Mom claims pain drug killed baby

Source | The Toronto Sun

By Sarah Green

Rani Jamieson says she was told it was safe to take Tylenol 3 for her pain after giving birth to her son.

Twelve days later, little Tariq was dead.

Jamieson, with her husband Douglas, has filed a class-action lawsuit against drugmakers Janssen-Ortho and Johnson and Johnson, alleging “physicians and consumers should have been formally warned that Tylenol 3 should not be used, under any circumstances, by breastfeeding mothers.”

The lawsuit alleges toxicology tests showed the Toronto newborn, who died just after midnight on April 30, 2005, had toxic levels of codeine and morphine in his blood which Jamieson, 35, ingested from the Tylenol 3s and unknowingly passed on to her son through breastfeeding.

There is no dollar figure attached to the lawsuit and the allegations have not been proven in court.

Jamieson said she scoured pregnancy books and magazines and repeatedly asked her doctors about the safety of taking the medication before and after Tariq was born.

“All these people were telling me it’s safe,” said Jamieson, who has a 17-month-old son and is expecting another son in less than two weeks. “I was also very much ready to bottle feed if I needed to take drugs (after giving birth). I was told it’s still safe to take it.”

Jamieson took the “absolute lowest dose” of the medication, she said — one tablet every six hours. The suit alleged codeine and morphine can lead to lethargy, poor feeding, constipation, irritability, respiratory depression and death in infants,

Codeine itself offers little or no pain relief, but the analgesic effect is produced because the body converts it into morphine, the suit said.

“Infants are most susceptible to the effects of codeine in their systems in the first weeks of their lives,” said Jamieson’s lawyer Joel Rochon.

In a statement, Janssen-Ortho, a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson, said: “At this time, we have not had the opportunity to review the claim in full. It has not been served on our company. TYLENOL 3 (prescription Tylenol with codeine) is a safe and effective product when used according to the approved prescribing information.”

Tariq was a healthy baby until the day he died, his mom said. The suit alleged that at a regular pediatrician’s appointment just 12 hours before his death, Jamieson noted Tariq’s colour was pale and he had not eaten for several hours. He stopped breathing just a minute or two before paramedics arrived.

Until the toxicology results came in from the coroner’s office six months after Tariq’s death, his parents did not know how their son died, Jamieson said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month warned nursing mothers who are taking codeine to watch their infants for signs of overdose, calling it a rare, but serious side effect.

Ontario is one of the few jurisdictions in North America to conduct toxicology tests in infant deaths.