The British author, W.
Somerset Maugham, related an Arab story that he titled
Appointment in Samarra.
The story tells of a servant who bumped into
Death in the shape of a lady in the Baghdad marketplace
and Death made a threatening gesture at him.
Returning to his master's home, he told his master what
happened and asked to borrow a horse so that he could
leave Baghdad and ride to Samarra where Death could not
find him. After the servant rode off, the
master went to the marketplace and saw Death. He
asked Death about the threatening gesture toward his
servant. Death replied, "That was not a
threatening gesture. It was only a start of
surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad,
for I had an appointment with him tonight in
Samarra."
Meeting Death in Samarra was an
"unintended consequence" of seeing Death in the Baghdad
marketplace.
Someone is driving and takes a wrong
turn and goes east instead of west. Four blocks
later, a drunk driver runs a red light and hits the car,
severely injuring the driver and passenger. If not
for the wrong turn, the victims would have been miles
away from the drunk. This was certainly an
"unintended consequence" of a wrong turn.
Contrast this with another
example. Someone is driving down the road and
their cell phone rings. They take their eyes off
the road to try to locate the ringing cell phone.
At the same time someone pulls in front of them and
slows down to make a turn. If they were watching
the road it would be annoying but they could easily
stop. However, because they took their eyes off
the road, they couldn't stop in time. While
certainly this was an "unintended consequence" of having
taken their attention off the road, everyone knows that
not paying attention to the road can lead to an
accident.
In the first example, most people say
it is fate or karma and legally you are not
liable. However, in the second example, if the
accident caused serious injury to the other car
occupants, the distracted driver might actually be
charged with a felony. The fact that the second
driver's hitting of another vehicle was an "unintended
consequence" is not a defense.
DRUG COMPANIES AND
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
We all know that new drugs are
routinely tested on a few thousand specially selected
people before they are released on the public. If
there were side effects to the use of the drug that
appear during these limited public trials, the drug
companies are supposed to list them on the drug label.
However, the real test of a new drug is
only after it is released to the public. Only
after the new drug has been widely used by the general
population of people will anyone really understand the
side effects of a drug. Even if some of the side effects of a drug
are quite horrible, the drug companies assert that these
side effects are really unintended consequences and they
are not liable.
AN EXAMPLE OF AN
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE
Many people who take
painkillers or a variety of other drugs find that they
have diminished interest in many aspects of their
life. They have less energy. They become
depressed and are more anxious and irritable.
After taking these drugs, some men find that they have
become impotent.
Instead of urging the
person experiencing impotence to explore other options
to try to treat the cause of the problem so that the
person could stop taking the impotence-causing drug, the
drug companies recommend a new drug to treat the side
effect. Hence, Viagra, Cialis and Levitra
are prescribed.
If Viagra, Cialis and Levitra
were just harmless sugar pills there might be some
reason for their use in this case. However, they
carry with them their own serious side effects.
Here are some of the side effects taken from the Viagra
label:
* Dyspepsia (indigestion)
*
Nasal Congestion
* Abnormal Vision
* Diarrhea
*
Dizziness
* Headache
* Migraine
* Hypotension
(low blood pressure)
* Chest pain
* Cardiac arrest
(heart attack)
* Arthritis
* Bone pain
*
Depression
* Asthma
* Bronchitis
* Urinary
Tract Infection
* Urinary incontinence
*
Anorgasmia (inability to reach orgasm)
SIDE EFFECTS RECENTLY
DISCOVERED
Viagra was released on the
public in 1998 while Cialis and Levitra were released in
2003. On July 8, 2007, the FDA approved updated
labeling for Cialis, Levitra and Viagra to warn about
reports that some people taking these drugs experienced
"sudden vision loss caused when blood flow is blocked to
the optic nerve." In layman's terms this means
that the person couldn't see.
On October 18, 2007, the FDA
announced that people taking a class of drugs called
PDE5 inhibitors are experiencing sudden hearing
loss. Viagra, Cialis and Levitra are PDE5
inhibitors. In addition to the sudden hearing
loss, some people taking Viagra, Cialis and Levitra are
also experiencing tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and
dizziness.
However, the FDA said that, in
most cases, the hearing loss only involved one ear, and
about a third of the time it was temporary. Of
course this means that two-thirds of the people have
more permanent hearing loss.
CONCLUSION
If the distracted driver is
liable for the unintended consequences that result in
injury to others, are drug side effects that cause
injury or even death to people merely unintended
consequences-particularly if the risks are not fully
explained to the people being given them?
At what point do we as a nation
begin holding the drug companies who rush drugs to
market, often with endorsements from doctors who are
receiving undisclosed payments from these same drug
companies, responsible for the consequences to the
public? At what point do we require that medical
doctors first try to treat the causes of illnesses
instead of merely giving a drug to cover up the
symptoms-symptoms often created by known side effects of
other drugs?
At Novus Medical Detox we see the
consequences of treating symptoms and not causes and
often the damage to individuals, families and society is
not easy to repair. Please insist that your doctor
explain all the alternatives to drugs and explore ways
to treat the cause of your problem and not just the
symptoms.
