Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

More than 2,000 drugs, including penicillin, antibiotics, some epilepsy drugs and anti-inflammatory drugs including popular OTC brands Advil, Aleve and Motrin, have been linked to a rare but life threatening allergic reaction to medicine known as Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS). When people first present symptoms of the condition, they are most often misdiagnosed until the patient’s health worsens. Though rare, some cases can be fatal. Which is why it is important to understand SJS and recognize its symptoms so that medical attention can be sought early.

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Consumers are urged to take a close look at the labels of both over-the-counter and prescription medications and be aware of the potential side effects, according to Frank Woodson, shareholder with Beasley Allen Law Firm. Woodson was quoted in a recent issue of Lawsuit.com, warning consumers about Stevens Johnson Syndrome, or SJS, a rare but life-threatening reaction to many frequently used medications.

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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.

Kim Oake, the Canadian single mother of two who became ill with toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) last month, was admitted to the hospital and put into a drug-induced coma to help battle infection, is going home, according to her sister Lisa, who keeps regular updates on the Kim Oake Support Group Facebook page.

“It is absolutely amazing that within three weeks of being admitted to ICU, she will be able to walk out of the hospital (with the help of a walker),” Lisa writes in a Dec. 17 update. Doctors say that Kim’s fast recovery has been staggering. One doctor told the family that when he first saw Kim when she admitted to the hospital weeks ago, he believed her chances of survival were only 30 percent.

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Just six months before her body lost its fight with Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS), 9-year-old Kaitlyn Sierra Langstaff penned this poem:

TOUCH IS THE SENSE OF LOVE
I’m scared,
 You hold me.
I cry,
 You hold me close.
I’m hurt,
 You hold me closer.
Touch is the sense of love.

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The mother of 11-year-old Sabrina Johnson was clearly agitated when last summer a jury found Johnson & Johnson and McNeil Laboratories not liable for her daughter’s strong adverse reaction to over-the-counter medicine that left her blind. To Sabrina’s mother Joan, who was quoted by ABC 7 Eyewitness News, the ruling sent a painful message: “It means that nobody cares that she has been blinded. It means that nobody cares that she was almost tortured to death. That’s got to matter to somebody. And no, you should not see children, or mothers watching their children die. You’ve got to look into some of these cases.”

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New reports from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and cancer patients have put Revlimid, an oral medicine given to patients with multiple myeloma, on a list of medications that could possibly cause Stevens Johnson Syndrome when used by itself or mixed with other drugs. Stevens Johnson syndrome is a serious, potentially life-threatening skin disease that can start with flu-like symptoms and eventually cause a rash that spreads and blisters.

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