[Administration of D-penicillamine instead of penicillin with fatal results: allergy of the delayed type with protracted shock as fatal complication of treatment with D-penicillamine for rheumatoid arthritis in a child (author's transl)].

Following one-week treatment with D-penicillamine for rheumatoid arthritis a seven-year-old girl died with the clinical features of protracted circulatory shock. Several doctors had mis-diagnosed the skin changes and mistakenly prescribed penicillamine, given for the rheumatoid arthritis, instead of plenicillin at the latter's dosage. By the administration of penicillamine a hypersensitivity reaction of the delayed type had been induced which ended fatally due to severe shock.