By POHLA SMITH, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pam Pezzin was walking in the woods on a winter day back around 1989 when she broke out in hives all over her body, including her stomach, arms, legs and face.

Over the years, she continued to break out in bumps when it was cold outside, and she suffered from symptoms of asthma, too.

Participating in an international study comparing outpatient to inpatient treatment for certain low-risk cases of pulmonary embolism, a man had been randomly selected to receive his care while admitted to a hospital.

Sorrel King, 46, of Baltimore began campaigning for patient safety after her 18-month-old daughter Josie died because of medical errors on Feb. 22, 2001. She continues to speak at health-care-related conferences and elsewhere about safety issues.

Excerpts from an interview:

Q: It's been 10 years since Josie died. How old is the Josie King Foundation?

A collection of creative nonfiction essays about end-of-life issues. How depressing, a friend said.

I thought the same thing until I read one and then another and then another.

Sad, yes. But depressing? No. "Twelve Breaths a Minute: End-of-Life Essays," a book commissioned by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation as part of its ongoing end-of-life initiative, is uplifting.

Heart catheterization, a procedure to detect and clear clogged arteries, traditionally involves inserting a plastic tube through a groin incision into the femoral artery. But a new study shows fewer complications if the catheter is inserted through an artery in the wrist.

In retrospect, Jennifer Mankoff, now 37, believes she was infected with Lyme disease either during a trip to Ligonie, Pa., in 2005 or while hiking in Frick Park in Pittsburgh in the fall of 2006.

She got a rash, one whose cause was never diagnosed, after the Ligonier trip, and she actually picked a tick off her leg after the hike in Frick Park.

When Melissa Bungar gave birth to her third child, her mother's instinct told her it was natural to occasionally nestle infant Chloe against her chest skin-to-skin.

"My husband thought I was crazy. It just felt like the right thing to do," Bungar said.

When Melissa Bungar gave birth to her third child, she sometimes instinctively nestled infant Chloe against her bare chest, skin to skin.

"My husband thought I was crazy. It just felt like the right thing to do," said Bungar, who lives in Perry Township.

Know someone who is never without a mug of heavily sugared coffee in his hand? How about someone who orders the very same thing no matter where or when you go out to lunch or dinner?

Could be he or she is one of those "freaky eaters," as the folks with this particular eating disorder are called in the eponymous reality series on the cable TV network TLC.

Diane Lane, who plays owner Penny Chenery Tweedy, has promised that moviegoers would be treated to "dirt-in-your-teeth" realism in "Secretariat."