Sidestepping Screwups in Health Care

Many People’s Pharmacy readers are all too aware of the potential for prescription problems and the dangers of misdiagnoses. Health care providers are, after all, human beings and humans make mistakes. The question is whether or not the consequences of an error will lead to lasting damage.
Although health care harm can affect anyone, we don’t have to act like passive victims. There are ways to protect yourself and those you love from misdiagnoses, hospital misadventures and drug side effects or interactions. We are pleased to announce that our book, Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them, has just been published in an affordable paperback edition. In it, you can learn about common oversights made in treating conditions such as
• ADHD (attention deficit disorder)

• Alzheimer’s disease

• Arthritis

• Asthma

• Back pain

• Breast cancer

• Celiac disease

• Depression

• Diabetes

• Fibromyalgia

• Heartburn

• Hypothyroidism

• Migraine headaches

• Osteoporosis

• Prostate problems
We don’t want you to be harmed by a treatment that should have healed you. Learn how senior citizens can stay safe in the health care system. Find out how to detect problems in the pharmacy before they cause trouble, and what questions to ask your doctor when you are unsure of the diagnosis. It is all there in Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them, in libraries, bookstores and online.
Here is what some other readers have said: “I took Zocor (simvastatin) for about a year and then finally realized it must be responsible for the very worrisome neck pain I was having. I finally got to the point that I couldn’t lower my head to look at the numbers on the scales when I stood on them. At first I thought it was a crick in my neck but it persisted for weeks. Then I read about this being one of the possible side effects of statins. No doctor or pharmacist ever warned me about such side effects.”
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“My dad was killed by doctors in the hospital. They were giving him an aspirin a day and double doses of Plavix which he had never taken before as he didn’t need it. The aspirin was just routine prevention we are told to take.
“He had no lung problems; he had PVCs (premature ventricular contractions) on EKG. He had never had a heart attack. He had high blood pressure for which he took meds. After a very few days in the hospital, he hemorrhaged from his lungs and died. And he never had lung problems before going into the hospital.
“Now the doctors are trying to kill me. They put me on atenolol for PVCs. After a very few weeks I developed for the first time ever a very slow heart rate. My pulse fell erratically, as low as 40 beats per minute. The doctors response was to quadruple the atenolol. Atenolol CAUSES low pulse. The doctor is the medical director of a famous cardiology department in Houston. She doesn’t know atenolol causes low pulse?
“I refused to take more atenolol and have gradually gone off the low does I was taking. It will take a few more days for my heart to get over the atenolol assault.”
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No one wants to believe he or she will experience an adverse drug reaction or a bad outcome from a medical procedure. We all hope for the best. But we must also prepare for the worst. Only by being informed and forewarned can we protect ourselves and those we love from health care harm. We hope you and those you love will benefit from the new, more affordable paperback version of Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them.