A jury awarded $5 million to a family in the death of their one-year-old boy who was given Infants’ Tylenol for a cold. The Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Offi ce said the cause of Marquis Dunsons’ death in March 2002 was acetaminophen toxicity. The boy became ill with a cold on March 16, 2002. His parents gave him Infants’ Tylenol. The Dunsons said they did not realize the medication was concentrated to three times the strength of regular Children’s Tylenol. “The important thing is that parents know there are potential problems with Infants’ Tylenol, and they have to be super careful,” said the attorney who represented the Dunsons’. The Dunsons’ attorney called for stronger warnings about potential fatalities and clearer descriptions of potencies.

Commentary: Many parents would rightly assume that an infant version of a product would be less strong, not concentrated. There appears to have been a breakdown between marketing and compliance departments in this case. While not akin to the Tylenol poisoning incident of years ago, all the same Johnson & Johnson is lucky that this case has not been picked up substantially by the national media as the courts have ruled them as at fault. We hope that this inspires Tylenol to redesign their packaging rather than assume that such redesign will be interpreted as admission of guilt.