Shortness8

Alcohol can actually be protective in a paracetamol overdose. Paracetamol itself isn't relatively dangerous, the metabolic product created by the liver is.

Alcohol use acutely reduces the levels of these enzymes which convert paracetamol into it's toxic byproduct as ethanol preferentially binds to the same enzyme for it's own metabolism. Therefore, acute alcohol consumption can reduce the harmful effects of paracetamol.

The reverse is true for overdose in the context of chronic alcohol use, when the liver adapts to long-term alcohol exposure by increasing the levels of enzymes, therefore rapidly metabolising paracetamol into it's toxic byproduct and worsening harm.

Source: doctor

As a side comment, the lack of medical knowledge displayed in HN threads paired with the absolute confidence some verdicts are delivered with is worrying, and something I thought this forum would be better at than other sites (looking at you, reddit). Paracetamol and NSAIDs (including ibuprofens) are safe drugs if taken to the package directions. Some of the ideas shared in this thread about taking one over the other, or not taking one ever etc, are not rational. Please consult your doctor if you are worried about your particular situation, but generally OTC medicines are not dangerous if taken to the package instructions.

Accidental overdoses of paracetamol are exceeding rare, but intentional ones are common.

Some commentary here: https://korben.info/en/mullvad-cofounder-funding-far-right.h...

Daniel Berntsson is still involved with Mullvad and part-owns Mullvad's parent company with his co-founder.

The Herald[1] and STV News (neutral as a broadcaster) are not strong Pro-Indy groups.

The National certainly is.

DOI: Scotsman not in favour of independence.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Herald_(Glasgow)#Political...

Don't often comment on HN but have to point this out as a med student in the UK: the cost-benefit roughly works out for those in favour of giving the therapy when the alternative is a lifetime of coming to hospital 3 times a week for Factor IX infusions, and the additional cost of stays in hospital for bleeds/haemarthroses and the complications thereof. Of course, this also ignores the human cost, particularly the extra care/stress around avoiding cuts/bruises in every aspect of life. In this respect these gene therapies appear lifechanging for those who suffer from the disease. [1]

I will also say I know the team who wrote the guidelines for use of these therapies. I believe they were mostly finished before the infected blood scandal became a big story. Politics didn't come into it.

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4nnn51rdrzo

Big thing from this from me is Signal is exploring freemium features.

I sincerely hope this doesn't happen - as I say this as a monthly donor.

I'm sorry you went through this experience, and I'm glad your son is alive and (hopefully) well.

I don't have the ins and outs of your case. I'm a student, not an obsterician, or neonatologist. That said, I do know delivering a 25 weeker is insanely risky even if perfect care is provided, for both his immediate outcomes and avoiding long-term disability. (80% of babies born before 26w have some form of disability e.g low IQ, blindness, etc [1]).

No sane obstetrician is going to deliver based on a family opinion like that - it is a true last resort. If you were wrong, or less lucky, as horrible as it is to say, your son would not be with us and the surgeon would be out of a job with the "what if" on their conscious (which trust me, all obstericians have anyway).

When your son needed to be delivered, it sounded like he was delivered. Frankly no neonatal respiratory distress at 22 weeks sounds insanely lucky to me; normally before 35 weeks it's a concern.

I can't say if this was a failure of the medical professionals in charge of your care or not, but from the information you've given us it doesn't sound like it. Tens, maybe hundreds of patients will have presented identically to your partner with a far less severe diagnosis. Getting their babies out early could have left them permanently disabled or dead, on the offchance it was percreta/accreta/increta: especially in the absence of definitive imaging, which they did attempt to perform. Medicine is not perfect by a long shot. Managing uncertainty is one of the many skills of senior doctors.

Medicine isn't as simple as a lot of people in this thread think it to be.

DOI: Medical Student

[1] https://www.tommys.org/pregnancy-information/premature-birth...

This is not the case. Medical school places are up over a third since 2017. We import the amount of doctors we graduate every year, but we haven't meaningfully increased the amount of specialists and GP's we train in over a decade.

There is no shortage of doctors. There is a shortage of consultants/GPs.