2008 August Archive

The Kerr-McGee property in Jacksonville is a polluted Talleyrand waterfront area that once was home to a long desserted plant.  

There from the 1890s until 1978, fertilizers and chemicals were produced. Today the land is vacant, there are no buildings and a builkhead is built over contaminated sediments at the bottom of the St. Johns River that runs through our city. 

How to clean up the site has been a headache but now the area may see state money for community projects to clean up the site.  Under the plan, the site owner, Tronox Inc. would purchase the river bottom as part of a cleanup of the river and the shore.

In return, in an unusual community-spirited project, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection wants most of the proceeds to return to neighborhood projects.  The cost of the river bottom is still undetermined but could run into a six-figure amount.

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Last May the Florida Legislature passed the Pharmacy Technician Act.  

It is a significant piece of legislation that should keep us all safer from the medication errors made by pharmacy technicians. Florida Governor Charlie Crist signed SB 1360 into law in July 2008.

Senate Bill 1360 brings some justice to the Hippely family. Back in the summer of 2002, Beth Hippely of Lakeland, Florida was undergoing treatment for breast cancer. She was taking chemotherapy and the blood thinner, Warfarin, also known as Coumadin.

The pharmacy tech at Walgreens gave her a refill order at ten times the dose for Warfarin. Three weeks on the medication and Beth suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage. She went into a coma after suffering brain damage and then was put on life support.

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Alcohol and prescription drugs don’t mix.  

Public Citizen has issued its annual “Worst Pills, Best Pills” report and the nonprofit consumer group warns against mixing alcohol with certain medications, even if you are a light drinker.  Most patients don’t read the product inserts where this information is sometimes included. 

Worst Pills, Best Pills” lists 273 drugs that shouldn’t be mixed with alcohol including antibiotics, antidepressants, narcotics and anti-ulcer drugs.

“While the more important alcohol-medication interactions are listed in the table, it is not an exhaustive list,” writes Dr. Sidney Wolfe of the Health Research Group. Patients should also check with a health care professional before taking alcohol with any drug. 

There are a few problems patients should know about:

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Patients in need of an MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, need to be on alert.

A contrast agent may be injected into the veins of patients about to undergo an MRI to help technicians and doctors to see a detailed image of tissues, bones and vessels.  One in particular, gadolinium, also known as Omniscan, has been connected to a skin disorder called Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis (NSF).  

In December 2006, the FDA issued a public health advisory after 90 patients with moderate to end-stage kidney disease developed NSF and another condition known as Nephrogenic Fibrosing Dermopathy (NFD).

The symptoms include thickened, rough and hard skin which sometimes turns dark. Also patients may have difficulty moving.

NSF is progressive and can lead to death. There is no effective treatment for this serious, debilitating disease.

Other symptoms include itching, swelling, tightening of the skin, red patches on the skin, yellow spots in the whites of the eyes, pain deep in hips or ribs, and muscle weakness. Patients typically see these reactions two days to 18 months after they’ve been exposed to a gadolinium-based contrast agent such as Omniscan. 

An earlier warning was issued by the FDA in June 2006.

Currently there are five FDA approved gadolinium-based contrast agents, Magnevist, MultiHance, Omniscan, OptiMARK, and ProHance.  These contrast agents are FDA approved for use during an MRI scan, but not for use during an Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) scan.  Although NSF/NFD has been reported for only 3 of the 5 gadolinium-based contrast agents, FDA believes that there is a potential for the skin disease to occur following the use of any of the approved gadolinium-based contrast agents. 

Doctors should be screening all patients for kidney health, regardless of medical history, if the patient is scheduled for an MRI.

The Mayo Clinic weighs in  saying that there is no special concern regarding kidney problems if you are having an MRI and do not have any kidney problems. Not all MRIs require a contrast agent.

In May 2007, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a black box warning that gadolinium-containing contrast agents may increase the risk of the rare but serious NSF in people with severe kidney failure. No warnings were issued for any other contrast agents.

Farah and Farah can help if you are suffering any symptoms following an MRI or MRA. Call us.

Two accidents sent motorists to the hospital on I-10 this afternoon.

The first one involved two Jacksonville Fire and Rescue emergency medical personnel and one passenger.

Three firemen were onboard an ambulance that was transporting a patient eastbound on Interstate 10 near the Cassat Avenue exit, when the vehicle hit a concrete divider and lost control.  The rescue personnel onboard were all taken to Shands Hospital Jacksonville with minor injuries. The passenger onboard was being transported in critical condition, was also taken to Shands. Heavy rains were reported in the area at the time of the accident.

A witness to the scene, Sharon Coley, says on Jacksonville.com that she saw the whole wreck in her rear view mirror. She says she saw the ambulance hydroplane, skid and slide across the freeway.

Another person writing into Jacksonville.com said she knew the men involved, and warns all drivers that they need to get out of the way when they hear emergency vehicles on a call.  Too often people are distracted, have the music on too loud or are on the phone and hinder an emergency vehicle.

According to Channel 4, the driver of the ambulance will be charged with reckless driving.

Then later Friday afternoon, another accident on I-10, this one just a few miles east of the ambulance accident. Jacksonville Fire and Rescue returned to I-10, this time to come to the rescue of a woman who was in a vehicle that was involved in an auto accident. She was retrieved from the vehicle and taken to the hospital. A small child was also removed from the Isuzu Trooper. 

Heavy rains in the area surely took their toll on Interstate-10 today and provided a reminder that drivers need to slow down in hazardous conditions.

It took a tragedy to sparked an important change in Florida.  

Christine Olson got a call to her Bradenton, Florida home the evening of December 7, 2005. Her son told her there had been an accident and she needed to go to Manatee Memorial Hospital. Christine’s daughter, Tiffany, had been on a motorcycle with her boyfriend of nearly one year, Dustin Wilder. They rode his 2002 Kawasaki motorcycle to St. Petersburg to attend a bike meet. 

Christine got in the car and prayed the entire time that her daughter was okay.  When she arrived, Christine was told her daughter was not there. She and her son frantically called other areas hospitals and were shocked to find they would not release any information.

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A drug given to treat Parkinson’s disease and restless leg syndrome is the focus of a number of trials underway in the District Court of Minneapolis.

More than 200 plaintiffs are taking their case forward in so-called bellwether jury trials to determine the stregnth and weakness of the cases.

The cases have been consolidated against the drug, Mirapex.

So far it’s not good news for drug makers Pfizer and Boehringer Ingelheim. This week a federal jury agreed the drug contributes to compulsive gambling and awarded a man $8.2 million.

Many people responding to the story think this is a joke, but it’s not.  Compulsive behavior can not only bankrupt you but destroy marriages and lives. Drug makers denied they knew about the potential side effects, but attorneys for the plaintiffs have shown that the drug makers had knowledge of these compulsive side effects back into the 1990s. Apparently the jury agreed.

Mirapex was approved in 1997, but a warning of compulsive behavior was not issued until 2005.  All the while, millions of patients, trying to relieve the tremors of Parkinson’s, took the drug.  Compulsive behaviors observed include not only gambling, but shopping, eating, hypersexuality, porn, and many repetitive behaviors.

The drug makers blamed the compulsive behavior on the patients.

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