Diabetic Medications Can Cause Fournier's Gangrene And Other Health-Threatening Conditions

Diabetes Drug Infection Lawsuit News

Fournier's Gangrene is a rare and deadly form of necrotizing fasciitis of the genitals

Tuesday, December 31, 2019 - Diabetes is a terrible disease that affects people with high blood sugar and those that are overweight. The disease is associated with kidney failure as well as heart disease, stroke, and nerve damage and can shut down the body's vital organs. Nerve damage can occur beginning in the extremities of the toes as excess blood sugar turns the fluid acidic and burns the delicate capillaries, the smallest blood vessels leading to the tips of our toes and fingers. As a result, the cells in the extremities fail to receive sufficient blood supply and rapidly die causing necrosis and requiring amputation.

According to the National Institute of Health (NIH) "Diabetes is a disease that occurs when your blood glucose, also called blood sugar, is too high. Blood glucose is your main source of energy and comes from the food you eat. Insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas, helps glucose from food get into your cells to be used for energy." Around 30 million people in the United States currently suffer from diabetes.

Patients with type 2 diabetes who do not wish to constantly inject themselves with insulin may elect to take Sodium-Glucose Blocker drugs like Invokana to re-route blood sugar out of the body through the urine. Invokana, however, has been associated with causing adverse side effects such as increasing one's risk of amputation of the toes, feet or legs on both sides of the body from a condition known as necrotizing fasciitis where the flesh turns black and rots.

In addition to the amputation risk, SGLT2 drugs have been linked to 55 cases of Fournier's Gangrene, a rare form of the flesh-eating disease affecting the perineum region between the anus and the penis in males and the anus and vagina in females. Fournier's Gangrene requires aggressive treatment by amputating or mutilating the genitals and packing the open wound with antibiotics. A patient can spend up to four months in the hospital with Fournier's Gangrene depending on the number of amputations and skin grafts required. Experts think that there could be many times more cases of Fournier's Gangrene than have been reported as so little is known about the disease that is usually misidentified as necrotizing fasciitis. Fournier's Gangrene victims have been elderly, diabetic nursing home patients that have been neglected.

People with diabetes that take SGLT2 blocker drugs are urged to take special precautions to avoid Fournier's Gangrene such as making sure to keep the genital area clean and dry. Invokana also can cause a condition called Ketoacidosis, a life-threatening condition that occurs when the body breaks down fat too quickly. Weakness and fatigue are usually symptoms of the condition as blood sugar levels plummet. The Mayo Clinic lists Excessive thirst "frequent urination, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, shortness of breath, and confusion as other symptoms that something may be wrong with your diabetic medication.

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Lawyers for Fournier's Gangrene

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