Letter:Doctors need to be more careful with prescriptions

Saturday, Sept. 6, 1997 | 11:31 a.m.

I recently saw a physician who knowingly prescribed two high dosages of incompatible medications, supposedly to help correct a chemical imbalance in my body that makes me very ill.

After taking the combination of the two drugs for a few days, I felt like I was losing my mind. My thoughts were racing at 200 miles per hour. I became paranoid and convulsive.

When I called the doctor's office in a state of terror and pain, it just so happened that the doctor was out of town. So that doctor's office referred me to another doctor, who immediately pinpointed the problem. I should never have been prescribed the two medications together in the high dosages the other doctor so complacently had prescribed.

After needless suffering, at least I was able to find a good doctor, but only as a result of the pain and trauma caused by the other doctor's incompetence.

Doctors must be held to a higher standard of competency and accountability than they are now, or they can literally damage or kill their patients.

Michelle Farmer