U.S. drug regulators added a strict new warning about prescription sleeping pills like Lunesta and Ambien, after well-publicized, sometimes joked-about side effects were found to sometimes lead to tragic injuries or even deaths.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today allowed marketing of a new device, ClearMate, intended to be used in an emergency room setting to help treat patients suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. The device uses a novel method for quickly removing carbon monoxide from the body by increasing a patient’s rate of breathing.
A colorless, odorless gas, carbon monoxide is often dubbed the “silent killer.” It replaces oxygen molecules in hemoglobin, so that the blood carries carbon monoxide rather than oxygen to the body’s organs and tissues. CO poisoning can cause dizziness, weakness, chest pain and confusion. Current treatments, such as hyperbaric oxygen therapy or administering 100% oxygen, involve trying to overcome the oxygen shortage in the blood. But these treatments tend to be moderately effective and are not suitable for everyone.
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