Dear Friends in Pain and Chronic Illness,

 

    As a nurse I've done it and seen it all.  Although recently we review

the state of a woman without a "living will" (Terri) who is vegetative.

TPN costs about 28,000 dollars a month (total parenteral nutrition)

and that is just one function.

 

    I'm not here to talk cost, not to tell you "don't take Tylenol" but

when someone is in pain in America today they risk it all.  The

child had a headache, does anyone remember the Tylenol

poisonings some years ago?  I do I was pregnant with one of my

(5) daughters at the time; back then we thought this drug was

okay.

 

    One must be more than careful.  You may be taking many

medications that you never expect could cause you harm but

so many do.  The first advice I'd give is to search the net for

all meds you are on and look at their interactions, outcomes,

and side effects.  Yes death occurred in this case (below)

but occurs far more than we hear about.

 

Peace,
Karen G.

 

   

 

Thanks to CYN from OCPM for this link

 

From About.com Headaches/Migraine Guide
http://headaches.about.com/od/medsarticlesandinfo/a/acet_kellie.htm?nl=1

The Dangers of Acetaminophen Overdose

In June, 2003, a 17-year-old girl from Oklahoma turned to Tylenol for
Migraine relief, accidentally took too much, and paid for that
accident with her life. Since then, her mother has been working
diligently to educate people that over-the-counter medications such
as Tylenol can be every bit as dangerous as prescription medications.
She also wants to encourage people to become organ donors. She
recently wrote a letter to me to share with you:


Teri,

I wanted to write explaining to you the dangers of acetaminophen and
ask why no one does anything to stop this. You see I HAD a beautiful
daughter named Kellie. She, as I do, suffered with Migraines, but she
wouldn't take anything stronger than Tylenol.

On the morning of June 26, 2003, Kellie got a Migraine around 3am, so
she took some Tylenol.

She vomited, so she took more, not realizing it had already been
digested. This happened three or four more times. She ended up taking
up to 20 in a 16-hour period. Around 4:00 pm, she started having
severe stomach pain. I took her to the hospital then. At the
hospital, they took blood, started the "antidote," and gave her
some "charcoal stuff," which she threw-up. She said, "Mom, I'm sorry.
I tried to keep it down." I told her, "It's OK, don't worry about it."

She said "I thought it was OK, Mom. It was only Tylenol". I
said "It's OK, Kel." I had no idea what was to come of it. I figured
she'd be OK. WRONG!!! The doctor came in and told me that, at that
point, Kellie had an 80% chance of dying. You could have blown me
over with a feather. The doctor told me, "You need to call whoever
you need to. She might not make it through the night." I was
horrified and in shock. I couldn't understand why he was saying that
and went into denial mode. I called my husband and told him to get
there as fast as possible. He argued with me; he was in shock too.

The next day, Kellie started going into convulsions, and they
transferred her to a hospital where they could do transplants. The
Tylenol had started to shut her liver down. There is no liver
machine, transplant was her only chance. They put her on the "list"
as #1 , but there wasn't a liver available. They put her into a
medically induced coma to, "lessen the stress on the organs," we were
told. We had called our son, who lived in Georgia, and he immediately
flew out here. Kellie was his only sister. He loved her very much. By
the time he got here, she was in the coma. On June 25, Kellie's
kidneys shut down. On June 27, the doctors put a screw into Kellie's
brain to monitor the fluid; they then found out that she started
getting water on the brain. On June 28, the doctors told us she was
brain dead. We as a family had to make a decision to keep her alive
as a vegetable or let her go. She wouldn't know who she was or who we
were. The only part of her brain that was still functioning at that
time was the part that was keeping her organs going. We all agreed
Kellie would not want live like that, for that is not living. We then
made the decision for Kellie to be a donor, in hopes of saving
someone else. Her heart was still good and her eyes and other parts,
but unfortunately she developed an infection and no organs could be
used. I truly believe if Kellie had gotten a liver she would be with
us now. That's why I believe strongly in organ donation. Livers do
not age. Unless they're damaged, they regenerate themselves, and
without a liver machine, a transplant is the only hope of survival.

Without even being able to say, "good-bye," or "I love you," we
watched her slowly die as the machines slowly shut down. On June
28th, 2003, at 6:00 pm, Kellie was pronounced dead.
Please get this across to your readers in hope no one else has to
live through a hell like this.

Thank you,
Jodie

There is a tendency for people to think over-the-counter medications
aren't as strong as prescription medications, that they're safer, and
they won't hurt us. The report of the Toxic Exposure Surveillance
System (TESS) for 2003 showed an increase in acetaminophen poisonings
with 40,833 accidental overdoses leading to 147 fatalities.

Thinking about Jodie's question, "why no one does anything to stop
this," I looked at the labels on some acetaminophen products. They
say, "Do not take more than recommended," and exceeding that
dosage "may cause liver damage."

Is that enough? Given the statistics, my answer is, "No, stronger
warning language is needed." I'd like to see those warnings changed
to say:

"Taking more than recommended can be dangerous or fatal."
"may cause fatal liver damage."
Educate yourself. Be smart about medications. Be safe.