Inside sources within Asante have since disclosed details surrounding the reported deaths, per NBC5 News. It is alleged that up to 10 patients died of infections contracted at the hospital.
The sources claim the infections were caused by a nurse who purportedly substituted medication with tap water.
It is alleged that the nurse was attempting to conceal the misuse of the hospital’s pain medication supply — specifically fentanyl — and intensive care unit patients were injected with tap water, causing infections that resulted in fatalities.
Medford police have confirmed their active investigation into the situation at the hospital but have refrained from providing specific details.
The sources indicate that the unsterile tap water led to pseudomonas, a dangerous infection, especially for individuals in poor health, commonly found in a hospital’s ICU.
There are other, more sanctioned horrors if you’re ever in the position to need meds to deal with indescribable pain in a hospital.
I once had major abdominal surgery and was on a morphine drip. Unfortunately I have a genetic defect that means I don’t metabolise drugs well, so even strong meds don’t work well and I’ve woken under anaesthetia twice.
It turns out that if you push the button on the morphine machine too many times, its software assumes you’re a drug seeker and starts giving you less. So the more you need it to keep the pain relatively tolerable, the less it will give you.
You don’t even have to have that genetic condition to wind up in a hell of the software’s making. I only learned that was the issue after being at a user experience conference where one of the presenters (pretty sure it was Alan Cooper but it may have been Steve Wozniak) talked about his experience with that machine after an accident that motivated him to research why his pain meds were inadequate, and how medical user experience is horribly abysmal.
As far as I know, nothing has been done to address issues like that since.
Yeah that sucks. I’ve been on the other end working with paramedics, nurses and docs and there are quite a few of those drug seekers. Like most things a few people have to ruin it for the rest.
I’d rather 100 drug seekers get high than one person have to go through that kind of unrelenting, soul wrenching pain. There’s got to be a better way.
Yeah that was my opinion until they described the very real risk of that high ending lives, and if you were administrating then your license is on the line for every death in your care. Should be a better way but now I understand the caution.