easier to spot ticks. They feed on humans for at least 72 to 96 hours; use tweezers to remove them. "Favorite areas are under the armpits and in your groin," says Dr. Gary Wormser of New York Medical College. If you show symptoms of Lyme--fever, headache, fatigue and a rash at least the size of a half dollar--see a doctor. He'll probably prescribe a two-week course of medication. -
Microchips: Fido Once Was Lost, But Now He's Found
A few weeks ago Chelsea, a cavalier King Charles spaniel, escaped from her home. A Wayne, N.J., animal-control officer waved a scanner over a micro-chip embedded in the skin between Chelsea's shoulders--and looked up the address that matched her ID number. "Within minutes they were able to reunite her with us," says her owner, Robert Gordon, a vet who routinely inserts microchips into pets.Microchips aren't new--the technology's been around for two decades--but they've been slow to catch on in the United States. In Europe, one in four pets has been chipped; just 5 percent have in the States. Part of the problem has been that--unlike in Europe and Canada, where the devices use the same frequency--competing U.S. companies keep separate registries and require different scanners. But in July, Bayer HealthCare plans to start selling ResQ, a universal scanner that can read all brands of pet microchips. It's already shipping 20,000 free ones to shelters and pet hospitals nationwide.Some... -
Health: Can You Really Botox The Blues Away?
Smooth the brow, brighten the eye ... " the pioneering psychologist William James wrote in 1890, describing a self-help technique for overcoming depression, "and your heart must be frigid indeed if it does not gradually thaw." In James's lifetime there was no easy way to follow this advice because Botox hadn't been invented. But today, smoothing the brow by paralyzing the corrugator supercilii muscles is the work of minutes--or so reasoned Eric Finzi, a dermatologist in Chevy Chase, Md. A few years ago Finzi got the idea of in-jecting botulinum toxin A--the compound marketed as Botox--into the foreheads of patients suffering major clinical depression. According to a paper published last week in the journal Dermatologic Surgery, it helped in nine out of 10 cases--nearly twice the success rate claimed for antidepressants.That's despite the fact that it seems to make no sense. Frowning is an expression of an underlying emotional state. To cure depression by banishing frowning is like... -
Family: Exhibit A--Bring Kids
The kids are almost out of school ... and the museums are ready with new exhibits. Some favorites (more at childrensmuseums.org ):^ Chicago Children's Museum ( chichildrens museum.org ). The new "My Museum" exhibit lets kids crawl through a kaleidoscope, paint on oversize 3-D letters and mold faces out of clay.^ Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, in Texas ( fortworthmuseum.org ). Its "Risk!" exhibit, which lets kids lie on a (safe!) bed of nails, is open through the summer.^ Kidzu Children's Museum, in Chapel Hill, N.C. ( kidzuchildrensmuseum.org ). From May 12 to Sept. 10, the three-month-old museum hoststhe traveling exhibit "GoFigure," which teaches kids about math through fivepopular stories.^ Children's Museum of Manhattan ( cmom.org ). The traveling exhibit "Adventures With Clifford the Big Red Dog" is open May 27 to Sept. 5. Woof! -
Books: The Choice Is Yours
You're a high-school sophomore who's moved to a new school. Should you hang out with the cool kids--or is that not your scene? What should you wear? What's more embarrassing: riding the bus to school or having Dad drive you? These are the choices you'll make reading "What If ... Everyone Knew Your Name," one of two "What If ... " books soon to be published by Random House. They're inspired by the popular'80s "Choose Your Own Adventure" series by R. A. Montgomery; his stories have been updated and return nationwide to bookstores this week. In July, Lean Forward Media is releasing a DVD, "Choose Your Own Adventure: The Abominable Snowman," with 11 possible plotlines. And next year, HarperCollins will sell an interactive adult novel called "Pretty Little Mistakes." "You can become rich and famous, but you can also end up joining a cult," says the book's editor, Alison Callahan. But not everyone's behind the pro-choice movement: last week net execs at CW passed on the Aaron Spelling... -
Libraries: Graphic-Novel Idea
A half century ago, psychologist Frederic Wertham testified to Congress that comic books contributed to juvenile delinquency. "Comics were thought to rot your brain," says David Saylor, creative director of Scholastic Trade Books. That thinking's changed: librarians are stocking shelves with long, bound kid-lit comics (a.k.a. graphic novels), and publishers are giving them plenty to choose from.Librarians and parents like the dialogue by wholesome characters and the fact that these comics can be "a bridge between picture books and chapter books," says Jennifer Holm, who co-writes "Babymouse." (In the last half year, Random House has printed 350,000 copies of the first three "Babymouse" graphic novels; Scholastic has sold 500,000 copies of Jeff Smith's "Bone" books.) Librarians also like that long-form comics may help kids in future careers. "The work force increasingly relies on the marriage of images and text," says Hollis Rudiger of the Cooperative Children's Book Center at the... -
Pets: What Big Teeth ...
Every year, 4.7 million people--mostly children--are bitten by dogs, and 150,000 of them are rushed to emergency rooms. With National Dog Bite Prevention Week coming up, here's how to stay safe and scar-free:Teach your kids never to approach an unfamiliar pooch, says Dr. Kaveh Alizadeh of Long Island Plastic Surgical Group in New York, who treated a girl bitten after she jumped in front of a dog. They also shouldn't look a strange dog directly in the eye, run away from it or scream at it.How to treat a minor wound: Cleanse the bite area with soap and water. Then, to stop bleeding, apply pressure with a wet washcloth. Infections are more likely tooccur with dogs that eat fresh meat, because of bacteria, so check out Fido's diet with his owner. Get your bite looked at by a doctor within six hours.If the wound is severe, a plastic surgeon can meet you in the ER to minimize scarring. For a referral, call 888-4-PLASTIC or see plasticsurgery.org . Whether you will get glue or stitches... -
Viagra: Not Just for Dad
Aging boomers aren't the only ones using Viagra--college men are, too. In a new anonymous survey of 234 sexually active male students at three college campuses, researchers at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago found that 6 percent have used erectile-dysfunction medications. While about half of the 18- to 25-year-olds said they took Viagra, Cialis or Levitra to treat erectile dysfunction, says researcher Najah Musacchio, others popped the pills because they wanted to "have more sex," "have more fun" or simply "to try it." (For men with normal erections, a drug won't make their erection stronger, though it may shorten the recovery period between sexual bouts.)This could be a dangerous trend. Not only did nearly all the men get their pills without a prescription (the medicine's available online), but 64 percent mixed the meds with alcohol or illicit drugs, such as ecstasy or methamphetamine. Certain illicit drugs can cause blood pressure to plummet when combined with Viagra. The... -
The War on HPV
Amelia Togba-Addy, a nurse at Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, had always been in good health. But last October her gynecologist called with disturbing news: Togba-Addy's latest Pap smear showed abnormal cells on her cervix. First, doctors removed the suspicious tissue and examined it under a microscope--then they diagnosed Togba-Addy with cervical cancer. In January, she had a hysterectomy. "Even though the doctor says she believes I'm cured and my faith tells me I'm cured, there's still a little part of me that worries," says Togba-Addy, 39. "Before all of this, I didn't even think about cervical cancer."Few women ever do. Until the Pap smear was introduced in the 1940s, cervical cancer was the No. 1 cancer killer among women. Since then, routine screenings--which detect damaged cells before they become cancerous--have made enormous strides. Over the past 50 years, deaths in the United States have plummeted by more than 70 percent to less than 5,000 a year. But the disease... -
Books: For Children, Some New Looks at Past Horrors
Anne Frank's 1947 "Diary of a Young Girl" is the most famous of its genre, but it's not the only one. With Holocaust Remembrance Day this week, there are dozens of new kid-lit titles about the war's atrocities. While Holocaust books for children aren't exactly new, the sheer number of titles in the past year is. "We may hear from booksellers that there are too many," says Simon & Schuster's Emma Dryden. "On the other hand, we sell them." One reason for the books' success is that schools are snatching them up: 25 state curriculum regulations require the Holocaust to be taught, and 24 others implicitly encourage it. Another reason is that the books are genuinely good. Last year's "Hitler Youth" won a Newbery Honor award and is now in its fifth printing. Kids like the stories, which don't sugarcoat the truth. "Everybody gets to learn about what happened so it won't happen again," says Talia Fishbein, 10, from Highland Park, Ill. That's especially true in "Weedflower" and "Dear Miss... -
Gender Equality
Lauren Kennedy was only 9 years old when she snuck her first sip of her dad's whiskey. At 12, she started drinking margaritas with friends. Two years later, she drank so much hard alcohol at a friend's house that she passed out. Despite the blackout, Kennedy, now 21, says she loved the feeling of being drunk. "It made me forget all my worries," she says. But her drinking also led to more worries for her family. After a lifetime on the honor roll, Kennedy says she “stopped caring about school.” She got her first D her sophomore year of high school, dropped out a year later and started experimenting with marijuana and even crystal methamphetamine. "Every time I did [the drugs], I was under the influence of alcohol," she says. "I never thought I'd actually get addicted to them." But she did. Kennedy’s been sober now for two years, but only after spending more than a month at the Betty Ford Center at age 19 to treat her alcohol and drug addiction.Not every young woman who picks up a... -
The War on HPV
Amelia Togba-Addy, a nurse at Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, had always been in good health. But last October her gynecologist called with disturbing news: Togba-Addy's latest Pap smear showed abnormal cells on her cervix. First, doctors removed the suspicious tissue and examined it under a microscope--then they diagnosed Togba-Addy with cervical cancer. In January, she had a hysterectomy. "Even though the doctor says she believes I'm cured and my faith tells me I'm cured, there's still a little part of me that worries," says Togba-Addy, 39. "Before all of this, I didn't even think about cervical cancer."Few American women ever do. Until the Pap smear was introduced in the 1940s, cervical cancer was the No. 1 cancer killer among women. Since then, routine screenings--which detect damaged cells before they become cancerous --have made enormous strides. Over the last 50 years, deaths in the United States have plummeted by more than 70 percent to less than 5,000 a year. But... -
Adventure: Greener Rooms
In the spirit of Earth Day, why not stay at an ecofriendly hotel? Some resorts are recycling more, cleaning without bleach or ammonia, using low-flow toilets and replacing mowed grass with native ground cover, among other things. Hotel Triton ( hoteltriton.com ) in San Francisco has 24 rooms with organic cotton towels and energy-saving motion-sensor lights. The Lenox Hotel ( lenoxhotel.com ) in Boston composts its food waste and offers "Eco-chic" weekend packages. To find ecofriendly hotels near you, see ecotourism.org , greenseal.org and the Green Hotel Association's greenhotels.com . -
This Week Online
Harvard doctor and author, "the denial of aging": What we need to do is to recognize that we can't necessarily prevent some degree of disability or frailty in old age. But we can try to make sure that old age is as good a time--despite disabilities--as it can be. What's reflected in people trying to change their appearance is that they're responding to a prevailing attitude that says aging is undesirable, bad, something to be avoided. We've got to figure out better places to live, better ways to become engaged with the world. Aging is just a natural part of life. ... -
Fashion: Corn Clothes
Corn on the ... bod? This week, at the Biotechnology Industry Organization convention in Chicago, Ford fashion models will strut down a catwalk in dresses by designers like Oscar de la Renta made of fabric produced from corn kernels. Called Ingeo, the material is "thin and comfortable" and "doesn't stretch or rip," says Melissa Sack of Moral Fervor, which is launching an Ingeo T-shirt line. (Armani is putting an Ingeo knit shirt in its spring-summer 2006 collection.) "But the main reason we're using it is it's sustainable." Unlike nylon and polyester (oil-derived synthetics), Ingeo is made from a renewable crop: animal-feed corn, of which U.S. farms produce about 12 billion bushels annually. There are downsides, however. The fabric is machine-washable but can melt if ironed; it costs a bit more than cotton or polyester. Still, corn-derived materials are versatile. Among other uses, they can be made into beer cups, as they are for Minnesota T-Wolves games. If you're tempted to nibble... -
Health: He's Got Your Eye
April is national Donate Life month. But in addition to the 91,000 Americans waiting for organs, thousands more need new heart valves, corneas and tendons. Here's how to help: when you sign up as an organ donor, you're usually also signing up as a tissue donor, too. But each state has different laws. Look up your state's at donatelife.net . You can sometimes specify what's off-limits. But "most people want to donate everything," says Dena Reynolds of LifeNet, one of the nation's largest tissue banks. As in organ removal, the body isn't disfigured when you donate tissue, and it can still be displayed in an open casket. Doctors put you on a ventilator to keep your heart beating for the transplant, which typically occurs within 24 hours. If you donate your skin, it's removed from the back--in a small square, about two inches wide--for burn victims. Eyes are used for patients who need corneal transplants --last year 33,000 were completed--because of post-cataract-surgery complications... -
The Good Life
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Beverly Cleary, Age 90
If you haven't raised a child between the ages of 7 and 11--or been a kid yourself in recent years--you probably don't realize that Beverly Cleary is a phenomenon. One of America's most successful living authors, she's written 39 beloved books since 1950 and sold 91 million copies worldwide--not far behind the "Harry Potter" series, at 120 million. Most remarkable is that all her books have stayed in print. Despite the lure of electronic games, the Internet and ever-more-violent TV, kids today still connect to Cleary's clear-eyed stories of ordinary boys and girls even though she's never updated them with new toys or gadgets--or even removed such arcana as Ellen Tebbits's woolen underwear.But kids haven't really changed, and Cleary has a gently comic gift for getting inside their heads; she knows what gives them bubbles of happiness, as well as those universal feelings of injustice, shame or disappointment. Take Ramona Quimby, her most popular creation, who fights with her bossy big... -
Case Study
Published in The New England Journal of Medicine; led by A. John Rush at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. KEY FINDING: About half the patients who take antidepressants for depression do not get better after initial treatment and should try a different medication.While the study does raise questions about the effectiveness of treatments, don't give up right away. Among the patients who improved, about half failed to see benefits until eight to 10 weeks into the study. "The side effects are immediate. The therapeutic benefits take a long time," says Dr. Andrew Leuchter of UCLA, who helped oversee the study. If you still don't notice any results after 14 weeks, ask your doctor for a new medication. ... -
Surgery: No Lift for Face-Lifts
After years in the Florida sun, banker Eleanor Hager, 55, says she looked "frumpy and old and tired." She initially wanted a face-lift, which can cost $20,000 and require two weeks to recover. Instead she got an upper-eyelid-lift and laser treatments on her face and chest. It cost her $6,000 and she was back at work the next week. "I would absolutely go and do it again," she says.Fellow patients agree. A new American Society of Plastic Surgeons survey found that last year face-lifts were, surprisingly, no longer ranked among the top-five cosmetic surgical procedures. (The top five are liposuction, rhinoplasty, breast augmentation, eyelid surgery and tummy tucks.) Patients are instead turning to minimally invasive facial procedures that are both easier and cheaper. Doctors performed 108,955 face-lifts last year, but they did a whopping 3.8 million Botox treatments and 1 million chemical peels. Of course, it's not a permanent fix. Botox has to be repeated every three to four months,... -
Sports: A Safety Course
With spring officially starting this week, golfers are gearing up for the green. And injuries. Every year, more than 100,000 get hurt on the course. We asked health experts for advice. Dr. Anthony Rankin, professor of orthopedic surgery at Howard University, blames poor technique for much of the hurt. Lessons will not only improve your swing, but will also make you less prone to back, shoulder, hand and thumb aches. Otherwise, the wrist, rather than the arm, takes the pressure of the swing. Go to NATA.org for more safety tips. To elongate your muscles before a game, use a golf club or stretch pole (you can get one for $50 at golfstretchingpole.com ). To stretch your fingers, grip and release your steering wheel or even squeeze toys. But don't swing multiple clubs at a time to warm up. "The pull of the weight of the clubs will stretch your muscles farther than you want to go," says Rick Martino, director of instruction for the PGA. Finally, walk the course, says Joseph Myers of the... -
Style: The Limo is Extra
Finding the perfect prom dress is tough. If you live in a small town, it may seem impossible. That's a big reason more teens are starting their search online. Janet Mitchell of Tillson, N.Y., bought her daughter Vicki a green dress for $229 at sydneyscloset.com , which sells plus-size gowns. Because Vicki wears size 16, the Web dramatically increased her choices.Sites like tjformal.com offer much bigger selections than department stores; cbslimited .com , for example, features more then 2,000 dresses.Leave time; gowns can take up to 10 weeks to arrive. Carefully measure your bust, waist and hips, then check size charts.When in doubt, buy big. Plan on alterations. Check return policies; Web retailers often don't accept returns. Now all you have to do is find a date. -
Weddings: White: So Worn Out
This June, when Amanda Moore, 25, gets married in Beverly Hills, Fla., she intends to wear a black gown with pink daisy accents. Black, she says, is slimming, and pink matches a special necklace from her great-grandmother. "My mother-in-law was the only one who was, like, 'Oh, my gosh, you have to call the church and make sure it's OK'." (She did. It is.)Moore's not alone in bucking altar etiquette. Jeffrey Moore, a senior vice president at wedding-dress superretailer David's Bridal, says 20 percent of its gowns now include color; they were all white (or ivory) just three years ago. The stores now carry 32 accent hues, including apple red and pool blue. (Toni DeLisi, owner of Memorable Events in Ramsey, N.J., says half of her brides accent with colors like ice blue.) There is color in 16 of 31 gowns in Vera Wang's spring '06 collection.Weddings aren't as traditional now, and that "trickles down" to apparel, says Moore. The trend in "destination weddings" also helped spur the pro... -
Tractors: Let The Good Times Roll
By day, Mike Hepworth works full time as an oil-company consultant. By night, he cultivates his three-acre Oregon garden with his own $12,000 John Deere tractor, complete with cup holder, headlights and adjustable cushioned seat. He's not alone. A growing number of "hobby farmers"--and even people with normal lawns--are buying so-called compact utility tractors. Last year Americans bought an estimated 900,000 "garden" tractors, up from 500,000 in 1999, says Bruce Butterfield, research director for the National Gardening Association (and a tractor owner himself). Experts estimate that hobbyists, who make less than $500 a year from selling crops and livestock, account for 55 percent of compact-tractor sales; just 25 percent of the buyers are professional farmers.Manufacturers have taken notice. This month Home Depot started selling its lawn tractors to consumers online. Also this month, John Deere introduced its new $16,000 3203 compact utility tractor "for economy-minded large-... -
People: He's Cooking
Oprah, add this name to your book-club address list. Jeff Henderson, 41, a cocaine dealer turned high-end chef, just signed a six-figure deal with William Morrow/HarperCollins to write his memoirs. Henderson pitched his book with the title "From Cocaine to Foie Gras."Known as Chef Jeff, Henderson--born in southern California's Watts and raised by a single mother--says he earned as much as $35,000 a week dealing cocaine in San Diego. He wound up in prison in 1988: "People say I got arrested. No, I got rescued," he says. At the time, he likes to say, the only thing he had ever cooked was crack. But while incarcerated in six different prisons for eight years and nine months, he worked in prison kitchens. First, he cleaned pots and pans. Then he prepared meals, bartering food for services like haircuts. His signature dish in prison: fried chicken, served every Sunday. Today it's a pan-roasted Chilean bass with fingerling potatoes --a $26 entree at the Cafe Bellagio, where he is... -
Food: Mercury Rising
Is your dinner fishy? There might be reason to worry. A recent study from the University of North Carolina at Asheville found that one in five women of childbearing age tested for mercury had levels that could cause neurological damage in babies. The culprit: fish--eaten by many of the 6,600 participants--which carry mercury from coal-fired power plants near lakes, streams and oceans. (Mercury is no longer used in vaccines, with the exception of some influenza vaccines.) Unfortunately, cooking doesn't eliminate mercury stored in muscle tissue. Big predators pose a greater risk because they also absorb mercury from smaller fish they consume. The FDA recommends you don't eat swordfish, shark, king mackerel or tilefish more than once a week, and pregnant women should eat them no more than once a month. Safer meal options are catfish, farm-raised trout, farm-raised salmon and shellfish like shrimp. (See ... -
States: Time to Stub Out Smoking
Tobacco, Virginia State Sen. Charles Hawkins reminded folks last week, is "a legal crop." But the places where you can legally use it are quickly being stubbed out. Hawkins's fellow senators--in the heart of tobacco country, no less--approved a statewide smoking ban in bars, restaurants and most public enclosed places. Though it will face tough opposition in the House, "it's a breakthrough," says state Sen. Brandon Bell. ... -
Medicine: Hitting the Strip
A generation that's killed bad breath with Listerine strips can now tackle colds and coughs the same way. Current products that melt on the tongue include Pfizer's Sudafed ($6), Novartis's Triaminic ($6) and TheraFlu ($5), and InnoZen's Suppress Cough strips ($3). They seem to get medicine into the body faster, and they're good for senior citizens or anyone who has difficulty swallowing pills. The downside is they can hold only small amounts--say, 25 milligrams--of active ingredients, so you might need to pop several. Then again, the strips don't require measuring or any water, dissolving in about 10 seconds. "It's easy for somebody to medicate themselves without anyone knowing, especially in a church," says Gary Kehoe, a developer of medicated strips. Within a few years, expect the technology to be licensed to companies for prescription drugs that don't require too big of a dose. But they would need FDA approval first. Good candidates include hormone-replacement therapy, birth... -
Hospitals: No Candid Camera
Viviana Chapman, who's due to give birth on March 1, was looking forward to capturing the event on camera. "This was going to be our memory forever," she says. But Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago, like a growing number of the 2,778 U.S. hospitals with delivery rooms, is turning down patients' requests to videotape births. The official reason: privacy and safety concerns. But some say the real reason is that hospitals are afraid the tapes will be used against them in malpractice suits. Though videos rarely yield evidence, Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital in 2004 banned cameras during births, in part because some patients with tapes threatened lawsuits. "It doesn't mean that malpractice occurred," says hospital spokeswoman Kelly Sullivan. "But [the tape] can be used as a weapon in manipulating a pain-and-suffering award that shouldn't be awarded."Doctors say the no-movie-camera policies benefit patients. Tripods can fall into the "sterile field," says Laura Riley,...