Although this story is from the late spring it’s still relevant and incredibly important information. Please read on.
Three years ago, Khaliah Shaw told her doctors she was feeling depressed so they prescribed her Lamictal (an anti-seizure medication sometimes used to treat bipolar disorders). She took the medication for two weeks but soon began to break out in blisters and felt like her body was “on fire.”1
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As things got worse she had to be put into a medically induced coma while her skin slowly peeled off. This would last for three weeks. She is now suing the maker of the drug on the grounds that she was given the wrong dosage of the prescription and that she wasn’t adequately warned about the risks of using Lamictal. Her hope is that others will be protected from pharmaceutical errors, as well. (Doctors would go on to diagnose her with Stevens Johnson Syndrome, a rare skin disorder that is typically caused by an adverse reaction to medication.)
She said, “This did not have to happen. This was not just some sort of fluke in my opinion. This happened as a directly (sic) result of somebody’s error.” 2
However, her ordeal is far from over. She not only resembles a burn victim but she has lost her fingernails, sweat glands, and is slowly going blind. And this could happen to her again but doctors tell her it could be far worse the second time around. Her medical bills also total more than $3.45 million and are expected to rise as treatment continues.
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But she is not the only person to have had a problem with the drug. In fact, pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline plead guilty to “criminal negligent charges for allegations of fraud and failure to report product safety data for the drug,”3 and paid $3 billion in total in 2012. Shame, shame, shame.
Stay strong Khaliah!
