Disclaimer: This story and information was shared on an online support website to help survivors of Zithromax-induced Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS).

Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS) is a serious allergic reaction of the skin and is linked to a number of medications, including the popular antibiotic Zithromax (or Z-Pak). When SJS spread and covers more than 30 percent of the body, it becomes “skin death” and life threatening.

It’s generally observed that antibiotics are overprescribed in the US, and Zithromax is especially popular because patients only need to take it for five days instead of nine or more. Due to the short regimen, it’s particularly popular for children, and sadly there have been cases of toddlers dying from Zithromax SJS. It’s why there are thousands of Zithromax lawsuits pending and a Zithromax class action lawsuit investigation has been established into claims the drug maker failed to warn about the risk of Stevens Johnson Syndrome from Zithromax.

However, Stevens Johnson Syndrome is still a relatively rare condition and many physicians have never seen severe cases in person. As such, misdiagnoses are common, but even a few hours without treatment can be fatal. While there’s no cure for SJS, the symptoms can be treated in the hopes that the body remains free of infection to heal itself.

On one online support group’s website, Marcia T. shared her mother, Velma T.’s, story in the hopes of educating and warning others. When Velma started showing symptoms of a cold or flu but refused to get treatment, Marcia forced her mom to go to Urgent Care in Goldsboro, NC in November 2009. Here, she was given Zithromax.

Marcia says, “If there is a “Black Box Warning” for this drug, we were not told about it. Since she has such sensitive skin to begin with (allergic to all blue dye in all food, nonfood, prescription drugs, OTC drugs, etc.—anything with blue dye). All this is documented on all the information I provide them in typed form to any doctors, hospitals or pharmacies that she goes to. The doctor at Immediate Care was provided with all this information that day as well.”

However, considering the detailed complaints of the pending Zithromax SJS lawsuits, anyone can develop SJS at any time from virtually any drug, and many people have safely taken Zithromax before and then suddenly got SJS from it for no apparent reason.

This wasn’t Velma’s first time taking Zithromax.

“Because she can hardly take anything at all, especially the ‘good’ drugs, the doctor said he was trying to be as cautious as he could. So, since she did not have a problem with the Zithromax two years earlier, he said he was going to prescribe Zithromax but this time in the Z-Pak form, which was a six-day supply. She had never had Z-Pak because two years earlier she had used Zithromax in pill form in a prescription drug bottle.”

Both Zithromax and Z-Pak are part of the pending Zithromax multidistrict litigation (MDL).

Marcia recalls, “After several days of taking the second round of the Z-Pak, the right side of her face was swollen and reddish, and I immediately told her not to take any more of the drug that I bet she was having a reaction to it… when she got up, her face was horrific looking…She had failed to inform me that while on the first round of the Z-Pak, that she did feel her face sting some from a red bump area, but she thought it was just where something had bit her on the face.”

Early SJS “Red” Flags

Even though Velma stopped taking Zithromax, Stevens Johnson Syndrome had already set in. Her face got worse, but when she went to the ER she was diagnosed with facial cellulitis (a wrong diagnosis strikes again with SJS). Marcia writes, “After a week when she came home from the hospital, her neck area became severely red, burning and itching and looked like red scalded flesh…she looked like scalded, red flesh that boiling water has been poured on. She was in severe pain.”

Velma did her own research and came to a self-diagnosis: Stevens Johnson Syndrome.

The mother-daughter team went to their general physician for a confirmation and was finally given the correct SJS diagnosis after blatantly asking if that was what it was. Fortunately, Velma survived but not without a lot of pain and suffering.

“She was admitted to the local hospital…her upper body from her chin down below her stomach was getting more bloody raw looking…her doctor told her that he almost killed her with these drugs.”