If it is too late and the UTI already invaded your body, here’s a safe and natural way to rid the germs. There are many natural herbs that are extremely effective in the treatment and prevention of UTI’s. Some of these have been used for centuries and many have been subjected to clinical trials that prove their effectiveness.

Find out more below:

http://naturalsupply.blogspot.com/2007/05/natural-ways-to-stop-constant-and.html

The above ER physician is correct in his(doubtful her) assessment of the incompetence of most patients. Less than 5% of patients over 60 have available for even scheduled appointments the three things he has listed. And if I had a nickel for every time I heard, “it’s in the chart”,….

There is alot of bullshit and old information in the chart. Why would we want your medications from 1999? Additionally, it is the rare clinic/ER that uses the same EMR. If you want to risk your life asuming someone has information on you fine, but realize that you are responsible and to blame for your laziness. The poor ER doctors are juggling the best they can.

Any bias Kevin has is from being a practicing physician. Every general internist who reads this automatically sides with 99% of what he says. Mostly because it is the truth.
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From the article:

“Her family is now suing her Dr. Vora and Walgreens, claiming they should have known about her sulfa allergy from her medical chart.

Now we would assume it was documented in the chart based on that statement. But remember the two people involved in writing/quoted from in this article are A: the lawyer (hardly an unbiased source).2: the journalist. Based on my expericne with journalists writing medical related stories, they only get it right about half the time.

MY POINT: Is you don’t know what happened anymore than I do.

MY OTHER POINT: Be an acitve consumer in your own health care. What does this mean? Have a list of the following memorized or written down
1: your medication list
2: your allergies
3: your medical problems.

Even an infrequent reader of this blog, let alone the poor souls forced to treat all comers, is familiar with red flags of drug-seekers who appear in the ER. Those discussions always chap my hide, but I’m guessing the reason it was brought up in this context is that the writer believes non-”red flag” patients less frequently announce their allergies, or if they do, they might not be specific enough to warn off a physician.

Being psychic, or rather, reading the alleged complaint, it seems the patient’s chart contained evidence of a prior hypersensitivity reaction to a sulpha med. There are many reasons this might not have come to the bactrim-prescribing physicians attention…not my real point, although I’m sure many interesting discussions could be had on how facilities can make sure physicians have complete drug histories, etc.

My point is really that the rarity of Stevens-Johnson syndrome is not a mitigating factor in the award of damages.

I think you are the one ranting. You have my sympathy for your cynical views on allergy to NSAIDS, I’m sure you come by them honsestly. However, many persons lacking half a semester of med school do not realize that the medicine they are precribed will be dangerous to them if it has a different name than the original offender.

Should this patient failure excuse failure to maintain records and read them?

My rant, er, point, is that the rarity of the severe reaction in this patient is not a mitigating factor, so long as it is a forseeable consequence of the error committed.

Spoken by someone who clearly has never worked one minute in an ER.

PS: The rest of your rant is a statement of the obvious to anybody who has a semester of med school under their belt. The question is whether the sul”f”a allery was clearly documented or not. If so..end of story. Neither you, I, or the rest of the internet know the answer to that one.

I hear a somewhat lame defense that usually when doctors prescribe a drug like bactrim for a common UTI (an ordinary drug and a frequently seen illness), the patient doesn’t get sick and die, or if she has a reaction she usually doesn’t die, and that most people who react, even those who die, won’t have had Stevens Johnson syndrome.

The fact remains, any patient who has had an apparently allergic reaction to a sulpha med should not get a sulpha med to treat a UTI.

Ignoring that history was an error, an error contrary to the ordinary standard of care ( most doctors would agree that sulpha meds should not be given to a patient who had her history) and it led directly to a forseeable injury – a hypersensitivity reaction resulting in death.

I know its scary that an ordinary patient encounter, common illness, common treatment, and most of all, the common error of not paying enough attention to drug allergy history, could result in this unusual, catastropic result.

Try to remeber that it can the next time you feel like declaring a person’s allergy to NSAIDS must be imaginary.

Its laughable that someone can say he is not.

I work in ER, so most people I see are not playing with a full deck, or even half a deck. Usually the only allergy known is “Toradol”, but “demerol” will work. Someitmes patient will list “antibiotics” as an allergy and have no further clue about it. Not particularly helpful.