Today's Globe: BMC suit, stroke treatment, under-tongue flu vaccine, cold remedies

Moments after undergoing surgery to replace a broken hip, an 86-year-old Dorchester woman fell from an operating room table at Boston Medical Center, causing a massive head injury that killed her a week later, her family said in a lawsuit filed yesterday. Catherine O'Donnell (left) fell, buttocks first, through a gap in an orthopedic surgical table on Oct. 6 after a nurse removed a safety strap around her torso as medical staff prepared to transfer her to a hospital bed, according to an investigative report by the state Department of Public Health.

It's a tiny vacuum cleaner for the brain: A new treatment for stroke victims suctions out clogged arteries in hopes of stopping the brain attack before it does permanent harm. Called Penumbra, the newly approved device is the latest in a series of inside-the-artery attempts to boost recovery from stroke, the nation's number-three killer.

Relief may be on the way for all those youngsters trembling at the thought of another needle jab. One day the flu vaccine may simply be placed under the tongue.

More than 7,000 children are taken to emergency rooms each year after adverse reactions to cough and cold medicines, according to the first national estimate of the risks posed by the widely used remedies (third item).