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SUDDEN DEATHS INCLUDING COT DEATHS The effects of drugs and chemicals affecting the heart and causing sudden death are well documented in medical textbooks and papers. I wrote an article published in The Halifax Evening Courier on 31st January, 1991 on exposure to toxic chemicals causing violence in which I pointed out that chemicals were documented to cause heart problems and respiratory failure and were linked to causing cot deaths. My research turning up the information on sudden deaths due to chemicals and prescribed drugs I came across whilst researching the documented effects of the same chemicals causing destruction of the bone marrow, blood disorders and cancers. I noted that solvent abusers suffered sudden death due the effects of the chemicals on their hearts and also that many prescribed drugs contained the same chemicals and were documented in books like The British National Formulary (BNF) by the British Medical Association and The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain which doctors in the U.K. use when prescribing to cause cardiac disorders. A friend in the UK sent me a paper a few years ago dated 1979 written by two doctors of the Kansas Medical Society on Sudden Death Syndrome in which two doctors came across 16 cases of sudden death resulting from the prescribed drug Phenothiazine and its effects on the heart. Phenothiazine drugs contain the same chemicals that cause sudden deaths in those abusing solvents. During the 1990’s there was much publicity on the causes of cot deaths and there was a large reduction following the removal of chemicals from cot mattresses and advice on sleeping positions not breathing in the fumes from the mattresses. A link with infant deaths was also noted following long haul flights, related chemicals to those previously used on cot mattresses being in use on aircraft. There remained still about one cot death a day recorded in the U.K. On 1st February 2004 an article in The Observer reported that the drug cisapride, an antispasmodic which had been withdrawn in the U.K. 3 years previously, had been prescribed for many babies who had subsequently suffered cot deaths. In the BNF drug book used for prescribing in the U.K. the 1990 edition notes convulsions as a side-effect the March 1996 edition gives all the known effects of the drug on the heart including ventricular arrythmias. The book also stresses that cisapride can have serious interactions with other drugs including antibiotics causing serious heart problems due to inhibiting the metabolism of cisapride and causing high concentrations. The Association of Pharmaceutical Industries Compendium of Data Sheets (ABPI) for 1998-99 by the drug industry about its products notes “isolated cases of QT prolongation” (slow heart rate) and changes in heart arythmias with the drug prepulsid (cisapride) due to drug interactions. A copy of the leaflet I have given with the drug cisapride when prescribed for adults in France notes clearly all the effects on the heart are well known by the manufacture including electrocardiogram modification in premature infants, cardiac disorders particularly when taken with other drugs, abnormalities of cardiac rhythm, QT prolongation – slow heart rate etc. Special warnings are given considering the risk of heart rate disorders. True to form with medical “experts” and their reluctance to accept any side-effects of prescribed drugs The Times had a report on 2nd June, 2004 from one Italian cardiologist that thought their might be a heart link to cot deaths. During the period before the Observer article many cot deaths were said by the medical profession to be cases of parents killing their own babies. Many cases were said to be Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP) first theorised by paediatrician Professor Sir Roy Meadow – which suggests some parents harm their children to draw attention to themselves. Munchausen was actually a fictional character who was a compulsive lier. Many parents were jailed, often on the opinion of one doctor with no evidence of harming their children at all. I have come across a case where a child was seriously damaged by an insecticide where doctors told the parents to stop pointing out that the illness was caused by chemical exposure and threatened to certify the parents as suffering from MSBP with hints the child could be taken into care. In this particular case the Health and Safety Executive in the U.K. was eventually forced to agree after, being supplied a mass of scientific and medical evidence, that the parents were correct and that their son had indeed been made seriously ill by the organophosphate insecticide he was exposed to. With all the documented evidence showing that the drug and chemical industry, governments and the medical profession have been fully aware of the effects of prescribed drugs including cisapride and chemicals causing sudden deaths due to the effects on the heart it seems incredible that innocent parents should be jailed for crimes they did not commit to cover up the true cause of the death of their children. A closer look shows that we should not be surprised as many 1000’s of patients die every year in all countries due to side-effects of prescribed drugs which are never reported, deaths being put down to haemorrhage, infection, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, heart failure and many other serious and fatal conditions documented to be caused by prescribed drugs. In 1996 in the U.K. a large survey reported on in the Pharmaceutical Journal found that only 6.3% of adverse drug reactions were reported by doctors. I found that doctors would go to any lengths to stop patients exposing the truth if they suffered a serious or fatal blood and bone marrow disorders (e.g. Ritalin prescribed to children which are precursor conditions to cancers) after being prescribed any of the 200 or so drugs documented to cause their disorder. There is a scheme in the U.K. now where, as doctors refuse to report side-effects of prescribed drugs, patients can report the effects direct to the drug control agencies. This scheme has hit immediate problems with no one including doctors, patients, chemists etc being informed of the scheme or given the forms on which to report side effects. The countless media and other reports on fraud in the drug industry on testing of drug safety, playing up effectiveness and playing down side-effects and bribing of doctors to grossly over prescribe and not report side-effects is the reason the parents of many children suffering cot deaths were deliberately wrongly accused on killing their children.
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