Tag Archives: mortality

A long time between drinks?

Posted on September 2, 2011 by in Anaesthesia, Anesthesia, General, Uncategorized

Well, it’s been a long time between blog posts but a fair bit of water has flown under my personal bridge.

On 31st July, I had a fall (BAC 0.00 in case anyone was wondering) and fractured my first cervical vertebra (C1) with instability of C1 on C2.  In layman’s terms: broken and unstable neck.  In non-layman’s terms: an unstable Jefferson burst fracture.

After several weeks under the expert care of the Royal Adelaide Hospital Spinal Unit (I cannot praise highly enough the professionalism, dedication and compassion of all the staff I encountered there) and with the extraordinary love and resilience of my amazing wife, children, extended family and ever-helpful friends, I have emerged relatively unscathed: alive, with no neurological deficit and thankful for the precious and sometimes precarious gift of life.

A little more Lurch-like in appearance, with a halo pinned into my skull for at least the next 3 months, I am back at the keyboard planning updates to apps.

Thanks for all your patience and support over the last few weeks: as a small token of appreciation, all the app prices are down for September.

“The worst drug in history”?

Posted on February 28, 2011 by in Drugs, General

I was manufactured by Eli Lilly and first approved for release in the 1950′s.

I have been used millions of times by millions of patients all over the world.

I was withdrawn in the United Kingdom in 2007 because of concerns about increased risk of death in accidental or intentional overdose - even with small numbers of tablets - and am no longer available for prescription to new patients.

I was taken off the market in Europe in 2009 due to concerns about fatal overdoses.

I was also taken off the market in New Zealand in 2010, again due to concerns about my toxicity.

In 2010, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that I would be withdrawn from the US market because of problems with serious cardiac toxicity, even at therapeutic doses.

I was described as:

“among the worst drugs in history…. addictive, not very effective and toxic”

by the President of the American Academy of Pain Medicine.

But I am still available in Australia.

 

Who am I?