Imagine going into the hospital to be treated for pneumonia -- and ending up with ruptured tendon.
That's what happened to 82-year-old John Schedin in 2001 after he was put on Johnson & Johnson's antibiotic, Levaquin.
It's an associated side effect that has since earned the drug the infamous black box warning, but at the time, it was only listed in a two-foot long label with writing so small it looks like it was written by one of those Chinese street vendors who can put your name on a grain of rice.
It's a game of hide and seek. But for once, this drug company could be losing at its own game.
Schedin took Johnson & Johnson to court and was awarded $1.7 million in damages. And that's just one of more than 2,500 pending cases.
It's nonsensical to think you can place any major risk you want in a bunch of unreadable fine print, and it looks like juries tend to agree.
These are just the patients who saw the possible link between the drug and their tendon problems -- obvious cases, like tendon ruptures.
I can't help but wonder how many people who took this med could have ended up with tendonitis -- but never made the link between the two.
In many cases, they might not even realize they have tendonitis -- because docs don't even know how to diagnose it. Most of them just assume it's arthritis, write a painkiller prescription, and send the patient home.
By William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.
No comments:
Post a Comment