Salon: I'm a Doctor. So Sue Me. No, Really.

[Tulane Skins Fan]

Flu season has come early and I'm writing far too many prescriptions for Tamiflu. I'm trying my best to adhere to the guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control for who should get the drug (kids under 5 years of age, or kids who have a chronic illness like asthma or diabetes). But in more than a few instances, I've ignored the guidelines and given Tamiflu to perfectly healthy kids with no risk factors for influenza-related complications.

Part of the reason I'm writing so many extra prescriptions stems from stories about healthy people getting sick with H1N1 and ending up critically ill or dead. One of those stories aired recently on "60 Minutes" -- a healthy high school football player in Arkansas developed a fever after a game. He went to his doctor, who thought he had a garden variety flu and sent him home. Two days later, the boy collapsed and was airlifted to the nearest pediatric intensive care unit. He developed a bacterial pneumonia on top of his H1N1 flu, which led to severe damage to his lungs. He couldn't breathe on his own, so he remains in the ICU on a ventilator.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/10/27/malpractice_reform/index.html

[Hunter44]

Why would you give medicine to a perfectly healthy person?? :doh:

Side note: Did you get a flu shot??

[Vicious]

They're healthy - until they get sick.

[JMS]

The deal is if everybody give the theriflu to healthy folks, their won't be any left for the sick folks when they need it.

Thoughts: It's amature hour in our healthcare system. It's amaturish that pediatritian in Vienna has the anti flu mist but doesn't want to advertise it because he's afraid to start a stampeed, and he won't give the mist to anybody but his paitents.... While most Pediatritians in the area don't have the mist....

If they don't have enough mist, they shouldn't be giving it to pediatritians, they should be identifying the folks who need it most and specifically targetting them in a non arbitrary comprehensive way.

Likewise, Doctors to indulge perfectly healthy hypercondriacs with drugs which are in limited supply, it just shows how poorly informed and poorly prepared our nation and healthcare industry is to handle a pandemic...

20k people die globally because of the flu every year. The H1N1 is supposed to kill twice that number globally. We aren't talking black death here.

Tulane Skins Fan, I don't think you are doing anything most doctors aren't doing. I don't think it's right, but I think it's normal. Again I blaim the healthcare industry for knowing this was going to happen for nearly a year and not having plowed the education ground or made adiquate plans.. It's not as bad as the Katrina flooding leadership failure, but it's almost that bad. Thank god H1N1 isn't a devistating illiness. Maybe this will be the dress rehersal which our system needs to get itself better organized.

[Tulane Skins Fan]

Tulane Skins Fan, I don't think you are doing anything most doctors aren't doing. I don't think it's right, but I think it's normal. Again I blaim the healthcare industry for knowing this was going to happen for nearly a year and not having plowed the education ground or made adiquate plans.. It's not as bad as the Katrina flooding leadership failure, but it's almost that bad. Thank god H1N1 isn't a devistating illiness. Maybe this will be the dress rehersal which our system needs to get itself better organized.

FTR, I am not the person who wrote the article. I posted the article written by a doctor.

My point in doing so was that this doctor is honestly indicating that the myth of "defensive medicine" is not what it is cracked up to be. Doctors overprescribe meds and tests most often because they care about their patients and want to ensure their health. Not because they are worried about lawsuits.

[Hunter44]

Sorry, I missed the link at the bottom of your post. I thought you were the doctor!! :hysterical: