In the year 2000, Diane Levine presented herself to a clinic with a migraine, where she was given a treatment she had already taken several times before for the same ailment: Demerol and Phenergan. The latter, a product of the Wyeth pharmaceutical company, is used to prevent motion sickness, nausea or vomiting and is generally administered by intramuscular injection, since exposure of the drug to arterial blood causes irreversible gangrene. An intravenous drip is as safe as the latter method. The nurse that gave Ms. Levine the medication chose to inject the Phenergan through intravenous therapy, but she unfortunately missed the patient’s vein. Consequently, Levine’s arm had to be amputated within few weeks, after it turned purple and then black.

The woman filed a lawsuit against the Madison-based company, claiming that the drug’s FDA-approved label should have contained stronger warnings with regards to the risk of inadvertent intra-arterial injection, since it did not say anything concerning administration via an IV push, the method used in Levine’s case.

Diane Levine, 62, is scheduled to present her arguments to the Supreme Court in November, followed by the latter’s decision whether the woman should keep the $6 million that a Vermont jury ordered the pharmaceutical company to pay her.

Levine’s legal action falls into the category of pre-emption cases, which is a legal theory stating that consumers can be prevented from filing lawsuits in state court when the products that they claim injured them are compliant with federal standards, the federal law trumping the state one.