She started becoming agitated and confused after about a month or two. I took her to the Shrink He saw her in that state maybe five minutes and doubled the Zoloft. Before I could get her home she was hallucinating. I took her to the ER at that hospital named after a Saint. They were also supposed to be running a mental health care unit. The attending doctor in the ER refused any and all blood work and treatment and called the State Mobile Crisis Team. As her husband I could not sign for her treatment.
While waiting I made calls to family. When I came back in to the ER to check she was in a exam room unconscious and I could not bring her around. I yelled for the staff and doctor. I told the doctor do something she has a very serious medical history including heart issues. He just stood there. He refused to act.
We loaded her up and went to the big level one hospital across the river. The one ran by the university. They acted fast and got her conscious again but she was not coherent. I said please do blood works and a CAT SCAN or MRI this is not right. I said the other hospital refused. They then balked and said we are calling Mobile Crisis.
I talked to Mobile after this time 12 hours had passed and her Blood Pressure and Pulse were off the charts. They denied the hospitals request for a mental facility transfer.
I got to the hospital and asked to speak to the floor supervisor a RN. Showed her the article and said I'm certain this is it and it can kill her unless we act. I said please call the doctor. She said our doctors came in once a day he will be here in the morning. I said OK these are my orders as her husband and they will be honored. You are not to give her any medications but Ativan without my expressed permission.
The next morning their doctor came in madder than a wet hen and demanded to know why I had refused her his orders. I said doctor please read this. He said that's pure Rubbish. I said OK the doctor you Pharmacology Professor is a liar then? He looked again and recognized the authors name. I said you will not give her any antidepressants. That night she was back to normal. The next morning six days after onset they finally gave her an MRI which revealed two bleeders in her brain one likely caused by the antidepressants.
Serotonin Syndrome is real and the hallucinations of the patients are their reality. Even top doctor of the county health department who at the time was in private practice and was not even consulted in all that time also knows it's real she saw the aftermath and was quite shaken. MY wife still has partial amnesia from it. It is not tin foil antidepressants in some persons can be very dangerous. What is this had been a teenager?
Benzos such as Valium, Ativan, Xanax are the countering medications to stop this reaction. I knew it the doctors did not. They never heard of Serotonin Syndrome.
Lord have mercy. What a mess. Thank God that YOU, and not the ignorant doctor, had the decisive power to do what needed to be done. My prayers for your wife’s well-being.