Digitek Lawsuits

Benefits of Retaining a Digitek Digoxin Recall Lawyer

Thu, 29 May 2008 15:25:36 -0400

Hiring a lawyer can be a traumatic experience but it's especially traumatic when you or your family has been harmed by unsafe drugs prescribed by your doctor.

The heart drug Digitek digoxin tablets were recalled April 25, 2008 because they were double dosed with the active ingredient. People taking the double dosed drugs experienced toxicity and serious side and deadly side effects.

How can this happen? The tablets were manufactured in New Jersey not China. Is there no quality control? Also some patients were not told in a timely manner and continued to take the tainted digoxin tablets beyond the recall.

There are some points to consider when hiring a Digitek digoxin lawyer. Do some research to determine what kind of verdicts and settlements they have with similar unsafe drug lawsuits.

Of course, money is always an issue. Find out how much they charge per hour and what your out-of-pocket expense will be. The Philadelphia law firm of Anapol Schwartz will take your Digitek digoxin case on a contingency basis which means if they don't win your digoxin lawsuit - they don't get paid.

They don't every digoxin case but you don't know whether or not you qualify until you answer some questions. Of course, there is never an obligation to proceed. The exchange must be a mutual agreement.
Find out if you qualify and ask them the hard questions about lawsuits. Anapol Schwartz has over 30 years experience fighting for what's right, fighting for people like you and your family.

Early study about digoxin heart failure

Wed, 28 May 2008 15:21:02 -0400

The efficacy of digoxin, particularly its effect on mortality, in patients with congestive heart failure in normal sinus rhythm has been debated for years. This large, randomized, placebo-controlled study was designed to look at the effect of digoxin on mortality and on hospitalization.

Subjects were patients with congestive heart failure designated by symptoms, signs or chest x-ray in normal sinus rhythm. Treatment with digoxin was not a reason for exclusion. Patients were enrolled from 302 centers in the United States and Canada.

Between February 1991 and August 1993 patients were randomized to either digoxin or placebo. Patients were followed up every four months.

The primary endpoint was mortality. Secondary outcomes included cardiovascular mortality, death from worsening congestive heart failure, hospitalization for congestive heart failure, and hospitalization for other causes.

In the main trial, 3,397 patients were assigned to digoxin, 3,403 to a placebo. Mean duration of follow-up was 37 months.

There was no significant difference in the number of deaths between the two groups - 1,181 in the digoxin group (34.8%), vs. 1,194 in the placebo group (35.1%). Most of these deaths were cardiovascular (1,016 and 1,004, respectively). There was a strong trend towards lower mortality from worsening congestive heart failure in the digoxin group.

In the digoxin group, there were fewer hospitalizations for worsening heart failure as well as fewer patients hospitalized for worsening heart failure.

Read the study for more in depth information.

Patients Taking Digitek Not Timely Notified of Recall

Fri, 16 May 2008 11:10:42 -0400

On April 25, 2008, the heart drug Digitek digoxin was recalled since pills contain twice the intended dosage. This manufacturing mistake is very dangerous and can cause serious injury. Notify your doctor if you have been taking the increased dosage.

For example, in Kansas City, one patient learned as late as May 13, 2008 that his dosages were toxic and damaging his body. He was receiving his Digitek from a mail-order pharmacy that never told him about recall of Digitek.

His heart trouble got much worse in recent weeks, leaving him unable to walk more than a few feet without needing to rest. This resulted in symptoms of being nauseas, losing his appetite, feeling very tired, yet he was unable to fall asleep.

He even went to the hospital for a heart procedure. Luckily the blood tests for his procedure revealed that he was suffering from toxic levels digoxin - the generic name for Digitek The digoxin tablets he took (Digitek) were for a heart problem but were making that problem worse. Ifn fact, he didn't know that the rhythym of his heart was being harmed by the Digitek which had been recalled -- he thought Digitek would help his heart rhythym. The problem was that the tablets apparently contained double the dosage that they should contain. The most serious side effect of taking too much Digoxin is a severe heart rhythm problem that even can cause death.

Digitek is made by Actavis, who did not tell pharmacies until late April to notify patients of the Digitek recall. And even then, as in this case, pharmacies many never tell patients. Isn't it really the responsibility of Actavis to ensure that patients are told and not leave it up to the pharmacy. They spend so much money advertising their drugs. Couldn't they do the same to advertise the dangerous side effects and save people's lives?

Male Nurse Serial Kills Victims with Digoxin

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 08:46:08 -0400

In what appears to be truth stranger than fiction, a New Jersey male nurse has admitted killing 30 to 40 people through unlawful digoxin injection.

Because of his alarmingly high level of activity involving digoxin and the frequent accountings showing missing and unaccounted for quantities of this lethal heart drug, it's most likely that stockpiled digoxin. He had access to the digoxin compartment 27 times during the short time he was employed

The performance of administrators at Somerset Medical Center in New Jersey is particularly troubling. The hospital's computers virtually caught the nurse administering drug overdoses, but he was allowed to stay on the job and inflict more harm while the hospital conducted a low-key investigation.

Troubling clues first emerged in mid-June 2003, when a patient suffered life-threatening heart failure and blood tests found a high level of digoxin, a drug she had not been prescribed. Computer systems showed that shortly before the incident, the nurse called up the victim's medical records, even though she was not his patient, and ordered digoxin for another patient for whom it was not prescribed. The hospital's lame excuse for not moving aggressively against the serial killer nurse was that abnormal digoxin readings and incorrect medication requests by nurses are everyday occurrences.

Less than two weeks later, a priest hospitalized with pneumonia died of heart failure, and tests again showed high levels of digoxin, a drug he was not scheduled to receive. Again, the computers showed that the serial killer nurse, who was not assigned to care for the priest, had called up his medical records, ordered digoxin for another patient for whom it was not prescribed.

Even after this, the hospital simply stepped up its own investigation, and it failed to notify the police or state health officials until its hand was forced by a worried poison control expert. The killer nurse remained on the job for months. When he was finally arrested, he told the authorities that he had fatally poisoned 12 to 15 patients at Somerset Medical Center in New Jersey.

Hospitals were uniformly slow in cracking down and seldom, if ever, mentioned their suspicions to subsequent employers. Negligent administrators left him free to commit his heinous crimes.

What's wrong with our system when a healthcare professional works in seven New Jersey hospitals and nursing homes in 10 years? Are no human resources personnel calling to check references and past employment history? Are hospitals and nursing homes afraid to pass along doubts and questionable behavior to the next employer or to law enforcement? Does the bad penny keep slip through the cracks and continue as if there is nothing to stop him as their seemingly isn't?