KANSAS CITY, KS – “I was just tired of dealing with her,” internal medicine resident Dr. Kara Gifford said. “She is allergic to every pain medication except Dilaudid; in fact she has 15 allergies!”
It was later discovered that Dr. Gifford underreported her allergy list of 22. “Tylenol, ibuprofen, morphine, Oxycontin, oxycodone, Percocet, the list goes on… and now she’s in pain! I’ve prescribed WAY too much Dilaudid for someone not on fire to receive. It’s fibromyalgia, it’s an outpatient disease,” she said. “I’ll just let someone else deal with it, I’m tired.” Dr. Gifford paged the rheumatology fellow to come in STAT.
Dr. Kumar Chakinala, the hospital’s rheumatologic fellow on call, got upset during the drive in. “I just walked to my car, got in, and while I was on the road driving at 2 in the morning, I realized that I’m a rheum fellow. I don’t come in after hours!” Dr. Chakinala did come in, despite his gut feeling. He then attempted to help treat the patient’s fibromyalgia, unsuccessfully. The patient was then discharged home, and seen in clinic the following week.