Confessions of a Medical Representative

Adverse events

Dr Grumblow phoned me today. He was not happy. A patient of his had experienced side effects with one of my drugs. Or so he said. He had given his patient a drug for eczema which I had told him about and the patient now has a broken leg. The eczema wasn’t even on the patient’s leg. Dr Grumblow was furious though, so I had to visit him to calm him down.

All the way to his surgery I was trying to think of ways to tell Dr Grumblow not to be so stupid without upsetting him further. I guessed that the patient was a difficult one and that the doctor was frustrated and needed to lash out at someone. When I arrived he was still not in the best of moods.

Dr Grumblow handed me a piece of paper with the details of what had happened to his patient and asked me to report them back to head office. Great, I thought. He really is serious. It won’t be just him that won’t use my drug anymore, it will be all his colleagues as well. Getting sales is hard enough without this kind of problem.

I read the piece of paper. The patient had become drowsy and had fallen down some stairs. That made me feel a bit better, at least Dr Grumblow wasn’t trying to claim the drug broke the patient’s leg. I could just fill out a yellow card, ring up drug safety and forget about the matter, a damage limitation exercise. Hopefully Dr Grumblow wouldn’t mention it to anyone outside the surgery.

I told the doctor what I would do and what he could expect to happen and he relaxed a little. I apologised for the problems he had had and said that I understood that he would not want to use my drug again, but he looked shocked. Of course he would use my drug again, he said. The eczema was beginning to clear up and all drugs have side effects. He didn’t expect every patient who took my drug to fall down the stairs. I asked him why he had been so cross about it. He said that he was sorry, but the patient was a friend of his and he was worried about them.

Just before I left the doctor said to me: “You might think I’m being silly, but I know that the chances are that there is no connection between your drug and my patient’s broken leg. I just think that any possible problems with drugs should be looked at so that we are able to use them more effectively and with less risks and greater confidence. The fact that you came in here straight away to help me report this gives me more faith in your company. Now, please excuse me, I need to report a problem with a drug for blood pressure. It’s the most unusual thing but the patient can’t stop winking. My receptionists all find it most offputting”.