This is a keeper. If anyone should come down with this, their doctors will likely have to tread the same ground this physician did. This article might be a good source of information for them.

Geee. What a genius. He gets a call that a coworker has inhalation anthrax and considers the diagnosis. Brilliant. (/sarcasm)

For crying out loud, the diagnosis was HANDED to him.

Doctors wonder why Blanco got better at such a late stage in the disease.

They forgot to mention that it could be that he had an immune system better adapted to fighting it. As a doctor, I know how little we take the patient into account, but the most likely explanation is the immune system. The other guy that died had Cipro too, and it's the first thing they mention as a possible reason. This doc doesn't seem so 'sharp' to me.

He was started on one of the class of antibiotics that includes doxycycline and similar medicines.

Authorities had been telling us that doxycycline was sufficient to treat Anthrax. I wonder if this guy was started out too late OR if doxycycline is not really effective against Anthax.

Anthrax Bump

I was pretty much thinking the same thing. What's so sharp about somebody calling you and saying a co-worker of his has Anthrax, and then concluding "my suspicion for Anthrax is very low... Seems the good Doctor was being relatively "unsharp," given the circumstances. Plus, sitting up all night reading about Anthrax on the Internet? Give me a break. Call the CDC for criminy sakes and get the full scoop immediately.

It was obviously "handed" to other doctors before him, and, no, they didn't "get it." One of the problems is that few doctors think to ask about anything except the clinical symptoms. That's the reason the postal workers in DC never even had a chance. They didn't go to the hospital immediately, true; but when they did, nobody asked what they did for a living, where they worked, etc., although by this time, it was known that inhalable anthrax had passed through the places where these people worked. Something can be plain as day, but people will still miss it; Dr. Omenaca did not.

HEY!!! This is BREAKING NEWS. This is the best thing I've heard in a while. Anthrax can be cured AFTER the onset of multiple symptoms. This is entirely new. Reverse of previous thought.

Call the CDC for criminy sakes and get the full scoop immediately.

Please...the CDC determined that it wasn't necessary to treat the employees at Brentwood or test there for anthrax even after they found anthrax at the Post Office in Boca Raton...if this Doc had relied on the CDC Blanco would probably be dead now.

For crying out loud, the diagnosis was HANDED to him.LOL my thought too.I was thinking he had been on other antibiotics for a longer time and that may have helped.

This doc doesn't seem so 'sharp' to me.

Me eithor

The Florida doc was sharper than the er room in DC that never found out where one or two of the anthrax victims there worked and they are no longer with us. I guess they see so many welfare patients in DC that asking place of employment isn't on their admit forms.

I watched NBC give the story on a postal worker in DC who died -- having been sent home from the ER and told by the CDC that there was no danger of anthrax. Couldn't help but wonder (and said so last night, before seeing this) if he would have made it if he'd seen a private physician. ER's tend to do best with blood and broken bones.

I don't think the Media ever let on how serious ill this gentleman was!!

To find all articles tagged or indexed using

Anthrax_Scare_List

Go here:

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC) LIST

and then click the Anthrax_Scare_List topic to initiate the search! !
Fixit ---thanks for "Indexing" this article!

I'm with you Doc, I was shaking my head until I saw your words of wisdom.

I think you are right. Wasn't thinking myself there!

However, the original conclusion that having the diagnosis handed to you does not constitue being "sharp," or whatever accolades was handed to the doctor. He was simply lucky to have somebody point him in the right direction.

I WILL give him credit for spending real time trying to figure out how to deal with it however. Can't imagine my HMO doc spending more than 2 minutes on the issue. I suppose my criticism was more for reporter than for the doctor.

Perhaps Señor Blanco got better supportive treatment than the postal workers in Washington. From the article, the bacteria was killed by the antibiotics but the patient still needed treatment (oxygen, etc.)

Gee...Hmmm...This happened in Miami, huh. I wonder where Ernesto Blanco and Dr. Carlos Omenaca and/or their parents are from.

I don't suppose that they both (or perhaps Dr. Omenaca's parents) came to America seeking life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness from a Caribbean island ruled by a despotic totalitarian Marxist piece of c&*p.

Probably not. I heard they were all gangsters.

My brother went to the er a week ago and they gave him Benadryl for a food allergy, taking my brother's word for it that this was the problem.

Yesterday, Thursday, my brother was back at the er (at a decent er) and this time, he was in the cardiac wing and he got blood pressure medication to stop his racing heart. They were "baffled" yesterday. Then call a specialist, er people.

I think it's a bad idea for the er docs to let the patient diagnose himself. Okay to get the history but who is the medical professional?