San Antonio College Library

When it comes to malpractice awards, there will always be those who call them exorbitant and others who call them just. But how exactly do juries calculate a figure for damages? How do they determine what the quality of life-or even life itself-is worth in dollars and cents? This ABC News program introduces viewers to a jury that, after finding a doctor to be negligent, had to then answer questions that most would find unanswerable. Their insights...

In many ways, American healthcare is number one-but not in overall performance, says the WHO, which ranked the U.S. 37th. Unlike most first-world countries, America does not guarantee care for all of its citizens regardless of ability to pay. This ABC News program seeks to understand what factors contribute to top-notch healthcare as it assesses the advantages and disadvantages of the Canadian and U.S. systems. Can some of the Canadian benefits be...

This multi-section program explains the role of sociological theory, distinguishes between structure and action, and sheds light on three major perspectives in sociology-societies as organic structures, societies as economic structures, and societies as social action-by looking at their origins and key ideas and then showing how they can be applied. The video concludes by using a case study on the medicalization of life problems in contemporary societies...

Her feeding tube removed, Terri Schiavo has passed away. Medically speaking, was she in a persistent vegetative state or a locked-in state? On that question hung Terri's fate for more than a decade. Was she alive in a meaningful sense? Her husband said no; her parents said yes. This ABC News program, broadcast at the time when Terri's case was brought before the Florida legislature and Governor Jeb Bush, gives background on the acrimonious battle...

One of the last documentaries from ABC News journalist Peter Jennings, this program untangles a particularly complex problem: the rapidly growing number of Americans who lack health care coverage. With characteristic thoroughness, Jennings searches out specific reasons for the weakening and potential collapse of employer-subsidized health insurance. America's rising median age, medical advances that have increased the use of health services, and a...

There are places in America where the infant mortality rate echoes that of a developing world country. This ABC News program travels to Memphis, Tennessee-epicenter of the nation's worst infant death statistics-to investigate the issue and explore possible solutions. Viewers visit a cemetery with the heartrending epithet "Babyland" and witness an unusual pairing between a black, teen mother-to-be and a white, suburban church volunteer trying to prevent...

This program travels to Cambodia, where 1 in 10 people carry hepatitis B, a major cause of liver cancer. Mothers often transmit the virus to their babies during childbirth, and children can pass the infection to each other through even the most minor cuts and scratches. At London's Hammersmith Hospital, pioneering new surgery makes it possible for patients to survive advanced liver cancer. In Cambodia, neither the money nor the expertise to adopt...

The deep tan was accidentally popularized by Coco Chanel, yet even when Bob Marley died of melanoma decades later, the general public was still not fully aware of the dangers of UV radiation. This program examines not only the medical and scientific aspects of skin cancer, but its cultural, historical, and social facets as well. Using nationally known experts and dramatic personal testimony, it describes symptoms and risk factors--including indiscriminate...

More and more drug-resistant strains of Haemophilus influenzae type b bacteria (Hib) have emerged in recent years, and the consequences of late or no treatment are devastating. The microbe is estimated to cause at least 3 million cases of serious disease-often meningitis-and up to 700,000 deaths each year among young children. This program examines the tragic problem in Bangladesh, where the Dhaka Shishu Hospital is nearly overrun with young Hib patients,...

Virtually every child in the world, rich or poor, is infected early in life by a vicious bug called rotavirus. The lucky ones show no symptoms-they simply become immune. Others develop severe diarrhea. Given the best medicine, the victims recover. However, in developing countries, where even simple rehydration therapy may be hard to come by, rotavirus is lethal, killing around 400,000 children every year. At least three vaccines against rotavirus...