I tell a dentist friend I'm the victim of yet another medical mistake
I have pulmonary fibrosis which doctors agree was caused by misprescription of a dangerous drug called amiodarone. In my case, the drug, which is supposed to be used only as a drug of last resort, was prescribed for a minor non-life-threatening condition. It caused pulmonary fibrosis, which is progressive and fatal. There is no treatment for PF. Following is an email I sent on May 9 to a dentists friend detailing yet another serious medical mistake.
May 9, 2012
Barry -
I'm being infused for 28 days by an infectious disease doctor because of a
strep viridans infection that was first diagnosed in late March but the lab work never
reported to my personal doctor until early May. While I'm being infused is the
ideal time for a dentist to work on me. That's the reason for looking for the
old x-rays for comparison.
Kathie was the one pushing me to get copies of Dr. Ford's year-old x-rays
that you have. I have no objections to a dentist/periodontist taking new x-rays
for some that are almost a year old.
The emergency room said that night after running the tests that
there was nothing to worry about - just modestly elevated white blood counts
indicating I was fighting an infection. They passed that report on to the
pulmonologist next day. But then the Emergency Room at St. Joe's cultured the
blood, and 3-4 days later diagnosed the strep viridans. Unfortunately, the St.
Joe's Emergency Room didn't pass that on to the pulmonologist until I saw him
routinely on May 1, more than a month after I'd been to the Emergency Room. I
(or daughter Dawn who was with me) asked the pulmonologist on May 1 about what
happened to the blood culture the Emergency Room doctor had said would be
run. The pulmonologist then asked for a copy of the culture report from the
Emergency Room, and on May 5 (a Saturday) the pulmonologist called to let me
know about the strep diagnosis.
The problem with strep is that I have mitral valve leakage and the strep
can attack heart valves. That can be fatal. The pulmonologist called me on May
5 and said he wanted me to go into the hospital immediately for treatment. I saw
the infectious disease doctor on May 7. He said it would be enough for me to get
an antibiotic daily for 28 days on an outpatient basis. The daily infusion
treatment started on May 7, and I now have a picc line inserted in a main artery
to permit the daily treatments.
This failure of the Emergency Room to report a serious diagnosis to my
pulmonologist or, at the very least, to an infectious disease doctor, is just one
more example of the out-of-control medical establishment in the U.S. Medical
mistakes are the third leading cause of death in the U.S., after only heart
disease and cancer. I'm dying of one such mistake, the misprescription of
amiodarone which induced pulmonary fibrosis within five months.
Medical mistakes account for 200,000 fatalities per year in the U.S.,
with no progress made in reducing that number in the last 10 years. Hundreds
of thousands more suffer needlessly each year because of medical mistakes. We're
spending 17-18 percent of GNP in the U.S. on medical care - twice as much as any
of the other developed nations. Our medical expenditures are approaching $3
trillion per year - and we're still making hundreds of thousands of medical
mistakes annually. This is a dismal record!
