Kathy Sevcik's colonoscopy was supposed to be routine, "no big deal."

But the 55-year-old Minnetonka woman said the over-the-counter laxative she used to prep for the procedure made her light-headed, caused her to vomit and left her with one thought: "I'm going to die."

Now she is among dozens of people across the country and 13 Minnesotans who have filed lawsuits against the manufacturer, C.B. Fleet Holding Co. Inc., alleging irreparable damage to their kidneys -- and their lives.

"I trusted the [doctor's] recommendation" to ingest Fleet Phospho-soda, Sevcik said Wednesday. "I would like to have known [kidney damage] was a potential."

The laxative, used since the late 1800s, allegedly has caused permanent kidney damage in patients across the country, including Minnesotans who filed nine lawsuits in federal court this week against C.B. Fleet, said their attorneys.

The company began promoting Phospho-soda as a bowel cleanser in the 1990s as more people became aware of colon cancer risks and underwent colonoscopies. But it doubled the historically small, safe dosage to two 45-milliliter doses 10 hours apart, leading to kidney failure and "kidney death" in many patients who took the laxative at their doctors' urging, said Stephen Foley, a Minneapolis attorney representing local patients who have sued the Lynchburg, Va., company.

In a 2001 letter to the Food and Drug Administration, C.B. Fleet representatives said Phospho-soda is "safe and effective for use as laxatives and for bowel cleansing when used as directed." Company attorneys could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Although there are prescription and over-the-counter alternatives, Phospho- soda, the product at question in suits in at least 20 states, is popular because it requires patients to drink far less water -- a few glasses vs. a gallon -- than many other products, Foley said.

A coalition of six law firms across the country is pursuing litigation against the company in state and federal court on behalf of clients they said have suffered through dialysis, waited on organ-donor lists and been forced to quit their jobs because of health problems. Other law firms independent of the effort have done the same.

Attorneys said the first suits surfaced about three years ago, about the time doctors began publishing papers connecting the dots between Phospho- soda and kidney failure. This year a Virginia law firm filed a $10 million suit against C.B. Fleet. Minnesota attorneys expect to file at least nine more suits.

'I threw up for months'

Sevcik initially attributed her reaction to Phospho-soda to her diabetes and directions not to eat or take insulin before her colonoscopy. "I threw up for months" and was in and out of the hospital for most of the summer, she said. She suffered kidney failure and underwent dialysis for two weeks.

"I had absolutely no energy," said Sevcik, whose colonoscopy showed no problems. "No one knew what was wrong with me."

Last year, she received a transplanted kidney from her brother and returned to work full time as an accountant for the first time in 10 months.

"Fleet ... has refused to recognize that there's a hazard," said Foley, the attorney. "It's profit over people."

In a 2006 letter to the FDA, company representatives said they issued a "Dear Doctor" letter to physicians about health concerns and made label changes; the letter did not specify what those changes were. Attorneys pursuing litigation against C.B. Fleet said the company removed "bowel cleanser" from its packaging but continues to recommend the double dosage.

The laxative is not aggressively regulated by the FDA because it's sold over the counter, Foley said, adding that the company did nothing illegal in recommending a double dosage.

FDA spokeswoman Susan Cruzan said no one at the administration was available for comment Wednesday. She referred to a May 2006 alert issued by the FDA warning that sodium phosphates taken orally for bowel cleansing had been linked to kidney failure. The alert, which cautioned doctors to carefully choose bowel cleansers, named Phospho-soda and Visicol tablets as examples of such medications, but did not point to a particular product as the main cause of 21 documented cases of kidney failure.