Safety with Medicine; Avoiding Tragedy
In recent months we’ve seen the loss of Heath Ledger, Brittany Murphy, and now Corey Haim; all reported to have had some sort of prescription medication associated with their death.
These are by no means isolated incidents.
The statistics on medicine-related deaths vary since some cases are intentional overdose, some accidental overdose, and sometimes death is the result of unexpected side effects of single drugs or unintended interactions between drugs. The bottom line, all official numbers aside, is the fact that medicine, while being extremely useful, can be dangerous if misused.
Here are a few general safety tips to keep you and your family safe.
- Childproof everything. If you have offspring under 21 years of age living with you, lock up your prescription meds, especially pain killers. Many trips to the emergency room have been the result of teenagers pilfering their parents’ prescription medications for everything from recreational use to illicit drug sales. Don’t think that childproofing only applies to babies and toddlers.
- Separate your medications. Some accidental overdoses or unintended drug interactions have occurred when the wrong bottle was picked up and therefore the wrong pill taken. Keep the more dangerous pharmaceuticals either in a separate place or at least on a different shelf in the medicine cabinet. Another hint is to put a rubber band around those particular pill bottles so you’ll know the difference by feel. This is helpful if you get up in the middle of the night to take what you think is an aspirin for a headache.
- Discard what you don’t need. If you’re taking meds for a temporary condition and you have doses left over after the condition has cleared, dispose of the rest if your doctor says it’s okay. The more dangerous or controlled the medicine the more important it might be to take the remainder back to your doctor’s office for disposal. This way you have witnesses to the fact the medicine was disposed of. Hint: If you find leftover pills and you’re not sure what they are, try looking them up at either www.medhelp.org or http://www.drugs.com/imprints.php.
- Ration your doses. If memory is an issue, then have someone lay out your daily doses for you. Many accidental overdoses happen when people forget that they just took their pill and then take another. Plastic pill boxes that help you organize daily doses –even going so far as to have boxes for meals or hourly times – are easy to find at most any drug or department store.
- Save the drug info. Most prescriptions come with a data sheet tucked in the box or placed in the bag by your pharmacist. If you don’t get one ask for one. On these sheets are dosage instructions, known interactions and cautions, and other useful information. As long as you are taking the medication, keep these sheets from your different meds together and inside your medicine cabinet, or in another obvious location so if something happens, emergency rescue personnel can quickly find the information they need. If you routinely keep backup medicine in your emergency or “bugout kit” (and you should), be sure to keep a photocopy of these drug information sheets in your kit as well.
- Know the interactions. It’s a sad commentary on the state of today’s medical / pharmaceutical industry, but many times we must be educated patients and know enough to check out information for ourselves. Regarding the information sheets mentioned above, it’s up to you to know the interactions of the various medications you might be on. If you need to look up potential adverse side-effects, you can log on to www.drugs.com, www.rxlist.com, or http://healthtools.aarp.org/drug-directory.
- Don’t self-medicate. If something’s wrong, go see the doctor. Other trips to the emergency room have resulted from taking the wrong medication for the wrong condition. Remember… our health and safety are the foundation for all else we do. Safeguard yours.
About the author: Paul Purcell is an Atlanta-based security analyst and preparedness consultant with over twenty years risk management and preparedness experience. He’s also the author of Disaster Prep 101, and he’s a partner / advisor to 1-800-PREPARE. Copyright 2010, Paul Purcell.
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