The National Transportation Safety Board today determined that the probable cause of a fatal runway overrun at Chicago’s Midway Airport was the pilot’s failure to promptly use available reverse thrust to slow or stop the airplane after landing. This failure occurred because the pilots’ inexperience and unfamiliarity with the airplane’s autobrake system distracted them from using the thrust reverser during the challenging landing. The weather conditions were less than ideal. The landing required experience and explicit attention to multiple variables.

The ...

Loyola University Medical Center, a Chicago-area Level 1 Trauma Center, has announced plans to use new technology to help surgical teams track all sponges used during a procedure.

About 1,000 times a year, a surgical sponge is left inside a patient during a procedure.

To prevent that from happening at its facility, Loyola is becoming one of the first hospitals in the country to use bar-coded sponges.

A nurse will scan each sponge before and after it’s used, and the system will alert the operating team if any sponges are left behind. Doctors and nurses will continue to do manual counts.