Member Blogs

The List of Life (by my hubby)

Below is a blog he (my husband) wrote; I just had to share it!

For those who may not know, I'm a pharmacist at a hospital. Therefore,

it's my responsibility to get all of the patients' medicinal

information including drug histories, any allergies to medications, and

in the end, I also help the doctors decide the best method of treatment

for the patient.

Today there was an accident involving a couple

and their 8 month old baby. The dad was pretty banged up, and the

mother couldn't really give us any information because she was

hysterical over her husband. The baby was fine. Anyway, a doctor and

good friend of mine named Charles, came to me and told me about what

happened and gave me a packet; it was in one of those report sleeves

for three ring binders. I asked him what it was, and he said that it

was a list of basically the medical information for each family member.

Each person had a list (that was laminated) which contained their name,

date of birth, the cell phone number of each parent, their home phone

number, their blood types, and most importantly, a list of all of the

medications each person was on and any drug allergies they had.

I

flipped through the pages in awe, and couldn't help but to ask Charles

where he had gotten this list. "It was attached to the back of the

baby's car seat" is the answer he gave me. Apparently, the EMT who

pulled the baby out of the car found this packet stuck to the back of

the baby's car seat. At that time, it was in a bright colored neon

folder, which caught the EMT's eye.

I've actually heard about

this being done, but this is the first time I've witnessed it

personally. I told my wife about it as soon as I got home, and needless

to say we've decided to make a list of our own as soon as our little

guy arrives.

Anyway, I felt the need to share this story. If

more people did this, it would really help doctors and us pharmacists

be a step ahead in the game. Instead of us having to try to gather

information from an injured person, or instead of us having to try to

track down parents and other relatives to find out a person's medical

history and what medications they take, we'd have it all in hand,

saving a great amount of time which could spent treating that person or

saving that person's life.

These lists originated from a project called the Vial of Life project

which you can read about by clicking the link. The vial kits are