Lawsuit: Children's Motrin Caused Blindness

Fox News ^ | December 29, 2004 | Associated Press

[NautiNurse]

Heard yesterday a report about this story. The plaintiff's attorney said this case was "like a medical tsunami."

I almost drove off the road when I heard that.

[television is just wrong]

EEEEEWWWWWW. That is just stupid. Stupid people deserve what they get.

[Poohbah]

Stupidity isn't a crime...but it does carry a capital sentence that is carried out quickly and without remorse.

[Chiapet]

Yep, they did away with penicillin. My nephew is severely allergic to peanuts. They're doing away with those now too. And milk, and sulfa drugs, and all bread products (people are allergic to wheat gluten you know)....I hope everyone can survive nicely on water.

[Melinda in TN]

I like the warning on the sun shades you put in your auto window to keep the interior cool. They say to "remove before driving". LOL

[Poohbah]

Yep, they did away with penicillin. My nephew is severely allergic to peanuts. They're doing away with those now too. And milk, and sulfa drugs, and all bread products (people are allergic to wheat gluten you know)....I hope everyone can survive nicely on water.

Dihydrogen monoxide is next on the hit list.

It's lethal if inhaled.
It's been found in 100% of all cancer tumors.
It's the leading cause of soil erosion.
In gaseous form, it can cause hideous burns.
It's corrosive.

And yet...it's a major component of our CHILDREN'S DRINKING WATER! THERE IS NO MAXIMUM LEGAL LIMIT FOR DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE CONTENT, EVEN IN ALLEGEDLY SAFE PREMIUM BOTTLED WATER!

Ban dihydrogen monoxide...FOR THE CHILL-ILL-DRUUN!

[NautiNurse]

Are they still making penicillin?...I'm sure they did away with that awful stuff...Yep, they did away with penicillin.

Is this a private comedy routine between the two of you?

[retrokitten]

Yes, and hair dryers usually have a little stick drawing of a woman blowing her hair dry in the tub with a big "NO" symbol through it or a line drawing of a hair dryer being dunked in the bathtub with the big "NO" sign through it.

If you can't figure out that it's a really bad idea to dry your hair while you wash it, well...here's your sign.

[Gojira]

That's what happens when you stick pills in your eyes, silly!

Next time, try administering them orally...

[Chiapet]

I guess we're down to just air then....oh wait...

[Chiapet]

Nah, just a little fun.

I get that Stevens-Johnson syndrome isn't a joke, and I've seen my brother swell up like the Michelin man after a bee sting, but geez, I'm tired of the whole live-in-a-bubble attitude.

[GovernmentShrinker]

She ought to be suing all the people who promoted the no-aspirin-for-children movement on the grounds of the EXTREMELY rare Reyes Syndrome. When I was growing up, every kid got aspirin when they really needed a painkiller. Then the Reyes Syndrome scare cam a long, and got so out of hand that you could no longer find children's aspirin in stores anywhere. And despite the fact that the syndrome was incredibly rare and ONLY happened in very young children, I found myself at age 24 in my college health center, being refused aspirin, and told that the center had a policy of not giving aspirin due to the risk of Reyes Syndrome! Having scared everybody away from aspirin, the public health nannies clucked with approval as everyone started feeding their children much more dangerous alternatives. When I have children, they will get aspirin when they need a painkiller.

[Blue Screen of Death]

I am going to sue Playboy.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

I'm tired of the whole live-in-a-bubble attitude.

It is the make a lawyer rich/richer attitude.

[Logical me]

If this even makes it to trial, fire the judges. Dissolve half of the court system. And inform President Bush if he doesn't change his priorities and make this crap number one, I will personally volunteer for the civil war. Pack up all lawyers and ship to one of the channel islands and breed more sharks to patrol.

[Dementon]

someone had used the thing as a sex toy

I *really* hope it wasn't plugged in at the time...

[Poohbah]

I *really* hope it wasn't plugged in at the time...

Plugged in and switched on.

[L98Fiero]

We'll be here all week. Be sure and tip your servers. ;)

[Docbarleypop]

Water causes drowning and pneumonia, ban that as well!

[Bushforlife]

All medications have side effects. Many of these side effects are extremely rare. Posting a warning label on every medication for every possible bad side effect would be impractical, impossible, and asinine. Those of us who have dealt childhood fevers are certainly NOT going to withhold ibuprofen or acetaminophen from their children for fear of the astronomically low risk of some bad side effect such as Steven-Johnson syndrome. We might as well not feed them meat for fear of mad cow disease. Life is full of risks. We all know that people can get very badly injured [or die] in car accidents, yet we all load our children in the car and drive away; we do this everyday act because we make a conscious calculation that the risk of an accident is too low to deprive ourselves of the benefits of driving.

The problem here is NOT the lawyers. In all probability, a lawyer did NOT call these parents up and suggest a lawsuit. These parents sought out a lawyer. The problem resides in our get rich quick, victim empowering society; in this worldview, there is no such thing as "bad luck"; there is a villain behind every bad occurrence in our lives. If we spill hot coffee on ourselves, the problem is NOT that we are too clumsy to drink coffee while we drive; the problem is that the restaurant sold coffee that was too hot [even though we KNOW that hot coffee spilled on ourselves will burn]. And if am extremely rare side effect to a medication occurs, the fault is the manufacturers, even though we KNOW all medications have lots of bad unavoidable side effects.

When the American public is ready to take personal responsibility for their own mistakes, and personal responsibility for their own lives insofar as they acknowledge that life is full of faultless dangers, then the tort problem will disappear. People will stop running to lawyers for every bad event in their lives. And juries will stop awarding multi-million dollar figures to "victims" because these "victims" "need" it, and the big companies "will never miss the money".