For the multitudes of Ohio residents who take prescription medications every day, a medication error may feel so unlikely that such a thought never even crosses their minds. A woman in another state, however, no longer has that luxury, as the drug injuries that resulted from a pharmaceutical error have left her with an incurable syndrome. The woman has filed a lawsuit claiming that she received the wrong dosage of a medication, with devastating and permanent consequences.
In 2014, the plaintiff began experiencing depression and went to see a doctor, who wrote her a prescription for lamotrigine. This anti-seizure medication is often marketed under the brand name Lamictal along with other drugs to treat symptoms of bipolar syndrome. After two weeks of using the medication, however, the woman’s skin broke out in blisters all over her body and she found herself in excruciating pain.
The woman has filed a lawsuit against the pharmacy, contending that she received an incorrect dosage of the medication, with terrible results. She was diagnosed with a rare but serious and incurable skin disorder known as Stevens Johnson Syndrome. Because of her physical agony, she was put into a medically-induced coma for five weeks while her skin essentially melted off.
The plaintiff’s medical bills for her drug injuries totaled at almost $3.5 million. She is not alone in her pharmaceutical litigation over the drug lamotrigine, as others are also suing the drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline for aggressively marketing the medication without full disclosure of the risks; in fact, the pharmaceutical giant paid $3 billion in response to allegations of criminal negligence, fraud and failure to report safety data for Lamictal. Anyone in Ohio who has suffered similar injuries as a result of a medication or a pharmaceutical error may benefit from consulting an attorney who has experience in pharmaceutical liability.
Source: fox25boston.com, “Woman’s skin melts off after medication error: “It felt like I was on fire””, John Pacenti, May 9, 2017
