Boy oh Boy. Sounds like an idiot Doc to me. Their PDA with drug info is only useful if consulted BEFORE prescribing a drug. I know many Docs who use a PDA with a version of the PDR (Physicians desk reference) loaded on it. I have used the PDR at work on occasion for make sure the drugs given should be used for a certain condition. To consult her PDR after the fact is STUPID. To haphazardly prescribe the heavy guns is also a stupid move.
Now I have to defend Doc for handing out antibiotics to a patient with the common cold or something viral. I have spoken with a Doc about that, and he said that many of his patients come in and ask for antibiotics for ailments such as that. He said he used to refuse. Then he told me he doesn't fight it anymore because the patients will just doctor shop till they get it, and then will try to sue him for not giving them the drug when another doctor will. There is a lot of juggling there too. The docs have to keep their patients. Thats how they make a living too.
Now I am by no means defending this docs decision. It to me definitely sounds like she doesn't know her butt from a hole in the ground! Franky I have only seen ONE possibly Two female docs worth a crap, in my 7 year career as a surgical tech. One of those I only see on occasion, and I have heard stories about her. The other is new, and I have only worked with her on 3 cases so far. Dr. Shaver is the newest neurosurgeon at my hospital, and so far she has been very nice and seems to know what she is doing. She is still new so the verdict is still subject to change. All the others female docs I have worked with I wouldn;t trust as far as I could throw them. I need to add this is not a sexist remark by no means. It is just fact. Although I have seen numerous male docs I wouldn't go to either. The proportion of female docs that are good is significantly lower than the number of male docs that are good. That is my observation. I kid you now we have a female anesthesiologist that will give a drug to raise BP when the BO gets to high then will give another drug to lower the BP without decreasing the one she gave to raise it. Since these drugs are given on drips it is easy enough to just decrease the dosage, but no she give another drug to lower. So by the time she is done with a heart case the patient is on like 6 or 7 drips when a lot of them are counteracting each other!!!! I'm no doctor, and don;t really pay attention to what drugs are given at the head of the bed, but those are some of the things said by some of her fellow sleep docs.
So the biggest lesson we should get from this entire thing is not to steer clear of this drug, because there are proper times to administer this drug, and this time was not the case. The lesson we need to get from this is, does out doctor know what in the heck he/she is doing, does she keep up on the latest reports in his/her field, and does he/she really care about patients or is he/she interested in quantity instead of quality.
I have to say also that the normal drug given as a preinsision antibiotic is normally ancef. The only time I have seen the other class of drugs given was when the patient was allergic to the ancef class. I have never heard of the one in this post given, but I have heard of cypro given to allergic patients.
Good luck with your mother Swords! I hope she recovers and that her ignorant Doc hasn't done any permanent damage.