|
Back in 1994 or so, I was a student at SMSU. Some of the guys on my floor were doing these medical studies and making good cash. Since I was a broke ass college student, I decided to try it. Basically, you went to the facility on Friday night, woke up at 6 am to take the drug, and you had your blood drawn every hour or so until Monday morning when they released you.
First study I did was a new antihistamine pill. The study lasted about 5 weekends. Went in Friday night, played SNES, did homework and watched tv. It was boring but I got about 2 grand for basically doing jack shit.
Fast forward a couple weeks later, I get a call from the place asking if I wanted to participate in the same antihistamine study again. Hell yes I do! So, the next Friday night my roommate and I both show up expecting everything to be the same. Which it was. Saturday morning at 6, we all get up, take the pill, get out blood drawn, grab some breakast, and go sit in the common room to watch some TV.
30 minutes after I had taken the pill I was sitting in a recliner watching the TV and I noticed I was having a hard time focusing on the screen. I then notice it wasnt just the tv I was having trouble focusing on, it was everything in the room. My breathing wass off, I could feel tingling all over my body, and my chest felt like it was beng crushed. I stood up and the last thing I remember was, "why am I staring at the ceiling lights??"
I woke up a short time later from the most excrutiating, searing, terrible pain in my chest. I was on a bed, stripped down to my boxers with shit sticking out of the veins in my arms, and chest. I look around and there was some guy screaming at me from above, holding the shock paddles in both of his hands. Everybody was asking me how I felt, and all I could think of was, "what the **** just happened to me?"
Ambulance arrived and took me over to Cox South where I spent the day in ICU. Turns out I had several "cardiac arrest" situations and they had to bring me back with the shock paddles, which was the horrible pain I had experienced. The next morning I see some more doctors and went over some of the tests. It was then that I found out I am really, really, horribly allergic to antihistamine.
The medical experiment place was more than happy to cut me a check for double the amount I would have received for the whole study as long as I signed a waiver saying I would not sue. When I asked them why this shit didn't happen the first time I went through the study they said it was because the first time I was in the placebo group, this time I just got unlucky enough to get the real thing.
|