A Vital Drug Runs Low, Though Its Base Ingredient Is in Many Kitchens

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/21/health/sodium-bicarbonate-solution-critical-shortage-hospitals.html

A Vital Drug Runs Low, Though Its Base Ingredient Is in Many Kitchens
By KATIE THOMAS | MAY 21, 2017



Hospitals around the country are scrambling to stockpile vials of a critical drug — even postponing operations or putting off chemotherapy treatments — because the country’s only two suppliers have run out.

The medicine? Sodium bicarbonate solution. Yes, baking soda.

Sodium bicarbonate is the simplest of drugs — its base ingredient, after all, is found in most kitchen cabinets — but it is vitally important for all kinds of patients whose blood has become too acidic. It is found on emergency crash carts and is used in open-heart surgery and as an antidote to certain poisons. Patients whose organs are failing are given the drug, and it is used in some types of chemotherapy. A little sodium bicarbonate can even take the sting out of getting stitches.

“As I talk to colleagues around the country, this is really a problem we’re all struggling with right now,” said Mark Sullivan, the head of pharmacy operations at Vanderbilt University Hospital and Clinics in Nashville.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. 'Scuse me...gotta go do a Doller Store run......n/t