Tylenol Crisis

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

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

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

On June 5th, 1986 Bruce Nickell comes home from work with a headache. In an attempt to treat his headache, he takes multiple Excedrin pills. A little after he takes them he collapses to the floor and is taken to the hospital where he eventually dies. His death was initially ruled natural. In addition to this, on June 11th the same year, Susan Snow took the same kind of Excedrin for a headache and was found later that day by her daughter. She was taken to the hospital, but they could not save her and she died. This led to authorities reconsidering Bruce’s cause of death. During Susan’s autopsy, the Assistant Medical Examiner smelled almonds and eventually was able to determine it was cyanide. From there they were able to link the cyanide to

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.

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

During the 1900's, the McNeil company developed and established Tylenol into a well known and recommended analgesic. It has become recognized world wide as a safe brand of acetaminophen. The name Tylenol has become identified as a trusted, safe drug that people can easily purchase over the counter for their ailments. Tylenol is still recommended by doctors even though there was a cyanide scare in the history of the company. It has been discovered by my independent survey that consumers use Tylenol for their pet's needs also.

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

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.

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

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.

This barbaric poisoning allegation was received by the police officers on August 5. The poisoning incident is alleged to have occurred in Wimbledon between dates July 1-10. Depressingly no arrests have been made so far.

According to Bhasin, K. (2011), Johnson & Johnson faced a major crisis in 1982. Someone managed to contaminate some of their extra strength Tylenol capsules with potassium cyanide. The result was the death of seven people. Johnson & Johnson responded by pulling about a hundred million dollars worth of products off of the shelves. They stopped advertising, and production was ended. Johnson & Johnson worked very closely with law enforcement, and put up a $100,000 reward to help find the killer. The company rebounded when it re-introduced Tylenol, which now had a tamper-resistant packaging system. The media was very supportive of their efforts which helped tremendously in overcoming the crisis. The two measures of success that showed their crisis management efforts were successful were gaining favor with the media, and rebounding financially.

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

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.