Medication warning for parents

A Busselton mother hopes her son’s violent reaction to anti-nausea medication prescribed to him on a Bali cruise ship will serve as a warning to other parents.

Janet Fields and her family returned to Busselton last weekend after a dramatic end to their overseas trip.

Son Adam, 8, suffered an oculogyric crisis (turning eyeballs) after a severe reaction to Maxilon, prescribed by the on-board doctor for his prolonged sickness.

Mrs Fields said Adam had suffered fits for a number of hours after taking the medication.

He was taken by ambulance from the cruise ship at Fremantle and treated at Fremantle Hospital.

“He was queasy as we got on the ship and said he felt unwell, but we thought it was a type of gastro and when he ate something he felt better but would feel sick again when he had digested the food. The cycle went on for the 12 days of the holiday,” Mrs Fields said.

“He gradually lost weight, and then three days out of Fremantle he started vomiting violently. The doctor gave him two meds and the first was ok, but he wasn’t able to have any more.”

The on-board doctor then gave Adam Maxilon, which Mrs Fields said she had since found out is not generally prescribed to children or elderly people in Australia.

She said five doctors checked her son at the Fremantle hospital for seven hours but they agreed he had been affected by an ingredient of the drug which caused the oculogyric crisis, believed to be metoclopramide.

Mrs Fields said she wanted parents to be aware of the ingredients of drugs being prescribed to children.

“Everyone did a good job. The shipping company whizzed us through Customs, had the ambos ready to come on board which doesn’t happen very often and I think we got in about half an hour early,” she said.

She would monitor other drugs with the same ingredients, which included flu vaccinations and antidepressants.