Arbitrarily stopping Basedow treatment
The 67-year-old female patient fell into a deep coma after stopping treatment for Basedow disease according to the doctor's regimen and switching to drinking alkaline water according to the instructions of a traditional healer on Facebook. Patients receiving treatment in Binh Minh commune, Thanh Oai district, Hanoi - where they were once suspended by the authorities due to lack of expertise, certificates, or practice licenses.
The patient was diagnosed with Basedow a month ago and was prescribed outpatient treatment. However, instead of following the doctor's instructions, the patient listened to the introduction online and went to traditional healer Nguyen Tien Nam, who claimed to be able to cure the disease with alkaline water for 5 days at a cost of 200,000 VND/day.
Here, the traditional healer asked the patient to drink water from a filter mixed with salt - the type of water promoted as alkaline water. During the treatment, the patient had to fast completely, only drinking water when hungry or thirsty.
After nearly two days, in the early morning of March 16, the patient passed out and was taken to the emergency room in critical condition.
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At Ha Dong Hospital, the patient was admitted in a state of decreased consciousness and had to be placed in the endotracheal tube. Tests show that the FT4 index is high, TSH is low - a clear sign of a typhoon. In addition, the patient also had severe hypoglycemia (1.7 mmol/L). Due to the poor condition, the patient was transferred to the A9 Emergency Center (Bach Mai Hospital), then continued to the Poison Control Center in a deep coma.
According to Dr. Nguyen Huy Tien - Poison Control Center (Bach Mai Hospital), the patient was admitted to the hospital with a critical level: 6-point GCS coma, body temperature of 40°C, heart rate up to 170 times/minute, liver damage, blood clotting disorder, hypersodium and thyroid disease.
Despite being actively treated with anti-thyroid drugs, controlling heart rate and relieve fluid, after 3 days, the patient was still in a deep coma and had to use a ventilator.
Not only this case, Bach Mai Hospital has previously received many patients with serious complications due to belief in the treatment method with alkaline water.
Previously, Bach Mai Hospital had received a cluster of cases and also used a type of water introduced as alkaline water to treat the disease. 3 patients with chronic kidney failure, who are on dialysis at Lai Chau General Hospital, arbitrarily stopped treatment to go to Thanh Oai to drink alkaline water. They were asked to fast completely, drinking only 6 liters of water per day for 15 - 20 days. After only 2 - 3 days, they began to have difficulty breathing, fell into a coma and had to be hospitalized for emergency care.
At Bach Mai Hospital, patients were diagnosed with respiratory failure, heart damage, and acute pulmonary edema due to epidemic overload. They had to use a ventilator and undergo emergency blood filtration with urene, potassium, and Creatinin levels in their blood many times higher than normal. Fortunately, these patients received timely emergency care and returned to dialysis to maintain their lives.
Dr. Nguyen Trung Nguyen - Director of the Poison Control Center (Bach Mai Hospital) warned: "Even drinking too much water every day can be dangerous, leading to pulmonary edema, hyponatremia, cerebral edema, convulsions and death. Alkaline water is not a medicine, if overused, it will cause metabolic disorders, change blood pH, arrhythmia, coma and the risk of death is very high".
