Tales out of medical school

Just like the poisoned deposit enevelopes at the ATM, the cellphone that exploded a gas station, and the toilets that flush backwards in Australia, medicine is full of urban legends. I don't know how many of them are true, but I thought they'd be interesting to keep track of in case someone knows if they hold any water or whether they're just another Letters to Playboy Magazine that no one will ever be able to verify.

1) Anti-retroviral therapy for HIV positive patients is full of side effects. Nausea, constant vomiting, liver and kidney failure, life-threatening infection, cancer and death are just a few of the more notable complications an HIV positive patient can get if they undergo this treatment. Not only are the side effects bad, but the pill regimen is complex and the outcome of treatment is uncertain at best.

Legend: In order to communicate the extent to which these pills affect a patient's life, an attending physician in the infectious diseases department at an unnamed hospital made it mandatory for all the residents under him to undergo a week's worth of treatment, just so they could see how bad the side effects really were.

2) Hospitals have to be prepared to deal with anybody who might present at their door. While many hospitals are equipped to handle almost any medical condition a patient might have, not all of them are outfitted to handle any criminal tendencies a patient might have. Convicted felons are often in need of medical attention, and when in-prison visits aren't enough, prisoners are taken to the hospital.

Legend: A hospital employs 2 crash carts. One is a normal crash cart with an automated defibrillator, induction drugs and resuscitation paraphanalia. The other crash cart also carries induction drugs and resus equipment, but instead of a defibrillator it carries a taser. Of course, both crash carts are painted the exact same colour and are located right next to each other at the nursing station. An inmate at the hospital goes into cardiac arrest and the wrong crash cart is brought in. Somehow, the resident on the crash team fails to recognize the subtle differences between a taser and a defibrillator, and tasers the patient. Outcome? The inmate's rhythm returns to normal.

3) Legend: Premarin, a hormone replacement therapy for women is made from pregnant mare's urine.

Let the debunking begin.