Lindy Andrews: Journalist & Advocate

18 years ago former Rotorua resident (now living in Napier)  Lindy Andrews was prescribed anti-depression medication for post-traumatic stress disorder. She believes the medications resulted in her suffering the potentially fatal serotonin syndrome, a medical condition that ultimately kills patients with multiple organ failure due to high temperatures and seizures.

ABOUT Lindy Andrews

“Lindy Andrews is a Journalist by profession. She believes that if her rare condition had not been identified, and her medication changed, she would not be here to tell her story.

It’s been a long road back for her since 1994 when it all began. It started from a prescription for a common anti-depressant to treat depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Lindy’s diagnosis was confirmed by Rotorua Hospital Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr Brian Abbott in 2009, after she accidentally uncovered the cause of her symptoms while trawling the web for clues.  Withdrawal was horrific and lasted a year. It’s taken her more than two years to recover to a point where her residual neurological impairments are manageable.

Serotonin syndrome occurs when a person takes medications that cause high levels of the chemical serotonin to accumulate in their body. It can occur when you increase the dose of a drug or add new ones to a person’s existing regimen.

Serotonin is a chemical your body produces that’s needed for nerve cells and the brain to function. But too much serotonin causes symptoms that can range from mild shivering and diaorrhea to severe muscle rigidity, fever and seizures. Dr Abbott took Lindy off all the anti-depressants and prescribed a new drug to reduce her serotonin levels.

Better Consumer  access to Information

These days, Lindy speaks gratefully of regaining her health. She still has a way to go, but wants patients to have better access to information about the side effects of medications and for pharmaceutical companies to be made more accountable. At present, the legislation reads, “every person who commits an offence against this section is liable  to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or a fine NOT exceeding $1,000.” — Section 76 (2)

The New Zealand Medicines Act states that any medication leaflet or advertisement must give a full list of side effects, but Lindy said the pamphlet in her packet fell short of the mark.

Here in New Zealand, Medsafe is responsible for administering the Medicines Act 1981 and Regulations 1984 regulating products used for a therapeutic purpose. These include: medicines, related products, herbal remedies, medical devices and controlled drugs used as medicines.

The objective of the Medicines legislation is to manage the risk of avoidable harm associated with the use of medicines. Among Medsafe’s  objectives is that information about the selection and safe use of medicines is provided to health professionals and consumers.

Advocacy

Just under a year ago, Lindy told Abigail Hartevelt of the The Daily Post that she’d been contacted by more than a dozen people seeking her advice or support.  Lindy helped in the case of a Christchurch woman who found herself in a Christchurch Police cell in her nightie and not knowing how she had got there.

She’d also been approached by a College of Medicine to speak; been asked to write a piece for the Mental Health Commission’s Consumer Magazine, while others suggested that she write a book. Lindy said she  “was happier to continue being an advocate for people.”

The years between 1994 and now provide no real indication here of the losses Lindy has endured — her profession, her professional reputation, the loss of those growing-up years of her boys. Others have written about those, elsewhere and in depth. Yet to me, Lindy Andrews epitomises everything she sees in her fellow kiwis, ‘determination, and an entrenched survival instinct. She IS, to me — quite simply, courageous.”

5 KURIOUS KIWI QUESTIONS

Do you have interesting friends? I do. I’m a kurious kiwi, so in this LifeStyle section I ask them 5 Questions. Their responses are sometimes startling yet always thought evoking. I ask each of them a common question relating to a Cause they believe in and why it matters to them. Read on to share in their take on what they think really does matter.

One piece of N.Z. legislation you’d change if you could?

The Medicines Act 1981 to ensure comprehensive, accessible information on medications for all New Zealanders and to give Medsafe the legislative teeth it needs to impose hefty penalties on pharmaceutical companies who practice to deceive.

Favourite Blues artist? 

Nina Simone (International) and Midge Marsden (Kiwi)

Tell us about a Cause that matters to you, why is it so important we know about it?

Our treatment of people suffering from mental health conditions still has a long way to go. Sadly, millions of dollars spent on television campaigns has done little to challenge prejudice in the two areas where it matters most; among clinicians and in the workplace.

In your years as a Journalist, what local story reached in and touched your soul?

The story of Barnes Wallis, the pacifist who created the bouncing bomb in the hope of ending the carnage of WWII. I wrote a Feature: “Day of the Dammed”  for Hawkes Bay Today (May 16, 2006) a story about Les Munro CNZM, DSO, QSO, DFC, JP the last surviving pilot of the Dambusters Raid of May 1943.

Les was born in Gisborne on New Zealand’s East Coast, he lived there on the family farm until he enlisted in the Royal New Zealand Air Force on 5 July 1941. When Barnes Wallis learned how the bombs had the deaths of thousands of Polish people enslaved to the Germans, he broke down and wept. That touched me to the core.

There are many other stories, of course, including those I wrote on the death of Coral Burrows, who died at the hands of a P-enraged step-father. I will never forget Ron Burrows’ grief, his anger. Those things will never leave him.

People are leaving N.Z. in droves, others of us are returning despite the ‘grim’ forecasts. In your opinion, what’s New Zealand still got going for it?

Determination, it’s an entrenched survival instinct like courage. An ability to pull together and help others. The tragedies in Christchurch and at Pike River highlight all that is great about our people. Also, it’s unparalleled beauty.

FURTHER UPDATE

It has taken three years, but ACC have finally accepted a claim covering the residual neurological effects. The Corporation also approached Lindy’s GP and asked him to lodge a claim for mental injury arising from physical (read Treatment) injury. Lindy is now awaiting a full assessment.

UPDATE

Yesterday (Feb 14, 2012) Lindy learned that ACC will NOT provide cover for residual neurological damage, which its Assessor stated in a recent report was a direct result of treatment injury and was likely to be permanent. Although the physical manifestations such as nodding and tremor are obvious, the brain damage is not of a nature that is visible on x-ray or MRI, as a skull fracture or tumour would be.

RELATED

1. Medicines Act 1981 2. Youtube Channel: Faces of Dystonia