News reports from Trinidad and Tobago, La Sierra University, Adventist Health, Loma Linda University Cancer Center and Newsweek:

The Trinidad and Tobago Guardian reported that Adventists in Moruga (southern Trinidad) organized a Protecting Our Women Motorcade with the message: “Women must never suffer in silence.”

According to the Guardian, Robern Castle, the pastor of the La Lune and La Ruffin Seventh-day Adventist Church, said, “There really is no need to be violent against women for any reason. I would tell men to study the Word of God because the Word of God presents a different picture. If you have issues with women, what you should try to do is work it out, sit down and talk,” he said.

“If you cannot sit down and talk, you would need a mediator. Get somebody who you can talk to and work through the issues and challenges.”

Janey Joseph, an activist in the Adventist Youth Department, said representatives from the region’s Women’s Ministry visit homes to counsel families. In cases where men in households are not available for such conversations, she said her advice is: “Leave, don’t stay because eventually, he will kill you.”

“She said the motorcade aims to educate the men of Moruga that women are important and should be treated as such. She said God created male and female to stand side by side,” said the Guardian.

From La Sierra University (edited for length):

La Sierra University’s Pre-Medical Society reinvented an annual mission trip to Guatemala that provides badly needed aid, spiritual connection and compassionate outreach. With foreign travel suspended, the Pre-Medical Society decided to brainstorm ways of continuing their work in Central America where suffering has been compounded by the impact of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the illness named COVID-19. During an early October video conferencing call it was decided the club would forge ahead with a virtual mission activity.

The group held an online fundraiser in January and together with funds from the club brought in $3,800. Group leaders and their contacts used the money to purchase 48 pairs of children’s shoes and 2,100 pounds of food to provide 60 large food bags containing black beans, red beans, rice, sugar, corn flour, cooking oil, soups, and noodles. They also bought items for 40 gift packages that included brightly-colored blankets, baby wipes, baby shampoo, and soap for children at the Casa de San Jose AIDS hospice, and they purchased other items for nursing home resident care packages.

The team organized a three-session Sabbath virtual mission “trip” streamed online February 13 via Zoom video conferencing allowing audiences in the United States and Guatemala to witness members of three Seventh-day Adventist churches and missionary students receiving bags of needed food and boxes of shoes under pandemic safety protocol. Safety concerns required the gift packages for AIDS hospice children to be delivered separately.

Becker’s Hospital Review reported that Behavioral healthcare provider Acadia Healthcare signed an agreement to buy Adventist Health’s 61-bed behavioral health hospital in Vallejo, Calif.

Adventist Health and Acadia Healthcare made the announcement on March 23 without disclosing financial details.

The sale of the faculty is expected to be completed by mid-year, according to Adventist Health estimates.

The psychiatric hospital offers inpatient and outpatient care to children and adults.

From Loma Linda University Health: Demographic factors such as age, gender and race, as well as clinical information about disease and treatment types, are lending insights into COVID-19 severity among patients with cancer, according to a report co-authored by Loma Linda University Cancer Center physicians. The findings, drawn from the largest registry for cancer patients with COVID-19, were published last week in the peer-reviewed journal Annals of Oncology.

Factors associated with the development of more severe COVID-19 infection among cancer patients included: older age, male sex, non-Hispanic Black race, Hispanic ethnicity, obesity, comorbidities, recent cytotoxic chemotherapy, and hematologic malignancy. The report’s analysis also revealed that patients more recently diagnosed with COVID-19 had better outcomes than people who contracted the virus earlier in the pandemic. The finding is a hopeful indication that as physicians are learning more about the virus, they are also getting better at treating cancer patients with the infection, researchers said.

The report is the third peer-reviewed publication release by the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19), one of the first and largest registry efforts focused on gathering data on patients with COVID-19 and cancer. The Cancer Center joins over 120 other cancer centers and organizations from the United States, the European Union, Canada, and Mexico in collecting and analyzing data on adult patients (18 and older) who have a current or past diagnosis of both cancer and COVID-19 in order to better understand strategies to mitigate risk factors and outcomes for this particularly vulnerable patient group.

The March 12, 2021, issue of Newsweek published a list of “America’s Finest Hospitals.”
Seven Adventist hospitals were included:

Porter Adventist Hospital, Denver, Colorado
Parker Adventist Hospital, Parker, Colorado
AdventHealth Orlando, Orlando, Florida
Adventist Medical Center, Hinsdale, Illinois
Adventist Medical Center, La Grange, Illinois
AdventHealth Shawnee Mission, Shawnee Mission, Kansas
Kettering Sycamore Medical Center, Miamisburg, Ohio

The March 25, 2021, issue of Newsweek published a list of “Best Maternity Hospitals 2021.”
Eight Adventist hospitals were included:

Loma Linda University Medical Center Murrieta, Murrieta Springs, California
Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital, Loma Linda, California
Adventist Health Castle Medical Center, Kailua, Hawaii
AdventHealth DeLand, Deland, Florida
AdventHealth Tampa, Tampa, Florida
Castle Rock Adventist Hospital, Castle Rock, Colorado
Avista Adventist Hospital, Louisville, Colorado
Littleton Adventist Hospital, Littleton, Colorado

To comment, click here.