This isn’t exactly pressing news, and wasn’t at all what I planned to write about this afternoon. But seeing this mythology repeated on a popular nurses website (allnurses.com), prompted me to attempt to destroy a deeply ingrained urban myth.

Dr. Charles Drew, a man who died 54 years ago. He was only 46 years old, and a tragic automobile accident claimed his life. As the urban legend goes, Charles Drew died because he was denied admission to a White’s Only hospital in North Carolina. Even more ironic, as a variation of the urban legend goes, he was denied a blood transfusion even though he was one of the pioneers in transfusion medicine.

The only truth to this story is that Drew was involved in a car accident, and did die as a result of injuries sustained. The rest, however, is pure myth. Pure legend. Pure urban legend.

Charles R. Drew (1904-1950)was a black surgeon who pioneered techniques for preserving blood plasma, and thanks to his work, countless lives were probably saved during WW II. He was also the founder of the American Red Cross Blood Program. His accomplishments are all the more noteworthy, considering that opportunities for black Americans weren’t exactly abundant during his lifetime, and the doors in most professions usually slammed shut in their faces.

The accounts of his actual accident vary, as to the cause, but what is clear is that in 1950, while driving three other black doctors to a conference in Alabama, Drew lost control of the car. He suffered extensive injuries, including a crushing injury to his chest. According to the legend, he was in desperate need of a blood transfusion to save his life, but was forbidden from entering a small hospital in Burlington, North Carolina. Whites only, he was told, and so Drew died.

This story has been repeated many times over, and was even mentioned on an episode of the popular television show MASH. Well, if MASH says it, then it must be so. This rendition of Drew’s demise can even be found in some black history books.

But according to Dr. John Ford, who was in the car when it crashed, all of them “received the very best of care. The doctors started treating us immediately.”

According to Ford, “Even the most heroic efforts couldn’t have saved him. I can truthfully say that no efforts were spared in the treatment of Dr. Drew, and, contrary to popular myth, the fact that he was a Negro did not in any way limit the care that was given to him.”

The reason I think this story is important is because it symbolizes how much misinformation is out there, and simply because a story has been floating around for a while, doesn’t make it true. That said, finding out the truth can sometimes be difficult and tedious, considering the enormous amount of information we have at our fingertips. Take the Internet, for example. I don’t know how I lived without it, but a lot of the stuff you find online is very inaccurate. The more research I do, the more I find out how careful you really have to be.

Anyway, now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Just Keep Bungling Along

The New York Times has a great article this am (remember, it will vanish into archives within 7 days) about the lack of information being given to local and state health officials concerning the flu vaccine. So what else is new, you are probably thinking.

At a press conference yesterday, Tommy G. Thompson, the secretary of health and human services, told reporters that we had “healthy supplies” of vaccines and anti-flu drugs to handle even a difficult flu season. About 61 million doses would be available for the estimated 90 million Americans at high risk for flu. So, where are they? Come out come out from wherever you are….

It seems that they aren’t showing up at the doors of county and state health departments. Sonomish County health officials here in Washington state, for example, says that 90,000 people at high risk for flu, but yet, have thus far received about 10,000 doses of vaccine. Officials in other states and counties are reporting equally tiny amounts.

And something is a little wrong with the math, if Thompson thinks that there are healthy supplies of vaccine. Does 61 million doses for 90 million people add up? Maybe if you do government math it does.

Another sad thing that this article points out is that Wyeth was making more than 20 million doses of flu vaccines annually, and got out of the vaccine business in 2002. Dr. Walter Orenstein, former dirctor of the CDC’s national immunization program, said the government should have used incentives to coax Wyeth, and another company King, to keep making the vaccines. A spokesperson from Wyeth said that they were never even approached by the government and that, “We might have considered their offer if such an offer was made.”

So much for Bush’s speech the other day in Florida, about doing all that we can to get flu vaccine to people.

Drugged Driving

On a different note, it may surprise people to know that while there are detailed laws about drunk driving, relatively nothing on the books exists for drugged driving. If a driver high on cocaine slams into you, what penalties does that driver face? USA Today has an interesting story about this highly overlooked problem. When a Ohio Highway Patrol Trooper was hit by a car driven by a driver with cocaine in his system, the state had to spend spend thousands of dollars on experts to prove that the driver had enough cocaine in his system that he shouldn’t be driving. Even though cocaine use and posession is a felony in Ohio, there were no laws on the books that addressed driving under its influence.

“More than 1.5 million people were arrested in the USA last year for driving drunk. Police departments and public health specialists estimate that at least as many people drive under the influence of drugs each year — and rarely are prosecuted for it.”

Strange, isn’t it. We have lawmakers eager to lock up someone who is walking around with a little marijuana in his pocket, but yet, have never addressed the issue of driving under the influence of drugs. And this should hold true for people using legal prescription drugs that may cloud their judgment.