More San Antonians resorting to drug trials, despite the risks they pose

There’s a scene in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life where a father informs his 50 kids he can no longer afford to feed them. “It’s medical experiments for the lot of you,” he announces to his brood. Yet in real life, the specter of growing numbers of people turning to clinical trials amidst economic hard times – despite potential side effects that could include death – is a grim reality.

At the peak of the economic downturn a couple of years ago, Southside resident Maria Leal, 41, turned to the option of subjecting herself to drug testing as a way to make ends meet. She said she was prompted over an inability to send her two children to a Junior Olympics event in Iowa. Although gainfully employed as a nurse, she and her husband, a lineman for CPS Energy, had particular trouble affording healthcare, she said.

“It was around Christmas time, and a friend of mine said they’re giving money out if you have dry eyes,” Leal recalled.  “I went and it was easy and it improved my vision. I had Christmas money after that.”

The dry eyes study netted her close to $900, she said. She continues to participate in medical trials for locally based Clinical Trials of Texas located in the Medical Center, most recently participating in bladder and ankle studies, the latter to which she also recruited her son, now a 19-year-old college student at Texas A&M University.

“Most pay about $250, but even $250 is gas for the month,” she said. “This has been going on for two years now, and the last one I did was for ankle sprain and I was paid $250 for three visits in seven days.”

Leal reports no ill effects after having undergone such studies, instead viewing it as a free alternative to costly doctors’ visits. But others aren’t so lucky. Filed away in San Antonio’s 224th District Court is a lawsuit that speaks to the potential danger of the practice.

Naming CEDRA Clinical Research of San Antonio and IntegReview Ltd. of Austin as defendants, the lawsuit filed by Santos and Rosa Robles of Houston alleges their son, Michael Robles, began to experience side effects after being administered two drugs in a 2007 drug trial. Despite having been cleared as healthy enough to undergo the testing, the man began to experience “signs of physical distress” and other side effects. He was promptly dropped from the trial, according to the lawsuit, but continued to display post-testing ill effects that included seizures and “severe neurological episodes,” the suit alleges.

Among other allegations, Robles’ parents claim the drug testing company failed to provide medical care that may have saved him. Eventually, after having subjected himself to drug testing, Robles — who was living with his parents at the time to help care for them and assisting them financially — died in November 2007 at the age of 35.

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