The number of Dilantin lawsuits filed against Pfizer over the anti-seizure drug have amounted to a small scale mass tort, with dozens of plaintiffs who have alleged the drug caused the dangerous and potentially fatal condition known as Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS) and its rarer, more deadly form, Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN).

A Texas man who developed Stevens Johnson Syndrome within a month of taking Dilantin’s generic form (phenytoin) in 2008, months before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning that Dilantin (phenytoin) and Phenytek, Dilantin’s bioequivalent, carried a risk of Stevens Johnson Syndrome, has filed a SJS lawsuit against Mylan, the generic drug’s manufacturer.

Juan Morales reportedly developed Stevens Johnson Syndrome within a month of ingesting phenytoin. A severe rash covered 80 percent of his body, requiring that he be hospitalized at Corpus Christi Medical Center in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Morales is one of the 100 plaintiffs so far who allege that Dilantin caused the painful and sometimes fatal skin reaction.

Had he been warned of the risks of SJS, Morales maintains that he would not have taken the medication. He is suing Mylan for failure to warn and for selling a defective product. His Dilantin SJS lawsuit also names five other “John Does” as defendants.

Jesse Nichols Jacobson’s skin peeled off her body, resulting in her death. When the skin blisters and later peels off the body in large swaths, sepsis (blood infection) and cellulitis (secondary skin infection) become much more likely.

The family of a 9-year-old New York girl who died in 2004 from drug-induced Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis as result of taking Dilantin and the anti-fungal drug Flagyl settled with Pfizer in 2010 for $3.78 million. Flagyl is also manufactured by Pfizer.

Stevens Johnson Syndrome Symptoms

Stevens Johnson Syndrome begins with flu-like symptoms and are followed by a rash similar to a burn, open sores and skin peeling. Other signs of the disease are a purplish rash that spreads, painful blisters of the mucus membranes, blisters on the eyes, nose, mouth, and genitals, sloughing off of skin in large patches, joint and muscle pain and a burning sensation all over the body. SJS can affect up to 30 percent of the body.

Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN) is diagnosed when blisters meld into each another and cover a substantial portion of the body, more than 30 percent. The skins also sloughs off in large patches. The dermis, the exposed under layer of the skin, appears red and looks like severe scalding.

Between 5 percent and 15 percent of SJS patients die from SJS side effects, while about up to 40 percent of TEN patients succumb to the disease. Survivors face a host of other medical problems including a secondary skin infection (cellulitis), sepsis, blindness, internal organ damage and permanent skin damage.

There are currently 100 Dilantin SJS lawsuits that have already been filed, but that number is expected to grow.