Accutane Symptoms
UpdatedAround 2005 my 15 yr. old son was put on Accutane for severe acne. He begin being very tired, but most teenagers come home from school and take a nap especially when catching the school bus at 6:30 am. His acne cleared up very quickly. He was very active, baseball, volleyball, etc. He started having symptoms at age 16 of rapid heart palpitations and shortness of breath, just walking across the yard, but didn't say anything because he thought he was "out of shape". I immediately took him to the doctor who could not find anything wrong on physical exam. So he submitted a full blood panel. That night I received a phone call to get him to the emergency room immediately, his red blood cells and platelets were critically low and he needs a blood transfusion. Upon further testing he was diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia. A rare blood disease that your own bone marrow does not make enough blood cells to support your own system. Kinda like leukemia but not cancerous cells. This would require a bone marrow transplant, chemo, and radiation. We were asked all sorts of questions to try to find out what caused this. The answers were all no. I was told that a lot of times the cause is not found. I asked if accutane could have caused this. They only documentation that this children's hospital knew is that one child had his transplant and was in remission. Accutane was started and the children relapsed. We had to wait until a bone marrow match was found from the national data base. In the mean time, once a week we drove the hour long drive to the hospital for blood transfusions. He was also put on cylosporine. In 2008 a bone marrow match was found. One day after his 18th birthday, he was admitted to Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Mass. We both thought it was going to be okay in the long run after all little kid go through this for leukemia and he is 18. The treatment is the same. So chemo and radiation was started to kill his own bone marrow. Transplant performed. He spent the next two years in the hospital more than out. Ever complication that possibile could happen did and so much more that the doctors didn't know why and they were communicating with other cancer hospitals around the United States. I lived in ICU with him. Many times rushed for emergency surgery, dialysis, and ventilator, coma, etc. The week before day before Christmas of 2010, he woke up and was able to get off the ventilator. A Christmas miracle. Two days later he required the vent again put was awake. He would mouth words that I was able to figure out. On New Year's day of 2010, at the age of 19, he mouthed to my!"am I going to die". Of course your not, you are strong and will heal in time. What mother would think differently? Within a few minutes, he coded right in front of me. It is just like you see on TV, but I was still in the room wispering in his ear to come back and that I loved him, don't leave me. As the doctors tried to resusitate him, they looked to me to call it. I whispered in his ear, it's OK, you can go and be pain free. I asked for an autopsy to be done. After the funeral almost immediately I received a letter in the mail from a lawyer regarding a legal action against the makers of accutane stating there were records of my son being on this. A letter from my son in heaven telling me, mom you were right about the cause. I brought the letter with me to show the doctor the day of the autopsy results. The autopsy results showed amongst other things, he died from a massive heart attack. His heart was Ninety percent blocked at the age of 19. I still can not understand why they couldn't pick that up with all the testing he went through. Multiple ecocardiograms, cardiologist, etc. Was told the only way would have been a stress test of which first he would have to be able to do a treadmill and his heart beat would have been slow giving them a clue that his heart maybe blocked. His heartbeat was always fast. I showed them the letter regarding the accutane litigation. I was told to basically drop it as there is no data regarding this and it would be extremely hard to prove. In my heart I knew I was right but didn't have the energy to gather over four years of medical records to give some lawyer from a different state that I didn't know if they where legitimate or not and from most cases there is not much money to be made. Five years later as the holidays come and I am crying my eyes out writing this, New Year's day will never be a new year to me. It is my day to think of him more. Many people have said I need to let go but a mother never stops grieving especially on a holiday like that. It is better to stay away from people because the first person who says happy new year to me is going to get punched in the face. I often wonder what the statue of limitations is for legal cases of this kind and if there is any open ones I could now join into. If anyone hears of one, I think it's time for me to pursue it. Good luck to all. Sorry so long.
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