Prescription drugs can kill you - double check that pill. 102,000 deaths last year.

Okay, this is just flat scary. As I was sorting out my dad's medications earlier and getting him what he needed, I was listening to the Fox News that he was watching. A guy that the news guy was talking to about people stopping taking their prescription medications before they should stop taking them was talking about how for most people, particularly seniors, it was a case of not being able to afford the medications and choosing food over a pill they had no idea what it did anyway. He said that doctors don't take time to explain what medications do, what side effects are, or anything, so when a patient gets a undesirable side effect they stop taking the pills. The scary part though? He also said that last year there were 102,000 deaths because of patients being given the wrong medication. That is a LOT of screw-ups people, I have no secondary confirmation on the number, but come on, if even one person dies because a doctor or nurse was too busy to bother and make sure they had the right thing it's two people too many, for 102,00 people to die? That's one hundred two thousand people last year that died because they were given the wrong medication. I think he said in hospitals, but it was a few ago that I heard this (earlier this morning on Fox News).

Check your pills and check the pills of those you love, particularly in hospitals. My grandmother was nearly killed several times by it, my aunt was just damn near killed by it and my dad has nearly been killed several times by it and folks I know have told me about cases affecting them where people have nearly died from medication mix-ups. It's important, don't leave it to the hands of others. I had to call doctors on it when the doctors did not realize the pills they gave my dad conflicted in deadly ways with ones he was taking. Be alert and be safe.