Maine

Tricia Newenham
Steuben, Maine

For more on Tricia's case and to read the inside story of the drug industry's irresponsibility on PPA, please read the Los Angeles Times' investigation "A Dose of Denial".

In October 2000, 15-year-old girl named Tricia Newenham from Steuben, Maine took 3 doses of Triaminic cold syrup containing an FDA-approved drug called PPA for a runny nose. Less than 24 hours later she had a massive stroke that left her mentally disabled, partially paralyzed - and blind.

If the drug industry had acted responsibly, Tricia's PPA-induced stroke wouldn't have happened. The drug industry knew that PPA was linked to strokes in young woman, but chose to keep that information secret to protect their profits.

According to the March 28, 2004 LA Times article, "A Dose of Denial,"

"Only hours before these devastating strokes, each victim had washed down a seemingly innocuous over-the-counter cold medicine, one of billions of doses consumed annually nationwide. The medicines contained phenylpropanolamine, or PPA, the active ingredient in scores of popular nonprescription decongestants and diet aids until November 2000, when the Food and Drug Administration declared PPA unsafe and asked drug companies to stop selling it.

"By then, the drug industry had spent more than two decades fending off growing evidence of a possible link between PPA and hemorrhagic stroke. But Patton [another victim in the article] and Newenham were among hundreds of PPA consumers who suffered attacks after a landmark study—sponsored by the drug industry itself—concluded in October 1999 that the use of PPA was associated with an increased risk of that deadliest form of stroke.

"Recently obtained internal company documents show that rather than alerting the public during cold season, drug makers launched a yearlong campaign to keep the results quiet and stall government regulation. By the time the FDA acted, 13 months and hundreds of strokes later, the companies had reformulated their brand names with little interruption in sales."

Tricia Newenham was one of those hundreds of strokes. The LA Times article describes what happened to her:

"Tricia Newenham suffered her stroke the week before the advisory committee met. As her neurosurgeon prepared to remove the damaged tissue from her brain, he warned her parents she might not survive her eight hours on the table. Three days later, before a second operation to remove a blood clot, her mother had her baptized, just in case.

"Tricia made it through, but she would never be the same.

"Before her stroke, she stood a gangly 5 feet 6 and weighed 106 pounds. She was becoming a woman, and had developed a serious case of the boycrazies (login: kissable98; password: puckerup). She never left her house in Steuben, Maine, without her hair and makeup just right. She had given up basketball and softball and swimming in vanity over her skinny legs.

"Now 18, Newenham weighs 196 pounds, the consequence of medication and a captive life in which junk food provides a rare escape. Once a promising artist who had imagined a career in design, she passes the time rocking gently in a blue recliner, listening to the drone of soap operas.

"…She hears a lot and comprehends much, but she has difficulty processing thought and even more in communicating it. When asked a question, she struggles to find the most economical answer, usually a word or two, often a guttural 'I don't know,' with little intonation.

"…When the paramedics came to the house on the day of the stroke, they asked Bybee [Patricia Bybee, her mother] what medications Tricia had taken. 'Only Triaminic,' she said. It was months later, after the FDA had asked drug companies to withdraw their PPA products, that she learned of the possible connection between cold medicines and stroke.

"Bybee, a nurse's assistant, and her husband, Tim, a plumber, went deep into debt to pay off medical bills. They say a settlement reached last year with Novartis will relieve their debts and cover the cost of Tricia's attendance at a school for the blind near Boston.

"After three years, they have slowly adapted to their new reality, and lowered their expectations.

"'We would give anything to have her back the way she was,' said Tim Bybee. 'But we have grown to love her and accept her the way she is.'"

March 2005