dai dai lida a patient who had been taking diet pills containing the popular ingredient ephedra went to Hartford Hospital for a routine gynecologic procedure and wound up on a respirator. The hospital’s chief of anesthesiology believes the over the counter diet aid contributed to her life threatening complications.To prevent similar problems

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Earlier this year, a patient who had been taking diet pills containing the popular ingredient ephedra went to Hartford Hospital for a routine gynecologic procedure and wound up on a respirator. The hospital’s chief of anesthesiology believes the over the counter diet aid contributed to her life threatening complications.To prevent similar problems, Hartford Hospital has postponed a number of elective surgeries because patients reported taking herbal supplements within two weeks prior to a scheduled procedure.Sue Stagg, nurse manager of the center for pre admission testing at Hartford Hospital, says people whose surgeries have been postponed are angry, especially because most say their doctors never warned them.The hospital recently published a pamphlet on the dangers of herbal supplements and distributed it to physicians’ offices.We need to educate both physicians and patients,” Stagg says. We’re getting the word out that supplements are not benign substances.”Stagg says she noticed a spike in the number of patients taking ephedra containing diet drugs in January,dai dai lida, presumably after making New Year’s resolutions to lose weight.Other area hospitals also have had to turn away patients.