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Home » Health Articles » The Pain Of Ketek

The Pain of Ketek

Last September, Rosalie Lentz had a nasty headache related to a sinus infection and her doctor prescribed Ketek. Nobody at that time had any idea that this drug might almost cause her death.

"Around the beginning of December I had a sinus problem and a continual headache. My doctor prescribed Ketek and guaranteed that my headache would be gone in five days.

On December 7th, I woke up and felt that someone had hit me at the base of my skull with a baseball bat. The pain was so bad I couldn't see. I am a senior citizen and am no stranger to aches and pains but this was something else. I called Larry -- my husband -- to come home right away. Something was seriously wrong with me.

I went outside, thinking fresh air would help, but the headache got worse. It was so bad by now that I was crying. I tried to lie down but at 4pm Larry took me to ER. We had to wait for hours because I wasn't dying. Finally, I saw a doctor and I had a CAT-scan. It was determined that I was bleeding from the top of my brain!

So then they called for an ambulance to take me to a hospital that specialized in neurology. I couldn't handle the pain but they were afraid to give me anything. The asked me what drugs I was taking -- I had just finished the Ketek prescription a few days before but I couldn't even think clearly and didn't tell them I took it. What an unfortunate mistake that turned out to be.

I arrived at Sunrise Hospital at 4am and was scheduled for tests that morning to see what was causing the headache. Suddenly everything became too noisy and I thought they had to move me to somewhere else that was quiet - the noise was unbearable. The noise, I found out later, was them. My heart had stopped. I was on a gurney and they were hurrying down the hall with me.

By the time I learned that my heart had stopped I was in ICCU -- intensive cardiac care unit. I was there from Dec. 7th to Dec. 19th and had countless tests, day after day. Still there was no diagnosis. I had three angiograms, another CAT-Scan and many more, totaling over $118,000.

When I eventually started to feel better, I asked the hospital staff if my chart had arrived from my doctor's office. Turns out, they hadn't even contacted my doctor - on my medical plan, my doctor wasn't allowed to go to that hospital. If they had my chart, if they had talked to my doctor, they would have known that I had taken Ketek.

To this day, they still don't know what caused the bleeding. There is no diagnosis. I had heart and lung physicians and a neurosurgeon examine me. I remember, when the headache went away, that my hospital bed was intolerable - it was agonizing to lie on. I believe that something in this medication, i.e. Ketek, had affected my nerve endings. I am not a complainer but it was excruciating.

Finally the heart specialist said, "We don't know what caused this, but you should consider a pacemaker.' I thought that, if my heart stopped when I was driving down the road, I could kill someone. So I had the packemaker inserted. After the second week, my headache began to subside and my backache went away. All my aches and pains went away.

I saw my doctor after I was discharged. "Hey, what is this about you in the hospital, you are the healthiest patient I have," he said. I didn't know about the adverse affects of Ketek until I was discharged from the hospital and read the newspapers. I told my doctor about the article and he said other patients took it and he took them off it. But he was convinced that I didn't need the pacemaker and he said that nobody would take the chance of removing it.

My Christmas was ruined, the recovery period was long. I couldn't pick up my one-year-old granddaughter and there's a lot of things I can't do now. I haven't seen anyone else with these symptoms, but I thought I should speak up because there are probably many other people who have suffered like this and don't know it was because of Ketek. I understand that doctors have now been cautioned about prescribing this drug.

My personal belief is that my doctor is suspicious but he can't tell his patient - I used to work in the business office at a hospital for 20 years and know about medical litigation. I didn't join this class action to sue anyone but to warn the public that this could happen to them." if you have taken Ketek and need legal help, contact www.lawyersandsettlements.com

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Understanding Financial Statements

The value of the accurate financial statements generated is undisputed. This is as financial statements are like windows into the health of a company. Just by viewing financial statements, adept business owners will be able to determine the strengths and weaknesses at the time that the statement was generated. With this, the owner can then chart the way into the future for the company, by addressing the weaknesses and capitalizing on the strengths that the company has.

The two main financial statements within any company are the balance sheet and the Profit and Loss statements. The balance sheet provides anyone with a snapshot of the assets and liabilities within a company at any one point in time. This essentially means that the balance sheet shows what the company has and how much they own others. Apart from that, the equation asset = liabilities + capital always holds true within a balance sheet. The liabilities and capital sections indicate the sources of funds for the company while the assets indicate how the company uses the funds that it has. Most importantly, the liability and capital sections indicate money owed to creditors as well as invested amount. If you look closely, you will realize that both of these are obligations of the company that need to be paid.

By analyzing financial ratios that are generated by numbers on a balance sheet, a business owner is able to tell how well the company collects their accounts receivables, how fast the inventory is moving out and replenished, as well as how much exposure the company has towards debt.

The typical company balance sheet will consist of fixed assets and current assets such cash, account receivables, inventory and note receivables. Current assets comprise of assets that can be liquidated fairly quickly and easily in order to be turned into cash. On the other hand, fixed assets are amortized over an extended period of time and are not so easily sold to recover cash.

On the liability section, fixed liabilities include long-term debt of usually more than 12 months of age or contingent liabilities. The current liabilities however are represented by mainly accounts payable and notes payable as well as short term loans. If there is inadequate cash within the company, current liabilities have the ability to drag the company down.

The final element of the balance sheet, the Equity is the amount of capital financing that has been injected into the company. With this, the owner's investment into the business is shown in the balance sheet.

The Profit and Loss statement is used to determine if a company is making a profit or a loss within a specified operations period. The revenue obtained in a period is stated in this statement, and all direct and indirect costs incurred are deducted from the revenue. With this, the profit for that period is obtained, where profits are compared with the previous year's performance level. Profits with which taxation has not yet been accounted for are known as gross debt, while net profits are debt in which all costs have been deducted from.

In conclusion, being able to read financial statements is an advantage for any business owner. Interpreting financial statements are ever important in business, as it allows for the owner to take action before things become worse. By reading financial ratios, a business owner will know what needs to be done before the situation of the company changes. Alternatively, reading financial ratios will also help the business owner plan for the future, by incorporating the leverage on existing strengths of the company.