Trovan Caused Woman's Liver Failure
May 14, 2001
In 1999 Rosemary Porta, a Pennsylvania librarian, visited her local doctor complaining of chest congestion. Her doctor, realizing that Ms. Porta was allergic to the popular antibiotic amoxicillin, gave her a new antibiotic called Trovan. Manufactured by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Trovan was a powerful new drug in the quinolone class of antibiotics. Pfizer advertised Trovan as a cure for sinusitis, sexually transmitted disease, pneumonia, urinary tract infection, severe strep throat, bronchitis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
For the next few weeks, Ms. Porta took the antibiotic as prescribed. She began to experience puzzling side effects including blurred vision, nausea and fatigue. Eventually she was too weak to get out of bed. She realized it was time to seek help when she looked in the mirror one morning and noticed that the whites of her eyes and her skin had turned yellow. The diagnosis? Liver failure caused by Pfizer's wonder antibiotic Trovan. For weeks thereafter Ms. Porta flirted with death. Finally she was given a liver transplant and a new lease on life, albeit a severely limited one. "I'm living on borrowed time," says Porta. "And all I did was take a pill." Her new liver requires several doses of anti-rejection medications each day, each with side effects of its own.
After the FDA discovered that many Trovan patients had suffered a similar fate, the agency severely limited doctors' use of the drug. Today Trovan should only be given to those under close medical supervision, such as nursing home residents and hospital patients.
-- Article Courtesy of InjuryBoard.com
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