Health

(CHICAGO) — A baby girl who has been living in a Chicago hospital with her parents for the last six months while waiting for a new heart finally received one last week.

Elodie Carmen Baker received a heart transplant at The Heart Center at Lurie Children’s Hospital on March 27. Elodie was about 7 weeks old when she was diagnosed with a rare heart condition in August 2021 called dilated cardiomyopathy. She had been on the waitlist for a new heart for over 200 days.

Elodie’s mother, Kate Baker, still remembers the moment she knew something was wrong.

“Our pregnancy was normal and we had an uncomplicated delivery and actually went home with Elodie,” the first-time mom said in an interview with Good Morning America. “So she was with us in Minnesota at home for seven weeks and one night, she wouldn’t feed. I was nursing and she let out this cry and my heart just sank and I said to (my husband) Collin, ‘Something’s wrong. We need to take her in.'”

At the emergency room, Baker said doctors initially didn’t see anything that stood out to them.

“I think they were considering maybe sending us home but they said, ‘Let’s just get an X-ray to be sure,'” she said. “Then the X-ray came back. They saw her heart was enlarged and that was on Aug. 21. And we haven’t been home since.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children and adults with dilated cardiomyopathy have an enlarged heart chamber (ventricle), which can make the muscle unable to pump blood throughout the body sufficiently. There are other types of cardiomyopathy as well as varying symptoms of disease, and some may not even see symptoms arise during their lifetime.

Dr. Anna Joong, the medical director of the pediatric ventricular assist device program at Lurie Children’s, has been caring for Elodie for the past several months.

“In Elodie’s case, the genetic test did not reveal an answer for why she developed this kind of cardiomyopathy and in that situation, it’s called idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, meaning at this point in time, we don’t really know why this happened to her,” Joong told GMA.

Doctors would later tell the Bakers that their daughter would need a new heart. “The muscle in hers is really weak. And so it’s expanded over time, it hasn’t been able to push the blood out, pump it out to the rest of the body and so it’s dilated, and now hers looks more like a pancake,” Baker said.

Two months after the diagnosis, Elodie was flown to Lurie Children’s Hospital in Illinois from her home state of Minnesota, where she underwent surgery to have a Berlin EXCOR pediatric ventricular assist device (VAD) placed.

The VAD essentially acted as a heart for Elodie, pumping blood for her while she waited for a transplant.

“Her heart was so sick, that the IV medicines just weren’t enough and she needed a VAD,” Joong said. “We use this device as a way to bridge her to transplant so it’s a way to support her heart, to help get her stronger in the time that she’s waiting for her donor heart.”

As Elodie waited for a new heart, she started eating more, both with and without a feeding tube. Nora Hammond, a nurse practitioner at Lurie’s who has also cared for Elodie, explained to GMA, “Post-VAD, Elodie was able to tolerate feeds through a feeding tube to provide her with the calories she needed to grow, but also was able to try a lot of foods by mouth which she loved! Lots of avocado.”

Elodie also participated in various therapies to help her get stronger day by day — from occupational and physical to speech therapy — and along the way, she has reached many of the milestones typical for a baby her age.

“She has learned how to sit. She’s starting to crawl. She’s starting to stand … and she’s done all those things on the Berlin, which is truly incredible,” her mother said.

Dr. Michael Mongé, surgical director of the Heart Failure/Heart Transplant Program at Lurie Children’s, operated on Elodie and noted that Elodie’s care has been an enormous collective effort. “The entire team of physical therapists, hematologists, cardiologists, intensive care doctors, surgeons, all participated in her care, which I think really contributed to how well she has done both since arrival here at Lurie and following VAD implant.”

Elodie has been recovering following her transplant and is receiving medication as well.

“She will continue to use a (feeding) tube after transplant but after she recovers, will slowly try to decrease the amount of food through the tube to encourage her to be able to meet caloric needs by mouth,” Hammond told GMA.

“The breathing tube was able to come out within hours of coming out of the operating room. Her new heart works beautifully and is really strong,” Joong added. “She is getting routine immunosuppression medications to prevent rejection. She has already been transferred out of ICU level care and is sitting up. She is one strong kid and we are so grateful to the donor family.”

Joong, Mongé and the Bakers all hope that Elodie’s story will inspire others to consider organ donation, especially since April is National Donate Life Month, an initiative by the nonprofit Donate Life America to raise awareness about giving the gift of an organ or tissue.

“We’ve both been donors our whole lives. But I’ve never thought much about it. It’s just a box that I’ve checked when I renewed my driver’s license,” Kate Baker said. “Now, we spend a lot of time educating ourselves on the subject and we try to use our CaringBridge site to raise awareness.”

“(Elodie’s story) highlights the importance of organ donation and people being organ donors. The waitlist times have increased over time,” Mongé added.

“The number of organs available each year is relatively constant whereas more and more children continue to get admitted to the hospital and in heart failure. So it really is important to stress the need for people to be organ donors so that people like Elodie can receive a transplant,” Mongé said.

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(NEW YORK) — As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in England, the country is also experiencing a surge in reinfections.

Provisional data shows that, as of the week ending March 20, 2022, laboratory-confirmed reinfections — two positive tests taken more than 90 days apart — have surpassed 50,000 per week in England, 10.7% of all cases, according to a weekly report from the U.K. Health Security Agency published Thursday.

This is a jump from the less than 20,000 weekly reinfections recorded during the last week of February in England.

The weekly rate is increasing in all age groups and has nearly doubled in one week among those aged 30 and older, the report shows.

Vaccination rates are high in England with 85.8% of those aged 12 and older fully vaccinated and 66.8% boosted.

Additionally, as of Friday, 99% of the adult population in England is estimated to have detectable COVID-19 antibodies either from previous infection or from vaccination, according to the U.K. government.

There were only 7,093 reinfections reported in Scotland, 10.4 percent of all cases, in the week ending March 27. Recent data on reinfections were not readily available for Wales and Northern Ireland.

So, with such high coverage, why have so many in England been reinfected with COVID-19?

Experts said there are a few reasons for the uptick including the spread of the BA.2 variant, waning immunity and the further relaxing of COVID-19 mitigation measures in England.

BA.2 is more transmissible

Dr. Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist with the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, told ABC News the spread of the BA.2 variant is undoubtedly playing a role in the rise of reinfections in England.

“BA.2 is more infectious so more people can be infected by being exposed to it,” he said. “The time needed for you and me to sit close together to get the infection is much shorter.”

BA.2, which is a subvariant of the original omicron variant, has become the dominant variant in England.

Data from the UKHSA estimates BA.2 currently accounts for 93.7% of all COVID-19 cases in England. Less than two months ago, it made up less than 5% of cases

A preprint from Sweden, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, suggests BA.2 may be more contagious due to higher viral loads in the nose and throat than the original BA.1 variant.

Early data from the U.K. and Denmark also suggests it is possible to be infected with BA.2 after having been infected with BA.1, although this is less likely.

Mokdad said the numbers from these studies are too low to warrant any serious concern.

It is unclear from the U.K. data how many of the reinfected cases are among those who are fully vaccinated and those who are boosted.

However, several studies have shown booster shots lower the risk of reinfection.

An Israeli study published in JAMA Internal Medicine in November 2021 found 1.8% of COVID-19 tests were positive in adults that were boosted compared to 6.6% in adults that had two shots.

While BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1, it does not appear to increase the risk of hospitalization.

Professor David Heymann, from the department of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said the rise of reinfections should not concern people because the number of hospitalizations and deaths remains low.

“The vaccines are suppressing serious illness and death, even if you get reinfected,” he told ABC News. “What we do know is there’s no cause for real alarm at present because the hospital surveillance is showing COVID remains a minor disease” for the vaccinated.

Waning immunity

Mokdad said many people who got their second dose, or even their third dose, received it five to six months ago so their immunity will have waned by now.

“What we know from the data — and we have a lot of evidence, including from the UK — is that, starting at three months your immunity, especially against infection, drops rapidly,” Mokdad said. “And by five months, your immunity against infection is basically 20%.”

A January report from the UKHSA found the effectiveness of two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is what most people in the U.K. have received, dropped from 50% against omicron to virtually no effect 20 weeks later.

A booster from either Pfizer or Moderna raised the protection against omicron to around 60%, but it fell to as low as 40% 10 weeks later.

Mokdad said for those who weren’t infected with the original omicron variant during the last wave, this also increases the risk of reinfection because contracting the virus will have acted like a natural booster shot for most healthy individuals.

Behavioral changes

Experts say behavioral changes after restrictions were lifted are also likely playing a role in the rise of reinfections.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson had been lifting COVID restrictions in England since the beginning of the year and, on Feb. 25 dropped all remaining rules for the country, including the requirement to self-isolate after testing positive, contact tracing and free administration of rapid tests.

This means many people are no longer wearing masks or staying home from work or school, or self-isolating if they are ill.

“Suddenly, they lifted these mandates,” Mokdad said. “People are tired and have changed their behavior. Suddenly, you have 30% or 40% susceptible because of waning immunity and the fact they have not been exposed to BA.1, and BA.2 is circulating, then you see this rapid increase in cases.

When Johnson lifted the mandates, he gave a speech to the House of Commons in which he stated he wanted England to pivot away from preventing COVID-19 and “learn to live with this virus.”

Professor Daniel Altmann, from the department of immunology and inflammation at Imperial College London, said this has led to “confusion” about how to prevent reinfection.

“This means that people are confused about safety — many are going out to work and school when knowingly infected, fewer wearing masks,” he told ABC News. “It looks like an untenable policy when one considers … omicron, somewhat milder but poorly immunogenic and able to reinfect people sometimes over and over at intervals of a few weeks.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Congress could soon send to the president’s desk a bill that would cap the cost of the lifesaving drug insulin at $35 per month — a move that could significantly reduce and rein in out-of-pocket drug costs for millions of Americans with diabetes.

The House approved the bill Thursday by a vote of 232-193, with 12 Republicans joining all Democrats in support.

The bill now heads to the Senate, and it could be taken up in the upper chamber in a matter of weeks if there is bipartisan agreement.

Experts say it costs less than $10 a vial to manufacture, yet there are still American families with insurance paying hundreds of dollars per vial of insulin.

Currently, costs for patients can range from $334 to $1,000 a month for insulin, according to a 2020 Kaiser Family Foundation report.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 37.3 million people in the U.S. have diabetes, which is about 11% of the U.S. population. Out of the nearly 40 million people who have diabetes — about 25% or 7.4 million Americans need insulin. Many people with diabetes are prescribed insulin, either because their bodies do not produce insulin (Type 1 diabetes) or do not use insulin properly (Type 2 diabetes).

The bill to cap the cost of insulin was originally a part of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” domestic policy agenda, but since that massive piece of legislation is stalled in the Senate, lawmakers decided to move unilaterally on this standalone bill specifically addressing insulin.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters on Wednesday that it is “inexcusable” people are being charged exorbitant prices for “a lifesaving and life-sustaining drug whose costs [have] not increased and whose research costs have been amortized a very long period of time ago.”

Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee of Michigan, one of the authors of the House bill, said it’s “outrageous that a single vial of insulin costs up to $1,000, when the medication costs just a few dollars to make.”

The bill caps cost-sharing for a month’s supply of insulin starting in 2023 at whichever amount is lower: $35, or 25% of a plan’s negotiated price, according to the bill’s text. The bill does not lower the overall price of insulin; it would likely shift more of the cost onto insurers and employers.

Supporters of the bill say it will save lives by making insulin affordable for millions of Americans, many of whom now reduce the amount they take or skip doses, resulting in far more costly visits to emergency rooms and the hospital.

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(NEW YORK) — As experts continue to warn of a growing youth mental health crisis, new data is shedding light on how severely high school students have struggled during the coronavirus pandemic.

Over one-third of high school students in the United States reported experiencing poor mental health during the pandemic, while nearly half of students, 44%, reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless in the past year, according to data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Female high school students and those who identify as lesbian, gay and bisexual reported greater levels of poor mental health, emotional abuse by a parent or caregiver and having attempted suicide than their counterparts, according to the CDC.

The data found the pandemic’s impact on parents’ jobs and mental health was also felt by students, with 55% reporting experiencing emotional abuse by a parent or other adult in the home and more than a quarter of students reporting that a parent lost a job during the pandemic.

“These data echo a cry for help,” Dr. Debra Houry, CDC acting principal deputy director, said in a statement. “The COVID-19 pandemic has created traumatic stressors that have the potential to further erode students’ mental wellbeing.”

The CDC’s new data, based on a survey of high school students done over six months last year, is the first nationwide survey of its kind. It builds on previous statistics showing a growing mental health crisis among young people.

“The nation’s youth we’re experiencing a growing mental health crisis for COVID-19, and it’s worsened during the pandemic,” Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of CDC’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, said Thursday. “All children have been affected by the COVID 19 pandemic in some way but not all equally, and because of that, some of the youth experienced more serious effects [and] those effects can last for a long time.”

In the last months of 2021, the U.S. surgeon general described the pandemic’s impact on youth mental health as “devastating,” and organizations representing child psychiatrists, pediatricians and children’s hospitals declared a national emergency for youth mental health.

Previous CDC data also found an uptick in mental health-related emergency department visits for children early in the pandemic when compared to 2019, as well as a 50.6% increase in suspected suicide attempt emergency department visits among girls ages 12 to 17.

In response to the growing crisis, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has been on a listening tour with youth across the country this year.

“The pandemic’s been more challenging for some children,” Murthy told ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton in an interview for the ABC News primetime special “24 Months That Changed the World.” “If we want to address this, we’ve got to listen to kids.”

The latest data from the CDC did have a silver lining, finding that schools can be a great mental health resource for students in providing a sense of belonging and support, called “school connectedness.”

Students who felt connected to adults and peers at school were significantly less likely to report feelings of sadness or hopelessness and less likely to seriously consider or attempt suicide, according to the CDC.

The data though also found that less than half of students, 47%, reported feeling close to people at school during the pandemic. In the first weeks and months of the pandemic, many schools in the U.S. switched from in-person to remote learning, relying on tools like Zoom to stay connected with students.

“School connectedness is a key to addressing youth adversities at all times – especially during times of severe disruptions,” Dr. Kathleen A. Ethier, director of CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, said in a statement. “Students need our support now more than ever, whether by making sure that their schools are inclusive and safe or by providing opportunities to engage in their communities and be mentored by supportive adults.”

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden addressed the youth mental health crisis in his State of the Union address. At the same time, his administration announced a “national mental health strategy” that includes a proposal to expand early childhood and in-school mental health services.

In October, the U.S. Department of Education released resources to help schools support students’ mental health, social and emotional needs through the $122 billion in pandemic relief funding made available to state and local education leaders.

In August, the Biden administration also pledged $85 million in funding at the start of the 2021-22 school year for mental health awareness, treatment and training in schools.

Dr. Gabrielle A. Carlson, a psychiatrist and president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, told ABC News in November that she sees schools as being on “the front lines” of the mental health emergency among kids.

“We need better integrated care, and by integrated we mean you put mental health where the kids are,” she said. “And having access to mental health resources in schools is so important because there’s fewer of the access barriers in school.”

Last month, Mackenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, announced a $15 million donation to the JED Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on mental health in schools.

The money, the largest single donation in JED’s history, will allow the foundation to scale its work to reach over 12 million students, the foundation’s CEO, John MacPhee, told ABC News.

The goal of the foundation’s efforts, according to MacPhee, is to make mental health awareness and support part of the culture of schools.

“Everyone in the school, everyone in the community, has a role to play to support the mental health and well-being of young people,” he said. “It’s a culture of caring where there is really no wrong door, so it is everyone’s responsibility to notice and support someone who might be struggling.”

ABC News’ senior national policy reporter Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — When lockdowns first hit the country during the spring of 2020, 18-year-old Emma Brun said she was in a tough place.

The student gymnast couldn’t compete in any of her meets or see her teammates and friends in person. Brun, who lives near Dayton, Ohio, told ABC News those lost connections compounded the mental health struggles she was facing even before the pandemic.

“I lost all of that support immediately. It really went downhill at that point,” Brun told ABC News.

After the stay-at-home ended, Brun said she was still dealing with anxiety, feelings of self-doubt and depression. Her mental health struggle ultimately led to a suicide attempt in February 2021.

Brun said she’s in a better place today after months of therapy, medication and self-reflection. She wants to make sure that her story can prompt others to get the help they need with navigating pandemic-related mental health issues.

“My mom and I started sharing what had happened, because I started to feel better and I started to feel hope again. We realized that this is a message that needs to be told,” she said. “It’s something that I can share with other people so that other people can experience the same relief and the joy that came afterward.”

Brun’s battle with depression and suicidal ideation is one that an increasing number of kids and teens have been facing.

Even before the pandemic, mental health struggles were already on the rise among young people. However, data shows the pandemic exacerbated and accelerated these existing issues.

“There’s been a trend over time for kids to have more and more struggles with their own behavioral health,” Dr. John Duby, vice president of community health at Dayton Children’s Hospital, said. “While the numbers were already going up before, they are been augmented. There’s certainly been an added impact that goes with the pandemic, but it’s on top of a problem that was already well on its way.”

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told ABC News’ Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Jennifer Ashton, that there was a 57% increase in the suicide rate among children compared to the decade before the pandemic. Suicide attempts among teenage girls rose by 50% during the first year of the pandemic, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Brun’s parents told ABC News they experienced the effects of this mental health crisis firsthand when they were looking for long-term help for Emma. It turns out that help is not always easy to find, as many hospitals now report long wait lists for available beds and treatments.

It would take nearly 24 hours to find a mental health facility with an available bed was finally found — a full hour-and-a-half drive away from the family’s home, Brian Brun, Emma’s father, told ABC News.

“My heart is broken for my daughter. But all of a sudden, I’m realizing how huge this problem is. I can’t find a bed for my daughter,” Brian said. “Hundreds of other fathers are dealing with this exact thing at this moment.”

Brun said that her recovery took a lot of work, but one of the things that helped was opening up about her condition to her friends and family. She said that everyone has been supportive and has given her an open ear anytime she needs to discuss her mental health issues.

“Sometimes you have negative self-talk. Sometimes you have depression, but it’s not your fault if you do, and that was something I was blaming myself for,” she said.

Doctors, social workers and other professionals are working to address the growing need for mental health resources for children and teenagers.

The Hope Squad, a Utah-based organization, has created peer-to-peer groups across the country to help students look for signs of suicide and mental health distress in their friends and fellow students.

“What we’re finding is so many of our kids want to help. They hear from their peers when their peers are struggling. They hear more so than us through social media and texting,” Beth Celenza, a Hope Squad advisor for Ohio’s Mason High School, told ABC News. “In ways that as teachers we don’t see that.”

Students at Mason High School told ABC News that their engagement with the Hope Squad has not only allowed them to help other students, but it has also helped them address their own struggles with anxiety and depression.

“The whole community has come together on these mental health reasons and come together to support everyone because we’re all going through the same thing of being isolated,” said freshman Ella Hardesty. “Even just for myself… I’ve learned to help myself right now, too.”

Through medication, therapy and support from her loved ones, Brun said she’s in a much better place today than a year ago. She’s back competing in gymnastics and spending more time with her friends.

“Things actually improve with time if you let them and if you just think things through. And you don’t force things to happen. Once that happens, it’s a lot easier,” she said.

Brun’s advice to anyone who may be suffering from mental health issues is to look for the silver lining and seek out anyone who can provide support during the dark times.

“I believe that when people know they’re not alone, it really helps,” Brun said. “I don’t want anybody else to go through what I went through if I can help it.”

If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, help is available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 [TALK] for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

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(NEW YORK) — If the United States switched completely to cleaner energy vehicles and power plants, it would not only benefit the environment but also save an estimated 110,000 lives and $1.2 trillion in health costs over the next 30 years, the American Lung Association says in a new report.

“These numbers are enormous,” said Will Barrett, the national senior director of clean air advocacy for the health organization. “It’s hard to wrap your head around. $1.2 trillion in public health benefits and 100,000 lives saved.”

Pollution from traditional cars and other vehicles has long been known to affect human health, leading to higher rates of lung disease and other illnesses.

“Right now, today, people’s health is suffering because of our dependence on combustion technologies for energy for transportation,” said Barrett, the lead author of the new report.

“We know that kids and seniors along with people with asthma, lung disease, and heart disease, are at risk due to unhealthy air,” said Dr. Philip Harber, an adjunct professor at the University Of Arizona’s College Of Public Health, who was not a coauthor of the new report.

The report finds that additional health benefits include avoiding nearly 3 million asthma attacks nationwide.

The harmful impacts of pollution disproportionately affect lower income communities and communities of color, more often living near major sources of pollution such as highways, power plants and refineries, the report says.

About 3% of U.S. counties with the highest populations of people of color would disproportionately benefit from a transition to electric vehicles and non-combustion electricity generation, the report estimates.

Currently, about 11% of cars and other vehicles sold in the 4th quarter of 2021 use clean energy, and roughly 20% of power plant generation is green, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Experts say the nation doesn’t need a full transition all at once, and even modest improvements now will start saving lives.

“Even without fully green power production, the results will be worthwhile,” said Harber.

“Not being able to do a complete transition is not a reason to delay doing what is feasible now,” he said.

The recently-passed federal infrastructure bill includes of $2.5 billion for zero-emission school buses and $7.5 billion to expand the national infrastructure for electric vehicles.

“That this is a down payment on what we really need is a much larger broader investment in incentive programs for purchases of vehicles,” Barrett said.

Harber says the transition to electric vehicles can start small. Even if you “only get one local pizza chain to use electric vehicles, that symbolism matters to a community,” he said.

“If we put more money into fossil fuel infrastructure today, it’s going to be there for decades. And it will continue to do damage to people’s lungs, people’s hearts, and our environment,” Barrett said.

Matt Feeley, MD, is a resident physician in Occupational and Environmental Medicine from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.

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(NEW YORK) — The antiparasitic drug ivermectin did not reduce the risk of being hospitalized with COVID-19, according to a large study published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Ivermectin was popularized as an alternative COVID-19 treatment despite a lack of strong evidence it helps. The recent study is among the largest that has failed to show a benefit.

In the study, researchers in Brazil compared more than 1,300 patients, some given ivermectin and others given placebo, and found no difference between the groups.

Early in the pandemic, lab experiments on cells suggested ivermectin could have some promise, but studies in people failed to back that up.

Some studies on ivermectin are ongoing, but today, we have several highly effective vaccines and COVID-19 treatments, with robust studies in people showing they work to dramatically reduce COVID-19 risk.

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(NEW YORK) — As the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline prepares to launch its new three-digit number in July, mental health experts worry about workforce capacity issues hindering the ability to provide 24/7 crisis care.

The federal government has allocated a significant amount of funding to assist in the implementation of the new Lifeline number, 988, in a bi-partisan effort to address mental health concerns and assist in suicide prevention. The infusion of funding comes as mental health experts explore the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the nation’s population over the last two years.

Still, despite federal funding efforts to assist in the 988 implementation, call centers across the nation remain underfunded and understaffed at the state and local level. This means that calls from people seeking help may be funneled to one of the Lifeline’s national backup call centers, or go unanswered if the backup centers are overwhelmed.

At its current capacity, about 85% of calls to the Lifeline are answered at either the local or national backup level, according to a report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

“24 Months That Changed the World,” airs tonight at 10 p.m. EDT on ABC and tomorrow on Hulu.

The number of calls to the Lifeline is expected to increase following the adoption of the new number, according to SAMHSA.

“Fortunately, most [states] are taking this as an opportunity and are working towards increasing their Lifeline call centers within the network,” said Hannah Wesolowski, chief advocacy officer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “But when somebody calls in, and they wait, and they hang up — we have one chance to get this right for a person. Lives are literally at risk. These are people who are in crisis, might be having suicidal ideation. It’s incredibly risky when those calls don’t get through.”

Wesolowski explained that local call centers connect people to mental health care providers in their communities, as well as other resources, while the backup centers may not be able to provide that service.

“We want to deescalate the immediate crisis, which is what those trained crisis counselors do, but we also want to connect them to resources so they stay well,” Wesolowski said. “We don’t want to just have them keep cycling into crises — crisis after crisis — it’s really important that they get connected to needed care so they can get well and stay well beyond that crisis situation. So it’s those local crisis counselors that can really make those connections. When there’s not that local capacity. It’s a huge concern.”

Despite concern over full readiness ahead of the 988 launch, Lifeline Executive Director Dr. John Draper told ABC News that efforts to support the network at the state level have grown.

“We’ve never seen this level of activity in terms of states committing interest, and then being dedicated to supporting local crisis centers,” Draper said.

He explained that crisis centers have typically been seen as “peripheral” to the mental health system, but after 20 years of research around the efforts of the Lifeline, the understanding of their importance has shifted.

“It’s basically a free mental health service for people who are in distress. So that’s what some states are starting to realize is by investing in these centers, they can actually save costs, they can keep people from unnecessarily going to emergency departments, they can people keep people from certainly unnecessarily engaging with police for mental health and suicidal crisis,” Draper said. “If we can engage [people in crisis] in ways through a system that is really designed to care for them, as opposed to scare them, then we are going to be much more effective in keeping them healthy in the community. And that’s really what we’re trying to do.”

The system Draper described is often referred to as a “continuum of care” for people experiencing a mental health crisis.

Activists say the ideal version of this continuum would include locally operated call centers, mobile crisis response teams and community care facilities, which are sometimes referred to as crisis stabilization units.

Wesolowski explained that about 80% of calls to the Lifeline can be deescalated over the phone. Of the remaining 20%, a large portion can be addressed appropriately by a mobile crisis response team, which includes mental health professionals, paramedics and social workers. Those that require further care could be taken to a crisis stabilization facility, where they can receive short-term psychiatric urgent care, rather than being taken to a hospital.

Mobile crisis response teams and stabilization facilities are even less prevalent across the nation than call centers, making their availability to someone in crisis dependent on that person’s location.

However, several cities have implemented pilot programs to provide mobile crisis response services as an alternative to a law enforcement response for people experiencing a mental health emergency.

Last August, Denver announced it would be expanding its Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) Program after what the city called a “successful one-year pilot,” in a press release.

In that first year, the city says the program handled 1,400 calls.

“Of those, there were no arrests, no injuries and no need for police back up,” according to the press release.

In areas where these services are not available, law enforcement is often called to respond to someone in crisis, which can lead to escalation of the situation including that person’s arrest or even their death.

“I think that’s a really important component, to take law enforcement out of it,” Wesolowski said. “We don’t ask law enforcement to respond to other health care crises. That’s not their job. We ask medical professionals to do that. And mental health is health. So it’s really important that we take a mental health approach to these crises and provide health, not handcuffs.”

Over the last two years, a more widespread focus has been placed on suicide prevention and mental health care as experts weigh in on the effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the mental health of Americans.

Last month, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy testified before the Senate Finance Committee about the dramatic impact the pandemic has had on the mental health of young Americans, in particular.

Suicide attempts among young people have increased during the pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last year that emergency department visits for teen girls who had attempted suicide were up more than 50% at the start of the pandemic, compared to 2019.

Murthy will discuss the need to address the mental health crisis among America’s youth during “20/20” special, which focuses on the impacts of the pandemic over the last two years.

If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, help is available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 [TALK] for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

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(NEW YORK) — When David Bookstaver tested positive for COVID-19 he happened to have a telehealth consult with his doctor already scheduled that day, to talk about going on medication to moderate his high blood pressure.

On that call Bookstaver, 63, says his doctor mentioned his age and hypertension made him eligible for Paxlovid, Pfizer’s antiviral pill treatment, which has proven highly effective at keeping higher-risk patients out of the hospital, and preventing them from getting even sicker.

Bookstaver is fully vaccinated and boosted and didn’t feel too ill at the time – but warding off a turn for the worse seemed prudent. The doctor sent a prescription for the new medication to the pharmacy and his wife was kind enough to pick up his medicine and bring it home.

But when he read over the drug information, Bookstaver’s eyes caught on some of the fine print: the cholesterol medication he was already on – and the blood pressure medication he had also just been prescribed – were both listed as having potentially harmful interactions with the Paxlovid he had just been given.

“If I was really sick I probably would have gobbled the first dose up and not looked,” Bookstaver said. “I think most people don’t do due diligence. They trust their doctor implicitly. But if people aren’t checking the contraindications labels I think they kind of need to be told.”

Though highly effective, Paxlovid, like some other medications, does carry the risk of certain dangerous interactions with many other commonly prescribed drugs – including those which manage heart conditions and cholesterol. It is also not recommended for patients with severe kidney or liver problems.

“If we’re seeing increased concentrations of a statin, this could lead to muscle aches that then lead to impaired kidney function.” Dr. Jay Bhatt, an internal medicine physician and instructor at the University of Illinois School of Public Health and an ABC News contributor said. Complications like these, he said, often require hospitalizations for close monitoring.

Without knowing exact medication dosages it’s difficult to say just how dangerous potential side effects could have been, but Bhatt, who was not involved in Bookstaver’s treatment, said it’s a good thing it was caught by the patient beforehand.

As for the blood pressure medications, “we would be concerned about people’s blood pressure going so low that we’re not getting enough blood flow to the parts of the body that need it. People can pass out and fall. For old patients with comorbidities, that could have serious complications,” Bhatt said.

“Some drugs come with more considerations than others — the prescribing of this particular drug is complex, and it requires a lot of care,” Dr. Inga Lennes, senior vice president of ambulatory care at Massachusetts General Hospital, told ABC News. “There has to be a nuanced discussion between a doctor and a patient to make that determination about what is best and safest for your health: talking about not just about their true medication history, what they’re on — but also why they’re on it — is so important.”

The drug’s tangle of contraindications poses a treatment protocol catch-22: a patient’s qualifying risk factors that qualify them for Paxlovid may mean they’re already taking other medications for those risk factors which disqualify them for Paxlovid, experts said.

Pfizer told ABC News in a statement it is working to educate healthcare providers on how to manage “potential drug to drug interactions.”

“We are also working with some of the largest telemedicine companies to ensure their HCPs are knowledgeable about PAXLOVID and ready to treat appropriate patients, and we are reaching out to pharmacy customers directly to help address questions,” the company said.

Bookstaver said he chose not to use his prescription.

This shifting terrain of COVID treatments makes it all the more crucial for doctors to be aware of their patients’ full medical profile before signing off on a new prescription, experts said, since there may be potential harms in shifting around their usual drug regimen. And because a prescribing physician or pharmacy staff member dispensing the pills may not be familiar with the full gamut of drug interactions, they said it also underscores the importance of people advocating for their own health and being watchful of how their medicines interact.

“This is not a quick conversation like — oh, you’re COVID positive? You’re a certain age? Here, here’s your prescription,” Lennes said. “We’ve employed a real massive education effort to make sure that our people who are prescribing these really understand — there are some drugs that are very specific, they can only be given in certain situations for certain things and under certain circumstances, and it would be dangerous or unwise or unhelpful to prescribe them in any situation.

“All of those micro decisions add up to complexities both for providers and for patients that are hard to navigate and make it harder to automate,” Lennes said.

Paxlovid’s unique effect comes from the synergy of its two antiviral components. One part blocks the enzyme that breaks down the antivirals, leading to high levels of both medications in the body. A long list of other common medications use this enzyme, too – like the statins Bookstaver had already been taking.

The blood pressure medication he was set to start that same day, Amlodipine, is another one that uses these liver enzymes. These typically benign medications effectively become overdosed when taken with Paxlovid.

“Usually the adverse effects are an extension of what the drug is used for. For medications used for your blood pressure, you can have an interaction when your blood pressure gets way too low, dangerously low”, Dr. Stephanie Widmer, an emergency medicine physician and medical toxicologist, told ABC News. As for statins, “there is the risk of liver injury, and there’s the risk of severe muscle injury and breakdown, which could then lead to kidney injury.”

The Food and Drug Administration’s fact sheet on Paxlovid notes an extensive list of drug-drug interactions for health care providers, noting “caution is warranted” with Amlodipine, that “clinical monitoring of patients is recommended” and a dose decrease of the blood pressure drug may be needed if co-administered with Pfizer’s COVID pill.

Some of these interactions are absolute contraindications and must be stopped, while others are minimal and considered relative interactions, experts told ABC News.

In some cases a patient can pause their other treatments while they’re taking the COVID antiviral – three Paxlovid pills twice a day for five days. But for some patients, forgoing the other lifesaving medicines they’re already dependent on for a full business week may asking the impossible.

“No matter what medications you’re on, because the list is so long, you have to have the conversation with your doctor on if this is the right medication for me and what interactions am I at risk for,” Widmer said.

If dangerous drug interactions are unavoidable, doctors may recommend the antiviral pill from Merck instead, called molnupiravir, which has shown to be somewhat less effective than Pfizer’s but does not have any known medication interactions. However it is not authorized for people under 18, out of concerns it may impact bone and cartilage growth, and it is not recommended during pregnancy.

“I don’t think most people spend the time reading the fine print,” Bookstaver said – adding, he’s glad he did. “And especially if a person feels bad, they just want to feel better.”

ABC News’ Eric M. Strauss and Sony Salzman contributed to this report.

Y. Jay Lin, M.D., is an emergency medicine resident at NYU & Bellevue Hospital in New York and a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.

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(NEW YORK) — Bruce Willis’ family has announced the actor has been diagnosed with aphasia and is “stepping away” from his career due to the diagnosis.

The 67-year-old actor’s wife, Emma Heming Willis; his ex-wife, Demi Moore; and his daughters shared a photo of him on Instagram on Wednesday with a lengthy message on his health.

“To Bruce’s amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities,” their message began. “As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, aphasia is “a condition that robs you of the ability to communicate,” and the disorder can impact one’s “ability to speak, write and understand language, both verbal and written.”

The medical nonprofit says the language disorder “typically occurs suddenly after a stroke or a head injury.”

There are several different types of the language disorder, and the condition “usually occurs suddenly, often following a stroke or head injury, but it may also develop slowly, as the result of a brain tumor or a progressive neurological disease,” according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.

The impact of treatment depends on “the cause of the brain injury, the area of the brain that was damaged and its extent, and the age and health of the individual,” according to the NIDCD.

The disorder affects around 2 million people in the United Statues, the National Aphasia Association says, and almost 180,000 Americans are diagnosed with it every year.

The Die Hard actor’s family did not provide further details on his condition but did expression their gratitude for support from his fans.

“This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love, compassion and support,” the message from the actor’s family read. “We are moving through this as a strong family unit, and wanted to bring his fans in because we know how much he means to you, as you do to him.”

“As Bruce always says, ‘Live it up,’ and together we plan to do just that,” they added.

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