Blog Week 8A: The Importance of Definitions

Do you ever wonder why some readings are more complexed than others?  Perhaps it is our reading level or perhaps it is our lack of understanding certain words.  I personally maintain my iPhone close to me when reading a novel, an article, and even a newspaper.  An iPhone or a dictionary, two wonderful references to look up the meaning of words that 'we' are not sure of.  Looking up words and the definitions give us a better comprehension of what we are reading.  Definitions help keep the audience's attention and increases their knowledge of words individuals may lack.  There are key patterns of definitions in which a person must know, such as exemplification, description, compare and contrast, process, and classification and division.  In the following article I will demonstrate the patterns of a "process" and a "description."

I previously read an insidious article posted in The New York Times, pertaining to contaminated methylprednisolone injections that were compounded in a compounding pharmacy, called the New England Compounding Center, located in Framingham, Massachusetts.  Methylprednisolone acetate is a steroid in which is injected near the spinal cord for back and neck injuries in order to soothe inflamed and irritated nerves.  Death is occuring because the result of the fungal contamination causing an outbreak of a unique form of meningitis.  The articles in depth description entails the order of the occurances leading up to the fatalities.  New England C.C. compounded the drug in bulk and shipped the product to seventy-five pain clinics in twenty-three states. Because of the drug shortages compounding pharmacies are allowed to alleviate the demand locally but not to become a miniature version of a major drug-maker cooperation.  The reason behind the bulk production stands behind the savings of currency for the doctors' offices.  The contaminated drug gets injected into the patient's epideral site sending the meningitis straight for the brain.  The pharmacy is mainly to blame, but there lies unanswered questions inside the physician's offices as well, for example "who administered the drug into the injection site?"  Are they legally qualified?  Injecting in that particular complexed area, was there a fluoroscopy (a medical device to help tract the needle to ensure it does not penetrate the spinal membrane) used?  In this causing death for the patient.  Throughtout the article demonstrates the descriptive process of an innocent patient's suffers and dies over greed, recklessness, and lack of policies. Article is called, "Steroid Shot Near Spine Gives Illness an Opening," by Denise Grady.