It's hard for me to feel particularly objective about what I'm writing
here -- a tragedy is still fresh. But I thought this community might be a
good place to discuss it, or at least to vent a little, since I've been a
bit of a media critic here over the last few years. I'm not sure if I'll
ever write about this for a broader audience. Perhaps your thoughts will
help me decide.
Two weeks ago tonight, one of my favorite people died from a massive strep
infection (streptococcus A group B, for those who want details). He was 54,
a popular high school math teacher and coach and a real bright spot in our
church. He went through lay ministry training with my wife; his wife is a
teacher's aide at our church's school. Roger was a guy who lived with
passion -- as he lay in critical condition, we were joking that this was a
heck of a ploy to get out of a speeding ticket. He had gotten a ticket near
Fresno for going 103 miles an hour, coming home from a weekend trip to
Arizona to set up his mother-in-law's stereo. He would drive hundreds of
miles to surprise his daughter on her birthday when she was on youth group
musical tours each spring. Roger didn't do anything half-way. He had
strong opinions about most things and was usually right, but when he was
wrong, he'd change his mind... so that he'd be right. And sure of it. With
a smile.
At his memorial, one of the kids he coached said it impressed and drove them
nuts that the high school kids couldn't beat him at anything, even though he
was 54. He worked out so hard that he was often in pain and he'd take a
popular brand of ibuprofen for it. In fact, he had begun taking it before
working out, knowing that he would be in pain later. It seems that he had
taken enough of this pain medicine in the days before he died that it
completely masked the fever and pain that would have been a clue that
something serious was wrong. He had been to an urgent care clinic a day
before he was admitted -- no fever, no obvious sign of anything serious.
They sent him home, suggesting it might be the flu. The next night he went
back, was immediately admitted into intensive care, was on a ventilator by 2
a.m. and died 24 hours later. The large doses of ibuprofen had also
contributed to kidney failure, which made it all that much harder for him to
fight off the infection.
What's bugging me is that months ago, I had been very critical of the
television ads for this particular painkiller, because they essentially said
that if you don't feel like you need this drug after you've worked out,
you're not trying hard enough. I find myself wondering if that kind of
advertising encouraged Roger or others to overdo both their workouts and the
drug. Now, I'm guessing from what people said that Roger probably didn't
follow the label directions, which he should have, as they murmur at the end
of the commercials. And it seems that perhaps he didn't make it clear to
the urgent care doctor that his kidneys hadn't been producing much of
anything, which also would have been a clue to a more serious problem. But
at the same time, I can't help but believe, even more than I did before,
that the advertising crossed an ethical line.
I hasten to add that I don't think advertising regulation is the solution.
What I do believe is that more voices must be heard. Those painkiller ads
come totally out of context; I'd like to create a world in which we are free
to endorse, criticize and annotate ads and other messages in mass media,
just as we can here in this electronic community. If someone posted a
message to brin-l advocating the idea that taking large doses of ibuprofen
are a sign that you're living life to its fullest, you can bet that other
points of view would follow, quickly.
Having been near the deaths of a number of people close to me over the last
seven or eight years (I'm beginning to think that's the definition of middle
age), I've found that I, like many I'd read about in the past, want their
lives and deaths to make a real difference. Roger's life and death mean
many things to me; one of them, as you see if you've read this far, is that
I'm going to be even more passionate about using technology to diminish the
power of advertising-based media.
Nick
