Breaking medical news that's 30 years too late...

[Guest guest]

" WC Douglass " <realhealth

Daily Dose - " Breaking " medical news that's 30 years too late...

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 14:43:32 -0400

 

 

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August 04, 2006

 

 

Extermination by Medication, part 1

 

It boggles my mind -- and boils my blood -- when the mainstream media

reports on the deadly dangers of patented prescription drugs as though

it's some kind of shocking, breaking news...

 

I've only been warning of it for 30 years or so!

 

Yet here they go again (the Associated Press this time), reporting the

findings of the latest Institute of Medicine report on drug-related

injury and death as though it's some kind of unheard-of revelation.

That report's finding:

 

That simply the ERRORS we make in prescribing, administering, and

ingesting prescription drugs harm as many as 1.5 million Americans

every year.

 

Mind you, this isn't a calculation of the liabilities the drugs

themselves represent via side effects when " correctly " taken (Vioxx

alone killed nearly 28,000 Americans and sickened as many as 140,000

more, some estimates conclude) -- only the risk of harm due to

mistakes in the taking of these poisons! Things like:

 

* Hospital administration errors -- The IM report cites this

incredible statistic: On average, every hospitalized patient is

subjected to at least one medication error PER DAY spent in the facility.

* Misreading of prescriptions -- Doctors' infamously illegible

" scrip-scribble " results in the wrong drugs being given, or incorrect

quantities of medications administered at least 25% of the time.

* Adverse drug interactions -- Perhaps the 800-pound gorilla of

the bunch, these reactions cause a huge percentage of the more than

300,000 American deaths credible sources estimate are caused by drug

administration and medical errors every year.

* Mix-ups about administration methods -- Some drugs are designed

for only very specific methods of delivery. The AP article cites a

disastrous case in which a cancer drug was injected spinally instead

of intravenously, resulting in the slow, painful death of the patient.

* Mistakes in self-administration -- The report concludes that

instructions on how to take certain medications are dangerously

inadequate. One study mentioned found that nearly 50% of parents gave

their children the wrong dosage of a popular fever medicine.

 

Any of these things sound familiar? I've touched on or devoted full

articles to every one of these kinds of mistakes in this very venue.

Keep reading...

 

Of course, the " solutions " to these deaths and maimings that the

Institute of Health suggests are all the usual mainstream bunk:

 

* More and greater technology (like " e-scriptions " to combat MDs'

scrawl)

* Additional government regulation of drug administration

* $100 million per year dedicated to researching drug errors

* More detailed drug instruction pamphlets (as though anyone reads

these anyway)

* Better administration instruction in doctors offices/hospitals

* National 24/7 telephone hotlines dispensing drug information in

any language

 

Sounds proactive and comprehensive, doesn't it?

 

But as usual, nowhere does anyone in authority mention or suggest the

only REAL solution to drug-related deaths and injuries -- whether

caused by the medications themselves or errors in administering them:

 

Less drugs, less often.

 

In the next Daily Dose, I'll tell you why no one needs the Institute

of Health research or any other study to prove that drugs harm and

kill us. I'll also show you, with the startling real numbers, how

today's medical establishment can't possibly know what it's putting

many of us through when we take prescription drugs. Stay tuned...

 

Popping off about the pills we're popping,

 

William Campbell Douglass II, MD