Johnson & Johnson, one of the world’s largest health and personal goods companies, has been ordered to pay $63 million to settle a lawsuit filed in 2007 involving the drug Motrin. A judge handed down the decision on February 13, 2013 according to an NBCNews.com article.
Samantha Reckis was 7-years-old back on Thanksgiving Day, 2003, when her parents gave her Children’s Motrin to combat a mild fever. The next morning, Samantha awakened to a body covered in blisters. She was quickly taken to Shriners Hospital for Children in Boston and was diagnosed with toxic epidermal necrolysis. A medically induced coma was necessary to block young Samantha from the severe pain.
Today, Samantha Reckis is alive, but she was left blinded by the allergic reaction and now, she and her family have been rewarded what jurors felt was a fair financial assessment for her medical issues and severe trauma. Johnson & Johnson and subsidiary McNeil- PPC have been ordered to pay Samantha Reckis $50 million and each parent $6.5 million, for a total of $63 million in damages.
The lawsuit was mainly due to what the Reckis family felt was insufficient warnings. The Children’s Motrin label failed to adequately expose the dangers of taking Motrin, at least in the opinion of the Reckis family and others. The McNeil subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson argued otherwise, but the Plymouth Superior Court ultimately sided with the family.
McNeil-PPC said that it certainly sympathizes with the family, but it disagrees with the verdict and is considering further legal options.
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