The law office of Hissey Kientz announced this week that it has filed a lawsuit against several defendants on behalf of a Florida woman who suffered a blood clot in her leg four months after she began using the Ortho Evra birth control patch (Case No. 1:07-OE-40219).
After experiencing severe pain in her lower leg in April 2003, the woman was admitted to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed her with a blood clot in her leg (deep vein thrombosis). During her one-week stay in the hospital, she was given blood thinners in order to treat this clot, and continued on blood thinners for several months after her release.
The lawsuit alleges the woman's blood clot resulted from her use of the Ortho Evra birth control patch, and that Ortho-McNeil, the manufacturer of the patch, failed to warn consumers about its potential dangers.
The Ortho Evra birth control patch is applied to the skin and delivers up to 60% more estrogen than conventional oral contraceptives. In November 2005, the Food and Drug Administration acknowledged that consumers of the Ortho Evra patch were exposed to an increased level of estrogen and confirmed that
higher levels of estrogen can cause blood clots. The FDA did not directly link Ortho Evra with these adverse effects, however.
The Associated Press also reported in 2005 that users of the Ortho Evra birth control patch suffer blood clots and fatalities at a rate
three times higher than those using oral contraceptives.
More than 4 million women have used the patch since 2002, but the lawsuit alleges that Ortho-McNeil did not notify them of the potential birth control patch side effects until months after the AP report in 2005. Ortho-McNeil has yet to issue a recall.
To learn more about the Ortho Evra patch, please visit
http://www.hkllp.com or
http://www.birthcontrolpatchsideeffects.com.
Hissey Kientz, LLP is currently filing additional Ortho Evra lawsuits on behalf of several women who suffered pulmonary emboli, heart attacks, strokes, deep vein thrombosis and other birth control patch side effects after using the Ortho Evra birth control patch.
