bobbiejrae in Articles On Nearariver.com (Are the Best!)For Parents

Died Accidentally

My friend had allergies like I do and died accidentally due to a simple mistake.

My friend was still “young” like me, in her fifties.

A brilliant woman, she had a lot going for her. Well-educated, she had gotten her M.D. and studied natural medicine.

One day she developed a bad headache that she attributed to her allergies. Although she treated it with a sinus rinse and other natural supplements, it got worse. After putting up with it for a week, she went to the emergency room. After taking images of her brain, the emergency room doctor transferred her via life flight to an intensive care unit over two hours away.

She had what appeared to be an infection in her brain. Sadly, although the intensive care unit did its best to save her, it couldn’t. My friend died six days after her hospital admission and thirteen days after the onset of her headache.

The autopsy determined that my friend died due to an infection in her brain.

What had caused this terminal condition?

Although my friend was educated and knew how to take care of herself, the probable cause of her death was a simple instruction she had accidentally ignored.

The box for every sinus rinse has, among others, a warning like this one from my Neil Med Sinus rinse:

Do not use with tap water. Use only with previously boiled, distilled, water or distilled, commercially-prepared bottled or micro-filtered (through .2 micron) water.

Why was this the most likely culprit in my friend’s death? She used tap water instead of distilled water to rinse her sinuses.

According to the US Food and Drug Administration, “tap water isn’t safe for use with a nasal rinse because it isn’t adequately filtered or treated. Some tap water contains low levels or organisms –such as bacteria and protozoa, including amoebas—that may be safe to swallow because stomach acid kills them. But, in your nose, these organisms stay alive in nasal passages and cause potentially serious infections.”

My friend was healthy other than a few allergies, and her brain infection most likely resulted from bacteria in the water she mixed with saline to cope with her sinus problems.

Rest in peace, my friend. You didn’t die accidentally in vain. I am telling your story to the world to warn others to avoid the mistake you innocently made.

Parents, if you use a sinus rinse to help your child with allergies, please invest in a one dollar gallon of distilled water first.