Because of "spiked" fentanyl in opiates, deaths among opiate drug users have now reached epidemic numbers in Canada- in spite of the effective antidote drug nalaxone. Two factors are mainly responsible viz the opiate addicts are playing a game of "Russian Roulette" because they do not know which opiate is "spiked " with fentanyl. Also because fentanyl even in very low concentrations causes respiratory arrest and cerebral anoxia in a time window of less than 10 minutes
Because in cerebral anoxia - regardless of its etiology- you only have that short 8-10 min window to avoid the clinical effects of oxygen deprivation (brain death ).
In an earlier post on this blog (docsamBlog) I commented (referenced) that surgeons in many European countries routinely gave hydergine to their patients (see reference in publication by Life Extension Foundation entitled "The physicians guide to Life Extension Drugs ) before they begin any major surgical procedure just in case these patients experience a major medical complication like cardiac arrest, fall in blood pressure, etc. during the operation- thus giving the doctors more time to treat these complications . Using this reasoning then why not use the same protective approach, i.e.having the opiate drug users take and/or prescribe hydergine before the opiate is ingested- basically having the opiate addicts on hydergine. Incidentally hydergine is also available by injection giving its protective benefits immediately if the naloxone is not available.
Note: In editing this and other recent posts on this topic I had mentioned erroneously that narcaine was the antidote for these respiratory arrests from opiates. This is an error it should be naloxone . On a google followup a few days later I note that a drug product called Narcan behaves similarly to naloxone.
With the recent deaths of over a dozen addicts in a single day in Vancouver, has anyone considered doing tracheostomies and mechanically assisted breathing ?
No comments:
Post a Comment