(Full story here on Snopes.Com)

I would like to thank those of you who expressed condolences on the
recent passing of my mother.  She suffered a hemorrhagic stroke while she was driving home from my house on July 30th and passed away on August 3rd.  My mother's stroke and passing was an enormous shock to my family, because she did not have any symptoms or risk factors for a stroke.  Just the week before she had gone to her doctor for a check up,
and received a clean bill of health. She did, however, develop a cold
while she was visiting me and had taken Alka Seltzer Cold Plus for 3 days. Since her passing, we have learned that Alka Seltzer is one of the  many cold medicines that contains Phenylpropanolamine (PPA), which can cause hemorrhagic stokes or cerebral bleeding, even with the first use.

(Submitted by Margit Crane 11/20/2008)

I almost died four years ago from a medically prescribed dose of Ibuprofen (advil, aleve, motrin, anaprox, naproxen, etc). My colon swelled up and choked off my aorta! (like a heart attack but in my colon…)

This usually only happens to the elderly, to people with heart conditions, or to diabetics. I am none of those. I was told that if my husband hadn’t been home to call 911 I probably would have died.

These side effects are on the boxes of these products or are available online. In fact the pharmaceutical companies advertise that these products can cause illness or death but people don’t pay attention to that. As you know there are even commercials of people who regularly take these so they can enjoy their hobbies. Hope they don’t die…

Pass THAT on!