Have you experienced excessively watery eyes while on a Taxotere chemotherapy treatment? Have you been diagnosed with medical conditions related to your excessive watery eyes that required you to seek medical treatment and caused you physical and emotional distress? When you’ve been injured by dangerous medication like Taxotere, you may be entitled to seek financial compensation from the pharmaceutical company that injured you.
Sanofi-Aventis manufactures and markets the chemotherapy drug docetaxel under the brand name Taxotere. Taxotere fights cancer by shrinking tumors and preventing cancer cells from getting into the lymph nodes and spreading throughout the body. Although primarily prescribed to treat breast cancers in women, Taxotere has also been used to treat other types of cancer, including lung cancer and stomach cancer.
Since its introduction, Taxotere has successfully treated many patients’ cancers. However, patients on Taxotere chemotherapy regimens began to experience the unusual side effect of excessively watery eyes. This side effect continued even after the patients finished their chemotherapy. In many cases, people’s eyes would water so heavily that it made it difficult for them to drive or read.
Unfortunately, research has found a link between Taxotere and uncontrollably watery eyes. These excessive tears can lead to damage of the ocular and nasal structures. Some patients who have taken Taxotere have filed lawsuits against Sanofi-Aventis, alleging the company knew about and concealed the fact that Taxotere can cause excessively watery eyes.
Let the Long Beach Taxotere watery eyes lawsuit attorney from Hotze Runkle PLLC help you hold the pharmaceutical companies accountable. We want to make those responsible for your Taxotere-related conditions provide you with compensation, and we want to help you get justice for the harm you’ve experienced.
Watery Eyes Can Be Caused by Taxotere Use
If you were put on a Taxotere treatment regimen for your cancer at Long Beach Medical Center or another healthcare facility, you may be suffering from adverse side effects from the treatment. If you experienced excessively watery eyes during and after your chemo, it’s likely due to Taxotere. Taxotere is administered in weekly, bi-weekly, or every-three-weeks regimens, depending on the type and stage of cancer being treated. Studies have shown that excessively watery eyes can result from any Taxotere treatment regimen.
The excessively watery eyes caused by Taxotere is a medical condition known as epiphora. Epiphora is caused by chronic inflammation of the canaliculus, a tube that runs from the eye into the nasal cavity. As the canaliculus becomes inflamed, it prevents tears from naturally draining into the nasal cavity. Instead, tears continue to build up in the eyes, making it look like a person suffering from epiphora is crying.
Over time, the inflammation associated with epiphora can lead to a permanent medical condition called canalicular stenosis.
Does Epiphora Caused by Taxotere Have a Cure?
Epiphora can occur due to inflammation of the canaliculi caused by normal conditions, such as allergies or a cold or flu. In these cases, the inflammation usually subsides on its own. However, the excessive eye-watering caused as a side effect of Taxotere treatment results in far more severe and potentially permanently damaging inflammation of the canaliculi. This damage will require medical intervention.
Eventually, epiphora can lead to canalicular stenosis. Canalicular stenosis involves the closing of the canaliculus. There are four canaliculi altogether. Each eyelid has one. With epiphora, the canaliculus can eventually close completely. Once the canaliculus is fully blocked, it cannot be unblocked.
If epiphora is caught early enough, permanent blockage can be avoided by implanting stents into the canaliculi to help hold them open. After permanent blockage has occurred, patients are left only with invasive treatment options to help manage the symptoms caused by canalicular stenosis. There is no cure for totally blocked canaliculi.
How Does Taxotere Cause Canalicular Stenosis?
Taxotere causes canalicular stenosis because of how the ingredients in the drug interact with the body and with bodily fluids. Specifically, the ingredients in Taxotere can get into a person’s tears. As the Taxotere-laden tears drain through the canaliculi, they can cause inflammation that leads to epiphora and canalicular stenosis.
Patients who have suffered from epiphora and canalicular stenosis have alleged that Sanofi-Aventis knew that Taxotere can cause these conditions and failed to advise doctors and patients of the risk of this side effect. By withholding this information from patients who decided to undergo chemotherapy with Taxotere, they denied patients the opportunity to fully evaluate the risks of Taxotere treatment.
Sanofi-Aventis may also have deprived patients of the opportunity to protect themselves from serious and permanent damage by not revealing the risks. Canalicular stenosis can be avoided with a preventative procedure, which would remove the need for more intensive and dangerous surgical procedures down the line.
Treatment Options for Canalicular Stenosis
If a person is identified as having a risk for canalicular stenosis, they can have stents implanted to avoid permanent closure of their canaliculi.
Fully blocked canaliculi cannot be unblocked. Instead, treatment options are focused on attempting to manage or mitigate the symptoms caused by canalicular stenosis. The primary treatment option involves a surgery called dacryocystorhinostomy, or DCR. In DCR, a surgeon will craft new structures or channels around the eye to allow tears to bypass the closed canaliculi and drain into the nasal passages.
Where a patient’s ocular structure cannot support an alternative channel for tears to flow into the nasal cavity, a patient may undergo a conjunctivodacryocystorhinostomy, of CDCR. In a CDCR, the surgeon implants a small glass tube to take the place of the canaliculi.
These procedures, like all surgeries, come with risks of various complications, including infections, damage to the ocular or nasal cavity, permanent scarring, respiratory issues, and vision loss or blindness. In many cases, patients who receive a DCR or CDCR will need additional surgeries in the future to help maintain the alternative structures created by the procedures.
Financial Recovery for Watery Eyes Caused by Taxotere
If you’ve been afflicted by excessively watery eyes and canalicular stenosis caused by chemotherapy treatment with Taxotere, you may be entitled to financial compensation you’re your losses. You may be eligible for financial recovery for these and other damages:
- Costs of medical treatment, including surgeries to manage the symptoms of canalicular stenosis
- Lost income and earning capacity when your symptoms interfere with your ability to work
- Disfigurement and disability that may result from surgical treatments
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of quality of life
Under California’s statute of limitations, you typically have two years from the date that you were injured or the date that you discovered that you had suffered injury from the side effects of Taxotere to file a lawsuit to pursue compensation.
If you file your lawsuit after the statutory deadline has passed, the court will likely dismiss your case. If that happens, you will lose your opportunity to pursue Sanofi-Aventis for compensation through the court system.
How a Long Beach Taxotere Lawsuit Attorney from Hotze Runkle PLLC Can Help
Chemotherapy can have serious side effects that impact your quality of life. Cancer treatment is difficult enough. You shouldn’t have to be burdened with serious and permanent injuries from side effects from your cancer drug, especially when those potential side effects may have been known to Sanofi-Aventis.
Bringing a claim for compensation against a major corporation such as a pharmaceutical company can seem incredibly complex and daunting. Trying to pursue your legal rights when recovering from cancer and from the side effects of Taxotere can be overwhelming.
You don’t have to face big companies on your own. The Long Beach Taxotere lawsuit attorneys of Hotze Runkle PLLC can handle all the aspects of your case for you so that you can focus on your treatment and recovery from your canalicular stenosis.
With Hotze Runkle PLLC in your corner, you can expect our experienced Long Beach Taxotere lawsuit attorneys to guide you through your legal rights and options in pursuing your claim. We’ll help you know what to expect at each stage of your case. Our firm will vigorously pursue fair and full compensation on your behalf, either through a settlement with the pharmaceutical company or by pursuing your claim in court and at trial.
We will fight for the accountability and justice you deserve after being injured by dangerous pharmaceutical drugs that have left you with serious and permanent medical conditions.
Take Our Quiz to Find Out Whether You May Have a Taxotere Lawsuit Claim
If the side effects of Taxotere have left you with permanent injuries and pain and suffering from treatment and surgery, you may be entitled to pursue financial compensation from Sanofi-Aventis.
The Long Beach Taxotere watery eyes lawsuit attorneys of Hotze Runkle PLLC will work hard to help you hold the pharmaceutical company accountable. They recklessly put dangerous medication on the market, failing to advise you and your doctor of the risks of canalicular stenosis caused by taking Taxotere. This failure to inform you of potential ill effects caused you to suffer completely avoidable permanent injury. Let our legal team fight for maximum compensation on your behalf.
To learn if you’re eligible for compensation for your Taxotere-related injuries, take our easy quiz today.