Fox News
Expand
Browse All Video
Watch Live

You're watching...

Major drug shortage threatens lives

Details

  • Description

    Patients' deaths blamed on lack of drugs

  • Duration 3:07
  • Date

Clips

Also in this playlist...

Latest Health

Auto-advance: ON

Auto-advance
View All

Transcript

This transcript is automatically generated

Okay and yeah.

Imagine losing a loved one during surgery because the doctors didn't have enough anesthesia.

Well that's exactly what anesthesiologists say caused the deaths of seven patients last year new survey and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

After -- money from the Fox News medical eighteen joins me now to explain more eyes is a crisis.

Well I think this is this is a news that we already have known for the last seven years.

They really the first time this came on the surface was in 2005.

Gretchen are about 61 drugs were -- shortage these medications.

Over the last seven years we've gone from 61 to almost a 178 drugs.

That a shortage and so it is a real crisis but we're not just talking about data season medications bullet holes antibiotics.

We heard recently that there are issues with cancer medications.

-- also psychiatric -- and cardiovascular so this is becoming a real problem.

For hospitals for doctors and especially in this story primus is Elvis -- the big question is why.

-- are multi factor -- I think that most of these medications are being produced by a very limited number of manufacturers out there -- so when one of them is not producing to the speed.

It puts a lot of burden on the others they're also recently there has been a lot of contamination is.

When these pictures of the -- Sony's factories they find you know glasses and metals and other content fungal infections and we've seen -- any of these medications.

But also I think part of a big issue is that really there's a disconnect between the government.

And the FDA and a lot of times if they may not know.

That there's a shortage of these medications so hospitals and doctors can be blind sided by this so now there's a new act.

Something called preserving access to lifesaving medication act which would protect FDA and these manufacturers have to report.

-- there's a shortage coming off so we won't get caught.

As a surprise and that's part of it.

-- intended to make business sense to me and especially in -- you know.

-- economy if there's demand for these drugs to -- use -- companies not making.

Part of it is also a lot of Israeli -- are going generic and there's not a lot of profit and that's -- that's that's another thing they're not going to spend.

You know -- of those it created and then not make that kind of prophet so it's all you know part of this and then I think what's happening right now.

We that a lot of that is his eldest -- have to -- down some of the medications -- they have to substitute other medications.

-- owners' side effects of the issues is what they have to do so.

We're not seeing it firsthand but anything behind the scene there's a lot of -- that's going to be able to prepare these medications for hospitals.

And doctors say that's a major problem -- very scary for a lot of people because it's nerve racking enough to know you're gonna have surgery.

And then to know that you might not be getting the right drug is a problem what FDA has done that's true what if there's always they have opened the door to a lot of overseas countries to bring these medications.

But you know most of that has opened up the whole gray market where the cost of these medications have gone on.

But I think -- this communication between the government.

FDA and the hospitals hopefully we can get our act together and make sure this kind of issues won't happen right hopefully so doctor Dave it's not a part of a fox medical eighteenth as American that we have.

Load More