Putting in IMHO because legal issues involved.
My wife and I have a friend who kaylasmom has known since the early 70s, and I have known since 1991. Like my wife, she is totally blind. In 2001, she went through some personal and health problems that resulted in her taking Compazine (Prochlorperazine, a member of the phenothiazine class of drugs) regularly for what she terms “nervous stomach.” I’m not certain when she stopped taking it, but there’s no doubt that she took it on a long-term basis.
For about the past six months, she has been falling down a lot, and has developed some facial tics. She started going to a neurologist, and has now been diagnosed with a case of tardive dyskinesia.
My internet searches reveal that tardive dyskinesia has been known to have an association with drugs in the phenothiazine class, including Compazine, since 1973. And yet, her doctor prescribed, and a mail-order pharmacy filled prescriptions for Compazine for years, apparently without bothering to notify her that she was putting herself at risk by taking it for so long.
Is there likely to be a civil action that she would be in a position to pursue to compensate her* for any harm she may have suffered due to taking this drug for so long? If so, what would she need to show wrt who prescribed it, and who filled it?
*We have learned that there is an orphan drug that has been found to be effective in treating the symptoms of TD. She’s interested in getting her insurance company to cover that drug, but she’d also be willing to look upon making that drug available to her as sufficient compensation.