Student Dies From Overdose Of Skin Cream
Girl Was Preparing For Laser Hair Removal
UPDATED: 10:29 am EST February 9, 2005
RALEIGH, N.C. -- An autopsy report has been released concerning a North Carolina State University student who died in January before laser hair removal.
http://www.wtov9.com/health/4179434/detail.html#
The autopsy confirms what Shiri Berg's attorney has been saying all along -- that she died from an overdose of Lidocaine, a numbing cream. The autopsy also revealed Berg suffered heart failure and brain damage.
The autopsy says she spread the prescription-strength cream she purchased from Premier Body Clinics from her waist to her ankles and wrapped her legs in plastic wrap.
Attorney David Kirby, who represents the Berg family, said Berg's parents are aware of the autopsy report, but they have not decided whether to file a lawsuit against the clinic.
Officials are questioning what role a compounding pharmacy had in Berg's death.
In 2002, the Triangle Compounding Pharmacy told WRAL-TV in Raleigh that it had strict standards for how its drugs were mixed.
"My biggest test is would I give a drug we make to my kids," owner Joe Caliebro said.
"It seems now, in retrospect, like a big risk for a cosmetic procedure," said David Work, executive director of the North Carolina Pharmacy Board.
The board is investigating Triangle Compunding Pharmacy. According to the attorney for Berg's family, the pharmacy sold the compounded Lidocaine that killed her to the Premier Body Laser Clinics.
"The public, I think, wrongly assumes that because a drug is sold in a pharmacy that it's automatically safe [or] that it's been approved as safe. Safety is a relative term," Work said.
Work said compounded drugs by definition are never specifically tested, but he said Lidocaine by itself is routinely sold over-the-counter in smaller concentrations posing few problems.
"It's not a controlled substance like Oxycontin," he said.
The autopsy said Berg wrapped her legs in plastic after applying the drug. Work said that made the situation worse.
"When you put Saran Wrap over large parts of your body, that drug is driven into the body, inside the body like an injectable and it can't get out," Work said.
The Pharmacy Board cannot speak specifically about an ongoing investigation, but it expects a report to be completed in two to three weeks. In the worst-case scenario, the pharmacist could have his or her license suspended or revoked and the pharmacy could have its permit suspended or revoked.
Meanwhile, an Arizona woman died last fall under circumstances similar Birg's.
The News and Observer of Raleigh reported that Blanca Bolanos of Tucson died Nov. 1 after being hooked to a respirator in her mother's house for nearly two years.
On Jan. 25, 2002, Bolanos applied anesthetic cream to her legs and wrapped them in cellophane several hours before an appointment for laser hair removal. She became disoriented while driving, had seizures and fell into a coma. She never regained consciousness and died of respiratory failure.
Neither Bolanos nor Berg had prescriptions for the cream, which was given to them by nonmedical employees at the clinics where they were to have laser hair removal done.
Bolanos' mother has sued the Tucson clinic and the clinic's physican. Her attorney has already reached an out-of-court settlement with the Utah pharmacy that compounded the cream.
http://www.wtov9.com/health/4179434/detail.html
Source
Girl Was Preparing For Laser Hair Removal
UPDATED: 10:29 am EST February 9, 2005
RALEIGH, N.C. -- An autopsy report has been released concerning a North Carolina State University student who died in January before laser hair removal.
http://www.wtov9.com/health/4179434/detail.html#
The autopsy says she spread the prescription-strength cream she purchased from Premier Body Clinics from her waist to her ankles and wrapped her legs in plastic wrap.
Attorney David Kirby, who represents the Berg family, said Berg's parents are aware of the autopsy report, but they have not decided whether to file a lawsuit against the clinic.
Officials are questioning what role a compounding pharmacy had in Berg's death.
In 2002, the Triangle Compounding Pharmacy told WRAL-TV in Raleigh that it had strict standards for how its drugs were mixed.
"My biggest test is would I give a drug we make to my kids," owner Joe Caliebro said.
"It seems now, in retrospect, like a big risk for a cosmetic procedure," said David Work, executive director of the North Carolina Pharmacy Board.
The board is investigating Triangle Compunding Pharmacy. According to the attorney for Berg's family, the pharmacy sold the compounded Lidocaine that killed her to the Premier Body Laser Clinics.
"The public, I think, wrongly assumes that because a drug is sold in a pharmacy that it's automatically safe [or] that it's been approved as safe. Safety is a relative term," Work said.
Work said compounded drugs by definition are never specifically tested, but he said Lidocaine by itself is routinely sold over-the-counter in smaller concentrations posing few problems.
"It's not a controlled substance like Oxycontin," he said.
The autopsy said Berg wrapped her legs in plastic after applying the drug. Work said that made the situation worse.
"When you put Saran Wrap over large parts of your body, that drug is driven into the body, inside the body like an injectable and it can't get out," Work said.
The Pharmacy Board cannot speak specifically about an ongoing investigation, but it expects a report to be completed in two to three weeks. In the worst-case scenario, the pharmacist could have his or her license suspended or revoked and the pharmacy could have its permit suspended or revoked.
Meanwhile, an Arizona woman died last fall under circumstances similar Birg's.
The News and Observer of Raleigh reported that Blanca Bolanos of Tucson died Nov. 1 after being hooked to a respirator in her mother's house for nearly two years.
On Jan. 25, 2002, Bolanos applied anesthetic cream to her legs and wrapped them in cellophane several hours before an appointment for laser hair removal. She became disoriented while driving, had seizures and fell into a coma. She never regained consciousness and died of respiratory failure.
Neither Bolanos nor Berg had prescriptions for the cream, which was given to them by nonmedical employees at the clinics where they were to have laser hair removal done.
Bolanos' mother has sued the Tucson clinic and the clinic's physican. Her attorney has already reached an out-of-court settlement with the Utah pharmacy that compounded the cream.
http://www.wtov9.com/health/4179434/detail.html
Source
