Death Rates

Father Antonio Rodriguez keeps the image on his cellphone. A 12-year-old boy. Headless. His killers probably boys not a whole lot older than him. When Josue went missing, his frantic grandmother sought the priest's help. Rodriguez went looking for him and found the body. The crime chilled and disgusted him. Somehow, he needed to document the loss of another young life in a dizzying spin of daily, casual death.

The number of people who died on downtown L.A.'s skid row has declined by 36% in the last four years, according to city records, the latest sign of major changes on what for decades has been the city's epicenter of homelessness and drug-dealing. Excluding murders and suicides, 60 people died in the skid row area in 2008, according to Los Angeles Police Department statistics. In 2005, there were 94 such deaths.

Some hospitals are better than others. But for many years all patients had to go on was reputation, doctors' advice, word of mouth and advertising. Today, California follows some other states, the federal government and a few private groups in offering a window on hospital quality. The study by state officials of hospital death rates shows that for eight common conditions and procedures -- including stroke, hip fracture and brain surgery -- the rates vary widely. The study looked at mortality rates for 2007 and 2006.

Eating red meat increases the chances of dying prematurely, according to a large federal study offering powerful new evidence that a diet that regularly includes steaks, burgers and pork chops is hazardous to your health. The study of more than 500,000 middle-age and elderly Americans found that those who consumed the equivalent of about a small hamburger every day were more than 30% more likely to die during the 10 years they were followed, mostly from heart disease and cancer.

Three hospitals in Los Angeles County -- County-USC Medical Center, Citrus Valley Medical Center/Inter-Community Campus in Covina and Torrance Memorial Medical Center -- had the highest mortality rates in California for coronary bypass surgery in 2005, according to a statewide analysis scheduled to be released today.

The third report since 2004 on how California hospitals treat pneumonia confirmed that where patients go can mean the difference between living and dying. Patients at the worst- performing hospitals were twice as likely to die as those at the best-ranked hospitals. Los Angeles County is in better shape than most, with 20 of 92 hospitals surveyed that rated "better than expected" and four that rated "worse than expected."

As part of a deal-in-the-making over transit funding, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is proposing moving the congestion pricing plan for Los Angeles County to the 110 Freeway from the 210 Freeway. The stretch of the 110 south of downtown has been a candidate for a toll lane since last year, but the 10 and 210 were chosen instead to try to improve east-west travel among L.A., the San Gabriel Valley and the Inland Empire.

Edwards Lifesciences Corp.'s minimally invasive heart valve kept 94% of patients alive a month after surgery, the best results yet for a technology that may grow into a $1.3-billion market for medical device makers. The death rate was half that in past studies of Sapien, a $30,000 valve that can be implanted without open-heart surgery. In another trial, closely held CoreValve Inc. reported a 93% survival rate after 30 days for its device.

After a century of declines, the U.S. infant mortality rate barely budged between 2000 and 2005, causing the United States to slip further behind other developed countries despite spending more on healthcare, according to a report released Wednesday. The rate was 6.86 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2005, virtually unchanged from 6.89 in 2000. In 1900, the rate was 100 deaths per 1,000 live births.

USC University Hospital in Los Angeles said Thursday that it has changed the way it selects liver transplant patients, the same day a new report showed that its liver program continued to have one of the worst survival rates in the nation. Just 77.3% of USC's liver transplant patients were still alive a year after surgery, according to national transplant statistics released Thursday. Based on the condition of its patients and organs, USC was expected to have a survival rate of 83.3%.