Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

Two lawsuits were recently filed against Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc., Actavis Group, Actavis Totowa LLC, Mylan Bertek Pharmaceuticals Inc., and UDL Laboratories Inc., makers and distributors of the heart medication Digitek, also known as digoxin, on behalf of patients who took Digitek prescribed by their physicians and as a result suffered complications and died, according to the West Virginia The Record.

Pansy Mae Christian, who suffered from a cardiac condition, died on November 8, 2007 after taking Digitek prescribed by her doctor. On May 2008, Christian’s estate administrator James R. Christian received notice of the drug’s recall and complaints about significant adverse side effects.

On January 15, 2008, Gary Lucineo suffered toxicity and died after taking Digitek prescribed by his physician for congestive heart failure. His estate administrator, Jeanette Lucineo, is suing the companies, claiming they failed to warn users of the drug that the medication was provided for use by the public with twice the approved level of active ingredient. That overdose caused toxicity that the suit claims contributed to Mr. Lucineo’s death.

In April 2005, Actavis Totowa LLC, initiated a nationwide Class I recall of Digitek after it learned that oversized tablets had been distributed, which likely contained twice the level of active ingredient. Taking more than the FDA-approved level of Digitek can lead to Digitek toxicity, also known as digitalis toxicity, a serious and life-threatening complication. Symptoms of digitalis toxicity include unusual visual changes, confusion, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea, palpitations or irregular pulse.

If you are taking digitalis medications and symptoms of digitalis toxicity develop, contact your healthcare provider immediately.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 2:43 pm and is filed under Digitek recall, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.