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Oh my gosh. I am so sorry. Did they take her off of the Amiodarone? The half life is so long, that the drug continues to do damage. The Doctors are giving her 3-4 years. That seems rather optimistic. I am glad to hear that. My Dad only had his very slight cough for 3 months. Woke up one day, having trouble breathing. He was only 69. He thought he had pneumonia.  It is still hard for me to believe he is gone. He was fine just 2-days before he woke up on Jan. 1 and his life changed, and so did ours. You are in my prayers and so is your Mom. How old is she?

I'm so sorry to hear of the unnecessary passing of your Dad!  Our Dad has been slowly dying for the past 5 3/4 yrs. thanks to having been placed on Cordarone/Amiodarone after having had triple by-pass surgery in Mar. '99.  He was a diabetic before the surgery, but that was under control with oral medication at that time.  Other than a rare case of a cold, Daddy was rarely sick at all, before all this happened.  There is a family history of heart problems, but my Granddad, (his dad), lived to be in his early nineties, and had had 3 heart attacks.  My Granny, (his mom), just recently died, this past Oct. 25.  She was 95! 

My Dad was 69 when all of this began.  Because of shortness of breath, my mom took him to the ER.  He was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure and admitted to the hospital for further testing.  The test revealed 3 blocked arteries, 2 of which were 99% blocked.  We were told that he was a walking, ticking time bomb.  That he could have a massive coronary at any time.  He had the triple by-pass surgery, and when the surgeon came out after it was over to talk with our family, he told us that Daddy had had some atri-fibs and that he had put him on a terrific drug called cordorone, and that he had done fine other than that and was expected to leave the hospital within a couple of days.  The next day we had trouble getting Daddy to wake up and open his eyes.  He would say that he was awake, but wouldn't open his eyes and keep them open.  He said that he couldn't swallow his pills and wouldn't eat anything but soft mushy foods.  He then started vomiting.  They thought that he'd possibly had a stroke and started treating him for that.  He had to have a feeding tube inserted for a couple of weeks.  He also developed a severe sensitivity to light.  They only light he would allow on in the room was the TV.  They thought that the Digoxin they had him on also may have been causing a problem, because his mom couldn't tolerate it.  When things didn't improve, they put him back on the Digoxin because they said he needed it.  Three weeks later, he improved enough that they let him come home.  I was the one that would take them to their Dr. appts., so after several weeks of seeing him slowly deteriorating.  I snuck back in to see his Dr. and told him that something was wrong, that we were still having to help him get a shower, and that our Dad was a very private person, and didn't like to have to have us doing that for him, but he would act like things were OK when he'd talk with the Dr.  The Dr. told me that we were babying him and that we should stop it!  I told him that he didn't know what he was talking about, that he wasn't with him 24/7 and that something was definately wrong.  He told me that he had other patients to see and that I needed to leave his office.  I was furious and told my parents what I'd done, and what the Dr. had said.  I told them that I wanted to get them out of there, but they were concerned about their records, and were afraid that they might get misplaced if he changed hospitals.  On June 30, '99 (3 mos. after 1st being administered Cordarone/Amiodarone) our Dad was re-admitted to the hospital.  This was our youngest sons 3rd birthday, so needless to say it wasn't a very happy one!  Daddy was having some shortness of breath again, but within a couple of days he got considerably worse.  He couldn't even stand up beside the hospital bed and pee in the urinal without gasping for breath!  The cardiac surgeon was called in again to make sure that the by-passes had taken.  They were fine, so he called in his personal pulmonary Dr.  That Dr. came in the next day and told us that he had been taken off the Cordarone/Amiodarone, that it had given him Pulmonary Fibrosis, and unfortunately that even though it'd been stopped, it could take from 6 mos. to a year to work it's way out of his system, and that it would continue to do damage.  He was put on steroids as well.  He is still on them to this very day!  He is down to 5 mg., however, every time he tries to get completely off, his lungs fill with excessive fluid that has to be drained off with a large needle.  He also had to have a pacemaker put in in Dec. '99.  The battery on that one was beginning to fail at the end of last year, so Dec. 1, '03 he was given a so called "cadillac" of pacemaker/defibrillators.  He hasn't improved at all!  It has been a constant "roller coaster ride" for nearly 6 yrs. now!  At times we thought he was improving, but then just as quickly he takes a downhill plunge!  We sought the help of a lawyer about 3 yrs. ago, not to try and make a killing of $$, but just to try and get the word out about the EXTREME DANGER of this TOXIC/FATAL drug!  At that time my Dad wasn't in a wheelchair, he was barely walking with a cane, and off his oxygen at that time, so the lawyer told us that since it didn't KILL him or because he wasn't in a wheelchair, that there was very little he could do for us unless we wanted to shell out thousands of dollars for research and etc.  We are looking for a "Class Action Suit" to become involved in against this drug!  We agree 100% with you!  The word has got to be heard before anyone else has to suffer as our loved ones and our families have had to! 

May God bless and comfort your family!  You all will be in our prayers!

Sincerely,
TooToo

My mother died jan. 16th 2009 of Amiodarone induced Pulmonaery Toxicity. She was 84 years old.  She was an independent living senior still driving her car and self-sufficient. The suffering she endured broke our hearts.  It began with a heart out of rhythm.  She was hospitalized and given cordorone by IV. She was sent home on coumidan and cordorone in addition to her other two high- blood pressure pills. She seemed confused about her pill taking directions.  Coumidan is a drug which requires diligence. We have learned that it is not a good drug to take with cordorone. Cordorone magnifies everything and makes it stronger. The coumidane levels were always too high.  She was a fall risk now due to the danger of excessive bleeding and she suddendly seemed very stumbly and unsteady.  She fell and cut her finger requireing stitches.  But worst of all was the cough.  She coughed alot.  She thought she picked up a cold in the hospital.  Her cough was productive at first, then turned dry.  She drove herself to urgent care, where a chest x-ray revealed a terrible pneumonia.  She was given a antibiotic to fill.  My sister and husband arrived the next day and as my Mom was worsening took her to er. She was admitted , she was in a room for almost two weeks.  She took many antibiotics and had numorous  breathing treatments. Her cardiologist told her it was the worst pnumonia he had ever seen! The respitory therapist could'nt understand the persistant cough.  Her heart started to have a-fib's ( due to the severe coughing) so the cardiologist upped her dose of cordorone to an IV . At this point she was feeling much better and was scheldued for re-hab where she could regain strength. She still seemed confused though. Suddendly she developed a stratchy throat and hours later was in respitory distress.  My sister and I arrived to find her scared and gasping for breath. The put her on a ventlilator and she died 8 days later.  Her lungs had crystalized. They could no longer absorb oxygen. This drug is criminally toxic.  She was only on it for 8 weeks! She was never warned that she should watch out for flu like symtoms etc. This drug needs warnings and medical personnel need to be educated on it's very toxic. effects. Signed, a brokenhearted family  we still arent't sure if she ever had pnumonia!