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Marcus AureliusIn reply to PikesPeakAg • 12:04a, 3/28/20AG
For full disclosure - HCQ prolongs the QT interval. Hypothetically the macrolide azithromycin can as well. Hence the concern about synergy among some MDs. But IMO that is what a daily EKG is for!!! Also I have seen some docs concerned about liver injury and azithromycin.

I have Rx’d a metric ton of azithromycin in my career. Side effects in zero patients. Literally.
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My son had 4 open heart surgeries to correct a sub-aortic stenosis. In the process, he require an artificial mitral valve, an artificial aortic valve, a band around the tricuspid and a "pig patch". The mitral valve put pressure on the "bundle of His" requiring installation of a two lead pacemaker. After the mitral valve was installed, a daily dose of Coumadin was required and regular checks of his PT were performed by his cardiologist.

Roll forward to May 2012. My son went to the dentist. During that visit, someone in the office infected him with something that developed into bronchitis. My wife took him to an Urgent Care where the PA prescribed Z-Pak. It was a Saturday evening and his regular doctor was unavailable. On Monday a follow-up with his regular doctor occurred. He had taking the 5th of 5 Z-Pak tablets. Hit PT was checked. It was 8.5+. Normal is about 2.5. The doctor said to stop taking Coumadin immediately. He went home with my wife. At 10:30 PM she was leaving for her dispatch shift 11 PM to 7 AM. She asked how he was doing. The answer was "so so".

My wife got off at 7 AM and took our middle son down to the car repair shop to pick up his car. She walked into the house at 8:20 AM. As was her habit, she checked in to make sure my oldest son was OK. He wasn't. He was quite dead. I'll spare the icky details. She called me immediately...except my phone was muted. I was in a training class in San Diego. I drove home to Idaho as soon as I could get back to my vehicle.

My wife dealt with the coroner as I drove the 925 miles home. I checked his computer. The browser history showed a retrieval of a link to an Ocarina store at 1:19 AM. It was the last thing he did.

I immediately did some research and discovered that Vanderbilt University has issued a study about 238 deaths from use of azithromycin. The cause was attributed to extended QT and sudden cardiac death. It was a poor choice of antibiotics for my son, but the study was issued until 5 hours after his death.