Author Topic: In the New Yorker...  (Read 1924937 times)

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #860 on: April 27, 2014, 10:31:40 am »
Trudging through that duty article about horseshoe crabs.  ::)
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #861 on: April 29, 2014, 01:26:00 pm »
I am very eager to find out what women think of Elizabeth Warren (ref. Jill Lepore, April 21 issue).
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #862 on: May 03, 2014, 08:56:51 pm »
I found the story "Prescription for Disaster" by Rsachel Aviv, very gripping. And not just because it takes place in my hometown of Wichita, Kansas.
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Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #863 on: May 08, 2014, 02:27:44 pm »
A quote from "Prescription for Disaster": "Deaths by opioids have quadrupled in the past ten years. Prescription drugs contribute to half of all deaths by overdose, accounting for more fatalities than heroin and cocaine combined." Our doctors are puppets of the pharmaceutical industry, killing people rather than healing them!

The great thing about this article is how objective it is. It doesn't paint doctors as villains and patients as helpless victims. It's quite a lengthy story but at the end you still don't know what is the truth.
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #864 on: May 08, 2014, 02:44:23 pm »
A quote from "Prescription for Disaster": "Deaths by opioids have quadrupled in the past ten years. Prescription drugs contribute to half of all deaths by overdose, accounting for more fatalities than heroin and cocaine combined." Our doctors are puppets of the pharmaceutical industry, killing people rather than healing them!

The great thing about this article is how objective it is. It doesn't paint doctors as villains and patients as helpless victims. It's quite a lengthy story but at the end you still don't know what is the truth.

I haven't gotten to that one yet, but I don't need Rachael Aviv to tell me the "truth" that people need to take responsibility for their own responsible use of medications, follow the instructions, and make sure their doctors know ALL the medications they're taking.

Of course, when I say things like that, I usually get accused of blaming the victim. ...

ETA: I'm looking forward to reading Aviv's article, however, when I get caught up to it. Next up is Michael Kinsley's (4/28).
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #865 on: May 08, 2014, 06:07:15 pm »
I haven't gotten to that one yet, but I don't need Rachael Aviv to tell me the "truth" that people need to take responsibility for their own responsible use of medications, follow the instructions, and make sure their doctors know ALL the medications they're taking.

Of course, when I say things like that, I usually get accused of blaming the victim. ...


I doubt it this time, Jeff, because people don't tend to think of patients who die of opioid overdoses as victims of their doctors. I don't need to read an article to not think of doctors as villains in these cases, except in cases where people die of overdoses while following the prescription to the letter. Opioids are widely abused, and I assume most people who OD are taking them recreationally and/or consciously excessively.

OTOH, when someone says about a rape victim, for example, that she shouldn't have been wearing such a short skirt or whatever, that's blaming the victim because rape victims are victims.




Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #866 on: May 08, 2014, 07:06:06 pm »
Okay, here's another quote from the article: "He said that a specialist there told him 'You could stick multiple Actiq suckers in your mouth and rear end and you still wouldn't overdose.'"

Actiq is a flavored lollipop that contains fentanyl, which is 80 times more powerful than morphine.
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #867 on: May 08, 2014, 09:14:41 pm »
Okay, here's another quote from the article: "He said that a specialist there told him 'You could stick multiple Actiq suckers in your mouth and rear end and you still wouldn't overdose.'"

Actiq is a flavored lollipop that contains fentanyl, which is 80 times more powerful than morphine.

That sounds like malpractice. The medication isn't responsible for the stupidity of the person prescribing it.

As a matter of fact, I just took a very cursory look at the article in question, and it looks very much like it's about the malpractice of one Stephen Schneider, O.D., not about problems with the drugs themselves. But I'll know more when I get to read the article.
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #868 on: May 08, 2014, 09:54:04 pm »
How strange that they would put something like that in lollipop form!





Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #869 on: May 09, 2014, 09:34:57 am »
How strange that they would put something like that in lollipop form!

Apparently this has something to do with speeding up the delivery of the medication when it's used for breakthrough pain for cancer patients.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentanyl

Meanwhile, I've got a question.

I always give my magazines to a friend at work when I've finished them--my version of recycling, so to speak--so I don't have back issues to go back to check, but did Rachel Aviv also write the article, some time back, about the criminally negligent abortion doctor? Does anyone remember?

If she did, I sense a theme here, and probably also a forthcoming book.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.