Painkiller caused fatal liver failure

THE family of an elderly widow who died of liver failure caused by a recently banned painkiller backed calls yesterday for improved reporting of the dangerous side-effects of drugs to the country’s medicines watchdog.

The jury at the inquest into the death of Joan Flavin, 71, from Dungarvan, Co Waterford, urged doctors and nurses to be aware of their responsibilities to voluntarily report adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in patients to the Irish Medicines Board (IMB).

Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster told Cork Coroner’s Court that Mrs Flavin died from acute drug-induced liver failure caused by taking the popular anti-inflammatory Aulin.

She was one of 30,000 Irish people taking the drug every month until its withdrawal from shelves two weeks ago.

The IMB pulled it, and other drugs with the ingredient nimesulide, from the market on May 15 after an audit by Professor Aiden McCormick at the National Liver Transplant unit found six Aulin-related cases of liver failure that resulted in liver transplants, including four cases new to the IMB.

Mrs Flavin’s death is one of five in Ireland officially linked to the drug since 1996.

Speaking after the inquest, one of Mrs Flavin’s daughters, Christine Power, welcomed the jury’s recommendation. Supported by her sisters Geraldine Flavin and Angela Waide and their brothers Francis and Liam, she said the family wanted to highlight what had happened to their mother.

“Our mother didn’t know the damage this drug could do. We’re just glad that nobody else in Ireland will die from this drug.”

Mrs Flavin’s inquest, which recorded a verdict of death due to misadventure, was the second in two weeks into an Aulin-related death. An inquest in Dublin last week was told that Sheila Gunn, 69, from Donaghmede, died in aged 2005 of liver failure also caused by Aulin.

While Ms Flavin’s death has been reported to the IMB, it has still not been officially notified of Ms Gunn’s death. Flavin family solicitor, Paddy Gordon, said that was “unacceptable”.

However, Dr Joan Gilvarry, the IMB’s director of human medicines, told the inquest she was happy with Ireland’s voluntary code of reporting ADRs.

“We are in the top seven of 84 countries in the World HealthOrganisation for reporting ADRs,” she said. “By and large, it’s a good and effective system. In countries where a mandatory code has been introduced, there has actually been a fall-off in reporting.”