Emergency

Times are tough enough for Californians; they're even tougher for Californians' teeth. "One-quarter of all adults and 28% of children in California have untreated dental caries [cavities]," says Len Finocchio, a senior program officer at the California Healthcare Foundation, a health advocacy group. "Our research tells us that many people in California have been avoiding routine care that might have cost about $100 for a checkup and cleaning, and then find themselves in the emergency room, where they get only an antibiotic, a bill that can average over $600 and instructions to see a dentist."

Dodgers second baseman Mark Ellis returned home from the hospital Thursday, five days after undergoing emergency surgery on his left leg. Ellis was injured last Friday when Tyler Greene of the St. Louis Cardinals slid into him at second base. The next day, Ellis had fluid and blood drained from his leg. The procedure was required because the pressure on Ellis' muscles and joints was building. Team physician Neal ElAttrache told Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly that Ellis was several hours away from losing the lower part of his leg. Ellis is expected to be sidelined for six weeks.

If you think Bluetooth is a rare dental condition and an app is what you eat before the entree, you might not be a candidate for today's high-tech, whiz-bang smart phones. Instead, you might be happier with a mobile phone geared toward seniors. Those phones typically don't have Web-surfing capability, GPS maps and video games. Instead they have large buttons, oversized digital readouts and hearing-aid compatibility, along with a relatively simple calling plan. Although senior-friendly phones aren't new, their lower prices and variety are. A recent price skirmish among wireless companies means seniors can get an easy-to-use cellphone and cheap service to go with it, said Mac Haddow, senior fellow on public policy for the independent and nonprofit Alliance for Generational Equity.

Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly said Sunday that the team doctor told him second baseman Mark Ellis was within several hours of possibly having his left leg amputated if Ellis hadn't had emergency surgery. "That was scary," Mattingly said of the injury, which is expected to keep Ellis out of action for six weeks. "I didn't realize how bad that was. " Ellis, 34, suffered the injury Friday when he was upended by the St. Louis Cardinals' Tyler Greene to break up a double play.

How can you tell if you or someone you know is having a heart attack? Sometimes the symptoms can be surprisingly subtle. "They can be very different from person to person, between women and men and even within an individual who has more than one heart attack," says Dr. David Rizik, director of Interventional Cardiology for Scottsdale Healthcare Hospitals, in Scottsdale, Ariz. Men and women may experience atypical heart attack symptoms. In contrast to the "classic" chest-splitting, gasping-for-breath symptoms, many heart attacks begin with symptoms that are so mild they are often mistaken for indigestion or muscle ache.

This is the kind of story that just smacks of urban myth, and yet ... InventorSpot , a website that says it's dedicated to inventions and innovations, reports that a bus company in China -- the Harbin Public Transport Co. in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang -- has outfitted buses with bright yellow bricks emblazoned with red characters that say "for emergency use. " Why? Here's the part of the story I love: "In case of emergency, brick glass? Goodbye, yellow brick, road?

The city's financial troubles are daunting enough, but they could get worse. Imagine how much deeper the budget hole would be if the city suffered a major earthquake, a terrorist strike on the scale of the Sept. 11 attacks or an epidemic. That's why the City Council should set aside a portion of the taxes it collects for needs that cannot be anticipated, above and beyond the demands of the inevitable economic downturns. The experience of the current fiscal crisis demonstrates that the council's existing emergency fund, which can be tapped by a simple majority vote, may not be secure enough to prevent city leaders from acting imprudently.

The Kings will be starting the playoffs without forward Brad Richardson, who on Monday required an emergency appendectomy. They recalled Andrei Loktionovfrom their minor league affiliate in Manchester, N.H., and the forward will meet them in Vancouver, Canada. Game 1 of the Kings-Canucks first-round playoff series is on Wednesday night at Rogers Arena. Kings Coach Darryl Sutter said they would not have Richardson "for a while. " Sutter was asked when Richardson started feeling symptoms.

The paramedics bring in a 47-year-old laborer, a father of four, with untreated high blood pressure, dying of a cerebral hemorrhage. A woman in her 40s enters the ER complaining of feeling "lousy," unaware that her blood pressure is extremely high and that her kidneys are destroyed. She goes on dialysis and disability. An elderly widow is brought in severely dehydrated and comatose, with a blood sugar level over 800. Medi-Cal had switched her to a "share of cost" program, which forced her to choose between paying her rent or taking her medicine.

New York became the latest state to declare a state of emergency in a scramble to get ahead of Hurricane Irene as the storm prepares to make a potentially deadly drive up the East Coast. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's declaration Thursday follows those of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley. North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue ?- whose state is projected to take the first hit Saturday when Hurricane Irene makes landfall in the U.S. ?

Emergency response times provided by Los Angeles fire officials to the public and City Hall leaders cannot be trusted because of problems with software used to prepare the numbers, according to a report by an expert assigned to audit the Fire Department's data analysis . The report called on the department to stop using the software until the problem is fixed and recommended an overhaul of the unit that analyzes statistics for Fire Chief...

Just before 10:45 a.m., Keith Marks called 911 and the Los Angeles County emergency response system sprang into action. A fire engine, a paramedic squad and a private ambulance - eight men in total - rushed to the Martin Luther King Jr. urgent-care center in Willowbrook. When they arrived, Marks, 56, was sitting calmly in a wheelchair just outside the entrance. His complaint: he was having joint pain from gout and wanted his medication refilled. "I can't walk," he said.

Political upheaval in Europe reached a new apex over the weekend when French voters threw out their incumbent president and Greeks gave the heave-ho to the ruling parliamentary coalition. The results suggest that a new consensus is emerging in Europe in favor of more economic stimulus, but they also call into question the continent's ability to agree on a plan to keep its fiscal problems from spreading uncontrollably. European leaders had agreed to a series of pacts that would rescue Greece and other defaulting countries in exchange for steep reductions in their red ink, while also requiring every country that relies on the euro to shrink their debts and curb deficit spending.

This year, India's Mahindra & Mahindra became the world's biggest tractor maker. It ran a television commercial in the U.S. to mark the moment. The aim was partly to celebrate - its relatively affordable products, which suit the tastes and pockets of emerging-market customers, have begun to do well in the U.S. Dominant in India and growing fast in China, the conglomerate can be seen as an example of a business from India overtaking established businesses...

WASHINGTON - A top U.S. commander is seeking authority to expand clandestine operations against militants and insurgencies around the globe, a sign of shifting Pentagon tactics and priorities after a grueling decade of large-scale wars. Adm. William H. McRaven, a Navy SEAL and commander of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, has developed plans that would provide far-reaching new powers to make special operations units "the force of choice" against "emerging threats" over the next decade, internal Defense Department documents show.

WASHINGTON - In a first term marked by clear partisan divisions, President Obama's decision to order a high-risk special forces operation targeting Osama bin Laden stands out as an unquestioned nonpartisan success. But the one-year anniversary of the Al Qaeda mastermind's death has become a flash point in early skirmishing between Obama and Mitt Romney, his likely Republican opponent in the fall election. It reflects both the competitive nature of this year's presidential contest and Democrats' zeal to highlight an advantage over the GOP on issues of national security.

At about 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 11, a car was on fire at the intersection of Broadway and Ord Streets in Chinatown. I ran a half block away, called 911, which switched me over to the fire emergency. I returned to the burning car area, and in a couple of minutes, the fire truck came and put out the fire. Our 911 emergency is taken for granted now, but this is testimony to its importance and to the speedy response of the nearby fire station personnel. PAUL LOUIE Los Angeles

Re "ERs fail as the nation's 'safety net,' " Feb. 9 As an emergency physician, I know that the system can be fixed; it is not hopeless. But people must understand that they are in danger. The prompt emergency care you expect and deserve is not available much of the time. Government agencies are satisfied to attack the overwhelmed providers of emergency care when the system fails. The rules must be changed to empower non-emergency patients to demand care somewhere besides emergency rooms.

A group of downtown residents and their dogs were romping on a small patch of grass next to the glass edifice that headquarters the Los Angeles Police Department when the playful mood was broken. "Hey, hey, look out!" someone shouted. A dog off its leash ran into the street, and was causing drivers to swerve. A similar incident had occurred just hours before, one park visitor said, when another dog escaped its owner and ran into the street, only to be saved by a homeless person.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Forecasting teams are calling for the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season to be slower than normal, although not by much. AccuWeather.com predicts 12 named storms, including five hurricanes, two with sustained winds greater than 110 mph. Weather Services International, or WSI, a part of the Weather Channel, projects 11 named storms, including six hurricanes, two of those intense. Both forecasts would translate to a slightly slower than normal season: On average, there are 12 named storms, including six hurricanes, three of them major.