Category: Audio

Bleeding and in Pain, a Pregnant Woman in Louisiana Couldn’t Get Answers

How one Louisiana woman experiencing a miscarriage sought care amid a climate of fear and confusion among doctors fueled by that state’s restrictive abortion law.

In PA County Jails, Guards Use Pepper Spray and Stun Guns to Subdue People in Mental Crisis

An investigation of records from 25 county jails across Pennsylvania showed that nearly 1 in 3 “use of force” incidents by guards involved a confined person who was having a psychiatric crisis or who had a known mental illness.

Inside a Children’s Hospital: Struggling to Cope With a Surge of Respiratory Illness

Pediatric cases of RSV and flu have families crowding into ERs, as health systems juggle staff shortages. In Michigan, only 10 out of 130 hospitals have a pediatric ICU.

Treating Long Covid Is Rife With Guesswork

With a dearth of evidence on effective treatments for long covid, patients and doctors in 400 clinics around the country still rely on trial and error.

Homelessness Among Older People Is on the Rise, Driven by Inflation and the Housing Crunch

In Montana and across the nation, homeless shelters are reporting that people older than 60 are a growing proportion of their populations.

Listen: With Abortion Rights on the Ballot in Michigan, Women Tell Their Stories

Women who need abortion care come to Michigan from surrounding states that already have banned the procedure. A clinic in suburban Detroit allowed a reporter to interview patients, doctors, and nurses to understand what is at stake as voters decide whether to guarantee abortion access in the Michigan Constitution.

Post-‘Roe,’ Contraceptive Failures Carry Bigger Stakes

Science Friday and KHN ran the numbers on birth control failure. Depending on the contraception method, typical-use error rates can add up to hundreds of thousands of unplanned pregnancies each year.

Knoxville’s Black Community Endured Deeply Rooted Racism. Now There Is Medical Debt.

Despite the end of Jim Crow segregation, its legacy lives on in medical debt that disproportionately burdens Black communities.

Family Caregivers Find Support on #dementia TikTok

The TikTok hashtag “dementia” has billions of views. Caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias have been using the site to swap tips and share the burdens of life with dementia.

Listen: Medical Bills Upended Her Life and Her Credit Score

Penny Wingard, 58, of Charlotte, North Carolina, worries she won’t ever get out from under her medical debt despite new policies that are supposed to prevent medical debt from harming people’s credit scores.