A 14-year-old boy was stabbed during an armed robbery Friday night in Brockton, Massachusetts, and four other teens have been arrested.
Brockton police say the boy was robbed on Court Street shortly before 6 p.m., and then stabbed. He was taken to …
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Boston Children’s doctor appears in ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ episode based off procedure he did
If you’re one of the millions of fans who tunes into “Grey’s Anatomy” every week, you know they share cutting-edge medical stories that can move you to tears, or leave you wondering if it’s fact or fiction.
But what you may not know about this week’s episode is that it was based off a first-of-its-kind procedure done by one of Boston Children’s Hospital’s very own doctors — who even made an appearance in the show.
“Doctor by day, TV star by night…” Boston Children’s said as it announced on social media Friday that Dr. Darren Orbach, the chief of Neuroradiology at the hospital, appeared in Thursday night’s episode of ABC’s long-running hit medical drama.
In the 4th episode of “Grey’s” 20th season, Dr. Arizona Robbins (played by Jessica Capshaw) returns to Grey Sloan for a particularly complicated case, in which she attempts to make medical history with a clinical trial involving patient Vida Madera, a 26-year-old woman who is 30 weeks pregnant and recently found out that her baby has a vein of Galen malformation (VOGM) — a type of rare blood vessel abnormality inside the brain.
The standard procedure has been to wait until after delivery to address the VOGM, but Dr. Robbins says she wants to operate on the baby’s brain in utero.
According to Boston Children’s Instagram post, the episode features the story of real-life baby Denver, who was the first in North America to successfully receive fetal embolization to treat her vein of Galen malformation.
Dr. Orbach performed the procedure last year with the team at the Maternal Fetal Care Center, in affiliation with Brigham and Woman’s Hospital, where the surgery took place. Denver’s mom Kenyatta and dad Derek appear in a YouTube video for Boston Children’s in which they talk about their journey from finding out about Denver’s VOGM to the surgery, and how she was born early but healthy.
In the video, Dr. Orbach talks about the historic VOGM procedure, saying when Denver was born, it was apparent from the beginning that she was fine — not requiring any medications or cardiovascular support.
“Denver turned out to be just the right patient at the right time, and it was definitely exhilarating to be able to treat her and finally after all these years have this success,” he said in the video.
According to Boston Children’s — one of the top pediatric hospitals in the nation — Dr. Orbach was contacted by series executives to consult and edit on the episode’s script.
A series of photos posted to the hospital’s Instagram account show Dr. Orbach in scrubs alongside Dr. Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson), Dr. Robbins, Dr. Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone), and Dr. Teddy Altman (Kim Raver), as well as various other photos from set.
“The rest, as they say in Hollywood, is history.”
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Are earthquakes a risk for Boston and Mass.? Here’s what their governments say
The shaking felt across Massachusetts and the Northeast on Friday from an earthquake that hit New Jersey might have felt like a wake-up call for some people.
Earthquakes can hit Boston?
They certainly can, and they have in the past, but experts say they are quite rare.
“This is a once-in-20-year earthquake here in the northeastern part of the country,” Boston College professor and Weston Observatory senior research scientist John Ebel said, adding it’s a reminder that “we do live in an area that’s prone to earthquakes and very, very, very occasionally has a large, damaging earthquake, as we have had in the past.”
In fact, the biggest earthquake to hit Boston in recorded history is believed to be one with a magnitude of 6.2 that hit Cape Ann in 1755. It knocked Faneuil Hall’s famous weather vane, which is in the shape of a grasshopper and can still be seen, off the top of the building.
“The earthquake lasted more than a minute, and most heavily damaged parts of the City that were built on fill,” according to an account from the City of Boston.
Friday’s earthquake was far less powerful — a 4.8 magnitude earthquake is 125 times weaker, in terms of energy released — and much farther away — the epicenter of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, is about 230 miles from Boston. Earthquakes with a magnitude greater than a 6 on the Richter scale, like that one from 1755, can cause a lot of damage, while ones with a magnitude under 5.5 only cause minor damage.
Nevertheless, Friday’s temblor was big for the Northeast, as Ebel confirmed.
“I looked at it and said, oh my goodness, 4.8. New Jersey, wow. That is a big earthquake,” he said, calling it an “exciting and insane” day.
The governments of Boston and Massachusetts both classify earthquakes as natural hazards that they plan for, along with all kinds of other possible threats, from flooding and storm surge to wildfire and drought.
In the city’s 2021 hazard assessment, they noted that Boston had 18,919 unreinforced masonry buildings, including residences, schools and fire stations. Those buildings are known for being susceptible to earthquake damage, and can collapse, though newer building are built to seismic code.
More on Friday’s earthquake
“We are actually getting safer and safer and safer, all of the time,” Ebel said. “When I see new buildings go up on the Boston College campus, I see the earthquake enforcement that has been put into those buildings, which I think is great.”
Damaging earthquakes are considered a low-frequency event, under the state’s hazard mitigation plan; the likelihood of a magnitude 5 earthquake hitting New England is only about 10-15% over a decade.
Read more here, starting on page 116.
The most recent significant earthquake felt in Massachusetts was a 5.8 magnitude temblor that struck Mineral, Virginia in 2011, according to the state’s most recent hazard mitigation plan, which also notes the statistic on how rare a magnitude 5 earthquake in New England is. The plan also notes that the parts of the state that are most at-risk to earthquake damage are Greater Boston, Cape Cod and the Connecticut River Valley, for their softer soils.
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“Softer soil types amplify and magnify ground shaking relative to nearby bedrock, which may increase building
damage and losses. Liquefaction poses an additional risk in areas with water-saturated sands, silts, or gravelly
soils that lose their strength in an earthquake,” the report says.
Read more here, starting on page 5.1-57.
If an earthquake does strike Massachusetts, the state shares these tips for what to do:
If You Are Inside
- Stay inside. Do not get in a doorway — this does not provide protection from falling or flying objects, and you might not be able to remain standing.
- Drop, Cover, and Hold On
- Drop down to the ground so the earthquake doesn’t knock you down.
- Cover your head and neck with your arms to protect you from falling debris. If possible, crawl under a sturdy desk, table or other piece of furniture for additional protection. Stay away from glass, windows, outside doors and walls, and other items that could fall.
- Hold on to any sturdy item you can until the shaking stops.
If You Are Outside
- Move away from buildings, streetlights, and utility wires.
If You Are in a Vehicle
- Pull to the side of the road and stay inside until the earthquake is over. Do not stop under overpasses or power lines.
And if it seems like earthquakes are felt much further away in the Northeast than in California, where they’re much more common, there’s a good reason for that: the rock under the eastern part of the country transmits seismic shaking better than the land under the West Coast.
Rockport man arrested, charged with raping a child
A man in Rockport, Massachusetts, has been arrested for allegedly raping a child several times almost a decade ago.
Rockport police say Brian Tuck, 59, was taken into custody on Thursday and charged with three counts of rape of a child under 16; ag…
Tractor trailer gets stuck in Sumner Tunnel causing delays in Boston
There were traffic delays in Boston on Friday afternoon after an over height tractor trailer got stuck in the Sumner Tunnel.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation said shortly after 3 p.m. that the left lane was closed and delays should be…
Rollover crash with injury in Dorchester
Police are at the scene of a rollover crash with multiple injuries in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on Friday afternoon.
Boston police said the crash was reported around 2:30 p.m. at Neponset Avenue and Boutwell Street. They said as many as four people were injured and at least one person was taken to an area hospital.
There was no immediate word on the extent of the injuries.
Video from the scene showed first responders around a pair of damaged SUVs, with the street blocked off.
No further details were released.
