AUSTRALIAN ARACHNOIDITIS SUFFERERS ASSOCIATION NSW

Alan Woods Story as told to Toni Hassan a reporter on the ABC

Welcome to the The AUSTRALIAN ARACHNOIDITIS SUFFERERS ASSOCIATION NSW Website.


The purpose of this site is to inform the public, sufferers and their families about Adhesive Arachnoiditis.

This is a print version of the story as told on Thursday 30 June 2005.


MARK COLVIN:

Hundreds of Australians believe they're facing a life of crippling pain because of medicine's most routine procedures - an E-Ray. to help a doctor read their X-Rays, their spines were injected with a contrast dye known as Myodil. It was banned in some countries in the '40s and'50s, but went on being used in Australia until 1987. Sufferers from what's called Chemically Induced Arachnoiditis say the medical profession has ignored them. The manufacturer of Myodil has in the past denied its product causes the condition. Sufferers want a public enquiry, and they're preparing a class action against the manufacturer and Australian hospitals where the dye was used


Toni Hassan prepared this report for PM.

TONI HASSAN:

Alan Wood was a happily married man, aged 24 when he was admitted to the Royal Brisbane Hospital with a sore appendix. The doctors suspected a back problem as well. He says what was to a straightforward set of tests ruined his life

ALAN WOOD:

I was just informed I was going to have a Myelogram, which I thought was going to be a simple procedure. They said they were going to take some fluid out of the spine and then inject some Myodil in as a contrast dye to see what was causing any problems in my spine. I was never aware I was going to end up with such severe complications.

TONI HASSAN:

While the instructions issued with the dye suggested that it be removed following the X-Ray, some of of it, an oil-based chemical, was left inside Alan Wood's spine.

ALAN WOOD:

The moment they put me in bed I was a raving lunatic.

TONI HASSAN:

A raving lunatic, what do you mean?

ALAN WOOD:

I was...well, the dye had apparently affected...hit brain and the headaches...had severe headaches. I was screaming, climbing the wall, and the whole body was a mess.

TONI HASSAN:

Did you have any idea why?

ALAN WOOD:

I never had any idea why, and I never got an explanation why. My specialist came later in the afternoon, saw the condition I was in and that was when the alarm bells started, and then they were giving medication, and unfortunately to this day I have 25 years of medical records released to me, but the two days in particular, have never been released. They're lost.

TONI HASSAN:

The year was 1970


Doctor's at the time said Mr Wood's pain was a temporary reaction to treatment, but at home, new, more serious symptoms developed. Alan Wood lost vision and suffered Paralysis. In the months that followed he travelled from specialist to specialist. Some discussed his pain as psychosomatic, others suggested all sorts of causes. At last he received a diagnosis that seemed to finger Myodil.

ALAN WOOD:

I have X-rays and scans done and it's revealed there's Myodil droplets, and two years ago I had it confirmed by a neurologist and radiologist that this is what is causing the problems. I'v been treated for Multiple Sclerosis, Epilepsy, Kidney problems, Bladder problems - they'd never ever pinpointed what it was.

TONI HASSSAN:

Why was there a reluctance to, or was it just an inability to diagnose it?

ALAN WOOD:

I think it's a reluctance. Doctor's just don't want to tell you what it is. The Radiologist sent the report back, she actually apologised to me, said yes, it's confirmed, you do have it.

TONI HASSAN:

Why is there a reluctance do you think?

ALAN WOOD:

Oh, I think mainly because way back from '40s to the '78 it was literally a legal drug and they didn't want to reveal what was happening to people.

TONI HASSAN:

PM has contacted Alan Wood's specialists who are now treating him for what's called Adhesive Arachnoiditis and they've supported this assessment.


Mr Wood is one of hundreds of Australians planning a legal action case against the global manufacturer of Myodil, GlaxoSmithKline as well as Australian Hospitals. GlaxosmithKline has in the past denied its product causes Arachnoiditis. PM today contacted Glaxo in Australia and put the allegation that Myodil has caused Arachnoiditis in some patients who underwent special X-rays years ago, but the company, headquaurtered in Melbourne, declined to comment. In the United States, the UK, and in Australia six years ago, the company settled legal actions out of court with hundreds of sufferers on confidential terms. The company then said that sufferers had pre-existing back conditions. David Baran is a barrister advising a Sydney law firm, which is expected to launch the new class Australian action in September. Mr Baran says the case is strengthened by provisions under the Trade Practices Act that protect consumers against defective goods.

DAVID BARAN

The Trade Practices Act makes it abundantly clear that when a particular corporation in trade and commerce supplies a good, and that good is defective, then subject to very limited defences, the company has a very, very, very strict liability, and must pay for an loss of damage which flows as a result of that particular defective good being supplied. the defective good in this particular situation was a series of dyes used for particular neuroligical and radiological procedures, including the Myeologram. It was defective.

We understand that at that time the company had enough information to know it would be defective, but even if it didn't, under our Trade Practices Act there is a liablility and we propose to obtain maximum compensation for our clients as a result of what's concerned.

TONI HASSAN

Is the Federal Government also in your sights?

DAVID BARAN:

The Federal Government at the moment has not been ruled out. Neither has the TGA in its manifestations, both at State and Federal levels.

TONI HASSAN

Myodil was banned in other countries as early as the 1940s, years before Australia stopped its use. However, allegations the product is unsafe and causes Arachnoiditis have never been tested in an Australian court of law.


Marcus Stoodley is with the Department of Neurosurgery at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney. Dr Stoodley says it's now medically accepted that Myodil is associated with the subsequent development of Arachnoiditis, particularly when the dye is left inside the spine after X-rays have been taken.


MARCUS STOODLEY:

The modern contrast agents are dissolved in a water based fluid. The technology has evolved. I mean, Myodil was the state of the art: it was an oil-based fluid, and when that contrast was used to obtain X-rays of the nerves in the spine, part of the technique was to remove the contrast agent at the end of the procedure, and that's not always technically possible. amd so, particularly in some patients where there was some of that oil-based contrast medium left in the spine, that caused ongoing inflammation.

TONI HASSSAN:

Arachnoiditis sufferers also want a national public inquiry, concerned the drug regulator and State and Federal governments did not do enough to protect patients. The Therapeutic Goods Administration has told PM that there was no national regulator when the contrast dye was first used in Australia and that Myodil was the best available product for assessing severe back conditions at the time, but the spokeswoman adds that doctors did not always heed the product's warning and take proper precaution's. Correspondence to Arachnoiditis sufferers obtained by this program show that the Commonwealth Health Department on behalf of the Minister has already said no to an Inquiry, observing that the incidence ot the condition following use of the dye is uncommon, too uncommon to warrant an investigation. In the meantime, Alan Wood and others like him, manage their condition in the hope of one day they'll be proven right and compensated.

ALAN WOOD

It is a struggle, because each day you wake up and you have to get up and get yourself mobilised. Your body is just a mess. I mean in my instance, my bladder, my bowel has gone. I have to self-catheter three times a day. It is a struggle to stand up, a struggle to walk. Even 12 months ago I had to be retrained how to talk and eat because the brain isn't telling me how to talk and eat properly.

MARK COLVIN

Alan Wood ending Toni Hassan's report.


Source: www.abc.net.au/pm/2005s1404355.htm