Articles labeled: UK

A 30-year-old woman, completely unaware she was pregnant, gave birth at her friend’s costume party. Oh, if only she had dressed as a pregnant woman, that would be some sweet, sweet irony. And would probably have other party goers thinking she took her costume props just a bit too far.

Ally Ashwell, from Newcastle, was touring the seaside town’s pubs and clubs in a bumble-bee outfit, when she began to feel unwell.

She returned to her hotel room, where the shocked 30-year-old found herself delivering her own baby.

The fragile 2lb boy - named Owen - is being cared for in the intensive care unit of Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

A leading UK charity is claiming that children in post-conflict areas are being abused by UN peacekeepers and aid workers.

After research in Ivory Coast, southern Sudan and Haiti, the charity proposed an international watchdog be set up.

Save the Children said it had sacked three workers for breaching its codes, and called on others to do the same.

The three men were all dismissed in the past year for having had sex with girls aged 17 - which the charity said was a sackable offence even though not illegal.

The UN has said it welcomes the charity’s report, which it will study closely.

Save the Children says the most shocking aspect of child sex abuse is that most of it goes unreported and unpunished, with children too scared to speak out.

“It’ll get stolen!” is the new “You’ll shoot your eye out!”

Research conducted by the Design Council showed that electronic gadgets such as MP3 players and mobile phones were common targets for thieves and muggers.

Nearly a third of 11-year-olds said they carried fashionable technological products worth over £200, with half putting the value of their gadgets at between £100 and £500.

The study said that one in three of the victims was actually using their mobile phone or MP3 player when it was stolen.

Rock on, Jack Dudley, you’re our hero of the day. His parents must be extremely proud.

Jack Dudley had been making the most of last Sunday’s sunshine by playing in the pool with Sam, three, as their parents watched nearby.

But when his mother went into the house and his father turned his back, the little boy slipped off his armbands to try to jump onto an inflatable lounger, but he missed and sank to the bottom.

Jack jumped into the pool and tried desperately to drag his brother to the surface but he slipped from his grasp the first time.

He dove down a second time before successfully bringing Sam up to the edge of the pool where he was pulled out by his mother Kim, 41.

A British teacher with the intent of discouraging kids from smoking has been reprimanded after he lit up a cigarette in class and offered it to his mostly 13 year old pupils. Right message, wrong method… hopefully he doesn’t have a “don’t do drugs” lesson planned.

A statement issued by the school on Wednesday said: “The incident was fully investigated by the school and the teacher in question has been subject to disciplinary action that is proportionate in the circumstances.

“He is a highly valued and very experienced member of staff who recognises that his actions, while done to positively discourage smoking, was an error of judgement.

It continued: “There is widespread support for the teacher among parents of pupils in the class and he has the full support of his colleagues.

“As far as the school is concerned - it would like to consider the matter as closed.”

Sarah Green, an English teacher at Stockport Grammar School in England was suspended last January when a “raunchy” video she made wound up on YouTube. But it wasn’t some illicit sex tape, but rather a risque promotional film for a corporate client:

The clip was a promotional video for a construction-wear company and was never shown on television but was distributed round building firms.

It was shot two years before Miss Green joined the school and governors decided there was no reason to take disciplinary action.

But they are worried that the scandal may affect how she is treated when she returns to work, and a meeting has been set up with the school’s headmaster, Andrew Chicken. Dozens of comments from pupils were left on the video-sharing website.

A statement released by the school read: “In accordance with Stockport Grammar School’s disciplinary procedures, the circumstances of Sarah Green’s appearance in a promotional film before she became a teacher have now been fully investigated by a panel of governors.

Eh, it’s incredibly tacky but we don’t see what the big deal is. Green appears for mere seconds and there is no graphic nudity. The offending video is below (definitely NSFW). What would you think if your kid’s teacher turned up in something like this?

Brandon Davis, a 2-year-old in Birmingham, West Midlands, UK, has died after possibly overdosing on methadone. His two brothers, Lewis and Kyle, are also believed to have ingested the drug that is sometimes used to treat heroin addiction. They remain hospitalized.

Two men were arrested over the death by West Midlands Police and later freed on bail pending further inquiries. A post-mortem examination on Brandon’s body proved inconclusive and more tests will be carried out, police said.

West Midlands Ambulance Service took the children to hospital from the family flat in Walkers Heath, Birmingham, at around 10am last Tuesday, when it is believed they swallowed the heroin substitute.

The three-year-old boy is in a stable condition, and the baby boy, taken to hospital as a precaution, also remained there. Both surviving boys are believed to have been placed in protective care by Birmingham City Council.

Residents living near the family’s home on Bentmead Grove, a block of low-rise run-down flats, said the estate was known for its drug problems.

A police spokesman said a 30-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of neglect and a 33-year-old detained on suspicion of possession of a controlled drug. Both were released on bail. Police refused to specify whether the arrested men were related to the children.

British teenager Laura Moon went to her doctor for an ultrasound after she began suffering chronic stomach pain. What they saw shocked everyone — Laura has four kidneys. This is not unheard of, but extremely rare — and news to us, apparently having three kidneys isn’t all that uncommon. Well, Laura doesn’t want to be an organ hog so she has decided to donate two of them:

Laura, a customer services adviser from Leeds, said: “I think if I’ve got four, I don’t need all four. Why not donate if there’s someone else in need?

“I hope I can help somebody else while I am young. I will do everything in my power to become a donor.”

It is not known why people develop multiple, or duplex, organs but one in 125 people have one extra kidney, normally a partial organ.

Laura’s condition often causes the patient no problems, although sufferers can be more prone to urinary infections.

She discovered she had the unusual anatomy six months ago when she was undergoing tests following a road accident.

“I was in a car crash a year ago and six months later I began having a lot of pain in my stomach. My GP referred me to the hospital for a scan.”

Wow, is there something in the water in Suffolk? Paging Erin Brockovich! Two lifelong friends, Tara Sturman, 35, and Andrea Cobbold, 33, who live in neighboring Suffolk, UK, villages gave birth a mere weeks apart. And in a bizarre twist of fate, both of their babies were found to have a very rare liver condition that required a transplant. Both women donated a part of their livers for the operation.

Andrea Cobbold said: “When it comes to it all mums would give anything to save their child but there was a chance I could die on the operating theatre so, with an elder daughter, Frances, three; I had a lot to consider.

“It’s a staggering coincidence that Tara had to go through the same ordeal. It’s an emotional time. Having a close friend who knows exactly what you’re going through is an enormous help.”

Andrea’s son Alex, 13 months; and Tara’s daughter India, 10 months; were diagnosed with biliary atresia within weeks of each other.

The condition affects about 50 babies in England and Wales each year and means the child is born without bile ducts outside their liver so bile enters the bloodstream poisoning the liver and causing cirrhosis.

Technically, they’re not twins, but that won’t change the way the mother who gave birth to two babies, only a minute apart, will view her multiples. Whether they’re twins or not, it will feel like they are!

They grew in the same womb and were born only a minute apart. Yet Thomas and Harriet Mullineux are not twins.

They were conceived three weeks apart thanks to an extraordinary twist of nature.

Their mother Charlotte had been pregnant with twins when at seven weeks she miscarried one of them. But two weeks later, she discovered she was carrying another foetus - conceived separately and still growing in her womb.

The surviving twin and the new baby were born last May and, after a health scare, are now home and thriving.

An abundance of estrogen had this child starting puberty at age 3.

I hope the parents enlisted the help of a child psychologist. It’s hard to be different. Although, the article does suggest that drugs can prevent this from occuring.

It does bring up an interesting phenomena that children are starting puberty earlier and earlier.

“The thought that my three-year-old girl was getting her period seemed incomprehensible, but at the same time, it was becoming obvious to me that her mood swings and stomach cramps were to do with her time of the month.

“The endocrinologist may have dismissed my worries, but I could just tell that my daughter was entering puberty.”

And Debbie’s instincts proved to be correct. After numerous examinations and tests over the following 18 months, Hayley, at age six, was finally diagnosed with precocious puberty, a condition in which puberty begins at an unusually early age often due to abnormal production of oestrogen, thought to affect as many as one in six children under ten.

Although her periods didn’t start until she was eight, her monthly cycle of stomach cramps and bad moods had been a warning sign that her ovaries were maturing, and were a sign of the fluctuating hormones that define puberty.

Apparently this UK boy “don’t need no education”. Given that his drastic measures included gluing himself to his bed, I’d argue that he really does need an education. At 10 years old, he’s obviously not the sharpest pencil in the box.

A 10-year-old Mexican boy was so determined not to return to school after the Christmas holiday that he glued his hand to his bed.

Sandra Palacios spent nearly two hours on Monday morning trying to free her son Diego’s hand with water, oil and nail polish remover before calling the authorities in the northern city of Monterrey, said police chief Jorge Camacho.