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Digitek: More Harm than Good?
Sam had a heart attack several ago and was taking Digitek daily until his pharmacist informed him of the recall. Sam has no idea how many times he took double the dosage but he believes that Digitek is to blame for his declining health.
Even before the recall, Sam (not his real name pending a lawsuit) likely shouldn't have taken Digitek. "I started to have some issues with my heart," says Sam. "I have a pacemaker and defibrillator combined and my heart would run really fast and flutter, causing my defibrillator to fire, so my doctor told me to cut the Digitek dose in half." But he had taken a full dose for more than six years.
Sam also had more than his heart issues to deal with. "He got really sick around February," says his wife Sharon (not her real name). "He was so weak he could barely walk from the porch to the car. And he was sick to his stomach all the time; he would throw up every time he ate. One night, Sam was so weak he passed out on the kitchen floor. I called 911 and he stayed in hospital for five days. His sodium and potassium count was so low that his kidneys almost shut down and he went into a hepatic coma. Sam lost about 30 lbs in less than a week." The doctors told them it was due to the combination of drugs Sam was on, but they couldn't determine exactly what he should stop taking.
"My sodium count was down to 112 and I think the normal range is 135," says Sam. "They wouldn't let me leave until the level increased. And they gave me fluids because I was on the point of my kidneys shutting down. Nobody told me to stop taking Digitek."
On April 14th, the pharmacist phoned about the Digitek recall. Sam was shocked and angry. "He said I needed to bring the rest of my prescription back and exchange Digitek for something else," says Sam. "But before I did that, I took out four pills and told Sharon to bring the bottle back--which she did. Then the pharmacist contacted my doctor--he prescribed Lanoxin [generic name is digoxin, used to treat congestive heart failure and for the treatment of certain types of abnormal heart rhythms].
Sam says his doctor didn't even know about the recall before the pharmacist told him. "Why didn't the makers of Digitek tell the medical community?" he asks. Good question.
Sam and Sharon still didn't link Sam's medical problems to Digitek until they received a letter from their insurance company, titled Drug Recall of Digitek, dated April 30th. "The letter lists possible symptoms of too much Digitek, including digitalis toxicity, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, low blood pressure, cardiac instabilities and slow heart rate," says Sharon. All the above symptoms are documented in Sam's medical records.
"Sam's symptoms aren't completely gone but he is definitely better," Sharon says. "I can't say for sure that it is because he stopped taking Digitek, but it is certainly a coincidence.
"I haven't had any episodes of my heart racing or any flutters since I stopped taking Digitek," says Sam. "Now I believe this drug has dragged me down; it may have hurt me more than it did me any good because I felt bad all the time I was on Digitek."
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