Wieg tot Graf: a typical man’s story 2010
As a child he is generally healthy. He takes paracetamol sometimes for minor viral illnesses, he has one episode of croup for which he takes two dexamethasone tablets, and very occasional antibiotics. He does have mild asthma and uses two inhalers for several years but then grows out of this. As a teenager he develops hay fever and every spring and summer has to take regular antihistamines.
As he gets older he takes antibiotics for occasional infections including the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia. He starts smoking aged 18 and finally gives up in his 70’s after several attempts. One consequence of years of smoking is that he is prone to chest infections for which he needs antibiotics.
In his thirties and forties he is troubled by migraine headaches and takes a number of different treatments. For a period of months he even tries taking a regular prophylactic tablet to stop them coming so often. He often takes anti-inflammatory drugs for the headache pain and these cause him to have indigestion which troubles him on and off for some years and he also takes tablets for this.
Traveling to Kenya for a holiday in his early sixties he is prescribed the antimalarial tablet malarone. He remains remarkably healthy through his middle years but in his late sixties develops high blood pressure. For some years this is treated with a single water tablet every day. Eventually he needs to add a second tablet called an ACE to control the hypertension. Later still his cholesterol becomes high and he adds a statin and a low dose aspirin and so takes four tablets every day. It is at this time that he finally kicks the smoking habit.
When he is 76 he gets indigestion again and starts on treatment, but after one week has a heart attack. The pain he thought was indigestion was in fact angina. The initial emergency treatment for the heart attack is to take one full strength aspirin and to get to hospital immediately. After a week he is discharged on a new regime of tablets to minimise the risk of a recurrence. These include one of his anti-hypertensives, a beta blocker, his aspirin and statin and also a drug to prevent tiny blood clots forming called clopidogrel. He continues on this regime until at the age of 77 he dies suddenly of a massive stroke.