Man dies from ripped intestine after swallowing pill in its packaging

[Tony_FLADEM]

A man in Sweden has died after he swallowed the entire packaging around his prescription medicine and it ripped a hole in his intestine.

The man was in hospital at the time and recovering from a heart operation when he tried to take the pill and ingested its plastic casing at the same time.

The incident is now being investigated by Sweden’s Health and Social Care Inspectorate, according to reports in the country’s English-language news service The Local.

“The whole thing is very unfortunate and very regrettable,” a spokesperson for the Hallands hospital said in a statement to the website.

The man, who has not been named, was reported to be recovering from surgery well and due be discharged when he started to feel stomach pains.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/man-dies-from-ripped-intestine-after-swallowing-pill-in-its-packaging-8834978.html

[FSogol]

1. And my kids always laugh because food packaging says to remove food from package before

cooking/eating. Guess that warning is coming to medicine too.

[frazzled]

8. Hospitals shouldn't give medications inside packaging

Or at least I think so. Perhaps the man was in severe pain, and was frustrated at not being able to open it. Thought he could stop the pain by swallowing the whole kit-n-caboodle. Or didn't see the packaging (they said his eyesight was poor.) Especially for elderly patients, their medications should be (a) given to them by a nurse; or (b) at least removed from any packaging and placed into a paper cup.

I spent a week taking care of my father in the hospital this past winter. He had both flu and pneumonia, and was a little whacked out from fever a lot of the time; he's also 96 and doesn't hear well. I swear he would be dead if I hadn't been there to help with this kind of thing. As wonderful as the new technology is for medicine, I found the nurses were engaged almost totally with typing information into computers. I had to perform all these kinds of traditional nursing duties.

[MuseRider]

9. Retired nurse here

NEVER leave anyone you love in the hospital alone. I learned the hard way with my mother a long time ago. Nurses no longer have the time to do patient care apparently (I am sure it varies from place to place or time to time) and the people left to care for your loved ones are not always people you would want to take care of tasks like medication. I have seen some dirty, not very nice people walk into patient rooms and be unkind at best. No one deserves that.

[dipsydoodle]

2. That is unfortunate.

Very sad.

[Rex]

7. I agree very sad.

We all do stupid things in our lifetimes, most of us are lucky that they are not fatal.

Tragic.

[11 Bravo]

3. While tragic, this is also deserving of a Darwin Award.

[Mariana]

4. He may have been thoroughly doped up on painkillers

or some other medication. If that was the case, it wasn't entirely his fault.

[mindwalker_i]

5. That would, indeed, be a bitter pill to swallow

[enlightenment]

6. Really?

There is nothing to indicate that he was simply too stupid to understand he needed to remove the packaging. There is a lot to indicate that whoever left medication for him to take - without monitoring that he took it (pretty standard for hospital care as it at least helps avoid liability issues even if they don't care if patients are taking the meds the doctor ordered) - should have at least taken the pill out of its packaging.

Yes, it is tragic.