Icy Hot: Some Nasty Stories

Chattanooga, TNWhile Chattem Inc. of Tennessee was collecting adverse reaction reports concerning serious burns relating to the use of its Icy Hot Patch products, consumers were enduring horrendous events that landed some in hospital.

One woman complained that after applying the Icy Hot Back patch for back pain, it took her a full ten minutes of slow peeling to get it off. Afterwards, getting in the shower and experiencing what amounted to excruciating pain once the water tumbled from the showerhead and hit her back, did she realize that the patch had removed a piece of her skin along with it. The woman now has a permanent scar on her back from the injury.

The Icy Hot Patch family is a collection of air-activated patches that retail in a red pouch. Once removed, the chemicals within the patch are activated. Upon securing the patch onto the affected area, the chemicals within the product go to work—first to cool the affected area, then heat to further soothe the muscle. Adhesive is used to secure the patch in place, and the product is to be worn for no more than eight hours at a time.

However, it was found that the patch proved too hot for some—especially for those with sensitive skin, such as the elderly, or consumers who inadvertently fall asleep or use a heating pad, which can exacerbate the situation. The manufacturer has since issued product usage updates regarding those issues and has recommended that the product not be used by anyone over 55 years of age. However, the warnings came too late for some.

And for those who suffered first, second and third-degree burns when the patch heated up too much, removing the patch has proven an excruciating challenge given the robust adhesive used to anchor the patch in place. With healthy skin, removal of a large patch such as the Icy Hot Back Patch would prove unpleasant at best. However, when injured skin is brought into the mix, removal of the patch has been known to further irritate, damage or even remove sensitive or injured skin, to the point of hellish pain.

One middle-aged man writes that he had been using Icy Hot cream for 2 years
and had been pleased with the product. "So when (the Icy Hot Patch) came out I thought 'great!'...so I purchased them and applied one to my shoulder just as directed. I do not have delicate skin and I am only 58 years old. When I tried to remove the patch it wouldn't come off easily. I very slowly tried to peel it away from my skin. When it did come off it took the size of a silver dollar's worth of skin along with it."

After three days the affected area finally began to heal.

"Would I use this product again?" he asks. "NO WAY! In fact I will never use any of their products again and will tell everyone I know about it. I work in a hospital and see a lot of people daily. I can't imagine what this patch would do to our seniors who have delicate skin to begin with."

As indicated above, the manufacturer's warnings and usage updates came too late for this consumer. However, Chattem was warned as far back as March of last year that the Icy Hot Patches were a problem, after a young Texas boy wound up with serious leg burns after using the patch. His caring mother immediately notified the company, hoping to spare anyone else the pain and discomfort that her son had gone through. And yet, the company allegedly waited almost a full year before finally triggering a voluntary recall on a product that was negatively affecting so many consumers. About 200 adverse reaction reports had come in, before the company reacted.

Even when used as directed, sometimes things can go wrong. One man writes that an acquaintance had used an Icy Hot Back patch on his lower back, for back pain. While it is not known if he had any problems with the skin under the patch, the issue for this gentleman became the unfortunate leakage of the active ingredient from the patch, which trickled down into the extremely sensitive area between his buttocks.

Anyone who has any experience with Icy Hot cream, or any other product of that ilk, will know what happens when you inadvertently get any of it within your nether regions. The pain can be excruciating. This poor fellow wound up in the ER of his local hospital with nasty burns the size of silver dollars inside his cheeks.

He's talking to an attorney…