Sometimes Reading the Label is Not Enough.
In April 2000 a professional musician went to the hospital emergency room for complaints of migraine headache and nausea. A technician administered Phenergan by IV push, a dangerous practice since it was known by the manufacturer (Wyeth) that the drug could damage arteries and should be given by IV drip. Ultimately the patient suffered arterial necrosis with gangrene and subsequent amputation of her arm. She was awarded $6.8 million by a Vermont jury. The plaintiff settled with the hospital and then brought complaint against Wyeth, stating that the Phenergan warning label was not adequate. Wyeth argued that the drug label was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and that federal rules should pre-empt the Vermont decision. The issue rose to the U.S. Supreme Court where the court ruled 6-3 in favor of the plaintiff. The decision stated (in part) that the FDA rules were intended as a floor and not a ceiling for safety, and that pre-empting state law was a decision for Congress and not a regulatory body. One obvious outcome will be longer and more detailed drug attachments. (Am I supposed to read all this stuff?)
Have No Stress, just Compress.
A study at Arizona Department of Health Services evaluated survival rates of 4,415 adults who collapsed following cardiac arrest in years 2005 through 2009. Survival rates were calculated on the basis of hospital discharge. Three parameters of immediate response were: standard CPR, chest compressions only or no attempt at resuscitation. Chest compressions only provided the best possibility for continued life with a rate of 13.3% at hospital discharge. Standard CPR yielded a rate of 7.8%, and no CPR was 5.2%. Best chance for the patient is the use of automated external defibrillator, but no data were recorded for use of the AED. It appears from this study that skipping mouth to mouth breathing in favor of rapid chest compressions is as effective as standard CPR and easier to provide for non-medical people at the site. Moreover, mouth to mouth is a big barrier for many people, according to the American Heart Association. (No tongue please)
A Lawyer is a Person Who Profits by Your Experience.
According to the New York Bar Association an attorney can use social networking sites to find damaging information about opposing parties. The Association noted that the current explosion in social networks raises questions about privacy rights, but the committee on professional ethics stated that lawyers involved in litigation can access the public pages of another parties site so long as it is accessible to all members of the network. Hey, anybody foolish enough to reveal potentially damaging data in twitter or Facebook is shooting themselves in the foot or perhaps higher in the anatomy. While we may not like it, Wi-Fi users must recognize that everything that goes on the Internet is vulnerable to computer geeks. The internet is a fantastic tool, but not a friend you can trust.
Will the Pharmaceutical People Ever Find the Path to Virtue?
Pharmaceutical companies routinely hire physicians to provide education and promotion of their products to their colleagues. Some of these companies are Johnson and Johnson, Merck and Co., Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Co, and GlaxoSmithKline; their combined expenditures exceeded $250 million. One would assume that they hire the most respected doctors in their fields for the critical task of teaching about the benefits of their drugs, right? Not! In fact they do not care. ProPublica a non-profit research organization uncovered hundreds of doctors getting paid even though they had been sanctioned by state boards, lacked credentials as specialists, inappropriately prescribed drugs, had multiple malpractice judgements, provided poor medical care and even had sex with patients, and some had lost their licenses. One pain physician hired by Eli Lilly and Co. had been cited by the state medical board for performing unnecessary nerve tests on 20 patients, subjected some to an excessive number of invasive procedures, including damaging injections. The state board voted to revoke his license in 2008. The company has paid him $85,000 since 2009. In summary, 384 physicians in the data base earned more than $100,000 for their consulting work, 43 were paid more than $200,000 and a pair of fat cats topped $300,000.
Every Cigarette Eventually Meets its Match.
Health experts claim that about 480,000 Americans die prematurely each year killed by tobacco. According to the CDC smoking costs companies about $3400 per smoking employee annually with health care bills, absenteeism, and reduced productivity. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) led by a team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, followed 878 General Electric employees scattered around the country for a year and a half from 2005 and 2006. Participating smokers averaged a pack a day and were divided in two roughly equal groups, with one group offered up to $750 in cash; $100 on completing a smoking cessation program, $250 if they stopped smoking for six months, and $400 if they stopped for one year. Saliva and urine samples were submitted for verification at quarterly intervals. About 15% of the group given financial incentives stopped smoking in the first year of the study, compared with 5% of the control. 10% of the rewarded group still abstained at 18 months, compared to 3.6% of the control group. In addition, by not consuming a pack/day the former smoker (at $5 per pack) gains more than $1800 each year.
If the Face is Red Raise the Head. If the Face is Pale Raise the Tail.
Ethicon, a Johnson and Johnson company, has come up with a cheap means of stanching blood flow on the battlefield or in any desperate situation when there is no time for sutures. The new blood-clotting material is a hydrogel, a Jello sort of mixture of water and a fibrous polymer, an acrylamide with positively charged nitrogen groups. The gel stimulates blood-clotting factor VII which results in a cascade of events leading to coagulation. In experiments on sheep tissue the gel stopped bleeding in the lung in two minutes; a liver hemorrhage stopped in four. It can be slapped on and the body cannot absorb it. Researchers at Ethicon believe the treatment will serve well applied topically. The gel would cost $10 per application, far cheaper than other gels in use today.
Genetic Roadmap - Where the Rubber Meets the Road.
The NEJM published a report from Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York on a new treatment for melanoma. Tests in people whose melanoma had metastasized showed that the drug was able to shrink tumors in most patients. In a few cases tumors disappeared completely. The compound targets a mutated version of the BRAF gene that underlies melanoma in about half of patients. The study's coauthor, Paul Chapman M.D., claimed it is the first time researchers have been able to treat the genetics of the tumor. In their study 48 patients were treated with a drug devised to stop the mutant BRAF protein from stimulating cell growth, and 37 showed tumor shrinkage of 30% or more. In three patients the tumors resolved completely.
Every Home Needs a Bit of Viscera Over the Fireplace.
In Laguna Beach, California, a woman had a hysterectomy and awoke from surgery with burns on her legs. After removal of the uterus her gynecologist had gratuitously “branded” the tissue with the name “Ingrid” in inch high letters using the electro-cautery. He explained that it was a “friendly gesture” in the event the patient planned to take the specimen home as a keepsake. He denied any knowledge of the burns on her legs. Perhaps he felt that she needed another souvenir.
If You Think your Mother Still Loves You, Check it Out.
In Dallas, Texas, a man approached a bank teller and demanded a large amount of money with a note that said “I have a bom.” The teller said she needed ID before she could release a large amount of money and obtained a Texas ID card and a Wells Fargo debit card, both in the man's name. Police arrived as he was leaving and he tried to take a woman with a child as hostage, but she knocked him to the floor. Some days you should just stifle the allure of bank robbery.
Addenda
In Italy in thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michaelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had 300 years of peace and democracy and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. (Orson Welles)
Dentists in Naples, Italy, first recorded the effect of fluoride in preventing tooth decay in 1802.
Women with a history of migraines have a 26% lower risk for breast cancer (Berkeley Wellness Ltr.).
Human beings are the only creatures that allow their children to come back home.
Paper or plastic? I don't care. I'm a transacksual.
Washington, D.C. is to lying like Wisconsin is to cheese.
(Editorial comment is strictly that of the writer).