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A twenty-four-year old Texas woman has filed a federal lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson after the company''s defective birth control patch, Ortho Evra, caused her to suffer life-threatening blood clots and a miscarriage.
Dangers of Ortho Evra
Elizabeth Barroso had been using the Ortho Evra birth control patch for only three weeks when she began to have difficulty breathing and experienced pains in her chest. Barroso was admitted to the hospital for over a week, where she was treated for potentially deadly blood clots found in her lungs. Barroso had no previous history of any blood clot problems.
After her release from the hospital, Barroso was advised to take a blood-thinning drug for 10 months to prevent the clots from endangering her life. In October 2004, she became pregnant and had a miscarriage, which she says was a direct result of injuries she sustained from the birth control patch.
In 2005, Barroso got pregnant again and was forced to suffer through daily-self injections of blood thinning medication to prevent losing her baby. As a result of the injuries Barroso sustained from the use of Ortho Evra, she will be at risk of miscarrying all of her future pregnancies and will be required to undergo similar self-injection treatments.
“This young lady''s life was put in jeopardy by a company that made a harmful product,” says attorney John David Hart. “And the tragic thing is the company continues to market and sell this product even today.”
Ortho Evra Lawsuit
According to the lawsuit, the Ortho Evra label was misleading and directly conflicted with data on the drug, accumulated by J&J. The patch label indicates the risk of developing blood clots among users of Ortho Evra is the same to that of women taking oral contraceptives like the birth control pill.
This lawsuit is the latest in a large string of cases against Ortho McNeil, a subsidiary of J&J. Allegedly, the companies have been aware of the grave risks Ortho Evra posed for a long time, but have failed to sufficiently warn users of the dangers.
From April 2002 to December 2004, Ortho McNeil documented almost 28,000 reports of adverse events among patch users. Then further evidence revealed that Ortho Evra exposed women to 60 percent more estrogen than oral contraceptive—significantly increasing the risk of blood clots, stroke, and death.
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