Within an hour of being injected with the drug, all six men had their heads swell – leading to the “elephant man” description – while their organs shut down one by one.
Along with the five others, he was dosed with a new leukaemia drug – TGN1412 – at London’s Northwick Park Hospital.
READ MORE: Kiwi ‘elephant man’ drug trial victim a dad
Together with his TGN1412 dose, he received a £2330 (NZ$4025) guinea-pig payment, multiple organ failure, a 40-degree fever – and a head so swollen his partner described it as “like a ball with slits”.
Within an hour of being injected with the drug, all six men had their heads swell – leading to the “elephant man” description – while their organs shut down one by one.
The new BBC documentary would feature interviews from the drug trial’s participants, as well as people involved with caring for them, reported the Mail.
It would also look into the aftermath of the drug trial.
“It was all manic, everything was happening all at once … They were vomiting, they were screaming in pain, people were fainting, they couldn’t control their bowels … it was like a horror movie,” said Raste Khan, who was on the trial but given a placebo, the Daily Mail reported.
Oakley found himself damaged both mentally and physically.
He said: “My organs were back working, but I was like an 80-year-old, my muscles were wasted away. We had no immune system at all, we were given instructions not to go on the [London] Tube, trains or buses in case someone was to cough near us”, the Daily Mail reported.
Oakley’s short-term memory had been destroyed and he could work only part-time.
It was possible the clinical trial’s debilitating side-effects on him would, in all likelihood, be permanent.
[“source-smallbiztrends”]
