That picture from the medical records from almost ten years ago shows that gentamicin blood serum level tests were ordered by the staff, but were not done.  Had they been done, and had Erik's mom and dad known about it, either it would show that the dosing was in conformance with the best known medical practices, or it would show that additional concern should be directed to Erik's hearing and balance systems.  In either case, if you were a parent, wouldn't you want to know?  And even if the tests where done and show all is well, if your kid has the 1555G mitochondrial DNA mutation (whatever that is!), then any level of gentamicin is going to cause hearing effects, even as it my save his/her life.


Newest Link:
Actor Dennis Quaid is working to raise awareness of problems with medical quality control, after a situation in which his newborns were overdosed.
http://www.thequaidfoundation.org/


Some links:
Newspaper story about Erik and gentamicin
Front page of the Local section, Sunday, September 9, 2007
http://www.telegram.com/article/20070909/NEWS/709090463

Jennifer Eagan of NECN is now my favorite TV reporter, here is why:

Wobblers - a website of adult gentamicin victims, with a very active email discussion group
http://www.wobblers.com/

Some pages about the drug effects:
http://www.dizziness-and-balance.com/index.html
http://www.hearinglosshelp.com/

A story of gentamicin effects, written by an adult given the drug:
http://windshift.bc.ca/store/proddetail.php?prod=WPBN0013

A story about a Rhode Island musician, given gentamicin
http://www.projo.com/news/content/Dickie_Reed_01-14-07_6C2VRHL.2d0fbc0.html
He says that the full effects of gentamicin on his hearing took two years.  If that also happens to babies, isn't specific follow-on care warranted????

1555G
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10219384&dopt=AbstractPlus

A couple lawyers have some pages with info:
http://www.gentamicin.com/
http://www.gentamicin-poisoning.com/GentLinks.html