Phenergan is exposed to arterial blood, it causes swift and irreversible gangrene

[sandee1818]

In the spring of 2000, suffering from a migraine, Ms. Levine visited a clinic near here for a treatment she had received many times: Demerol for the pain and Wyeth’s drug Phenergan for nausea.

“Nothing wrong with either drug,” Ms. Levine said. “They’re both safe when given the right way.”

But if Phenergan is exposed to arterial blood, it causes swift and irreversible gangrene. For that reason, it is typically administered by intramuscular injection. According to Ms. Levine’s lawyers, using an intravenous drip is almost entirely safe as well.

This time, though, a physician’s assistant used a third method. She injected the drug into what she thought was a vein, a method known as “IV push.” But the assistant apparently missed.

In the following weeks, Ms. Levine’s hand and forearm turned purple and then black, and they were amputated in two stages.


Wow , I had no idea!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/us/19scotus.html?ref=health

[nurseaudrea]

Just to let you know, Phenergan also has a side effect known as dystonia. Many people do not know about this effect, but I do all too well. Many phenothiazines can cause this reaction. I had to take Compazine when I was pregnant and had this side effect hit me. All of a sudden after the second dose I could not hardly breathe. All the muscles in my neck and face went into a severe spasm. It felt like my throat was closing up on me. I actually lost consciousness by the time the ambulance came and my husband was freaking out. He wanted to drive me to the hospital farther away where my doctors were located, but I told him we didn't have time that I could barely breathe and it was getting worse. As your brain is depleted of oxygen everything seems to close in around you and you get tunnel vision before everything goes black. It was really scary. They gave me everything they knew of for anaphylactic shock, but that is not what it was. Finally, before they did a thoracotomy on me the doc thought he would try one more thing, Benadryl. They had no idea it was Dystonia. It went away instantaneously. Although they did kept me overnight because it came back every 4 hours when the Benadryl wore off. The Compazine was a suppository and it took a long time before the effects of that drug wore off. You would have thought the doctors would not have given me another drug for vomiting in that class of phenothiazines, but they did, Reglan. They told me it would be okay and it would not happen again. I was still scared to take it but it was the only thing that kept me from vomiting. I took oral Benadryl everytime I took the Reglan. One time I forgot to take the Benadryl and it happened again. The ambulance came and this time my husband knew what to tell them I needed. They started an IV and gave me Benadryl and it went away. My husband had to wake me up every 4 hours to make sure I took it through the night so I would not stop breathing in my sleep. Needless to say, no more phenothiazines for me.

[mste]

well we would like to know! thanks tuck, hopefully there are more nurses like you around. i can imagine all the hoo-ha about the latest news about phenergan....a little bit of knowledge is dangerous, right? can imagine patients lining up to voice their opinion that they're not 'having phenergan'. oh, the internet is a dangerous tool. What is more worrying, is that your colleague had no idea...

[Tuckamore]

Thanks Sandee for the information.

IV push means that there is an IV in place in the medicine was directed instilled into a port of the IV tubing and into the patients vein. All Phenergan must be diluted (any nurse knows that) before it is instilled into a vein. You can do an IV push IF it is greatly diluted that is the reason it is and should be hung as a drip with other fluids or injected into a muscle. Any good nurse knows this.  Just thought you would like to know.
Tuck

[empathy323]

Sandee,
I used to have to inject Phenergan daily for about 2 1/2 to 3 years.  This was  a number of years ago now.  Long story short I ended up having 8 surgeries 4 on each side of my hips.  I formed fluid filled tumors from both the Phenergan and some other medications I had to inject that were oil based.  I have 2 incisions on each hip and each incision site was operated on twice.  My whole blood stream was infected and these were emergency surgeries.  So, I am all too familiar with the complications that can happen from having to inject medications especially repeatedly over a period of time.  In my case not only did I give myself daily injections but there were also all of the injections given in the same area by medical professionals over my lifetime.  Different medications for different reasons.  So in my case it was hard to single out any one drug although I took phenergan the most.  Thanks for this post this brings back a lot of memories I had not thought about this in awhile either.  It was so hard for them to get my hips to heal and my system clear of infection but now I see it could have been much worse.  Thanks for the information!!!!!!!!!