Finding the humor in the situation If your blood turned green as a result of a patent medicine you were taking, you'd be more than a little concerned. And if the only responses you got from the public were silly comments comparing you to Mr. Spock, that concern would probably turn to anger rather quickly. But that's exactly what happened to a Canadian man earlier this year. He had been taking a migraine medication called sumatriptan, which caused sulfur to enter into his hemoglobin, turning his blood green. Doctors discovered his condition when he went in for surgery for another potentially life-threatening condition. Enter the media. Granted, a person bleeding dark green blood is more than a little curious. And curiosities like these do bring out the "Ripley's Believe It or Not" type reactions in all of us. But that was all the media made of it: A side show spectacle peppered with enough Mr. Spock and Vulcan references to turn the stomach of even the most devoted Trekkie. In fact, the article I read devoted three paragraphs (two of which served as the article's conclusion) to describing how Star Trek's Mr. Spock also had green blood and how the Vulcan version of the body fluid differed from this instance of human green blood. The first difference is that Vulcan green blood is fictional and, as such, hardly worth the time, energy, and space devoted to it by this particular reporter. Another difference? The non-fiction part of this story occurred as a result of a drug side effect. Am I the only one who sees THIS as the REAL news here? Maybe since the patient made a full recovery the media felt it was all right to trivialize his ordeal and downplay the risk of taking sumatriptan. But that recovery only came after he stopped taking it. Who know what might have occurred if he hadn't? I'd be willing to bet, though, that it wouldn't be something any self-respecting reporter would feel comfortable making a mockery of. Source:
"Patient bleeds dark green blood," BBC News, 6/8/07 | 
