A teenager who went blind and lost 90% of her skin after suffering a horrifying allergic reaction to the pain reliever Children's Motrin has won $63 million in compensation. Samantha Reckis was only 7 when she took the children's ibuprofen, manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, around Thanksgiving 2003 to ward off the symptoms of a fever.
But rather than heal her, the drug induced toxic epidermal necrolysis — a potentially fatal condition that causes the top layer of skin, the epidermis, to detach from the lower layers. The rare ailment kills 40% of those diagnosed with it — and comes from a severe allergic reaction to medications such as barbiturates, penicillins and sulphonamides.
