The Seroquel Lawsuit blog is reporting in with a claimant's settlement packet from the ongoing litigation cases--26,000 cases of people becoming diabetic after ingesting a prescription medication, an antipsychotic called Seroquel sold by AstraZeneca.
The figures show the claimant will be receiving under $6000.00 once the attorney fees are removed from the $11,000 offer, and that claimant does not have medicaid or medicare amounts removed or it could be less, as some people will be receiving less--medicaid and medicare get their money back, the lawyers get their cut and the claimant, the injured person gets an insulting settlement amount.
Let's look at the fact sheet on diabetes from the CDC:
Deaths among people with diabetes, United States, 2007
Diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death based on U.S. death certificates in 2007. This ranking is based on the 71,382 death certificates in 2007 in which diabetes was the underlying cause of death. Diabetes was a contributing cause of death in an additional 160,022 death certificates for a total of 231,404 certificates in 2007 in which diabetes appeared as any-listed cause of death.
Diabetes is likely to be under reported as a cause of death. Studies have found that about 35% to 40% of decedents with diabetes had it listed anywhere on the death certificate and about 10% to 15% had it listed as the underlying cause of death.
Overall, the risk for death among people with diabetes is about twice that of people of similar age but without diabetes.
Estimated diabetes costs in the United States, 2007
Total (direct and indirect): $174 billion
Direct medical costs: $116 billion
After adjusting for population age and sex differences, average medical expenditures among people with diagnosed diabetes were 2.3 times higher than what expenditures would be in the absence of diabetes.
Indirect costs: $58 billion (disability, work loss, premature mortality)
Complications of diabetes in the United States
Heart disease and stroke
In 2004, heart disease was noted on 68% of diabetes-related death certificates among people aged 65 years or older.
In 2004, stroke was noted on 16% of diabetes-related death certificates among people aged 65 years or older.
Adults with diabetes have heart disease death rates about 2 to 4 times higher than adults without diabetes.
The risk for stroke is 2 to 4 times higher among people with diabetes.
Hypertension
In 2005–2008, of adults aged 20 years or older with self-reported diabetes, 67% had blood pressure greater than or equal to 140/90 millimeters of mercury (mmHg) or used prescription medications for hypertension.
Blindness and eye problems
Diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness among adults aged 20–74 years.
In 2005–2008, 4.2 million (28.5%) people with diabetes aged 40 years or older had diabetic retinopathy, and of these, 655,000 (4.4% of those with diabetes) had advanced diabetic retinopathy that could lead to severe vision loss.
Kidney disease
Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, accounting for 44% of all new cases of kidney failure in 2008.
In 2008, 48,374 people with diabetes began treatment for end-stage kidney disease.
In 2008, a total of 202,290 people with end-stage kidney disease due to diabetes were living on chronic dialysis or with a kidney transplant.
Nervous system disease
About 60% to 70% of people with diabetes have mild to severe forms of nervous system damage. The results of such damage include impaired sensation or pain in the feet or hands, slowed digestion of food in the stomach, carpal tunnel syndrome, erectile dysfunction, or other nerve problems.
Almost 30% of people with diabetes aged 40 years or older have impaired sensation in the feet (i.e., at least one area that lacks feeling).
Severe forms of diabetic nerve disease are a major contributing cause of lower-extremity amputations.
Amputations
More than 60% of nontraumatic lower-limb amputations occur in people with diabetes
In 2006, about 65,700 nontraumatic lower-limb amputations were performed in people with diabetes.
Dental disease
Periodontal (gum) disease is more common in people with diabetes. Among young adults, those with diabetes have about twice the risk of those without diabetes.
Adults aged 45 years or older with poorly controlled diabetes (A1c > 9%) were 2.9 times more likely to have severe periodontitis than those without diabetes. The likelihood was even greater (4.6 times) among smokers with poorly controlled diabetes.
About one-third of people with diabetes have severe periodontal disease consisting of loss of attachment (5 millimeters or more) of the gums to the teeth.
Complications of pregnancy
Poorly controlled diabetes before conception and during the first trimester of pregnancy among women with type 1 diabetes can cause major birth defects in 5% to 10% of pregnancies and spontaneous abortions in 15% to 20% of pregnancies. On the other hand, for a woman with pre-existing diabetes, optimizing blood glucose levels before and during early pregnancy can reduce the risk of birth defects in their infants.
Poorly controlled diabetes during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy can result in excessively large babies, posing a risk to both mother and child.
Other complications
Uncontrolled diabetes often leads to biochemical imbalances that can cause acute life-threatening events, such as diabetic ketoacidosis and hyperosmolar (nonketotic) coma.
People with diabetes are more susceptible to many other illnesses. Once they acquire these illnesses, they often have worse prognoses. For example, they are more likely to die with pneumonia or influenza than people who do not have diabetes.
People with diabetes aged 60 years or older are 2–3 times more likely to report an inability to walk one-quarter of a mile, climb stairs, or do housework compared with people without diabetes in the same age group.
People with diabetes are twice as likely to have depression, which can complicate diabetes management, than people without diabetes. In addition, depression is associated with a 60% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes."
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Those are sobering statistics for people who may not have ever become diabetic if it wasn't for taking Seroquel.There are, no doubt many claimants who do not have a family history of diabetes, and for the 26,000 claimants as example, many became diabetic after taking the antipsychotic.
Seroquel is associated with U.S. veterans and soldiers dying in their sleep and is used often for insomnia off-label.
Noting the Seroquel Lawsuit blog documents: page 37 shows the number of death cases this law firm represented at 14. The payout for a death is $12,755, before any fees are removed.
Death from Seroquel got $12,000? less fees? 11 cases of diabetes are in kids under age 18. Kids under age 18 get $23,000 less the fees.
What price does one place on the value of a life? the claimants who became diabetic from Seroquel use now face a host of possible health related problems, that in short could end their lives sooner than if they had not ever taken the medication and become diabetic.
This is an outrage, it is unacceptable. The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has been fined $520 million by the Dept of Justice in April 2010 for illegal marketing of Seroquel. It is becoming evident that the victims here are being stomped on--victims of a marketing plan that was in the works before the drug was on the market, and the victims of diabetes as a result and now--victims of corporate crime--get under $6,000 to pay their medical bills and hell, maybe pay for their funeral cost.
The tax payer (YOU) will be paying for their care, with Medicaid and Medicare, maybe disability payments too. Diabetes is a serious disease, the pancreas doesn't work the way it should, and all from Seroquel.
Considering that Seroquel is being touted for anxiety, insomnia, MDD, depression in bipolar and is being advertised in magazines featuring this statement: "Still trying to get ahead of your cloud of depression?" (see link for photo of that advert)I firmly believe the general public should be aware of the facts of Seroquel; that it is a neuroleoptic with a box warning for QT Prolongation which means:
"In cardiology, the QT interval is a measure of the time between the start of the Q wave and the end of the T wave in the heart's electrical cycle. In general, the QT interval represents electrical depolarization and repolarization of the left and right ventricles. A prolonged QT interval is a biomarker for ventricular tachyarrhythmias like torsades de pointes and a risk factor for sudden death."-wikipedia
The antispychotic is not an antidepressant nor is it a simple sleep aid. The risks of taking this drug outweigh the benefit in my opinion, and the box warnings should be taken seriously, far more seriously than the advertisement depicting a depression cloud looming... never forget people were injured via death, diabetes, pancreatitus from Seroquel, and never forget they are permanent outcomes.
There should be a great outpouring of empathy for these claimants, because not only have they been injured by a pharmaceutical, they have been rolled by the lawyers who settled with AstraZeneca for chump change, instead of taking them down in court. If the claimants refuse this offer, they might finally be heard.
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