I Created The Medicine I Was Accused Of Misusing
One day, at work, there was an emergency surgery. As the doctor in charge, I reassigned the hospital’s only remaining dose of a highly sought-after specialty drug.
The moment I stepped out of the operating room, I was escorted away by the Office of Medical Affairs and Governance. They accused me of improperly authorizing the use of a restricted medication and informed me that my medical license could be revoked.
As I struggled to defend myself, a new intern hired by the chief of my department sent me a message.
[Dr. Britton, how could you reassign a restricted medication without approval? Dr. Guzman worked incredibly hard to secure that drug for the department. You can’t just take it because you feel like it! I have a responsibility to help the chief keep things running smoothly, so I reported you to Medical Affairs. Doctors are supposed to put patients first. Someone like you doesn’t deserve to wear a white coat. From now on, every medication request in this department will require both my review and signature!]
I could not help but laugh when I read it.
That intern had only been in the department for a month. Seeing how approachable and easygoing the department chief was, she had apparently decided that it was her job to police everyone else.
What she did not know was that my grandfather owned the hospital.
That imported miracle drug everyone had been fighting to obtain? I had led the research team that developed it. In fact, I held the patent.
Even the eight-hundred-dollar monthly stipend she received as an intern came from the funding allocated to my research program.
How could using a drug I myself had invented ever constitute a protocol violation?