You might have friends who debate the merits of eastern medicine versus western medicine. Modern sciences stacked up against thousands of years of natural remedies. While both sides carry multitudes of legitimate arguments, it's possible both sides would agree that all of the below treatments are a little out there.
Reddit user, u/1234byfeist, wanted to know:
Check. Double Check. Check Fifteen More Times.
GiphyIt was many years ago and I was working with end-stage cancer patients. This one woman, who began her treatment outside of the United States, was given a mixture of cocaine, heroin, alcohol, morphine, phenothyazine and some other antiemetics. It was specially made into a liquid and imported from somewhere in Europe. I remember this med so vividly because it's not everyday you give someone heroin. I think it was called something like Bromton Cocktail and the lengths that were gone to to check out and administer a dose of that stuff - we're talking who's got the nuclear codes type of system. I have to admit though, it worked like magic.
The Costs Add Up Over A Year
The rarest medication I have administered is eculizumab (Soliris) which is used for PNH. A single dose costs around $20,000 and it is administered every two weeks at a cost of around $540 000 per year. It is delivered by armoured courier and the patients do get a 24h concierge they can always contact.
The patient told me it was expensive, and being aware of very expensive biologics I told her, "Yes, many of the new monoclonal antibodies are very expensive and can cost up to $20 000 per year."
She corrected me, that it cost $20 000 per dose. I didn't believe her but while organizing the infusion I figured I better read up on a drug I was administering for the first time and, yup, $20 000 a dose--26 doses a year--for the rest of her life.
Aquamans_DadSpeak Your Truth To Yourself
Sodium thiopental-truth serum.
In residency, someone had a conversion disorder in a movie theater (I know, way back when it was a normal thing to do). The entire place cleared out after the movie, his buddies are talking and realize he's not getting up. He finally tells them he is paralyzed and can't move.
Medics brought him in, he's laying in the gurney in the sitting position, like he's an astronaut. I walk in the room and think to myself, whaaat the f---ck. I go ahead and take his history, go back and present him to my attending. Attending asks me what I want to do. I'm at a serious loss here, I have no f-cking clue other than wait him out, nobody's core is that strong. He says we should give him thiopental.
Of course I say lets do it. We go in with just us and a nurse, he turns the lights off, the nurse pushes the meds. My attending proceeds to walk this guy down with confidence and empathy, like he's walking him through the worst lsd trip ever.
Sure enough, my attending asks him to realize that his arm is attached to his chest which is attached to his back which connects to his neck which connects to his brain. He tells the guy, now is the time to move your arm. The kid moves his f-cking arm! AMAZING. After a bit longer the kid is lying flat. Soon enough he's up a moving. Craziest sh-t I saw that year. Emergency medicine, still not dull 10 years later.
spewgeneCarefully...CAREFULLY!
Activated protein c. Can't remember exactly but it was about £50k a dose. Used in severe last ditch sepsis treatment. Not a vial you want to drop.
Artificial Body Parts
It's been a few years so I might butcher the name... Alpha-1 antitrypsin proteinase inhibitor? I've only given it to two patients but they had to get it regularly. It's a synthetic version of a protein, I think, that is made in the liver and usually inhibits the action of a particular enzyme in the lungs that breaks down tissue to ensure that dead cells don't interfere with lung function or something like that.
But in these patients, either the protein was being made wrong in such a way that it couldn't pass through the bile duct and escape the liver, or it just wasn't being made. Without an inhibitor, the enzyme just keeps breaking down tissue, and that causes emphysema. These patients had to get this medication once a week, for the entirety of their lives, but they're the only patients I ever heard of that needed it.
I was only a Hospital Corpsman in the Navy at the time, not even a licensed nurse; I only have a surface understanding of what exactly was going on, so sorry if I got anything wrong in the explanation. This was administered in an ambulatory infusion clinic at a naval hospital; I administered it and had to understand it to anticipate any potential side effects and double check dosing and rate but an actual doctor created the treatment plan and everything.
Space Age Medicine
GiphyMethylene blue. I gave it to a girl who tried overdosing on Orajel. The active ingredient is benzocaine which caused her to develop a methemoglobinemia, treated with the blue drug. It truly is an artificial looking bright blue and I gave it to her in her IV.
Redirect That Blood Flow
Viagra for patient with pulmonary hypertension, only serve it once.
Other than that, thalidomide for anti nausea which is very rare and anti venom for snake bite.
GOOD. LORD.
Luxturna.
One dose per eye, USD $425,000.00 per eye.
THE MOST EXPENSIVE TREATMENT IN THE WORLD.
What does it treat?
The answer to tour question is very technical, but here it goes.
LUXTURNA is for individuals with an inherited retinal disease caused by mutations in both copies of the RPE65 gene and who have enough remaining cells in the retina
A gene is the basic unit of hereditary information that is passed on to a child from their parents. Typically, every person has 2 copies of a gene, one from each parent. In the case of RPE65 gene mutations, both of the genes passed onto the child were mutated.
There are many inherited retinal diseases
For example, Leber congenital amaurosis and retinitis pigmentosa are two inherited retinal diseases. These are clinical diagnoses that are not based on mutations in specific genes, such as mutations in both copies of the RPE65 gene. To get a genetic diagnosis, you will need a genetic test.
LUXTURNA is a one-time gene therapy for each eye
Gene therapy is a method for treating a genetic disease. One approach to gene therapy is delivering a new or functional gene into a cell.
LUXTURNA works to restore the visual cycle.
The visual cycle is a process that allows you to see. LUXTURNA provides a working RPE65 gene to act in place of a mutated RPE65 gene. This working gene has the potential to make the visual cycle work properly again.
So, There's A Wrong Way To Take This?
I had a woman who was on Ziconotide, which is an analgesic derived from Cone Snail venom. If it isn't administered correctly (through the spine), it causes hallucinations.
Wait, Seriously?
Pharmacist here and leeches. We use them to keep blood flowing if you get a finger or ear or something cut off and sewn back on.
Nope. Too Much. Leaving.
Maggots. We had a drug addict come in who had let an infection go so long in his arm from repeated needle usage that all our attempts to clean it failed. We ended up using maggots to eat away the dead tissue, while leaving the healthy tissue intact. Dude just had an open wound full of maggots loosely covered in some gauze for like... several days.
The worst part is always having to collect them afterward.
The medication most people are shocked by is cocaine hydrochloride. Yep. Cocaine. It's a good vasoconstriction agent, and topical anesthetic.
Everyone, You Know The Words To "We Didn't Start The Fire!"
In 15 years of hospital pharmacy, I've twice had occasion to dispense Thalidomide. It's used as an end-stage anti-nausea med, and comes very carefully packed, with all sorts of warnings about not coming near it if pregnant, and even has little pictures of Thalidomide babies.
...WaiBuWhat?
A poop/fecal transplantation. At my first internship during nursing school, there was a patient with a bowel infection caused by clostridium difficile. A few months before he got treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics for a pneumonia, which caused the infection. They tried other treatments to cure the infection, but nothing worked. Eventually, the patient got accepted in a clinic trial for a fecal transplant. One of his kids was the poop donor. After the transplantation the infection actually cleared up!
Getting Crunk In The ER
GiphyVodka, because of methanol poisoning.
I was going to say the most surprising thing I saw in the fridge in the med room was a can of beer. Labeled (prn qd) and chilled for the patient.
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Just the other evening, I was walking home, and I barely survived.
I tripped on a dead tree branch.
The next thing I knew, I was flying in the air and landing on my back.
My belongings were strewn about.
And my to-go burger was dead.
A simple walk.
A simple dead branch.
And almost lights out.
Redditor Typical_XJW wanted to hear about the times people eluded death, so they asked:
"How did you almost die?"
Don't even get me started on any and every car ride.
We're always moments from the end on highways.
Back in the Day...
Hunger Games Student GIFGiphy"Almost drowned when I was 5 or 6, been hospitalized twice for sepsis between 2016 and 2019, and had a stroke this year. I'm 29."
ChristmasKid88
On the Disk
"MRSA infection in the disk on my lower spine between L5 and S1. Showed up two days after a cortisone shot but the hospital said it was from something else. Was in hospital 25 days multiple emergency surgeries."
EatA**FromBack
"I worked for a doctor who did these in-house and other procedures, and it 100% made me not trust medical facilities, cleanliness, and sterilization procedures. Had about twenty patients all come down with the same gut infection, 'coincidentally,' the same patients who came in for endoscopy procedures the same day."
dimlylit_
Saved
"Saving a younger friend from drowning, he panicked and almost took me out."
loztriforce
"Had that happen with a younger cousin when we were kids. His brother and I went to save him, he climbed on both of us and pushed us under. Lifeguard didn’t even see us until he pulled younger cousin out of the water, then we popped up gasping for air."
coffeejunki
Shucked
"16-year-old farm kid me, stepdad told me to go pick up a load of corn seed for planting. I had gone with him many times before, and driven the truck (full ton dually diesel) and hauled light stuff with it. Nobody told me how different it is to haul 10,000 lbs of seed on a big flatbed trailer on gravel. I had a lot of common sense and was driving slowly and carefully."
"Still… 10,000+ lbs pushed me down a gravel hill skidding, praying to god I stopped before the stop sign at the T intersection to a busy highway. I came to a grinding halt JUST as the front of the truck crossed the plane where the gravel turned to asphalt. A semi was coming from one direction and regular cars from the other. I shudder thinking about what if on that one. Don’t let untrained kids tow potentially deadly, heavy trailers, with zero training."
datnetcoder
Finding Tracks
College Sports Sport GIF by Sealed With A GIFGiphy"Was backwoods camping in Yellowstone and if I hadn’t considered for 30 seconds if I REALLY needed to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I would have walked out of my tent headfirst into a brown bear, which I heard before leaving and found tracks of next to my tent in the morning. Spookiest moment of my life in hindsight."
danvo5
Bears are a no go for me.
Camping is an even bigger HECK NO!!
Several Strikes
Reassuring Jimmy Fallon GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy FallonGiphy"Twice. 1. Woke up to my apartment on fire."
"2. Hit head-on by a drunk driver on a small bus, just after everyone got off bus exploded."
lizard_king0000
Oh Barb
"Lmao okay, so I was getting my teeth cleaned, and I got nitrous oxide because I have so many exposed roots. Well, my hygienist at the time was this lovely lady from Minnesota. Kinda flaky, but super sweet, and talked about her family all the time. So I'm in the chair and she hooks up my mask, and away we go. I actually fell asleep! Except not so much."
"Turns out Barb had forgotten to turn the oxygen on and had been feeding me straight nitrous. She only noticed because I started gasping for air while unconscious. So that's how I almost died at the dentist. I never saw Barb again, but I tell you, that was the best nap of my life!"
CharismaticAlbino
Climb Up
"I was snorkeling. I had my other stuff stored on a rock by the water, about 3 meters high. When I got out, I decided to climb straight up. Almost at the top, the rock I was hoisting myself up on came off and I fell back first onto the coral. If a friendly wave hadn’t come in, I would have broken my back, at least."
Yugan-Dali
Blood Loss
"I was diagnosed with a rare fatal blood disorder from birth, doctors projected I’d live till about 6 and then die from massive blood loss. As this was the mid-90s, they tested the idea of using stem cells from my sibling's umbilical cord; administering the first successful stem cell transplant from a sibling donor and I’m still here to tell the tale!"
Material_Cry1697
These were some tremendously close calls.
Do you have any near-death experiences to share? Let us know in the comment below.
