Medical Director at Victoria Hospital, Dr. Lisa Charles says there is an increase in the number of young people\u00a0developing COPD.<\/p>\n
CASTRIES, St. Lucia, Thursday January 7, 2016 \u2013 Health officials in St. Lucia are advising against a dangerous practice they say is turning people into \u201crespiratory cripples\u201d before killing them \u2013 mixing marijuana and tobacco.<\/p>\n
Medical Director at Victoria Hospital (VH) Dr. Lisa Charles said over the past 10 years she has seen an epidemic emerging with an increased number of young patients suffering with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).<\/p>\n
She says patients who smoke marijuana mixed with tobacco are developing COPD at a very young age.\u00a0 \u201cWe are talking about young men and women in their 30s with end-stage lung disease. And by end stage lung disease, I mean they are no longer able to carry out any normal activity, such as cooking [or] walking from the bed to the bathroom because of severe shortness of breath,\u201d the doctor said.<\/p>\n
COPD is an extremely debilitating, progressive disease which directly affects the lungs. The effects of COPD cannot be reversed.<\/p>\n
Patients with the disease are literally confined to a bed with oxygen tanks to aid in breathing \u201cbecause any degree of exertion, any degree of activity causes shortness of breath to the point where you have to stop, you have to sit, you cannot do any of those normal functions that you can do for yourself,\u201d Dr. Charles explained.<\/p>\n
The medical director said available bed space at the Victoria Hospital was severely compromised as a result of increasing cases of COPD.<\/p>\n
\u201cUpwards of 12 patients per day require some degree of treatment for their breathing difficulty. In terms of patients who are end stage, which is my primary concern, we probably have what we call a revolving-door patient population of close to 15 to 20. These are patients who literally come to A&E either daily or weekly, because their disease is so far progressed that they need that level and that frequency of attention in the emergency department and on the wards,\u201d Dr. Charles disclosed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do also have patients who have lived at VH for the last several months because they can\u2019t take care of themselves at home and they have no option but to stay with us because they need continuous oxygen and full care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sherman Esnard is one of the patients with COPD. He once earned a living as a carpenter and was an avid football player \u2013 activities he can no longer participate in. \u201cWho wouldn\u2019t miss that? To be a young active fella and you cannot do any of these things again . . .\u201d lamented\u00a0 Esnard.\u00a0 He spends most of his time between his home and the Victoria Hospital and can\u2019t last a minute disconnected from an oxygen tank.<\/p>\n
Dr. Charles said the cost of treating COPD is tremendous, with most of the expense being absorbed by Victoria Hospital, the government and the taxpayers.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at oxygen alone without looking at the nursing cost, the cost of physicians, the cost of other medications, the cost of nebulization, the cost of treating heart failure and the cost of inpatient hospital stays . . . I wouldn\u2019t even know where to start to measure, but it\u2019s very significant,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Pan American Health Organization says COPD is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the Americas, representing an important public health challenge that is both preventable and treatable.<\/p>\n
The World Health Organization has designated November 16 annually as World Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Day.<\/p>\n
Source: http:\/\/www.caribbean360.com\/news\/health-officials-warn-of-deadly-effects-of-combining-marijuana-and-tobacco#ixzz3wahTD4VB<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Medical Director at Victoria Hospital, Dr. Lisa Charles says there is an increase in the number of young people\u00a0developing COPD. CASTRIES, St. Lucia, Thursday January 7, 2016 \u2013 Health officials in St. Lucia are advising against a dangerous practice they say is turning people into \u201crespiratory cripples\u201d before killing them \u2013 mixing marijuana and tobacco. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,41,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cannabis-marijuana","category-drug-use-effects-on-foetus","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}