(NEW YORK) — A beauty influencer and new mother remains in a coma a week after she suffered a brain aneurysm while nine months pregnant, spotlighting the potential risk of stroke during pregnancy.
Jackie Miller James simultaneously underwent an emergency C-section and brain surgery last week after suffering an aneurysm rupture, which led to severe brain bleeding and injury, ABC News confirmed with a spokesperson for her family. Since the rupture, James has undergone five brain surgeries since being put in a medically induced coma, according to a GoFundMe set up by her family on May 30. However, her newborn baby has just recently been released from the NICU, according to an Instagram posted by James’ sister.
“If Jackie and the baby arrived a few minutes later at the hospital, we likely would have lost both of them,” the GoFundMe said. “But instead, Jackie is continuing to fight for her life each day and we are optimistic she can beat the odds by surrounding her with the right specialists and methods of therapy.”
James, who is based in California, posts skin care and beauty tips to more than 63,000 followers on Instagram and over 4,000 followers on TikTok. In one recent video, she documented the different stages of her pregnancy.
Through a spokesperson, James’ family told ABC News that they think James will be in the hospital for months but are committed to bringing both James and her daughter home.
ABC News’ Good Morning America medical contributor and stroke specialist Dr. Leah Croll said strokes are uncommon during pregnancy but being pregnant does put a woman at higher risk for stroke, especially those with high blood pressure, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and blood clots.
“Pregnant women are three times as likely to have a stroke compared to non-pregnant women,” Croll told Good Morning America. “So pregnancy and the postpartum period are a higher risk time in a woman’s life in a lot of ways. And one of those ways is for her cardiovascular system.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms of stroke can come suddenly and can include numbness, weakness especially on one side of the body, trouble speaking, walking or seeing, or a severe headache. Doctors said if someone is experiencing these symptoms, call 911 immediately.
Croll said that for those who are pregnant, it’s important to be an advocate for their health care, as well as remain vigilant of worrisome symptoms.
“I think the bottom line here is for pregnant women to make sure that they’re keeping their doctors, their obstetricians in the loop about their personal medical history, their family history,” she said. “And keeping them up to date with any new or worrisome symptoms they might be experiencing.”
(NEW YORK) — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, appearing on ABC News’ Good Morning America on Wednesday, made clear that any path to the Republican nomination in 2024 means taking down former President Donald Trump.
“There’s only one lane to the Republican nomination for president and Donald Trump is at the head of it and you have to go right through him and make the case against him. And that’s what I intend to do,” Christie said.
Christie kicked off his second presidential campaign Tuesday with a town hall-style event at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, where he pitched himself to voters as a foil to Trump.
He continued that message on Wednesday, telling ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos the Trump administration failed to deliver on immigration, health care and other issues.
“Broken promises like that, George, aren’t acceptable anymore to the American people,” Christie said. “The stakes are too high. That’s the case you need to make and if you make it effectively, I think we will be the nominee.”
Christie is joining a crowded Republican primary field that includes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Former Vice President Mike Pence announced his 2024 run in a video released early Wednesday, in which he criticized President Joe Biden and cast the country as “in trouble” but didn’t mention Trump.
Christie’s willingness to take on Trump directly sets him somewhat apart from the other candidates, who’ve so far been reluctant to openly criticize the former president and early front-runner. Christie took a jab at his opponents, likening their treatment of Trump to Voldemort, the Harry Potter villain.
The country star, who had been on a weeks-long vocal rest, announced Tuesday that he was given the green light to “talk and sing” again.
Sharing a picture of himself on a boat, Wallen wrote, “The doc cleared me to talk and sing… we back.”
The news comes after the 29-year-old was put on vocal rest after injuring his vocal cords in early May, which resulted in six weeks of shows being rescheduled.
“I got some bad news from my doctors at the Vanderbilt Voice Center yesterday,” he said in a May 9 Instagram post. “After taking 10 days of vocal rest, I performed three shows last weekend in Florida and by the third one I felt terrible. So I went in and got scoped yesterday, and they told me that I reinjured my vocal cords and that I have vocal fold trauma.”
“Their advice is that I go on vocal rest for six weeks, so that’s what I’m going to do,” the “Last Night” singer continued.
(NEW YORK) — Dr. Jennifer Ashton is a board-certified OBGYN and obesity medicine specialist who has worked with thousands of female patients over her decades-long career.
Ashton, also ABC News’ chief medical correspondent, said she had a “lightbulb moment” 10 years ago when she was working one-on-one with a patient.
“In fact, I had the lightbulb moment,” Ashton told ABC’s Good Morning America. “It was at that time that I realized that pretty much every significant hormonal stage in a woman’s life is associated with metabolic, or weight, changes.”
The realization pushed Ashton to go back to school to earn a degree in nutrition and become board-certified in obesity medicine.
It also transformed the way she practices medicine, she said, explaining that it taught her that patients struggling with their weight weren’t just eating too much or the wrong types of foods.
Ashton said she likes to talk about the connection between hormones and weight in order to normalize weight changes women see naturally throughout their lives.
“For a woman’s reproductive life, her entire life, actually, every single major hormonal stage is often-slash-almost always associated with changes in metabolism, cravings and actually bodyweight,” Ashton said, noting that the hormonal stages for women include puberty, peripregnancy, peripartum, perimenopause and menopause.
“The first thing that I like to remind people of is recognize, appreciate, acknowledge and normalize these changes. That is your body doing what it is supposed to do,” Ashton continued. “The key is, how can you help it and how can you strategize your way through these normal and important hormonal milestones so that you come out feeling good about the way that you look and feel and, more importantly, that you come out of them healthy.”
While women may notice weight fluctuations as they go through life changes like puberty and menopause, unfortunately for women, there is still little medical research in the field, according to Ashton.
“That’s where it gets a little frustrating,” Ashton said. “A lot of what we know is based on observation and association, and then safe trial-and-error, which I encourage women to do.”
Ashton wrote about the connection between women’s hormonal changes and their weight in her new magazine, Better With Dr. Jen Ashton, which is available now online and in newsstands across the country.
Ashton said she wants women to understand what their body is going through hormonally at each stage, so they can work appropriately to support those changes and not get frustrated.
“If you’ve just had a baby, or you’re thinking of becoming pregnant, or you know someone who is about to go through puberty or going through puberty, or if you or someone you know is perimenopausal or menopausal, that’s not a separate issue to your weight, to your metabolism, to the way you eat,” Ashton said. “Connecting the dots on those two is really going to help people get through these periods of time without kind of feeling like they’re a dog chasing its tail.”
Here are Ashton’s three tips to help women navigate hormonal changes in their lives:
1. Be observant of changes to your body, appetite and cravings.
Ashton said to pay attention to any changes in your appetite, your cravings for certain foods and your weight, and to see if those correspond to different stages in life, like certain times of a menstrual cycle or perimenopause, the time when ovaries gradually begin to make less estrogen.
“At this time, weight gain is incredibly common,” Ashton said of perimenopause, which usually hits women in their 40s. “Typically, it’s midsection, midtorso weight gain that occurs despite a woman not changing what she’s eating or how she’s moving.”
2. Use trial and error to see what works.
“If you’ve noticed a change in your weight or your appetite, I recommend that you can try things, but give them one to two weeks at minimum to see how do you feel in terms of your energy level, your hunger, your satiety, and then your weight,” Ashton said, noting that the number on a scale is just one measure.
Ashton said another part of trial and error is testing whether certain foods make your symptoms better or worse. For example, she said that science shows carbohydrates help women during their menstrual cycle, but not all carbs are created equal.
“Just be aware there are carbs that are probably better for those cravings than others when it comes to retaining water and gaining weight,” Ashton said. “And also remember that some carbs … tend to be calorie-rich, nutrient-poor, so proceed with caution when reaching for that, especially if it’s to address a craving.”
3. Know that no specific food is ‘right’ or ‘wrong.’
“There is no conclusive, good peer-reviewed nutritional science or medical science data that suggests or confirms that if you eat one thing, you will have a definite hormonal effect on the other side of the equation,” Ashton said of the medical research to date.
Ashton said the lack of data points women back to the trial-and-error method to see what works for them.
She pointed out as an example, that some research has shown that a plant-based diet can have a “plethora of benefits” for women in perimenopause and menopause. With that information, women can decide the risk versus benefit of trying for themselves.
“You always have to ask yourself risk versus benefit,” Ashton said. “What is the downside of eating, let’s say for example, a largely plant-based, low-processed food diet. Really, no downside. Is there a potential upside on getting you through these major hormonal stages in life, absolutely.”
(NEW YORK) — Hazy and dangerous fumes from ongoing Canadian wildfires have engulfed the skies over most of the northeast coast, prompting serious air quality alerts for millions of Americans.
As of Tuesday evening, 17 states have issued those alerts as the thick fumes have blocked the sky and sent people indoors to avoid breathing in the polluted air.
Canadian officials said firefighters are scrambling to put out the blazes in Quebec, where more than 160 forest fires are currently active. The fires are fueled by high temperatures and dry conditions, according to officials.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Jun 07, 6:37 AM EDT
Air quality alerts issued for 13 states
Most of New England and much of the East Coast were under air quality alerts on Wednesday, with smoke from Canadian wildfires expected to reach as far south as South Carolina.
A new dose of very thick smoke was expected to drift into New York City and Philadelphia by Wednesday afternoon, lasting into the evening.
That smoke is then expected to move south into Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night and into Thursday morning.
Conditions around New York City and in the I-95 corridor could improve Thursday evening, but get worse in western New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, as the winds shift.
Jun 07, 12:49 AM EDT
NYC mayor says air quality expected to ‘deteriorate further’ Wednesday
The air quality in New York City worsened Tuesday evening and is expected to “deteriorate further” Wednesday afternoon and evening, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement.
“At this point, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has issued an Air Quality Health Advisory for all five boroughs. While conditions are anticipated to temporarily improve later tonight through tomorrow morning, they are expected to deteriorate further tomorrow afternoon and evening,” Adams said.
“Currently, we are taking precautions out of an abundance of caution to protect New Yorkers’ health until we are able to get a better sense of future air quality reports,” he said.
Adams said students should still go to school on Wednesday, but New York City public schools won’t have outdoor activities.
“These recommendations may change based on updated air quality conditions that come in, but, in the meantime, we recommend all New Yorkers to take the precautions they see fit to protect their health,” he added.
Jun 06, 10:09 PM EDT
Smoke from wildfires visible over Yankee Stadium
Smoke from wildfires from Canada was visible on Tuesday night over Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, as the Yankees played the White Sox, video obtained by ABC News shows.
Wildfires burning in Canada are continuing to create poor air quality conditions in parts of the U.S., with smoke clearly visible during Tuesday night’s Yankees-White Sox game in The Bronx. https://t.co/yhKArhnaNtpic.twitter.com/Np8mJyVKCa
Jun 06, 10:01 PM EDT
New York City currently has the worst air quality in the world, data shows
New York City currently has the worst air quality than any other city on Earth, as smoke stemming from wildfires in Canada makes its way across the Northeast, according to the latest data from Swiss technology company IQAir.
The air quality index in NYC is at 196 as of Tuesday evening, followed by Doha, Qatar, and Delhi, India.
The next U.S. city on the list is Detroit, which currently places eighth, according to IQAir. Toronto, Canada, sat in ninth place as of Tuesday night.
Jun 06, 11:00 PM EDT
Who is at most risk from unhealthy air
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has specific guidance for vulnerable groups if the air quality in their area is deemed “unhealthy.”
While the agency warns that all people will experience adverse side effects from exposure to the unhealthy air, it said those with heart or lung disease, pregnant people, children and the elderly are most sensitive.
Those groups should consider moving all of their activities indoors until the air quality alert is lifted, the EPA said.
Jun 06, 11:02 PM EDT
Northeast covered in haze as forecasters warn of more smoke to come
Millions of people in New York City and other locations in the Northeast scrambled to keep themselves free of the smoky air throughout the day and evening Tuesday.
The city’s skyline was barely visible for most parts of the day, and the smell of the smoke was strong as commuters hit the evening rush.
Large cities with the lowest air quality include New York City; Albany, New York and Cincinnati, a map by Airnow, a website that publishes air quality data, shows.
Another large and dense plume of smoke will be moving down across parts of the Northeast on Wednesday, according to forecasters.
That batch of very dense smoke will push down across the Northeast throughout the day on Wednesday, giving some relief to New England and the Midwest.
(ROME) — Pope Francis will undergo an intestinal surgery on Wednesday and spend several days in the hospital recovering, Vatican officials said.
After his general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday, the pontiff went to Gemelli hospital in Rome, “where in the early afternoon he will undergo a Laparotomy and abdominal wall plastic surgery with prosthesis under general anaesthesia,” Matteo Bruni, director of the press office for The Holy See, said in a statement in Italian.
The surgery was arranged within the last few days, the Vatican said. He’s expected to stay in the hospital for several days to make a full recovery.
The 86-year-old pontiff spent three days in the hospital in March after he complained he was having difficulty breathing.
The pontiff’s hospital stay had gone well “with normal medical progress,” as he recovered from bronchitis, Vatican officials said at the time.
(NEW YORK) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday questioned whether a group of female track and field athletes in Connecticut has the right to sue over a policy allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ athletic events.
“It is a clear violation when a school or school district knowingly lets sexual discrimination proceed. I don’t think we can say that here,” Judge Denny Chin said.
An attorney for the athletes, John Bursch with the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, urged the judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to allow the case to move forward.
“All we need to decide today is whether they get into the courthouse door,” Bursch said.
The athletes — Selina Soule, Chelsea Mitchell, Alanna Smith and Ashley Nicoletti — said they each felt the impact of the policy by the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference.
“They trained hard to shave fractions of seconds off their race times so they could compete in state and regional meets, stand atop the winners’ podium, and perhaps even secure college athletic scholarships and gainful employment beyond,” the women said in court papers. “Yet those dreams were dashed, as the policy forced them to compete — and lose — to biological males.”
They want the chance to sue the state agency and several Connecticut high schools, alleging the policy that allows transgender athletes into competition violates Title IX by failing to provide female athletes with equal treatment.
The state argued the athletes have not alleged any concrete or imminent harm.
“Nothing about track results would affect the plaintiffs’ life prospects,” said Peter Murphy, the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s attorney.
“Is there an injury in fact that you see on this complaint by money damages, if money damages is available?” asked Judge Alison Nathan.
“No,” Murphy responded. “The plaintiffs are alleging they ran a race and lost, and they don’t like the rules.”
Issues involving the transgender community have become a hot-button topic in recent months, as Republican lawmakers have passed legislation seemingly targeting the community.
In April, House Republicans passed the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” which would ban transgender athletes from competing on school sports teams with women and girls.
“Last year, we pledged if we had the opportunity to be in the majority, we would bring this bill forward. We would stand up for fairness, we’d stand up for you; we’d stand up for Title IX,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said outside the Capitol at the time. “We asked others across this country to join with us to help us pass it in the Senate and get it to the president’s desk, so every woman is protected in fairness and in competition.”
At least 21 states since 2020 have enacted laws or policies that ban transgender athletes from playing on school sports teams with women and girls, according to the Movement Advancement Project.
A growing number of states, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Dakota and Tennessee, have passed legislation or policies restricting gender-affirming care for people under the age of legal majority.
The American Civil Liberties Union is tracking nearly 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills around the country.
Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge on Tuesday directed the Biden administration to take action after a conservative group sued to reveal government records about Prince Harry’s immigration to the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols urged the government to decide how it will respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from The Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think tank, that aims to obtain documents related to the duke of Sussex’s visa and legal status in the U.S.
Harry, who married Meghan Markle in 2018, moved to California in 2020 after stepping back from the British royal family.
Visa applications are not typically disclosed publicly due to privacy concerns.
But the Heritage Foundation filed a lawsuit last week to get Harry’s immigration documents, calling for the Department of Homeland Security to expedite its FOIA process because of media coverage of the prince’s admitted drug use when he was younger.
The Heritage Foundation has said in court filings that the drug use “surfaced the question” about whether Harry received favorable treatment in being granted entry to the U.S. and whether Harry disclosed his past in his visa application, as required.
The question of whether immigration authorities must release the documents has not been taken up by the federal court. Judge Nichols said Tuesday that he was “frustrated” he was instead forced to consider a “highly technical and procedural” freedom of information question instead of getting straight to the merits of the case.
DHS now must decide whether it can release any of the requested documents, expedite the FOIA process or deny The Heritage Foundation request. If the foundation is denied, they could seek to have the judge release the paperwork in the public interest — a claim the government has played down.
Federal lawyers argued on Tuesday that the U.K. tabloids noted by the Heritage Foundation as significant examples of public interest were not “mainstream media” to most Americans.
Multiple sub-agencies of DHS, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, have already denied the foundation’s request, according to a Justice Department attorney.
(NEW YORK) — Florida officials confirmed on Tuesday that they organized two flights carrying migrants from Texas to California in recent days.
It’s the latest example of a controversial strategy under Gov. Ron DeSantis, who says he wants to spotlight what he calls the failures of southern border policies — as migrant advocates say he is exploiting vulnerable people for political ends.
State officials in Florida insist they are helping safely send migrants where they want to go, not deceiving them.
Community leaders and officials in California say that 36 immigrants in total have been flown from Texas to Sacramento since Friday. Approximately 20 migrants arrived on a flight on Monday and another group of about 16 landed three days earlier.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Sacramento Area Congregations Together (ACT), a community group, gave an overview of what the migrants say they experienced when they were flown into the city.
The people were originally approached outside a migrant center in El Paso, Texas, by a group purporting to be part of an organization that could help them relocate, Sacramento ACT spokesperson Cecilia Flores said.
She said that all of the migrants who arrived in Sacramento are asylum seekers and are awaiting immigration court hearings. City officials are now helping to link the group with immigration lawyers to make sure they don’t miss their court dates.
The group is made up of people in their 20s and 30s, mostly from Colombia, Guatemala and Venezuela, Flores said. One dog — named Geico — also traveled with them.
Flores said the migrants were originally told they’d be provided with shelter, housing and job opportunities.
The migrants said they did not know they were getting on a plane to California, according to Flores. After both flights, the groups were dropped off outside the Diocese of Sacramento and were told by the people transporting them that they’d return — but instead these people left and never came back.
The 16 migrants who arrived Friday did not know where they were and only had a backpack’s worth of belongings, Diocese of Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto previously said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the California Attorney General’s office said that the private company Vertol Systems organized the flights. Vertol also coordinated flights for Florida transporting migrants to Martha’s Vineyard last year.
Representatives with Vertol could not be reached for comment for this story.
Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, community faith leaders in Sacramento said that while a “handful” of the migrants have since been picked up by family members, many in the group do not have any ties to the area and will likely be reuniting with their loved ones throughout the country. Some may choose to stay in the area, however.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) on Tuesday sharply challenged the details of how the migrants were flown from Texas to California. DeSantis’ office did not respond to a request for comment.
FDEM shared a video with ABC News that they claim shows some of the migrants signing paperwork and volunteering to get on a flight.
ABC News could not independently verify where and when the images were taken.
In one part of the video a man is seen saying, in Spanish, “We made it to California. Thank God. Very thankful to God.”
Another part of the video appears to show a group dancing and celebrating inside a vehicle and a woman is seen asking the group if they feel like they were treated poorly, to which the group responds, “No.”
A spokesperson for FDEM insisted in a statement that “as you can see from this video, Florida’s voluntary relocation is precisely that – voluntary. Through verbal and written consent, these volunteers indicated they wanted to go to California. A contractor was present and ensured they made it safely to a 3rd-party NGO [in Sacramento].”
However, on Tuesday, a spokesperson from Sacramento ACT said they believe the migrants were misled into getting on the flights.
Outcry from California leaders
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has raised the specter of kidnapping charges for the coordinators of the migrant flights and he singled out DeSantis by name.
In a social media post on Monday, Newsom called DeSantis a “small, pathetic man,” adding, “This isn’t Martha’s Vineyard” alongside a photo of the state statute that explains kidnapping charges.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta likewise denounced how the migrants were transported.
“We are a nation built by immigrants and we must condemn the cruelty and hateful rhetoric of those, whether they are state leaders or private parties, who refuse to recognize humanity and who turn their backs on extending dignity and care to fellow human beings,” Bonta said in a statement this weekend.
State officials are evaluating potential civil action against those who transported or arranged for the transport of “these vulnerable immigrants,” Bonta has said.
The California Department of Justice likewise is investigating the circumstances around the group’s travel and whether the individuals orchestrating this trip misled anyone with false promises or have violated any criminal laws, Newsom has said.
In their statement on Tuesday, the FDEM spokesperson pushed back on such claims.
“From left-leaning mayors in El Paso, Texas, and Denver, Colorado, the relocation of those illegally crossing the United States border is not new. But suddenly, when Florida sends [migrants] to a sanctuary city, it’s false imprisonment and kidnapping,” the FDEM spokesperson said.
That echoes what DeSantis has previously said about the migrant flights.
Last year, amid controversy over chartered planes sent to Martha’s Vineyard, a tiny island community off the coast of Massachusetts, DeSantis said the choice to send migrants from Texas and not Florida was a way to prevent a large group of migrants from coming to his state.
“Florida gave them an opportunity to seek greener pastures in a sanctuary jurisdiction that offered greater resources for them, as we expected,” his office said in a statement at the time.
The governor has maintained that many of the migrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas plan to travel to Florida and that it is easier to meet them at the source.
Last year, DeSantis suggested complaints over the migrant flights were hypocritical compared with what happens to other people who try to enter the country.
“You’ve had migrants die in the Rio Grande — you had 50 die in Texas in a trailer because they were being neglected,” DeSantis said on Fox News in September. “Was there a freakout about that? No, there wasn’t.”
(NEW YORK) — Nearly 22,530 pounds of beef chili with beans that was meant to be served in schools has been recalled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
J.T.M. Provisions Company announced the recall of its “frozen, ready-to-eat beef chili with beans products that may be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically white plastic,” the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) said on Sunday.
The affected items from the Harrison, Ohio-based food manufacturer were produced on Feb. 27.
The products in question include a 30 pound case of “CHILI WITH BEANS” that contains six 5-pound boilable bags of “CP5309 CHILI WITH BEANS” with lot code 23058 printed on the bag, and “February 27, 2023” and lot code 23058 printed on the case, the USDA wrote in the recall announcement.
“The products subject to recall bear establishment number ‘EST. 1917’ inside the USDA mark of inspection on the case. These products were purchased by USDA Foods for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). These items were shipped to distributors in California, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Wisconsin,” the statement said.
The FSIS was first notified of the problem from the company after it received “a customer complaint about semi-rigid white plastic material found in the frozen, ready-to-eat beef chili with beans.”
As of time of publication, there have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products.
The FSIS said it’s “concerned that some product may be in school freezers or refrigerators” and advised all school nutrition professionals who may have purchased the products not to prepare or consume them.
“These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase,” the agency stated.
Consumers with additional food safety questions are encouraged to call the toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 513-367-4900 or live chat online.
