Study: Some teens can’t get OTC contraceptive

Even though age restrictions on emergency contraception have been lifted, teenagers looking to purchase it may still have trouble getting it at certain pharmacies.

In a recent study, two female research assistants called 993 pharmacies, said they were 17 years old and wanted to buy the morning-after pill. The results showed that 83 percent of pharmacies had same-day availability, but 8.3 percent of pharmacy representatives told the callers they couldn’t buy the drug because of their age.

The recent study was a follow-up to one in 2012, which was done before the age restriction removal by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

— Pediatrics

sense that what I took to be enjoyable wasn’t so enjoyable for the fish. Then one day I brought in this black tuna and he looked me in the eye. That was it. He was telling me this isn’t the right thing for you. I don’t want to sound crazy, but that was a life changer. He was a life force telling me there was a better way for me to find something to eat.”

As Homanksy goes down memory lane in the wake of his retirement, he notes that his encounter with the tuna was the first time a life force told him, in effect, that he didn’t appreciate being eaten.

While few people have heard that story, millions of people are acquainted with the second time Homansky, then a ringside doctor, was told by a life force — boxer Evander Holyfield — he didn’t appreciate being eaten.

It was June 1997 when Holyfield faced Mike Tyson in the ring at the MGM Grand.

They were clinching, or fighting in close, in the third round when Tyson suddenly sank his teeth into the top of Holyfield’s right ear and then spit a piece of it out onto the canvas.

Stunnedbywhathappened— Holyfield jumped up and down and yelled in pain as the bout was stopped by the referee — Homansky was asked to look at the damage done to Holyfield, who loudly made it known he was no one’s appetizer.

“I was like everybody else at ringside, shocked,” Homansky remembers, shaking his head at the memory. “His ear was a red, mangled mess, but the question for me was not an ethical one but a medical one. After examining the ear, I saw that he could continue. The cartliage part of the ear was bitten off but he could still fight.”

The fight didn’t last long, however, because Tyson soon sunk his teeth into Holyfield’s left ear. Though the ear stayed intact, the referee disqualified Tyson, who claimed he bit his opponent because he had been head-butting him.

“That was the strangest fight I was ever part of,” Homansky says.

Bedside manner

Homansky began his medical career in Las Vegas as an emergency room physician at Valley Hospital in 1977. He eventually led the emergency rooms in all six hospitals in the Valley Health System.

It was in a Desert Springs Hospital emergency room when he had the opportunity to help name a baby.

“A young girl came in with abdominal pains on Easter morning,” he says, smiling at the memory.

“She didn’t know she was pregnant. I helped deliver the baby. She was pretty and we came up with the name Bunny.”

Karla Perez, regional vice president of the Valley Health System, says that with all the attention Homansky has received for his work with the Nevada State Athletic Commission — he was also chairman of its medical advisory board and a board member appointed by Gov. Kenny Guinn — his other medical work can be overlooked.

She notes protocols he put in place for Valley Health held the mortality rate from infections down. And as chief of staff at Valley Hospital, he ensured doctors worked as a team, developing a peer review system fostering excellence.

As quality control officer, he made sure high standards for, say, cardiovascular care were met.

Perez, as well as Sandra Hotchkiss and Evelyn Chu, two other hospital officials, always remember him bringing fruits and and vegetables to the staff.

“He got to be known as Farmer Flip,” Perez says, laughing. “He grew all his own stuff.”

In the boxing world, he became known for trying to make the sport as safe as possible. Still, a 1995 superfeatherweight title fight where he was at ringside — between Gabriel Ruelas and Jimmy Garcia — later resulted in Garcia’s death.

Garcia had been hit hard in the 10th round, but when Homansky examined him in the ring, he appeared OK. After absorbing more punishment in the 11th round, he