The adult son of the late Carl O. and representative of his estate has recently filed a wrongful death lawsuit against AstraZeneca LP and related companies for their role in allegedly causing him to develop Nexium chronic kidney disease.

The lawsuit was filed on Jan. 17, 2019, by plaintiff Nicholas O. in New Jersey where Proton Pump Inhibitor (PPI) Product Liability Cases have been funneled under Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) No. 2789.

Nicholas’ legal complaint includes survival and consortium claims on behalf of his mother, Patricia, and survival claims on behalf of himself and his siblings, Anthony, Jay and Tim. He indicates that Carl—unaware of the danger of extended use of over-the-counter PPI products—ingested Nexium daily from 2009-2017 while living in Orlando, Fla. The decedent was eventually diagnosed with chronic kidney disease with acute episodes.

Nicholas’ short-form complaint says that his father eventually succumbed from his Nexium chronic kidney disease, an event which Nicholas says could have been prevented had the manufacturer provided adequate warnings regarding its use on the packaging.

What is Nexium Chronic Kidney Disease?

The Nexium MDL indicates that Nexium chronic kidney disease involves a slow loss of kidney performance. The kidneys filter metabolic waste products and excess fluid from the blood and excrete it through the body’s urine output.

When Nexium chronic kidney disease progresses, these fluids—including electrolytes–accumulate to a dangerous level. Eventually, the kidneys entirely ‘burn out’ and a patient must rise to the top of a transplant list very quickly or endure frequent and lengthy dialysis sessions in order to survive.

According to the National Kidney Foundation, dialysis involves running the body’s blood through a machine which does the filtering of extra fluids for the damaged kidneys. The process maintains the correct balance of sodium, bicarbonate, and potassium in the blood and keeps the blood pressure reasonably regulated.

Mortality Rates Among Long-Term Users of PPIs

According to a July 2017 article by Science Daily, a recent study compared 275,000 PPI users against 75,000 people who took an alternative class of drugs known as H2 blockers for treatment of gastrointestinal reflux and other ailments.

Author Ziyad Al-Aly MD indicates that the data coming out of the study was so strong, there could be no other way of interpreting it—PPI users had a 50 percent increase in death risk.

In a Reuters article discussing this study, Al-Aly revealed that the possible mechanism behind the higher mortality rate involves lysosomes – small “garbage disposals” within cells which function poorly in people taking PPIs.

Science Daily attributes WebMD with saying that PPI drugs are still among the most popularly prescribed remedies. Used for everything from heartburn to ulcers and even Gastrointestinal Esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), 15 million monthly prescriptions for Nexium were written in 2015 alone. But these drugs are tied to numerous complications, including stomach cancer.

In addition to the prescribed varieties, PPIs are widely available over-the-counter in products like Prevacid, Prilosec and Nexium. H2 blockers, the safer alternative, are available in over-the-counter medications such as Pepcid AC, Zantac, and Tagamet.

The Nexium Lawsuit is Case No. 2:19-cv-00592-CCC-MF in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.