PPH: You Can't Find what You Don't Look For

Wheelersburg, OHIn the early 1990s and again in 1998, Kendall Lewis took the diet drug Adapex for weight loss. He had no health issues before taking this drug but he has now been diagnosed with hypertension and his cardiologist advised him to have more testing, this time for Primary Pulmonary Hypertension (PPH). Lewis might be joining thousands of other victims of diet drugs (such as Fen-phen and Redux) in a [PPH class action lawsuit].

Lewis took Adapex on both occasions for weight loss. Fortunately, he stopped taking it after just a few months. "It wasn't working and it seemed like I had to take more than prescribed to take my appetite away," says Lewis. "As well, it made me dizzy and sick to my stomach. My heart would race and when it did work, I couldn't eat at all and that wasn't healthy.

"I just got diagnosed with hypertension last month - and I am only 43 years old. There is no history of heart disease or hypertension in my family so this diagnosis came out of the blue. It really surprised me; every time I got checked nothing ever came up. But this time I got a stress test. Now I have pains in my chest and a pain going down my left arm is excruciating; sometimes it hurts so bad I can't sleep. I've had some pains in the past and thought I was having a heart attack but when I went to the doctor they told me it was stress-related.

This past month, the pains in my chest and arm were getting worse so I have been scheduled for another stress test and I have a cardiovascular surgeon's appointment. My doctor says that the cardiologist may be able to answer my questions about the diet drugs I took in the 1990s and if they are indeed the cause. My family doctor said, 'Hmm, good question' when I mentioned that I took diet drugs. She said the specialist will give me an answer."

Primary Pulmonary Hypertension is most frequently diagnosed during routine testing for the causes of high blood pressure. Often, it is up to the patient to tell their doctor they took diet drugs—even if it was decades ago, PPH may go undetected for years.

"Now I have a narrowing of the veins to my heart and I blame the pharmaceutical companies," says Lewis. "The pills that I took so long ago could be causing all these problems -it makes me angry. And it isn't fair that they use people as guinea pigs for profit. I have four grandchildren that I may not see grow up. The pains I have are terrible and it has really made my life miserable. I can't walk up steps without getting short of breath; my chest feels like I am going to explode. I can't go fishing by myself anymore; can't load and unload my boat; as for my sex life with my wife, it is almost non-existent. I can't enjoy life anymore."