1,001 Facts That Will Scare the S#*t Out of You: The Ultimate Bathroom Reader (88 page)

663

FACT :
A laboratory mix-up prompted a thirty-five-year-old woman on Long Island, New York
to have both of her healthy breasts removed unnecessarily
in 2006. Her doctor told her the diagnoses. She sought a second opinion, but the next doctor relied on the same set of erroneous records as the first and reiterated her cancer diagnosis.
The two boobs were removed. From the hospital staff, that is.

Dan Childs, “Medical Errors, Past and Present,” November 27, 2007, ABC News,
www.abcnews.com
.

664

FACT :
In June 2000, a man was admitted to the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle to have a tumor removed. Doctors removed the growth, but
left a 13" retractor
in the patient’s abdomen when they sewed him up—the fifth documented case of University of Washington surgeons leaving a medical instrument inside a patient after surgery.
Free parting gift for all surgery patients!

Carol Smith, “Surgical Tools Left in Five Patients,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
www.seattlepi.nwsource.com
.

665

FACT :
A minister was admitted to a hospital in West Virginia in 2006 for exploratory abdominal surgery to diagnose the cause of pain. An anesthesiologist gave him drugs to prevent his muscles from twitching during surgery,
but not general anesthesia until after the first incision
. The patient felt excruciating pain but was unable to move or communicate.

I bet he communicated once the anesthesia wore off.

Associated Press, “Family Sues after Man Gets Wide-Awake Surgery,”
MSNBC.com
,
www.msnbc.msn.com
.

666

FACT :
In 2007, actor Dennis Quaid’s newborn twins nearly died after receiving
an overdose of a blood-thinning drug
, Heparin, at a Los Angeles hospital. Three premature babies were killed in Indianapolis in 2006 due to a similar mistake, where nurses administered Heparin for adults instead of Hep-lock for children. The medications were stocked in the wrong cabinet.
I bet no one at the hospital got his autograph after that.

Dan Childs, “Medical Errors, Past and Present,” November 27, 2007, ABC News,
www.abcnews.com
.

667

FACT :
While being treated for breast cancer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston in 1994,
two women received poisonous quantities of chemotherapy
. Instead of receiving a daily dose of a powerful anticancer drug for four days, the doctor incorrectly prescribed four days worth of the drug to be administered each day. One patient, a thirty-nine-year-old medical reporter for the
Boston Globe
named Betsy Lehman died; the second endured irrevocable heart damage and died from cancer several months later.
The formerly prestigious Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Tamar Nordenberg, “Make No Mistake: Medical Errors Can Be Deadly Serious,” FDA Consumer, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, September-October 2000,
www.fda.gov
.

668

FACT :
The drug Mirapex (pramipexole), developed in 1997 to treat Parkinson’s disease, also works in treating patients with Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS),
but it can cause amnesia
. Amnesia is also a possible side effect of taking some cholesterol-lowering medications like Lipitor.
I get RLS at school board meetings when some parent launches into a rant. My leg starts twitching because it wants to get up and kick that person in the ass.

Diane S. Aschenbrenner and Samantha J. Venable, Drug Therapy in Nursing, 3rd ed. (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2008).

669

FACT :
Some researchers and physicians believe that
Mirapex leads to compulsive behaviors
in some patients, turning occasional drinkers into alcoholics, casual card gamers or sports fans into compulsive gamblers, and otherwise normal people into hypersexuals, shopaholics, and binge eaters.
I don’t know, that sounds kind of fun. I should ask my doctor if Mirapex is right for me.

Allyson T. Collins, “Strange Side Effects Surprise Patients,” ABC News, July 15, 2008,
www.abcnews.com
.

670

FACT :
Patients who use Lipitor (atorvastatin) can be
plagued by pain and weakness in their muscles
, even to the point of loss of muscle control and coordination. Some patients have filed lawsuits against Lipitor’s maker, Pfizer, stating the drug causes permanent muscle damage, nerve damage, and memory loss.
The suit was dropped when the patients forgot they were suing Pfizer and failed to show up for court.

The PDR Pocket Guide to Prescription Drugs, 6th ed. (Simon & Schuster, 2003), 76.

Aaron Smith, “Pfizer Sued Over Alleged Lipitor Side Effects,” June 8, 2006, CNNmoney,
www.cnnmoney.com
.