Most people probably don’t think twice about supplying their children with ibuprofen when they become ill. But as this next story illustrates, dangerous side effects can sometimes present. One family forced to go through a terrifying ordeal has just won a lawsuit against the makers of the drug.
The lawsuit was filed against Johnson & Johnson and subsidiary McNeil-PPC Inc. The family alleged that Motrin did not contain warnings about potentially fatal side effects, and thus their daughter suffered serious repercussions following the consumption of the drug when she was seven.
When her parents started supplying the young girl with Motrin, they hoped to simply squelch a pre-Thanksgiving fever. But shortly thereafter, she succumbed to toxic epidermal necrolysis. This rare condition led the girl to lose much of her lung capacity, go blind, and suffer the loss of 90% of her skin.
The family claimed that J & J did not warn of these types of deadly side effects, and a jury has now sided with the family, deciding that the company must pay $63 million to the family. The five week trial which took place at Plymouth Superior Court in Boston comes five years after the family initially filed the lawsuit, and it marks the latest setback to a company that’s also under fire for alleged deficiencies with its DePuy ASR all-metal hip implants.