Mother's Near Death Experience with Tylenol

The FDA is pushing for tougher warnings about the risks of medications containing acetaminophen.   It's a warning a Vernon mother of two wishes she received sooner.

Jamie Pullo has lived with back pain since a car accident in 2003.  At times, she says the pain is unbearable.

"On a scale from one to ten is was about a seven, when it did act up.  It was very painful and the pain shot down my legs all the way to my toes.  It would wake me up in the middle of the night out of a dead sleep," said Pullo.

She is allergic to many prescription pain medications.  She finally found relief from Tylenol, which contains acetaminophen.

"It started off just a couple every six hours, on the bad days the pain was unbearable.  Through time I was just taking more and more."

She says on average she was taking eight to ten extra strength Tylenol pills a day.  But recently, as her job as a painter picked up, she found the back pain was worse.  So, she upped her Tylenol intake.

"Tylenol just seemed to be the safest thing.  I mean you can buy it anywhere," she said.

"My own opinion, I think acetaminophen if used properly is really a very safe medication and also it's very effective for pain, fever reduction and headaches," said Dr. Danyal Ibrahim, Director of Medical Toxicology at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford. 

Jamie ultimately ended up at St. Francis after taking all those Tylenol.

"They said your kidneys and your liver are just shutting down. "

At age 32, she was within inches of death.

"In Jamie's case, she is really very lucky," said Dr. Ibrahim.

She was lucky to be alive.  Jamie had no idea the acetaminophen in Tylenol could do have such a terrible effect on her body.

"Who would have thought that you could almost die from it.  That it would shut down your organs.  It was horrible,” she said.

"As a consumer or a patient, the reality is you have to be educated," said Dr. Ibrahim

The doctor warns there are limits to how much acetaminophen you can take safely.  Adults shouldn't surpass more than four grams a day, which is equivalent to eight 500 milligram extra strength Tylenol.  You just have to do the math.  You also have to be aware acetaminophen is often combined with cough medicine and prescription pain medications such as Vicodin and Percocet. 

Then there's another complicating factor: "When you take acetaminophen the hardest part of recognizing its ill effects is that it's delayed.  It takes at least a day or so to realize you have an overdose," said Dr. Ibrahim.

Jamie does admit she never consulted a doctor about the doses she was taking.  She says in the future she'll do without acetaminophen.

"Absolutely not.  I'll never touch it.  Never.  Never again," she said.

The FDA reports acetaminophen over-doses send about 56,000 people to the emergency room each year.
 

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