cough syrup death

Shadow205

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This is very disturbing. I know that merchandise sold at stores like Family Dollar are often "seconds" or have slight defects. I had never thought about what could be defective in their over the counter medicine!! My dd buys sinus/alergy relief tablets there. NOT after reading this!

A St. Lucie County mother filed a wrongful death suit Friday against Family Dollar claiming her daughter died from cough syrup she bought there.


Elizabeth Dawn McLaughlin claimed she bought an 8-ounce bottle of Family Dollar Cough Syrup from a store in Vero Beach on April 25, 2005, for her daughter Teresa Humphries, the suit states. She took the syrup for two days, as directed, and died April 27 from dextromethorphan toxicity, according to the medical examiner's office.

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The suit claims the labeling on the bottle and the markings on the dosage cup were defective and the chemical contents of the bottle were "lethal" to Humphries. A spokeswoman for Family Dollar Services, Inc., which is headquartered in North Carolina, declined to comment, stating a policy not to discuss pending litigation.

http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/local_news/article/0,2545,TCP_16736_4642350,00.html
 
I wonder how legit this is..


It doesn't say the age of the girl and I would venture to guess that they did not follow labeling instructions.
IMO there would be many more people suffering from this same toxicity if it was mislabled that badly.
 
The suit claims that the labeling on the bottle and the markings on the dosage cup were defective I would be willing to bet that they have the evidence to back up that statment(the bottle and the cup).
I would like to know if this happened to an adult or a child. If I can find more info I'll post it.
 
I found a Teresa Humphries on the social security death index who died April 27,2005. She was born in 1988. If that is her, she was only 16 years old when she died. That is so sad. You are right Amarrann, this will be interesting to watch.
 
Ahhh that sparks my interest even more.

Its a growing common practice among teens to drink cough syrup for the buzz.
I was worried that may be the case.

I am trying to understand how the cup could be mislabeled? Even if it said 2 tablespoons when she should have only taken 2 teaspoons every 4 hours ..
I think it would take more then that to cause such severe toxicity.

But I am no expert on this. I guess we will just have to watch and see what the court filings say.
 
Amraann said:
Its a growing common practice among teens to drink cough syrup for the buzz.
I was worried that may be the case.
I heard they are doing that, its insane!
 
michelle said:
I heard they are doing that, its insane!
--------------
Teens have done this before.Years ago there was a cough medicine,Cheracol which contained I think small amount of codiene.The son of Bishop Pike died from an OD.The medicine was pulled off the shelves because of its misuse.I hope this wasn't the case with this girl but doesn't the FDA watch labeling etc. on food and drugs? I thought they did but I may well be wrong.
 
The approximate minimum ingested dose of DXM for producing some mind-altering effects is 100 mg. DXM is commonly abused at doses of 240 mg to 360 mg, but doses can be higher. Abusers have been reported to ingest from 8 to 30 or more Coricidin tablets at one time. Four ounces of Robitussin contains either 240 or 360 mg of DXM, depending on the formulation, and either quantity is sufficient to cause intoxication. Case reports identify abuse patterns from 4 ozs (1/2 bottle) up to 3 to 4 bottles a day. Internet sites inform the young users to drink the syrup expeditiously in order to absorb enough DXM from the drink prior to the impending incidence of vomiting which will occur as a result of the ingestion of the large volume of syrup required for intoxication.
http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drugs_concern/dextro_m/dextro_m.htm



The above information makes you wonder how she could have accidently ingested a fatal dose due to mislabeling. It seems that she would had to have ingested a large amount for it to be fatal.
 
Yes Nore they do.

And a mislabeled bottle or dosage cup would not be on just one bottle of the medicine.
The company would have to do a recall of that batch.
SInce I have heard nothing about that and I live in Florida I question the validity of the mothers claim in the lawsuit.
Any toxic food or drug is typically recalled at the first sign of hazzard.
IMO that would take place before the time it takes to file a lawsuit.
 
Something does not add up here.

I don't think that this suit will be successful, from just what I have read...so far, not even knowing the full facts.

Can I ask a question: Is the store in question a "chain store". I don't know when US stores are mentioned......

Cough syrup is massed produced, the labels are not custom made, all of them are the same, there is no printing error. If an error did occur, it would occur on many, many botles(as an astute poster pointed out) and several people would die.

2 tsp is a normal does for cough medicine, for adults........which in Canada is 10 ml.

So if the label was "misprinted"(which is so doubtful)and even said 20 tsp that would only be 100 ml. Now again if the label was mislabeled and said 20 tablespoon then let me see, 15 ml per tablespoon and that would be 300 ml.

But that would be each dose......

I think that this was a "deliberate" attempt to use cough syrup to get high.

I mean the bottle I bought last week was only 100 ml. for about 10.00.

So let me see 250 ml = 8 ounces, so a person would have to take more then 8 ounces.....

It is too bad that the girl died, and I am sure the parents are devestated, as any parent would, and are looking for someone to blame for the death of their daughter. So of course it is the company that made the cough syrup, because of course who would want to blame their "dead" daughter for her accidential death. This is a coping method, someone to blame.......to deal with the grief, someone to get angry with......
 
Family Dollar is a chain store Cyber Law.


I am not sure if they are all over the country or just in the South East??
But they are like a small general store that offers very discounted items.

Household things, cleaners, medicines, food, clothing, toys, etc

But a very small selection of each.
 
I am sorry for the family and the girl, but I honestly need to know more. Here is an interesting article.

[font=ms sans serif,sans-serif,arial,helvetica]Discount stores are full of bargains, for folks on a budget.

But an 8 ON YOUR SIDE Undercover Investigation discovers you may be paying the price, when you purchase some of those products.

Brushing the pearly whites has been a daily routine for generations.

Today, many fluoride toothpastes sit on discount store shelves; they appear to be safe and made in America except, some of them are apparently coming from half way around the world to be sold here.

[/font][font=ms sans serif,sans-serif,arial,helvetica]"When I read the ingredients it's exactly the same, but can we trust the packaging?" questioned Malmstrom.

That's because foreign toothpaste is not required to list all active ingredients as in the United States. We did find some foreign boxes on U.S store shelves that did contain stick-on labels.
[/font]
[font=ms sans serif,sans-serif,arial,helvetica]
Granted this article lists toothpaste of all things as a problem, but who is to say that it sin't happening with drugs as well?

Code:
http://www.wroctv.com/features/story.asp?id=401&f=8_On_Your_Side
[/font]
 
But if a package is mislabled, it would be mislabled on all of the packages.

It does not sound like a store that has "top" quality items, but I still think that if it is imported to the USA, it has to pass some sort of inspection...or something.

But again I can't get over the fact that this young women would have had to take at least 8 ounces of cough medicine. If I was giving my child cough medicine, and it said 8 ounces, I would think....hummm last time I gave him any type of cough medicine it was two teaspoons.

But then again, some people would think "this is "discount" cough syrup and "maybe" it is not as strong, and if it says 8 ounces then that is the directions.

I do wonder though.....I would have to see the package....if the labelling did come from a "foreign" country, there could have been a problem.

Talk about "extremely" poor quality control, but the "chain" may not be as "reputable" as a bigger store......after all they are know for very low prices....
 
Amraann said:
Yes Nore they do.

And a mislabeled bottle or dosage cup would not be on just one bottle of the medicine.
The company would have to do a recall of that batch.
SInce I have heard nothing about that and I live in Florida I question the validity of the mothers claim in the lawsuit.
Any toxic food or drug is typically recalled at the first sign of hazzard.
IMO that would take place before the time it takes to file a lawsuit.
------------------------

Thanks for your response Amraann.I know our pharmacies are keeping some OTC allergy pills such as Sudafed behind the counter now. It seems they can use an ingredient for making methamphetamines (sp)..I think it is pseudonepherine ?(sp)..
We have Family Dollar and Dollar General in the Cleveland area.This is really sick! Todays teens are supposed to be so much "wiser" than the youth of years ago yet they take their lives in such stupid ways.I hope this girl didn't do this but if she did I hope they make teenagers aware of it.
 
HeartofTexas said:
We have them in Texas, too.
We have them in AR too. I like Dollar General better, they have a better selection.
 
The suit claims the labeling on the bottle and the markings on the dosage cup were defective and the chemical contents of the bottle were "lethal" to Humphries


I would like to know more about the above statement. I was searching for more information and found this. While it is in Canada and probably not related to this case it does make me wonder if something similar to this happened in Florida. I have not found a recall for Florida as of yet.
http://www.newstarget.com/005884.html


Generic cough syrup recalled in Canada; some bottles have too much of the active ingredient

Canadian health officials say some bottles of a generic cough syrup have too much of the active ingredient dextomethorphan and the manufacturer, accordingly, has issued a recall.
<snip>
The product may contain twice the amount of dextromethorphan (DM) stated on the label.
more at the link

Found another article, once again, this is a recall in Canada but for the generic cough syrup.
Health Canada issues cough syrup warning
March 14, 2005

According to this article, the cough syrup contained twice the amount of dextromethorphan than is stated on the label.
http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/recalls/reclfull/2005/14mar2005.html
 

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