Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
For One Patient, Tapering Off Pain Medication Became Like A Game Of Hot-Potato Between Doctors
In 2015, Travis Rieder, a medical bioethicist with Johns Hopkins University's Berman Institute of Bioethics, was involved in a motorcycle accident that crushed his left foot. In the months that followed, he underwent six different surgeries as doctors struggled first to save his foot and then to reconstruct it. Rieder says that each surgery brought a new wave of pain, sometimes "searing and electrical," other times "fiery and shocking." (Gross, 7/8)
At least 92 lives have been saved with naloxone handed out at two Northern Kentucky syringe exchanges. ...The rescues with the opioid-overdose antidote were among records The Enquirer requested from the Northern Kentucky Health Department to learn outcomes of the first year of Covington and Newport syringe-exchanges. (DeMio, 7/8)
Last year, opioid-related deaths in Iowa decreased by 33 percent, marking a five year low for the state, according to statistics released this month from the state's Department of Health Statistics. Iowa had 137 opioid-related deaths in 2018, 206 deaths in 2017, 180 deaths in 2016, 163 deaths in 2015 and 168 deaths in 2014. (Krebs, 7/8)
La Paz County filed a lawsuit in Arizona court Wednesday against opioid manufacturers and distributors, alleging they created an opioid crisis and brought suffering to the rural community. Filed in La Paz County Superior Court, the lawsuit names multiple defendants, including Chandler-based Insys Therapeutics founder John Kapoor and former CEO and President Michael Babich, and Johnson and Johnson. (Curtis, 7/5)
