Tylenol is not an antibiotic- duh!

[ER4LifeMS4now]

Years ago I had a peds case that's stuck with me—a kid septic, family couldn't afford Tylenol, and when he died some nurses muttered "Tylenol could've stopped it.” At the time I was furious—Tylenol doesn't cure sepsis—but looking back I think they just didn't know how to process something so senseless, so they latched onto the easiest blame: the mom.

 

I've carried that memory for years, and one of the ways I finally processed it was through writing music. I ended up turning it into a song called Tylenol—not trying to plug anything here, just sharing because it came straight out of a nurse's break room moment that never left me.

 

It literally took me more than 10 years to work through the guilt of not speaking up that day. Have you ever seen this kind of scapegoating happen on your units—where grief gets displaced onto someone or something that wasn't the real problem?

 

Sometimes I feel like I work with the smartest people on Earth, and other times like there's not a sane person in the house. But hey—we work ER... maybe we're all a little psychotic, right?

 

If anyone does want to hear it, feel free to DM me. No need to bring it into the thread

[ER4LifeMS4now]

Tylenol

 

 

[Verse 1]

 

The fever climbed, his face was flushed and red,

The rent past due, "Final Notice" it said.

She opened up the cabinet—shelves were bare,

The Tylenol cost more than what she had there.

No paycheck 'til Friday, no mercy supplied,

With one in her arms and one at her side

They walked to the ER, they had no ride.

 

[Chorus]

 

Tell me how a fever turned into goodbye;

Tell me how a paycheck decides who lives or dies.

If medicine is mercy, who can bear the cost

When pennies are too precious and children are lost?

 

[Verse 2]

 

The triage desk assigned a room and bed,

I scored the I.V. a tiny flash ran red.

Fluids on the pump, his pressure hit the floor,

He lost his blink; we tubed, but breathed no more.

His brother pulled his legs beneath the seat,

His mother gripped the rail, frozen on her feet.

 

[Chorus]

 

Tell me how a fever turned into goodbye;

Tell me how a paycheck decides who lives or dies.

If medicine is mercy, who can bear the cost

When pennies are too precious and children are lost?

 

[Verse 3]

 

The other nurses muttered, their eyes on her face,

Their voices held judgment, not mercy or grace.

"Tylenol could've stopped it”—their refrain,

I bit my tongue, their judgment was insane.

They judged her sharply in the break room air,

As if their questions proved they ever cared.

 

[Bridge]

 

No heroes here, no cape to cut the night,

She's walking home beneath the jaundiced light.

One small hand clutched tight, the other bare—

An empty palm proves he's not there.

 

[Final Chorus]

 

Tell me how a fever turned into goodbye;

When poverty decides who gets to survive.

If healing is a privilege, who keeps the score,

When a mother can't afford hope anymore.

 

[Outro]

 

The chart was closed; the child still lay dead

Discharge: 'Expired.’ Balance due, in red. 

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Agreed, 

Tylenol or lack of it doesn't kill (in appropriate doses). It makes people more comfortable.

[offlabel]

And it reduces fever which, in a child, reduces the risk of febrile seizure and the morbidity that comes from that as well and the harm from just having a high fever aside from seizures....so....there's that...I  mean, norepinephrine isn't an antibiotic either but it is critical in the treatment of severe sepsis...