Aletha is concerned that her condition changed from mild to moderate in just one year, but she doesn't want to get tested again (she got two echocardiograms in the 1990s—more on that later). "I'm too afraid to know because any kind of sickness puts you in a different frame of mind and I don't want to go there," she says.
" I took Fen-phen in 1996, every day for almost 12 months," says Aletha. " I lost about 80 lbs but even while I took it I was light-headed and my blood pressure fluctuated. I got sweats and really tired--I slept a lot and sometimes took three naps a day. And my hair started falling out. It got to the point where I had to stop; I was just exhausted.When I stopped taking Fen-phen I started to get palpitations. I didn't link it to the diet drug; instead I thought something else going on with my health. I had just gotten a divorce and one month later I got married; in the meantime I had lost a lot of weight so I thought it was all contributing to how I was feeling; in other words, I thought it was due to stress. As well, I was only 35 years old and the doctor gave me a scrip, so I trusted him, I didn't think anything would be wrong with a drug. Little did I know.
My father was listening to the radio and it said something about Fen-phen recall and how people are having problems. It said they need to get a check-up and a lawsuit had been filed against the manufactuer. He called me immediately. I was shocked, to say the least.
Still, I didn't think it was the cause of my symptoms because my mother had congestive heart failure and maybe it was hereditary. But I called the Fen-phen lawyers anyway and they set me up with a heart specialist. He was one of the doctors mentioned in the lawsuit, who gave an echocardiogram. I had the test twice. The first time I had to pay for it out of my own pocket: it showed that I had a mild regurgitation and my aortic valve was dilated. But the doctor also said it could have been something I was born with. He didn't know if the mitral valve regurgitation was because of my aortic valve or not but it didn't matter because my condition wasn't bad enough to qualify for the class action.
He sent the paperwork to the Fen-phen lawyers anyway. Mine was the brown package.
One year later the settlement lawyers called again and wanted me to take another echocardiogram. I went back to the same doctor but this time the level was moderate. That was scary. It wasn't in the level of severity where I needed to worry about a heart attack—that would have been the orange, advanced packet. I got the green pack this time. Two years later I got a check for $2000. But it just paid for the test: the first echocardiogram cost me $1500 plus the doctor bill so this money didn't even cover my medical costs. The class action paid for my test but nothing else.
I received recordings of both tests but it was stressing me out so much, the way it had increased. Just thinking about what would happen the next year made my blood pressure go up. But I am still not in the level where I would get any compensation. I don't ever want to get to that level!
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I still have those symptoms but less frequently, probably because I have changed my lifestyle. I have gone to nutrition classes and participate in church activities. I know something is going on with my heart but I am not going to let it overtake me.
I filed a complaint with LawyersandSettlements because I want people to know that I took this drug under a doctor's supervision: I am one of the lucky ones who hasn't had a stroke or a heart transplant. But it has certainly inconvenienced me and I got nothing from it. I would at least like some acknowledgement, I would like the drug company to admit that they messed me up."