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Kentucky woman files Fosamax lawsuit after losing jaw |
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Thursday, 22 June 2006 |
A woman in Kentucky has filed a Fosamax lawsuit against Merck & Co., the manufacturer of the osteoporosis drug. Joyce Raisor alleges that taking Fosamax caused her to develop a painful condition known as osteonecrosis of the jaw, or jaw necrosis.
Raisor started taking Fosamax in order to treat bone loss caused by osteoporosis. When she began to experience an abscessed tooth, doctors were unable to treat her condition, even after five months of antibiotic therapy. It wasn’t until she visited a specialist that Raisor’s doctor realized that she had developed osteonecrosis of the jaw. Raisor was forced to undergo five surgeries to reconstruct her jaw with bone taken from her leg.
Fosamax prevents turnover in bone cells, which helps to fight bone loss due to osteoporosis. However, because the jawbone is vulnerable to bacteria in the mouth, when these reach the jaw the body is unable to fight off the bacteria and osteonecrosis can result. The condition can caused the jawbone tissue to gradually rot away, which, like in Raisor’s case, can result in the loss of the jawbone.
In her Fosamax lawsuit, Raisor alleges that neither she nor her doctors were made aware of the risk of Fosamax side effects that she faced from osteonecrosis of the jaw. In addition, her Fosamax lawyers say that Merck continued selling the drug despite the fact that they were aware that it could cause jaw necrosis.
The specialist who eventually diagnosed Raisor’s condition says that the number of jaw necrosis cases he has seen has risen dramatically since Fosamax went on sale. He says that in his first 30 years as a doctor, he saw only three cases of the disease, or one every 10 years. Last year, he treated seven patients who had osteonecrosis of the jaw; all of them were taking Fosamax or another similar osteoporosis drug.
There have been at least 2,400 cases of osteonecrosis of the jaw reported nationwide since 2004, mostly among patients taking the class of drugs which includes Fosamax. Despite this fact, the information sheet given to patients who take Fosamax contains no warnings about the potential risk of jaw necrosis. Many of the patients who have filed Fosamax lawsuit against Merck say that they had no idea of the danger of jaw necrosis that they faced from taking the drug. |