Tylenol Crisis

The 4 unknown pills were mashed and indicators were mixed with the mashed up pills and the reactions were a match with acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin). There was also a used syringe found at the, but what it was containing is unknown. The persons of interest include Alex Garcia, her former husband who divorced her for a younger woman. He is still the benefactor for Anna Garcia and was seen the night before to discuss paperwork. Doug Greene is the neighbor who made the call who states that he had relations with Anna Garcia who ended the relationship the week before. He also claimed to skip his usual morning walk the day of the murder. Erica Piedmont is the new wife to Alex Garcia. She was seen in front of Anna Garcia’s house the day before, also her and Anna were seen having a heated argument in a diner. Lucy Leffingwell her best friend and co-owner to their bakery. Lucy had recently wanted to expand their bakery and Anna Garcia refused. She then bought out Anna Garcia of her part of the bakery, claiming that had hurt their friendship. She had last seen Anna yesterday claiming she

Victims number 6 and 10 were both found with matching substances, in their bloodstream and pocket, respectively, composed of 75.42% carbon, 6.63% hydrogen, 8.38% nitrogen, and 9.57% oxygen (Table 2). The steps described above to find the molecular formula were taken, and the molecular formula was found to be C21H22N2O2, or strychnine, commonly known as rat poisoning, a substance highly toxic to humans. From this data, it can be concluded that victim number 10 had murdered victim number 6 with the strychnine, as it was found in victim 10’s pocket and victim 6’s bloodstream, and anyone with any common knowledge or with the ability to read knows not to ingest rat poisoning, making it obvious that victim 6 was murdered. To identify the two victims, any other substances found on their person and in their personal luggage had to be identified and then matched with any prior knowledge of the victims. Victim 6, the murder victim, was found two other substances: C14H18N2O5 , aspartame, and C8H10N4O2 , caffeine, (page 7). Both of these two substances are found in Diet Coke, something the mother of Miley Cyrus said she never travelled without, (page 8). Furthermore, in the luggage of victim 10, a substance with the molecular formula of C12H17NO (page 7), also known as DEET or insect repellent was found. Based off of this evidence, coupled with family interviews, victim

Crisis intervention involves three components: 1) the crisis, the perception of an unmanageable situation; 2) the individual or group in crisis; and 3) the helper, or mental health worker who provides aid. Crisis intervention requires that the person experiencing crisis receive timely and skillful support to help cope with his/her situation before future physical or emotional deterioration occurs.

The case starts in October 1982, when seven people in Chicago died after taking Tylenol, which is a pain killer medicine produced by Johnson and Johnson's subsidiary McNeil. Three victims from these were members of one family who died one by one on the same day. The reason of their death was diagnosed as in take of the extra strength Tylenol capsules taken from the same bottle. Other three deaths were also reported in Chicago due to intake of Tylenol.

On September 1, North Carolina man by the name of Matthew James Phelps has been charged with murder after stabbing his wife, Lauren Ashley-Nicole Phelps, to death. Phelps claims he was under the influence of cough and cold medicine and does not recall what time it was when he found his hands and dead wife covered in blood with a bloodied knife nearby. Calling 9-1-1 upon waking up to the gruesome scene, Phelps had sounded dazed and confused, according to the operator, freaking out when he realized what he had done. Taking Coricidin, a cold syrup used to suppress common colds, to fall asleep, Phelps had consumed “more medicine than [he] should have” which had caused a cough-syrup-induced psychosis. However, Coricidin contains an ingredient

Between June 1980 to March 1981 four babies died at Toronto Children's Hospital. In the cardiac ward 4A and 4B was where is was happening. They were suspicious at first but declared there wasn’t a problem. In January 1981 the first victim that stood out was four-month old Janice Estrella, her autopsy showed high Digoxin level. Digoxin is a controlled drug that increase circulation and slows heart rate. Next victim happened in March of 1981 his name was Kevin Pacsai only twenty-three days old even though his condition wasn’t even life threatening, however the nurse failed to convince the doctors to attend to Kevin Pacsi even though he was struggling the morning of his death. Kevin’s autopsy came back and showed high dosage of Digoxin. After Kevin Pacsai and Janice Estrella died the connor called the police he suspected that there is a killer. Allana Miller also died of Digoxin poison. After Allan miller died they locked up the Digoxin and be administered on emergency situations

When J&J realized that their Tylenol capsules caused the deaths of four Chicagoans, they immediately initiated a recall of all Tylenol products, and spread the news by any means possible. Cars with sirens and loudspeakers drove through the city and suburbs of Chicago, urging residents to throw away any Tylenol capsules they might have. Schools were contacted, and they instructed students to bring all Tylenol products to the school nurse. News flashes were initiated to warn people of the Tylenol danger as well, and all stores were instructed to remove Tylenol products from their shelves. Removing the products was a gutsy move, not only because it was dangerous to the company by recalling so much products, but there was also a fear that the killer

This happened on two occasions, the first in 1982 and the second in 1986. These episodes could have been devastating to the McNeil company by drastic decrease in consumption of the Tylenol products. The McNeil company rallied to the situation to counter this possible decrease in consumption. According to "Laurels: The National Business Hall of Fame", Tylenol's share in the one billion dollar analgesic market commanded thirty-five percent of the market before the 1982 incident. At the time of these episodes, consumer trust was damaged and market share decreased to seven percent. By February 1983, Tylenol had regained a twenty-four percent share of the market(Diary of an Amazing Comeback). In the 1990's, Tylenol again reached its thirty-five percent of the market which at this time accounted for a two billion dollar market(Laurels: The National Business Hall of Fame, Fortune). By regaining their share of the market, this demonstrated that the consumers had faith in the McNeil company's ability to produce safe and trustworthy products, i.e. Tylenol, for their comfort and happiness.

When someone asked me what I thought a crisis was, the first examples that came to my mind was Hurricane Katrina, September 11, 2001. Once I began to think more of what the definition of a crisis would be, I know that it is the reaction of how someone reacts to a crisis event. Other examples may be suicide, homicide, domestic violence, and different traumas that one experiences. Once we began our discussions in class, I realized that a crisis and how one deals with a crisis, whether it is a natural, manmade or personal, effects each person differently. How that person handles the crisis, may have short term or long term effects that may lead to a mental illness. That is one of the points that I found very interesting, among other information we learned in class, along with the various speakers that we had.

I will now be using a scenario I came across in my practice setting in order to show an example of an individual in crisis.

Tylenol, an over the counter prescription product from Johnson & Johnson, was one of the top brands in the analgesic market. Within the company, it was also a large income earner that commanded nearly 15% of the company’s total profits. That being the case, the 1982 crisis was not only a big blow to the brand, but also to the company as a whole. The crisis jeopardized the company’s existence; putting at risk a multi million investment which the investors had a lot of faith in. Irrespective of whether the crisis was due to malicious acts from ill motivated criminals or not, the company had to act swiftly to counter the legal issues which were ensuing and mitigate huge impending losses. It was really a trying moment for the top management of Johnson & Johnson and more so to the CEO, James Burke, who faced the toughest test of his managerial career during this time. Though the crisis was amicably solved, there were some legal issues that were imminent and some valuable lessons learnt from the episode.

Sealed bottles were tampered with and extra-strength Tylenol capsules were replaced with cyanide-laced capsules. These bottles were then resealed and placed on shelves of pharmacies in the Chicago area. Seven people died as a result. Tylenol was called upon to explain why its product was killing people.

The infamous Tylenol murders began September 30, 1982 when the world discovered that extra-strength Tylenol was used to murder three people. Days later, new stories emerged with three more people dying from cyanide filled Tylenol capsules. From the public perspective things were clear, a product used to heal people was now killing people. While Johnson & Johnson were able to weather the storm and even rebound, fate issued them another potentially-fatal blow on February 10, 1986, when a women died from

Tylenol was the leading pain-killer medicine in the United States at the time. It was reported that

What is a crisis management? It is an unexpected crisis that happens on the company that will affect the trust and loyalty of the stakeholder. It can be extremely costly because it will affect the company reputation and brand. For example like financial failure from poor business management, workplace violence, fires, cybercrime, computer viruses, product tampering or union strikes and other external issue like damaged economy that causes from London bombings, terrorists attacks on 11 September and others. The SHRM 2005 report indicates that only 56% organizations created or revised their disaster preparedness plans but 45% did not after the terrorist attacked on