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Winter is the prime time for the flu. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a yearly flu vaccine as the first and most important step in protecting against this serious disease. For those who don’t get the vaccine – and for some who do – influenza can occur.
Amy Clanton says her husband Ralph would not have taken Phenytoin to control his seizures if he knew the drug could have serious side effects, according to the West Virginia’s The Record. Without forewarning of the potential dangers, Ralph took the prescription medication and a month later noticed odd skin disruptions on his body. As his condition worsened, his eyelid peeled off while Amy applied eye drops to his eyes.
The Guardian has updated a recent health story about the epilepsy treatment oxcarbazepine, also known as Trileptal. According to the report, two serious adverse reactions have been associated with the medication– Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS) and its more severe form, toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN). The reactions have occurred in both adults and children.
The serious adverse reaction to medication known as Stevens Johnson Syndrome, or SJS, is rare in the U.S. and most countries, occurring in about one person per million each year. However, doctors at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan, have seen as many as 40 to 50 cases of SJS in only a year. “Sometimes we see two or three in a single week,” says Ghung Wen-Hung, a researcher at Chang Gung, who was quoted in the Taipei Times.
Researchers like Wen-Hung are asking why.
The International Serious Adverse Events Consortium (SAEC) is a global, nonprofit partnership between leading pharmaceutical companies, the FDA and academic institutions. It was organized just more than a year ago. Among its goals, the consortium hopes to identify genetic markers that predict which individuals are at risk for drug-related serious adverse reactions, also known as SAEs.
A stimulant-type drug recently was added to the list of medications that may cause Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS), a rare but life-threatening condition affecting the skin and mucus membranes, causing the skin to blister and peel away in sheets. MedPage Today reported that drug maker Cephalon has agreed to update the drug’s label to warn of the potential risk of SJS and other serious rashes and hypersensitivity reactions.
Gary Beatham had been blamed for her death. He couldn’t understand why.
Beatham’s girlfriend of two years, Louise Armstrong, came down with flu-like symptoms in late December. The morning of New Year’s Eve, Beatham woke in their Penrith, Australia, home to find his partner gravely ill with blisters covering her body. He called the ambulance, but it was too late. Armstrong had died.
Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS) and its most serious form Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN) are serious, life threatening conditions caused by common medication. They are defined as hypersensitivity disorders that affect the skin and mucous membranes, causing the top layer of skin to peel off in sheets and painful blisters to form on the eyes and mouth. It affects people of all ages and genders. Infants and children are not exempt. The drugs most commonly associated with SJS and TEN in children are ibuprofen-based medications such as Children’s Motrin. Other drugs that can cause SJS and TEN include anti-seizure medications and antibiotics.
The Stevens Johnson Syndrome Foundation was founded as a community for adults and children affected by the condition. It is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting public awareness to adverse drug reactions. Tax-deductible donations help power the organizations Web site and enable its members to raise awareness of the condition and provide much needed support to others suffering from SJS and TEN.
One of the organization’s outreach projects aims to provide comfort to the tiniest sufferers of SJS and TEN. For a tax-deductible donation of $30, the organization provides a plush bear and blanket to a child with SJS and TEN.
For more information about this important cause visit the SJS Foundation’s Donation Center. To participate in the bear & blanket program, send your $30 check payable to the Stevens Johnson Syndrome Foundation, P.O. Box 350333 Westminster, CO 80035-0333, USA. Please include “SJS Kids Comfort” in the memo section. Other donation opportunities also are detailed on the Web site.
It was bad enough that Jean McCrawley’s infant daughter Julie was diagnosed with epilepsy, but two weeks after she was prescribed phenobarbatol to treat her seizures, she woke up with a swollen eyes and a high fever. Jean took her daughter to the doctor who discovered blisters forming on the little girl’s shoulders and mouth. He diagnosed her with chicken pox.
But the blisters got worse. They spread down her throat and little Julie was unable to drink her bottle because of the pain. Jean rushed her daughter to the hospital, where doctors continued to administered the phenobarbatol for her seizures. But Julie’s health continued to decline. Four days later the little girl’s lungs collapsed and her skin began coming off in sheets. That’s when a nurse realized what was going on. “This is Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS),” she said. Jean was relieved to have a diagnosis, but the doctor said, “This is extremely serious. She could die.”
“I was a fairly attractive woman before. Now I’m just butt-ass ugly,” says Rachel, known as SpunkyRachel on YouTube. She says this on one of the videos she has posted to the site. She hopes they will spur a YouTube support group for others like her, who have lived through the pain and are recovering from Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS).
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