Child Spent Month in Hospital with SJS and TEN

New Orleans, LAThe absolute worst injury for a parent and child is when the child is harmed and no one understands why. Worse is a notion that an injury might have been prevented were it not for an alleged failure to disclose risks. And thus, another child is made to suffer the horrors of Stevens Johnson Syndrome, while a parent anxiously watches in helpless despair and hopes the courts will help bring justice.

In this case, a child who was given Motrin was confined to a hospital bed for a month with symptoms of SJS, a rare but debilitating skin condition that can be likened to severe burns and can be triggered by adverse reaction to medication.

That's what happened to Keshia Hunt's daughter, and it happened in the worst possible fashion. Following the administering of Motrin a year ago last month, the child was taken to the emergency room complaining of a severe rash. Later admitted to the hospital, the child was subsequently diagnosed with the rarest form of Stevens Johnson Syndrome rash—Toxic Epidermal Necrosis (TEN).

SJS and TEN have, for some, necessitated months-long stays in the hospital. Some have lost their sight, and SJS/TEN can prove fatal. Hunt's child survived. However, on February 24 of this year, Keshia Hunt filed a lawsuit on behalf of her daughter in federal court in New Orleans.

Hunt alleges that the defendants—McNeil Consumer Healthcare and Johnson & Johnson (J&J)—failed to properly test the drug or adequately report clinical trial data. Hunt's lawsuit also alleges that an alternative product with the capacity to lessen her daughter's risks for acquiring Stevens Johnson Syndrome symptoms was "economically and technologically feasible."

Motrin, claims the lawsuit, was "unreasonably dangerous and had defective characteristics due to inadequate warning of risks," associated with Stevens Johnson Syndrome skin disease.

In January, a Court of Appeals in California issued a ruling that cleared the way for plaintiffs to sue for punitive damages because of J&J's failure to include proper warnings on the Motrin product label, and that such failure translated to malice on the manufacturer's part.

In her lawsuit, Hunt is seeking compensation for medical expenses, pain and suffering, mental anguish, physical disfigurement and impairment, and court costs and interest associated with the Stevens Johnson Syndrome lawsuit.