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The Fox Law Firm is Reviewing Potential PPH & FEN-PHEN Claims Have you experienced severe health issues – such as heart failure and PPH - following the use of Fen-phen? Have your loved ones suffered adversely – or even died – from Fen-Phen-induced PPH? If so, you should contact us immediately to protect your legal rights. If you or your loved ones have experienced any of these side effects you may have a claim for legal compensation. Contact The Fox Law Firm for superior legal representation. Essentially, Primary Pulmonary Hypertension (PPH) can be described as a significant increase in the blood pressure of a patient’s pulmonary artery, pulmonary vein, or pulmonary capillaries. The symptoms and the effects of PPH on a person’s physical health and well-being can be extremely serious, and may include any and/or all of the following: shortness of breath, debilitating exhaustion, acute angina, swelling of the ankles and the feet, light-headedness, dizziness, and fainting – all of which, studies have shown, can be made far worse by physical activity. Most serious of all, PPH can ultimately result in heart failure and/or death. Significantly, PPH has been widely reported in patients who were prescribed the drug Fen-phen. Fen-phen was a medication specifically synthesized to treat patients suffering from obesity. It was comprised of two specific drugs: fenfluramine and phentermine. In the summer of 1997, a team of specialist researchers operating out of the Mayo Clinic and the Mayo Foundation discovered 24 cases where valvular disease and PPH had developed in women to whom Fen-phen had been prescribed. During this same time period, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quickly advised medical doctors that it had received an additional 9 reports of the precise same type, and subsequently informed all health care professionals in the U.S. to report any similar cases to the agency’s MedWatch program, or to their respective pharmaceutical manufacturers. The decision of the FDA was not made lightly: it was specifically based upon the discoveries and conclusions of doctors and medical experts who - via the use of echocardiograms designed to evaluate the function of heart valves - had carefully scrutinized a group of patients taking the fenfluramine and phentermine-based Fen-phen product for obesity. The combined findings, discoveries and conclusions revealed a very disturbing fact: approximately 30 per cent of all the patients under evaluation had significantly abnormal echocardiograms; despite the fact that they exhibited no physical symptoms. Notably, this percentage of unusual test results far outweighed that which could normally and reasonably be expected from a sample of the general population that had not been treated with fenfluramine or dexfenfluramine, via the Fen-phen combination. During this same particular time period, the FDA was the recipient of nearly 70 further reports of heart valve disease, all of which were associated with PPH, and the specific use of Fen-phen. Moreover, cataloged studies surfaced that revealed severe heart-valve issues in patients taking only either fenfluramine or dexfenfluramine. The outcome of this series of events was that in September 1997, the FDA made a request that the withdrawal of Fen-phen from the U.S. market should be begun. Today, Fen-phen is no longer on the U.S. market. However, a study published in November 2008 in BMC Medicine revealed that patients prescribed Fen-Phen could potentially suffer from heart-related problems for years after taking the drug. Additional information: Medicine Net American Heart Association Science Daily
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