Johannesburg detective Neil, 25, was driving to Bloemfontein for a four-day break. He blacked out behind the wheel of his car twenty kilometres before his destination. His car rolled several times, throwing him metres away from his car. A passer-by picked him up, as there were no rescue vehicles in the area, and rushed him to Universitas Hospital.
Doctors found blood in his urine, an indication that he was bleeding internally. Fearing that he had burst a kidney, they immediately prepared to do an intravenous polygram (IVP). This entails injecting an iodine solution into the circulation, which shows up on the screen and allows doctors to check for a haemorrhage. “Wait” someone screamed. “He is wearing a MedicAlert® bracelet on his wrist!” The bracelet revealed that he is allergic to iodine. Instead of conducting the IVP, doctors put him under close observation, constantly monitoring the blood in his urine.
Fortunately it started to decrease, signalling that the likelihood of a burst kidney was less.
Neil looks back on the episode with gratitude. “All my life I’d been warned that iodine could kill me” he says. “Without my bracelet to sound off the alarm and the Lord, I might not have been alive today.”
Neil