Younger ER patients with heart attack symptoms should be asked whether they’ve recently used cocaine, which can cause similar chest pain…
Two typical heart attack treatments can be dangerous to those using cocaine:
• Clot-busting drugs carry an extra risk of bleeding into the brain in patients whose blood pressure is high due to cocaine use.
• Betablockers that can lower blood pressure without constricting arteries in typical heart attack patients have the opposite effect in cocaine users, raising blood pressure and squeezing cocaine-narrowed arteries.
Reiffel said doctors should explain why it’s important to know if a patient is using cocaine. He said that admitting use of an illegal substance is confidential information that won’t be reported to law enforcement. “The caregiver is not here to judge.”
Even if the patient is an idiot.
This isn’t new. I had a mild MI when at 32 which was way back in 1992 and the ER doctor asked if I had used cocaine several times before by best friend’s father, who was chief of medicine at the hospital, happen to walk by and pulled the Dr. out and told him he was pretty sure I wasn’t on cocaine.
Getting doctors to force the preferred lifestyle is gaining popularity. In New Jersey, they ask
What do you eat, how much milk do you drink? Fruits and vegetables?
Do you wear your helmet on your bike, skateboard, or scooter?
Do you talk with strangers or walk alone in the neighborhood?
What would you do if your best friend brought a knife to school in his backpack?
If your best friend showed you a gun in his house what would you do?
So, uh, Mike. Being a crackhead is comparable to eating too many Big Macs?
It does sometimes get reported to your insurance company who can then deny coverage
#2 This isn’t a lifestyle question it is a “let’s not give him something that will kill him because of something he already has in his system” question.
#4 Cite!
Indeed, eating too many Big Macs is exactly the same as being a crack head, except that at least the crack head doesn’t take up the entire isle at the supermarket or department store precluding the passage of other “normal” people.
Some will of course say that at least the Mac head doesn’t steal for his fix. Well, frankly, neither would the crack head if the fix was $1.55 plus tax, which it would be if legal.
Moderation, moderation, moderation!
And I personally don’t see what anyone finds enjoyable about cocaine. I’ve gotten better buzzes off of a cup of coffee.
#4
that’s scary – for crackheads!
Yeah, if Big Macs were going for $125.00 a pop I might have to occasionally knock off the neighborhood liquor store.
Methamphetamines are as big if not bigger a problem. I work in a hospital and you wouldn’t believe the amount of young people we see with severe heart damage due to meth.