UK pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is being sued by a student after she received an incorrect dosage of a medication that caused her skin to ‘melt’.
26-year-old Khaliah Shaw sought medication after she was suffering from depression and was prescribed anti-seizure medication lamotrigine, marketed as Lamictal in the U.S in 2014, which has triggered Stevens Johnson Syndrome.
Stevens Johnson Syndrome is a rare and serious disorder that is often caused by an adverse reaction to medication and causes the skin to blister, ‘burning from the inside out’ as Khaliah describes it.
Here’s a news segment about what Khaliah went through:
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Ms Shaw spent five weeks in a medically induced coma while all her skin slowly peeled off, leaving her heavily scarred, with no finger nails, and slowly deteriorating vision.
The student told 11 Alive:
They’re telling me this could happen again, and they’re telling me if it did happen again, that it would be worse.
This did not have to happen. This was not just some sort of fluke in my opinion. This happened as a direct result of somebody’s error
Ms Shaw is suing the drug manufacturer for $3.45 million (£2.68m) for promoting the product without warning of the risks.
This is not the first time that GSK have found themselves in hot water over alleged healthcare fraud.
In 2012 they had to pay out $3 billion and pleaded guilty to criminal charges of illegally marketing drugs and withholding safety data from U.S regulator the Food and Drug Administration.
Khaliah’s medical bills have already reached more than $3.45 million because… American healthcare system *sigh*.
You mean a pharmaceutical giant has potentially fucked someone over?
