Fleet Phospho-soda, made by C.B. Fleet Co., Inc., is the focus of more than 50 lawsuits filed by patients who suffered personal injury after taking the over-the-counter laxative. The lawsuits allege serious kidney damage and even death have been caused by the Phospho-soda, which is used to flush out patients’ bowels before procedures like colonoscopies.

C.B. Fleet said the product is safe when used properly in proper patients, and that the benefits outweigh the risks.

California resident Eva Hays, however, may disagree. She took Fleet Phospho-soda before a colonoscopy in 2005. Her kidneys failed and she was forced to undergo a kidney transplant.

“It did a lot of bad things,” Hays said. “It started the very next day after I had the colonoscopy. I got violently ill.”

Hays spent a month at the Stanford University Hospital, where the laxative was attributed as the cause of the kidney failure. Hays is one of dozens who have filed lawsuits against C.B. Fleet Co.

Phospho-soda has been on the market for more than 100 years, and it has been listed as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) when used as a single-dose laxative. But in the early 1990s, C.B. Fleet began marketing a double-dose regimen for colonoscopy patients.

The double-dose regimen is not FDA-approved. In May 2006, the agency issued a warning to doctors and patients concerning 21 cases of kidney failure associated with the use of oral sodium phosphate solutions like Phospho-soda.

The FDA said patients most at risk for kidney failure when taking solutions like Phospho-soda are people suffering from heart failure or previous kidney problems, the elderly, and patients taking medication relating to kidney function.

Source: Steve Karnowski, “Laxative becomes lawsuit target,” Houston Chronicle, August 16, 2007.