FDA proposes color-coding to prevent gas mix-up

Excerpts from the Health Beat blog:

Why didn’t somebody think of this sooner?

Apparently the containers that hold various medical gasses – such as oxygen, nitrous oxide and nitrogen – look remarkably similar.

So, it’s not unheard of for a patient with emphysema needing oxygen to be accidentally given, say, industrial gas. In fact, at least eight people have died and 18 have been injured since 1996 in medical gas mix-ups, according to an FDA press release.

So the FDA is proposing a rule that gas containers become more indentifiable. They should have labels that wrap all the way around. They should be painted according to a color-coded system. And they should only be used for medical, not industrial, use, the new FDA rules say.

Kind of makes you wonder what other medical supplies out there are begging for a color-coded system to avoid mix-ups. You’d hate for a doctor to confuse things. (Posted on April 10)

Restarting a ‘rested’ heart

Some amazing news out of London, with potential repercussions for heart patients everywhere.

A British girl, who received a heart transplant 10 years ago, started having a bad reaction to her anti-rejection drugs. Bad news, right?

Well, when surgeons implanted the donor heart, they left her diseased heart in place, known as a “piggyback” operation, according to a Reuters report.

So, she had to have the donor organ removed. But, amazingly, the heart she was born with was restarted and is now beating away.

Says her transplant surgeon:

“Her (original) heart recovered almost completely. It is now a normal heart. This is a very happy ending.”

The girl’s heart had originally failed because of “acute inflammation,” the Reuters story says. And so it’s believed that using the donor heart gave her own heart the break it needed to recover. (Posted April 13)