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  • TDS Moderators: AlphaMethylPhenyl | paranoid android

My boyfriend died, I think ribavarin contributed.

T

Termina

Greenlighter
Joined
Jun 29, 2016
Messages
15
Hello,
Havent posted much on here so far, and not sure where to put this thread.
Ok, my partner died in February of 2016. We were together for 13 years. Around 2010 he began complaining of
joint pain.
Two years later, he was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. He was prescribed all kinds of medication, I can't remember all of them, anti-inflamatories, pills for cardiac arrhythmia. inhalers, because the R.A. was attacking his heart and lungs.
Wow, it's hard to write this.
He was also a heroin addict, used IV for some years.
He tested positive for hepatitis C, but by this time was very ill from R.A., and some bright spark of a doctor decided to
prescribe ribavarin to try to clear up the hep C. Poor fellow got all the side effects, and said he felt like he had the flu.
Stopped the ribavarin, still felt shitty, well, shittier, he was already very sick. One night around 3 am he is having trouble breathing, rushed to hospital, dies of pneumonia 4 days later.
Im not really looking for any specific answer here, but I'm wondering if the hep C medication hastened his, by this time, fairly inevitable death. I'm angry with the doctor who prescribed it, but I'm not going to make any complaints or anything, my man's gone. I don't want to scare anyone who's taking this medication either, I hope it works for you.
tl/dr boyfriend was already very ill from rheumatoid arthritis, prescribed ribavarin, made him worse, he died.
 
I'm sorry to hear about your husband. It must be really difficult for you to go through all of this.

Ribavirin is one of the drugs administered when a person has hep C, but that's also when he would have needed to take care of his health in the best way he could. None of that matters now. Also Interferon is normally the bad guy for the worst side effects and it should have been given together with Ribavirin as Ribavirin itself would have probably caused anemia which could have enhanced what was not working well for him and the cause of your husband's tiredness, and weakness.

You are totally entitled to think the doctors could have done better probably by asking regular blood exams to detect his heath and whether he should have continued the medication. It's very difficult to tell.

There are no words that can comfort you right now except that you'll need time and support to start dealing with your loss. I know from experience that when we lose someone some of us we tend to think about who's responsible for that, but sometimes it's just what it is unfortunately. I have lost my sister, not too long ago and I also blamed the doctors for not having detected bad things sooner. I know the feeling and it can be devastating and painful.

Keep us posted! I wish you all the peace and love you deserve right now! <3
 
Last edited:
What a terrible tragedy. I am sorry. Sometimes it is helpful to talk about it even though it can't undo the past. Please feel free to use this thread for support for yourself.<3
 
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