Join Children’s Medical Center patients, ProPath, and Santa Claus by kicking off the holiday season at the Children’s Medical Center Holiday Parade, December 1st at 10:00 A.M. in downtown Dallas. The 25th annual Children’s Medical Center Holiday Parade will march through the streets of downtown Dallas to raise money for the Child Life Department at Children’s. This year’s parade will feature Nickelodeon star Liz Gillies, spirited marching bands, magical holiday floats, larger-than-life balloons and more.

The Children’s Medical Center Holiday Parade is the largest one-day event in Dallas with more than 350,000 attendees. This nationally televised event is a holiday tradition for families throughout North Texas and across the country, thanks to the television syndication that reaches more than 99 million households.

ProPath is a featured balloon sponsor for this year’s parade for the third consecutive year. ProPath physicians and staff participate in the parade as giant inflatable balloon handlers. Employees become the tether and manipulators of the balloon while proudly displaying the ProPath logo as part of their uniform.

“We are proud to be a sponsor of Children’s Medical Center and the life changing work they do in our community,” said Cory A. Roberts, M.D., President and Medical Director of ProPath. “A great time is had by our physicians and staff alike each year while marching a balloon through the streets of Dallas. We hope to be a part of this joyous event for years to come”.

The Parade beneficiary is a department of Child Life experts who provide age-appropriate therapies to help children cope with their hospital stay through diagnosis-specific education, therapeutic and bedside activities, and medical play. Specialists work extensively with parents and family members to provide support as well as prepare patients for surgical procedures. Services like Child Life are not covered by insurance and are funded by philanthropy.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, and the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation, recently honored Vail knee surgeon, Dr. Robert LaPrade, with the prestigious 2013 OREF Clinical Research Award. Dr. LaPrade, who specializes in sports medicine and complex knee surgery at The Steadman Clinic in Vail, was chosen for this outstanding honor, considered the “Orthopaedic Nobel Prize”, for his submitted paper on the treatment for posterolateral knee injuries.

He will be presenting his winning paper, “Improving Outcomes for Posterolateral Knee Injuries”, at the Annual Meetings of the Orthopaedic Research Society and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in 2013.

The posterolateral corner (PLC) of the knee is located on the outside of the knee joint. It functions to stabilize the knee against direct or external forces and can be a complex and devastating injury for athletes, seriously impacting athletic performance. Athletes most affected by this knee injury include soccer players, football players, gymnasts, and basketball players.

Historically, a posterolateral corner of the knee injury is more complex to diagnose and treat surgically than other more common knee injuries. Dr. LaPrade, who serves as the Chief Medical Research Officer for the Steadman Philippon Research Institute in Vail, and his team of research collaborators have intensely studied PLC diagnostic approaches, surgical techniques, and post-op protocols and tracked patient outcomes related to each over many years.

Dr. LaPrade’s collaborators on this paper include Lars Engebretsen, MD, PHD (University of Oslo, Norway), Steinar Johansen, MD (University of Oslo), Chad Griffith, MD (University of Minnesota), Benjamin Coobs, MD (University of Minnesota) and Andrew Geeslin, MD (Western Michigan University).

“I am very humbled to have been chosen to receive this award. I am also very grateful to my family for their support and to my many colleagues who have been an essential part of my research over the past 15 years,” said Dr. LaPrade.

“This award solidly validates our research strategy of defining the anatomy, developing improved means of diagnosing a problem, redefining the clinically relevant biomechanics, developing improved radiographic diagnostic measures, developing biomechanically validated ligament reconstructions, and then validating these reconstructions in patient outcomes studies.”

In addition to the posterolateral knee for which this award was based, Dr. LaPrade and his team have similar ongoing programs for the medial knee and MCL, anterior cruciate ligament, and posterior cruciate ligament.

For additional resources, see orthopedic research studies.

According to a November 7, 2012 article by Eric Palmer in FiercePharma, a study by researchers at Ontario’s McMaster University has reiterated findings of the FDA just days before that Pradaxa carries the same risks for internal bleeding as traditional blood thinners.

However, the FDA study may have reached unfounded conclusions, according to a November 5, 2012 article in Pharmalot by Ed Silverman entitled Stop The Bleeding: Is FDA Pradaxa Analysis Flawed?

Anyone affected by internal bleeding after taking Pradaxa is still urged to speak with a lawyer about their legal options as soon as possible.

According to analysis methods outlined by the FDA’s own Observational Medical Outcomes Project, the risk analysis used in forming the recent conclusion amounts to little more than a guess, the Pharmalot article states. Also, the FDA study didn’t account for the fact that Pradaxa has no antidote for bleeding and has caused more than 500 deaths.

In September, The Journal for The American Medical Association warned that the FDA may have rushed approval of Pradaxa, overlooking key Pradaxa side effects like internal bleeding. USA Today reported on August 19th that the FDA received 3,781 reports of side effects and 542 deaths among Pradaxa users last year, leading all other medications in 2011.

Due to the number of Pradaxa lawsuits expected, a central court was recently established in Illinois to handle the claims. The case is known as MDL No. 2385, IN RE: Pradaxa Product Liability Litigation, Southern District of Illinois. Judge Herndon issued an order on July 24, 2012 that those injured by Pradaxa can proceed with lawsuits.

A report issued by the Institute for Safe Medicine Practices’ QuarterWatch (PDF) on October 3, 2012 estimates that Pradaxa is among the drugs responsible for a 37% increase in prescription drug complaints to the FDA in recent years.

Anyone affected by internal bleeding after Pradaxa use is urged to speak with a lawyer about their legal options as soon as possible. Due to the specialized nature of these federal MDL cases, the Pradaxa Resource Center only recommends lawyers who are already handling Pradaxa lawsuits.

For more information on the research, warnings, side effects and legal options relating to the drug Pradaxa, or to speak with a lawyer, visit http://www.Pradaxa-lawsuits.org.