At the Specialist Hospital named after Stefan Żeromski in Krakow, patients experienced an unusual sight. When entering the doctor’s office, they met a specialist behind the desk who was himself connected to a drip. TVN24 looked into this case and it turned out that the doctor not only took medicines, but also falsified medical records. And the director of the facility was supposed to know about everything.
Autor: Fot. Getty Images, facebook.com/TVN24
Mateusz Kudła, author of a reportage for TVN24, found an unusual recording. It turns out that the doctor was taking fentanyl while on duty. The director of the facility supposedly knew about everything, although he initially assured otherwise. The case is being handled by the prosecutor’s office.
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He saw patients on a drip. Fentanyl on duty
TVN24 produced material about abuses allegedly committed by one of the doctors of the Specialist Hospital. Stefan Żeromski in Krakow. The journalist obtained a recording showing how the doctor on duty in the Emergency Department was connected to a drip. But that’s not all, after some time he asked the intern to use a syringe to add an ampoule of fentanyl to the drip.
One of the informants reported that as many as 18 ampoules of fentanyl disappeared within two weeks. The doctor was supposed to take them and inject himself with strong opioids.
– Can you get me some ampoules? – the doctor asked his colleague, and these words can be heard in the shared recording.
TVN24’s findings show that the doctor not only illegally took ampoules of fentanyl, but also falsified medical records by adding drugs to patients’ records that were not actually administered to them.
Although the hospital director assured that he knew nothing about the whole case, two weeks after the publication of the first material, the journalist managed to obtain accounts from new witnesses and a recording in which it can be heard that the management staff of the facility knew about the whole matter. Moreover, it also came to light that the doctor in question had already lost his job due to addiction.
The Minister of Health, Izabela Leszczyna, spoke on the matter and emphasized that the patients’ health and lives were at risk, and that such behavior was unacceptable and the doctor must answer for his actions. The case was handed over to the prosecutor’s office.
Fentanyl – how does it work and what is it?
Fentanyl is a drug from the opioid group, i.e. an extremely strong substance with analgesic and anesthetic properties. It stimulates the production of serotonin and acts directly on the central nervous system. It works quickly, but for a short time. The body’s reaction to intravenous administration of the drug is a maximum of two minutes, but the duration of action of the preparation is a maximum of 30 minutes. That’s what makes it so addictive.
– Repeated use of opioid painkillers may reduce the effectiveness of the drug (the patient gets used to it). It can also lead to addiction and abuse, which can result in a life-threatening overdose – reads the leaflet.
Administration of a high dose only applies when the patient is being prepared for surgery. Then, severe symptoms from the nervous system may appear, such as:
- hallucinations,
- physical and mental anesthesia,
- disappearance of fear,
- sensory hallucinations.
According to the leaflet, the use of fentanyl may lead not only to addiction, but also to the occurrence of serotonin syndrome. And this, in turn, causes changes in your mental state. The patient may experience agitation or fall into a coma. In addition, he is exposed to other disorders such as:
- severe respiratory depression (breathing stop),
- increased heart rate,
- blood pressure fluctuations,
- neuromuscular disorders (lack of coordination, muscle stiffness),
- gastrointestinal disorders (vomiting, nausea, diarrhea),
- increased body temperature.
It should be emphasized that fentanyl is administered by medical personnel. This is important because the strength of the drug means that the patient requires proper care, and if problems occur, he or she immediately receives help, for example in the form of oxygen therapy and other appropriate measures to maintain vital functions.
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