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.