Ortho Evra
August 9, 2006Ortho Evra birth control patch lawsuit filed by Kentucky woman
An Ortho Evra lawsuit has been filed by a Kentucky woman who claims that she was injured as a result of using the birth control patch. Tonya Dingess’ lawsuit against Ortho-McNeil and its parent company, Johnson & Johnson, is believed to be the first birth control patch lawsuit filed by a woman from the Bluegrass State.
Dingess says that she began to experience severe birth control patch side effects in 2005, after just five weeks of using the Ortho Evra patch. The blood clots that she experienced in her legs, lung and spleen forced Dingess into the hospital for nearly a week as she underwent treatment for these potentially deadly Ortho Evra birth control patch side effects.
The birth control patch lawyer in Dingess’ case says that the severe birth control patch side effects that his client suffered very nearly killed her. “She came within hours of dying of this,” the lawyer says. There have been about 100 Ortho Evra lawsuits have been filed in the United States so far.
A study by the Associated Press has identified at least a dozen women who died from Ortho Evra birth control patch side effects in 2004. The study analyzed about 16,000 reports of adverse Ortho Evra birth control patch side effects. In addition to the dozen birth control patch deaths revealed by the study, researchers determined that users of the Ortho Evra patch are three times more likely to suffer birth control patch side effects than are users of birth control pills.
More recently, the Food and Drug Administration issued a new warning label for the Ortho Evra birth control patch after a separate study found that Ortho Evra patch users faced double the risk of blood clots and other birth control patch side effects.
The new warning labels say that the elevated risk of Ortho Evra birth control patch side effects is due to the higher dose of estrogen received by users of the patch. Because estrogen is known to cause blood clots, the 60% higher estrogen that Ortho Evra users receive compared with users of the pill puts them at an increased risk for blood clots, stroke, heart attack and other birth control patch side effects.