Madonna’s adoption bid gets another blow

Washington, Apr 30 (ANI): Giving a devastating blow to Madonna’s bid to adopt Malawian orphan Mercy James, the child’s father has come out in open to ask for full custody of his little girl.

The Queen of Pop wanted to become mum to the four-year-old girl, but all her hopes were shattered when a court in the country’s capital Lilongwe turned down her request for an interim adoption.

However, Madonna appealed the decision and an African court hearing is scheduled for May 4.

But, now the Material Girl’s hopes of the ruling being overturned could go down the drain, because now Mercy’s biological father James Kambewa has launched a bid to get his daughter back.

And he has targeted the 50-year-old singer, branding her “scandalous” and calling her failed marriage to Guy Ritchie and subsequent relationship with toyboy lover Jesus Luz, 22, an indication of a lack of “good morals”.

“She is my daughter; she is my blood; she needs parental love. She is not an orphan. She lost one parent, yes, but I am still alive and so she is not an orphan,” Contactmusic quoted Kambewa as telling Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper.

He added: “Madonna has millions of dollars but that doesn’t make her a good mum. Parental love is more than money. Besides, I don’t think Madonna is a model mum. I have seen her in movies of her songs. She doesn’t portray good morals.

“How can a woman of 50 dance almost naked on stage? I wouldn’t want my daughter to grow up like that! In Malawi women respect themselves. Cultured women do not go about half-naked.

“I also heard after her marriage failed she is already seeing two men, both very younger than her and her ex-husband. I hear one of them is even less than half her age. That’s scandalous. How can a normal woman fall for a boy who can as well be her son? No, spare my Mercy that scandal.”

Kambewa has also enlisted the help of the Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC) to acquire a lawyer to fight on his behalf.

In a letter to the organisation he wrote: “I have learnt that an American-musician called Madonna has applied to a court for the adoption of the kid, to which the grandmother has consented. However, I do not consent to the adoption because I feel I am capable of raising the child.” (ANI)

Osteoblast cell injections may speed up fracture healing

Washington, Feb 12 (ANI): Osteoblast cell obtained from a patient’s own bone marrow can help quicken the healing of a long bone fracture, according to a new study.

Dr Seok-Jung Kim from the Catholic University College of Medicine, Seoul, involved 64 patients in their study, of which 31 were given the ‘Osteoblast’ treatment and 33 left to recover the normal way.

The researchers observed that the patients injected with the ‘osteoblast cell’ healed faster that the normally treated ones.

“The cultured osteoblast injection group showed fracture healing acceleration of statistical significance, and there were no specific patient complications when using this treatment. Cultured osteoblast injection should therefore be considered as a successful treatment option for long-bone fracture,” Dr. Kim said.

“There was significantly more bone growth in the experimental group, compared to the control group. Autologous cultured osteoblast transplant is a safe and effective method for accelerating the rate of fracture healing,” he added.

Dr. Kim points out that the bone union process is often left to natural healing, and such cases are generally so delayed that they eventually need bone transplants.

The researcher says that ‘Osteoblast cell’ injections can prove beneficial in such cases.

“Time has increasingly become the most important factor in clinical decision-making. While fractures generally will eventually heal, bone union can frequently be delayed to the extent that it requires bone transplantation. Not only does this cause psychological and physical pain to the individual patient, it’s also not economically viable,” Dr. Kim said.

“Although bone transplant remains the most effective method of bone union, osteoblast injections provide an alternative which can be performed under local anesthesia with no requirement for surgery,” Dr. Kim added.

The study has been published in the open access journal BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. (ANI)