Fosamax Risks Outweigh Benefits

Columbus, OHJune 25, 2006 is a day Susie will always remember. That's the day she experienced the worst, most surreal time of her life, and she owes it all to Fosamax. " When I found out that Fosamax caused my femur fracture, I told my doctor," says Susie. "He said it only happens to a small percentage of women and the benefits outweigh the risks. Well it happened 100 percent to me!"

Susie didn't know that Fosamax caused her femur to break until two years after the fact, and she found out about it in a health newsletter, not from any doctors. "I was shocked but of course that explained it," she says. "How else could my femur snap clear in two from just standing?

"I remember walking across my bedroom floor, touching the comforter with my foot and stumbling. I wasn't even falling down when I heard a snap; I screamed and fell down onto my left side so my broken leg was on top of me—I couldn't move. I kept screaming and fortunately my ex-husband was in the house and called 911 immediately.

The paramedics came into my bedroom and got me onto a stretcher. They had to put something on my leg so they could pull the bone back into place—that was the worst pain. It took them three pulls before they could carry me down the stairs. They kept telling me I had broken my hip but I knew it was my leg. They wouldn't believe me—until they saw the x-rays. 'You were right,' one of them said to me while I was still on the gurney in the hospital hallway.

I had surgery the next day: two incisions were made in the side of my hip. They had to cut out half an inch of shattered bone, then a titanium rod was placed into my bone marrow, all the way from my knee to my hip. They also put a titanium pin in my hip to connect it to my leg. Sometimes I feel that pin when I lie on my right side, and it still hurts."

Talk about an ordeal: Susie was in hospital for a week then a nursing home for six weeks, followed by intense physical therapy. Because she was in a wheelchair and used a walker for a few years, she lost her driver's license—all because of Fosamax.

"I was already on disability for depression so I didn't lose my job, but I lost my freedom," Susie says. "I had to sell my car to pay the medical bills and for the next three years I had to rely on other people to drive me anywhere. I even had to get a wheelchair car service to pick me up and take me to doctor appointments.

"To this day I am still walking with a limp and my leg often hurts. Because of the shattered bone they scraped away I have one leg shorter than the other. I have a lift for my shoe but it still isn't quite right. I can't go up and down stairs without pain, so I have to use a chair lift. I can't ever sit in a bathtub and soak—instead I sit on a stool in the tub and use a hand-held shower nozzle. And my ex-husband had to move back in and take care of me. He is still here, sleeping on the couch.

"I have retained a lawyer to handle my Fosamax case. I may not get any money in my lifetime, but maybe I can help get the word out that women need to stop taking Fosamax. The FDA still claims there isn't enough proof that Fosamax causes femur breaks, which is ridiculous! How many of us do they need to take this drug off the market?"