An Ahwatukee girl has been selected from thousands of patients around the world to tell her medical story on the Barrow Neurological Institute's new website, Barrow50.org. Mackenzie Saunders, 13, was treated at Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix in December 2010 after becoming partially paralyzed from a soccer injury. Saunders learned to walk again at Barrow and went on to make a recovery that doctors have called "remarkable." Mackenzie is one of only 50 patients chosen to be interviewed for the website.

By Salvador Rodriguez. The Phoenix metro area has posted the nation’s second-highest rate of job growth in the private education and health services sector since the end of the recession, according to a new report. Phoenix gained 34,200 jobs in those fields, according to an interactive report from the Urban Institute. Experts say the growth in Phoenix is being driven by the expansion of for-profit colleges there and by a health sector that is playing catch-up to its population. Lee McPheters, a professor at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, said Phoenix “is moving towards being known as a medical center,” noting the growth of the Mayo Clinic in the area and the University of Arizona’s expansion of its downtown Phoenix medical campus.

By Stephanie Innes. Vanessa West started a local chapter of a group called Mended Little Hearts. By the time her daughter, Arianna, was facing open-heart surgery at the age of 5 months, West had support in place. The result is the first Tucson Festival of Hearts, which has already grown way beyond expectations. The event will take place next Saturday on the University of Arizona Mall during the UA men's home basketball game. The event will include officials from, among other groups, March of Dimes, Special Olympics, Boston Scientific, UA's Diamond Children's Medical Center, Pima Heart Group, UA's Sarver Heart Center, American Diabetes Association and Arizona Kidney Foundation. There will be free heart screenings for young people, as well as blood-pressure screenings and diabetes-risk assessments.

By Stephanie Innes. Citing emotional trauma and shorter life span among amputees, a Tucson clinic is leading an effort to prevent amputation in diabetic adults. The approach involves high-risk surgery to clean infected limbs, heal wounds, ensure blood flow in the leg, often coupled with managing other complications of diabetic wounds like neuropathy and gangrene. "At least half of the (diabetic) people who are amputated are dead in three to five years," said Dr. David G. Armstrong, a podiatric surgeon who co-directs the Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA) at the University of Arizona Medical Center - University Campus. "Up to 80 percent in some studies."