Counterfeit pills killed B.C. woman: coroner

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Counterfeit pills killed B.C. woman: coroner
 
Lindsay Kines
CanWest News Service

Friday, July 06, 2007

VICTORIA -- A 58-year-old B.C. woman died from metal poisoning last year after ingesting contaminated counterfeit pills purchased online, the B.C. Coroners Service confirmed Thursday.

The service had issued a public warning after preliminary lab tests detected a range of trace metals in pills found in Marcia Ann Bergeron's home on Quadra Island, located between Vancouver Island and the province's mainland.

In her judgment of inquiry, coroner Kerry Clarke said further tests found "significantly high levels" of metals in Bergeron's liver, including 15 times the normal level of aluminum.

"Together, the overall load of metals in Mrs. Bergeron's liver sample would be considered highly toxic, and would have resulted in the numerous physical symptoms experienced by Mrs. Bergeron," the report said.

Clark's four-page report makes no recommendations, but calls the sale of counterfeit drugs on the Internet a "complex and emerging health-care problem."

In the weeks and months prior to her death, Bergeron complained in e-mails to a friend about suffering from nausea, diarrhea, aching joints and other ailments. Her friends also reported she was losing her hair and having vision problems, the report said.

She was found dead in her bed Dec. 28, 2006.

The report stated Bergeron rarely saw a doctor, and that there are no records of her receiving any prescriptions in B.C. or in any other jurisdiction in the 12 months before her death. A review of her computer records, however, showed she had visited Internet sites that sell medications.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration examined the computer's hard drive and found that in April, 2006, Bergeron had purchased Zolpidem, a powerful hypnotic drug not legally available in Canada, from a site previously linked to a public alert about counterfeit drugs. Zolpidem was also one of three types of pills found in Bergeron's home containing "significant quantities" of metals.

Health Canada, the RCMP, and the Food and Drug Administration continue to investigate Bergeron's death.

Victoria Times Colonist

© CanWest News Service 2007

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