Avandia News

 

Avandia: Dead at 39

-Lawyers and Settlements

07/15/2008- Charles' wife had diabetes, and she had been taking Avandia as prescribed by her doctor. But it didn't do her any good. She died at the age of 39, after having experienced a series of heart problems and resulting surgeries. But she didn't just drop dead of a heart attack.

One day, out of the blue, Charles' wife collapsed. "She passed right out," Charles said. "The emergency paramedics were called, and they rushed her to hospital. While she was in the hospital she had a catheterization and angioplasty, and the doctors put in a stent." This was in November, 2006.

At the time the doctors did ask what medications she was taking, but nobody mentioned anything about Avandia. And Charles wasn't concerned about the medication, why should he be? He didn't know about the problems associated with the drug. And he doesn't recall his wife having any knowledge of the problems associated with Avandia either.

So they returned home, thinking all was well, or at least that things could only get better. But they were shortly to get a lot worse.

Several months after returning home from the hospital Charles' wife began experiencing shortness of breath and chest pains again. "This time, when she was taken to hospital, the doctors had found that another artery was completely blocked," Charles said. "They put in another stent, and sent her home."

And then, a few months later, as if the couple were having déjà vu, Charles wife noticed more chest pains. She was taken to hospital. "The doctors discovered that two more arteries were completely blocked, and one of the stents was closed," Charles said. So the doctors performed a triple bypass on her.

She was doing well in post operative recovery. But on the third day her heart got out of rhythm. The doctors were able to stabilize it with medications, but it happened again on the fifth day and this time they couldn't correct her heart rhythm. It's been eight months since she died in hospital. She left behind a nine year old daughter."

It's been hard on Charles and his daughter. They can't help wondering if Avandia played a role in her death. In May 2007, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), which reports the 43 percent increased risk for heart attack, and a 64 percent increase in the incidence of death resulting from cardiac conditions in people taking Avandia, compared with placebo. The NEJM article followed on from changes to the labeling of Avandia, in 2006, which resulted from reports of macular edema, and peripheral edema -or swelling of the extremities- in diabetic patients, and increased risk of cardiovascular events in patients with congestive heart failure and type 2 diabetes.

Right now, Charles and his daughter have no answers, but they would like some, and a lawyer may be able to help them with that.

 

If you or a loved one have experienced an Avandia heart attack, or Avandia stroke, Avandia congestive heart failure, Avandia cardiovascular disease or if you have lost a loved one to an Avandia death you may be entitled to compensation. Contact the Avandia attorneys of Ennis & Ennis today for a free confidential case evaluation. Our on staff nurse and lawyers are standing by to answer any questions you may have regarding Avandia's side effects, a possible Avandia class action lawsuit, or any other type of Avandia litigation.