Medication side effects can be deadly. Pharmaceutical companies have a duty to disclose all known possible side effects of the medications that are prescribed to patients, including death. For a woman in Georgia, the pharmaceutical company failed to disclose one very important side effect that she painfully experienced.
Khaliah Shaw was struggling with depression. Her physician prescribed her some medication to help alleviate her depression. This medication was a GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) pharmaceutical called Lamictal. Lamictal is a medicine that is usually prescribed for seizure disorders and bipolar disorder. Shaw’s physicians thought it would help her with her depression struggles, but instead the medication caused her lifelong pain and suffering due to a side effect that caused her body to burn from the inside out.
Within two weeks of taking the drug, Shaw’s body began to break out into painful blisters. Essentially, her skin was deteriorating from the burns caused by the side effects of Lamictal. It took some time before doctors were able to diagnose her with this rare skin condition which left her with permanent scars, resembling the scars of a burn victim. After she “spent three weeks in a medically induced coma while her skin slowly peeled off,” she “wants to ensure that other patients are protected from pharmaceutical errors.”
Lamictal was allegedly prescribed in an inappropriate dose for Shaw, which likely caused the reaction. In addition to the prescription error, GSK had not been fully disclosing all of the possible side effects from the drug.
“The Palm Beach Post reported that others are also suing pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for promoting Lamictal without advertising its risks in full. In July 2012, the pharmaceutical company pleaded guilty to criminal negligent charges for allegations of fraud and failure to report product safety data for the drug, the newspaper reported. GSK paid $3 billion total.”
Pharmaceutical side effects can cause lifelong damages to a patient when prescribed inappropriately. The attorneys at the Alexander Law Group, LLP believe in empowering patients and can represent individuals who have been badly injured by caregivers or prescribed medicines. If you need legal help after an injury, contact the attorneys at Alexander Law Group, LLP at 888.777.1776 for a free case consultation.
