Note:
To all of you that have expressed an interest in helping with the Senator SJS Awareness Campaign, here is a sample template. Many people have had a hard time getting started and we hope this will help you. Special thanks to Sidney Wagner for collaborating on this letter.

Best regards,
Jean McCawley

Sample Template

I am writing on behalf of myself and the thousands of others that have suffered the severe adverse reaction from medications, Stevens Johnson Syndrome and its more extreme form, Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis, This is an epidemic that is growing in huge proportions.

SJS and TENS is sometimes fatal and when not, almost always leaves its victims with catastrophic ocular damage, chronic/severe ocular pain and sometimes blindness. Additionally it often causes permanent damage to internal organs including lung damage and many other debilitating sideeffects. Everyone who gets SJS and/or TENS asks the same question. WHY? Why didn't anyone tell us about this? Why weren't we warned this could happen?

Adverse reactions are between the fourth and sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Its time to investigate the FDA and make sure they are doing their job to protect the American people. If you contact the SJS Foundation you will learn that there has been an alarming increase in cases of SJS/TENS reported to them, yet the FDA and the Dept. Of Health and Human Services seem to be turning a blind eye to this. I believe that the problem lies in the fact that there is no mandatory reporting law that makes sure physicians report all post marketing events of adverse drug reactions to the FDA. SJS/TENS has killed and destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of Americans in recent years and many more people worldwide, yet the pharmaceutical companies seem to have little or no interest in bringing attention to doctors or consumers about this danger. And sadly, it has become evident that the FDA and the Pharmaceutical companies are in bed together and the well being of the American consumer does not seem to be on their agenda, hence thousands of Americans lives are being destroyed from something as simple as a dose of Children's Motrin.

INSERT YOUR STORY HERE:

To protect the American Public and avoid or mitigate the potential pain, suffering and even death of future SJS/TENS victims, I ask you to consider the following;

1. A mandatory reporting law making sure that all physicians report post-marketing events of adverse drug reactions to the FDA. This would help uncover which medications are most likely to cause an SJS/TENS reaction.
2. This mandatory reporting should lead to proper warnings on those drugs more commonly known to cause SJS.
3. The FDA needs to be concerned with increasing public awareness of this horrific affliction and the fact that it can potentially be caused by ANY medication (even over the counter medications).
4. The FDA needs to increased public awareness of the early warning signs of an SJS/TENS reaction, as early intervention can reduce or mitigate some of the catastrophic damage this disease causes.

As I mentioned above, adverse drug reactions are between the fourth and sixth leading cause of death in the United States. This is NOT a rare affliction as some might claim. I beg of you to investigate the FDA and make sure they are doing their job to protect the American people.

To learn more, please visit the SJS Foundation website at http://www.sjsupport.org.

Thank you for assistance in this extremely important matter.

Sincerely,
Your name.

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