Doctor Suspended After IC Patient Dies From Pain Medication Overdose

[bubbe1]

wow

(Yes, I saw the last comment in the article Jill linked. (For those of you who didnt see it, basically someone wrote on there that the reason we all have IC is b/c we drank too much coffee or too many sodas a day and that it ate up the lining to our bladders. )

Well, they are out of their mind on that one!! I never drank coffee and what little bit of root beer I drank the companies would go under because they could not have made enough money off of me to keep the company going. Where do these people come up with their thoughts on things??? I bet she does not even know what true IC even is. ..Sigh....

That was an aggravting comment that lady made. So much so that I had to answer her. I wasn't going to,but I couldn't stand it. I told her and whoever else reads that forum, that I never drank coffee and almost never drank soda.
It probably wasn't worth my time, but sometimes I just have to shoot my big mouth off!

[waterflow]

Good, glad you did that. Sometimes it helps to just give them a piece of your mind. Even if they still believe what they say at least you got it off your chest. Unbelivable how some people are. Thinking they know so much about an illness when they don't have it or done any reading on it.

[pookashell21]

All the facts?? Unsure...

Wow, this is a sad article, and sad on many levels. It is sad that this woman met with an untimely death as a result of a probable drug overdose and/or drug interaction. Does anybody know if she took her medications as prescribed? Or whether she had more that one month worth of a medication?

There are so many unanswered questions here it is easy to jump to conclusions and say that the doctor is ultimately to blame. Yes he prescribed, in my opinion, a ton of medication....yet we don't know what other medications she was taking at the time, whether she took the medication as prescribed (and not injecting or snorting her meds), whether she was suffering from depression or was possible suicidal. These are all unknowns, and judgment should be reserved until one looks at all the factors. This article does not provide that information. Perhaps there are reasons why he "got off light", so to speak, that we are not privy to?

What worries me more is the fact that pain, especially for IC patients is largely under-treated and articles like this may not shed enough light on the circumstances surrounding an incident and may in fact chill the prescription of sometimes what amounts to life saving medication for so many people. Indeed, I suffered to the point of contemplating suicide prior to having proper (although sometimes inadequate still!) treatment for my pain.While I am okay now, going through that experience made me deeply aware of the importance of adequate pain control, compassionate and understanding doctors, and the powerful link between mind and body.

If only people would make a bigger deal about all the IC patients who commit suicide every year due to under-treatment and the general poor attitude towards patients suffering from the medical community.

My prayers are with both the patient's family and with the doctor during their grief.

[pookashell21]

All the facts?? Unsure...

Wow, this is a sad article, and sad on many levels. It is sad that this woman met with an untimely death as a result of a probable drug overdose and/or drug interaction. Does anybody know if she took her medications as prescribed? Or whether she had more that one month worth of a medication?

There are so many unanswered questions here it is easy to jump to conclusions and say that the doctor is ultimately to blame. Yes he prescribed, in my opinion, a ton of medication....yet we don't know what other medications she was taking at the time, whether she took the medication as prescribed (and not injecting or snorting her meds), whether she was suffering from depression or was possible suicidal. These are all unknowns, and judgment should be reserved until one looks at all the factors. This article does not provide that information. Perhaps there are reasons why he "got off light", so to speak, that we are not privy too?

What worries me more is the fact that pain, especially for IC patients is largely under-treated and articles like this may not shed enough light on the circumstances surrounding an incident and may in fact chill the prescription of sometimes what amounts to life saving medication for so many people. Indeed, I suffered to the point of contemplating suicide prior to having proper (although sometimes inadequate still!) treatment for my pain.While I am okay now, going through that experience made me deeply aware of the importance of adequate pain control, compassionate and understanding doctors, and the powerful link between mind and body.

If only people would make a bigger deal about all the IC patients who commit suicide every year due to under-treatment and the general poor attitude towards patients suffering from the medical community.

My prayers are with both the patient's family and with the doctor during their grief.

[pookashell21]

Doc Not Charged!

Wow, see this article.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/artic...8_VINITA703792

VINITA - Craig County District Attorney Gene Haynes said Tuesday he won't charge a Vinita doctor who was accused of prescribing more than 1,000 painkillers to a nursing instructor who later died from an overdose.


Dr. Mickey Ray Tyrrell was accused of prescribing excessive amounts of narcotics to Tammy Dawn Daniels, 35, of Vinita, who died Sept. 5, 2009. Tyrrell will have a hearing Jan. 13 before the state Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision.

"In my opinion there is no evidence of criminal violations by Dr. Tyrrell," Haynes said in an e-mail. "A criminal charge would require proof that the actions of Dr. Tyrrell were the direct cause of death."

Daniels died from acute combined drug toxicity from forms of the painkiller Demerol, according to an autopsy report by the state Medical Examiner's Office.

A complaint filed by the state Attorney General's Office states that Daniels' body "had multiple visible injection sites," but the complaint did not elaborate on how Daniels might have injected Demerol when it was prescribed to her in pill form.

Haynes said he could not comment about the evidence, citing confidential medical information.

"In my opinion the actions of Dr. Tyrrell were not the direct cause of the death," he said.

Tyrrell, who worked for Green Country Family Medicine in Vinita, would not comment on the allegations.

According to the complaint, pharmacy records from June 2 through Sept. 2, 2009, show that Tyrrell prescribed 990 50-milligram Demerol pills and 120 20-milligram OxyContin pills to Daniels. Records show that Tyrrell noted only two prescriptions for Demerol in Daniels' chart, when he had written nine prescriptions, the complaint states.

Tyrrell told investigators he authorized the prescriptions but had no explanation as to why he documented only two of the nine.

In the last 35 days of Daniels' life, she received 630 Demerol pills and 60 OxyContin pills, an average of 18.5 dosage units per day of Demerol, the complaint states.

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/artic...8_VINITA703792