Have you undergone chemotherapy treatment with Taxotere and developed excessive watery eyes? Have the side effects of Taxotere led you to be diagnosed with serious or permanent conditions or injury? Did that new diagnosis require you to undergo medical treatment and suffer through physical and emotional distress? When you’ve been the victim of dangerous medications recklessly or wantonly put out on the market by pharmaceutical companies, you may be entitled to pursue financial compensation for your losses.
Let the Virginia Beach, VA Taxotere watery eyes lawsuit attorneys of Hotze Runkle PLLC help you to hold the pharmaceutical company accountable to compensate you for your medical expenses, lost income, and pain and suffering.
Watery Eyes Caused Through Taxotere Use
The pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis developed and marketed a cancer treatment drug called docetaxel, also known by its brand name of Taxotere. Taxotere, a chemotherapy treatment, can be administered in weekly, biweekly, or once every three weeks treatment regimens. It works by shrinking tumors and cancer cells and preventing them from spreading or metastasizing throughout the body. Taxotere has been primarily marketed for the treatment of breast cancer but has also been used to treat other forms of cancer like lung and stomach cancer.
While Taxotere can successfully treat many forms of cancer, patients on a Taxotere treatment regimen found themselves experiencing the odd side effect of excessively watery eyes. Patients’ eyes would become so watery it would look as though they were crying. The excessive amount of tears also interfered with patients’ vision, preventing them from doing such activities as reading or driving. This symptom of excessively watery eyes would continue even after patients finished their chemo treatment with Taxotere.
Subsequent medical research has identified a link between Taxotere use and the side effect of excessively watery eyes, which in time can lead to permanent damage to ocular and nasal tissues. Patients who have been treated with Taxotere have filed suit against the drug’s manufacturing Sanofi-Aventis. These patients allege that the company knew that Taxotere causes excessively watery eyes and withheld information about this risk from physicians and their patients.
If you’ve undergone cancer treatment with Taxotere at Sentara Hospital or another facility and began experiencing watery eyes, you may be suffering from adverse side effects due to your treatment. Studies have shown that each kind of prescribed Taxotere treatment regimen can lead to the side effect of excessively watery eyes.
“Excessively watery eyes” is known as a medical condition called epiphora. This condition results from inflammation of the canaliculus, a tubular structure that runs from the eye into the nasal cavity that drains tears. Each eyelid has one canaliculus.
With epiphora, the natural flow of tears is blocked. If left untreated, epiphora can develop into a medical condition known as canalicular stenosis, which may eventually result in permanent damage to structures in your nasal cavity.
Is Epiphora Curable?
Epiphora can naturally occur due to inflammation of nasal structures from allergies, the common cold, or other nasal infections. In these cases, the inflammation eventually subsides over time. Epiphora resulting from Taxotere represents a much more serious medical condition that requires medical intervention to avoid permanent damage.
Epiphora may lead to canalicular stenosis when the canaliculi become infected. Infection and inflammation cause the canaliculi to close, blocking the flow of tears. Once the canaliculi are fully blocked, the condition cannot be reversed. Instead, a person suffering from permanent blockage of their canaliculi may have to seek other alternative invasive treatments to help deal with the symptoms of canalicular stenosis, including excessively watery eyes.
How Canalicular Stenosis Is Caused by Taxotere
Studies indicate that any type of Taxotere treatment regimen can result in epiphora and canalicular stenosis. When a patient begins to experience watery eyes during chemotherapy with Taxotere and this symptom continues after finishing chemo treatment, that usually serves as a sign that the patient is suffering from inflammation and obstruction in their canaliculi.
Taxotere use can cause canalicular stenosis due to the way that the drug interacts with bodily fluids. The ingredients in Taxotere can get into a person’s tears. When their tears flow into the canaliculi, the residual Taxotere in the fluid can irritate the tissue in the canaliculi, leading to inflammation that blocks tears from naturally draining through the canaliculi into the nasal cavity. If the inflammation is left untreated, it will eventually cause the canaliculi to close completely. When canalicular stenosis reaches this point, the condition becomes permanent.
Sanofi-Aventis is alleged to have known of the risks that Taxotere can cause epiphora and canalicular stenosis but failed to advise doctors and patients who chose to utilize Taxotere for chemotherapy treatment. This failure to disclose the risks of Taxotere has deprived patients of the ability to fully evaluate the risks of treatment with Taxotere and to seek preventative treatment measures to help avoid permanent damage from canalicular stenosis.
Treating Canalicular Stenosis
Canalicular stenosis is a preventable condition. If inflammation of the canaliculi is caught early enough, a patient may have stents implanted in the canaliculi that can hold the ducts open and prevent them from closing. The stents can be removed after a patient completes their treatment with Taxotere.
Once canalicular stenosis results in complete blockage of the ducts, they are permanently blocked. Treatment options can only help manage symptoms of excessively watery eyes. However, treatments for canalicular stenosis involve invasive surgery. The more common treatment option involves a surgical procedure called dacryocystorhinostomy, or DCR. In a DCR, a surgeon creates a passage around the eye to allow tears to bypass blocked portions of the canaliculus.
When a patient’s ocular structure does not allow for an alternative channel for tears to flow, a patient may need to undergo a conjunctivodacryocystorhinostomy, or CDCR. A CDCR involves implanting a small glass tube to replace the closed canaliculus and allow tears to naturally drain.
Unfortunately, both surgical options often require patients to undergo additional procedures in the future to help maintain the structures created or placed by the surgery. Both treatment options also carry risks of complications common to any surgery involving the eye or nasal structures. Those risks may include infections, damage to ocular and nasal structures, respiratory issues, vision loss or blindness, and permanent scarring from surgical incisions.
How to Recover Compensation If You’ve Had Watery Eyes Caused by Taxotere
If you’ve suffered side effects such as epiphora or canalicular stenosis, you may be entitled to recover compensation for your expenses and losses caused by your injuries. Those losses may include:
- Medical treatments, including surgical procedures and post-operative recovery
- Lost income when you miss time from work or lost earning capacity if you cannot return to work due to your symptoms
- Physical scarring or disability
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Loss of quality of life
Under Virginia law, you typically have two years to file a lawsuit for compensation for your injuries from Sanofi-Aventis. The two-year period begins on the date you were first injured by Taxotere or on the date you discovered you were harmed by the side effects of Taxotere.
The Virginia Beach Taxotere watery eyes lawsuit attorneys of Hotze Runkle PLLC can pursue your claim for financial recovery on your behalf. Our attorneys can fight to win compensation for you either in a negotiated settlement or by advocating your case in court and at trial.
How a Virginia Beach Taxotere Lawsuit Attorney at Hotze Runkle PLLC Can Help
When you undergo chemotherapy with Taxotere, you are already dealing with the physical and emotional difficulties of recovering from cancer. Cancer treatments often have side effects that impact your quality of life. You shouldn’t have to also face the risk of hidden side effects from your cancer treatment that can lead to permanent injury.
If you’ve been harmed by Taxotere, you may want to pursue compensation from the pharmaceutical companies that made the drug. But you may not know where to start in trying to hold a massive global company legally accountable for your injuries and losses. That’s where the Virginia Beach Taxotere lawsuit attorneys of Hotze Runkle PLLC can help. Our firm can handle all the hard work in pursuing your claim and defending your legal rights and interests so that you can keep focused on your recovery from cancer and on treating your canalicular stenosis.
With Hotze Runkle PLLC, you can expect our Virginia Beach Taxotere watery eyes lawsuit attorneys to walk you through your rights and options. We’ll make sure that you know what to expect at every stage of your case.
Do You Have a Taxotere Lawsuit Claim?
If you’ve suffered permanent injury due to the side effects of the cancer chemotherapy treatment Taxotere, you deserve to hold Sanofi-Aventis responsible. They put dangerous medications onto the market and potentially withheld knowledge about the risks of side effects of Taxotere, which deprived you of the right to make informed decisions about your care. This lack of information also prevented you from seeking preventative care to avoid permanent injury and lost quality of life.
To find out if you’re eligible for compensation for the losses you’ve suffered due to Taxotere, take our handy online quiz today.