Ortho Evra
September 15, 2006Woman files Ortho Evra birth control patch lawsuit after miscarriage
A 24-year-old Texas woman has filed an Ortho Evra birth control patch lawsuit against Ortho-McNeil, maker of the Ortho Evra patch. Elizabeth Barraso says that after using Ortho Evra, she suffered severe blood clots that eventually led to the miscarriage of her child.
Barraso had been using the Ortho Evra birth control patch for just three weeks when she began to have difficulty breathing and to experience severe pain in her chest. She was admitted to the hospital, where doctors found that she had blood clots in her lungs—one of the most common birth control patch side effects. The Ortho Evra birth control patch delivers a 60% higher dose of estrogen than do traditional birth control pills. Because estrogen increases blood clotting, this puts women at an elevated risk of blood clots, stroke, heart attack and other birth control patch side effects.
Barraso was forced to take blood thinning medications for 10 months after her hospitalization in order to prevent a recurrence of her birth control patch injuries. She became pregnant in October 2004 but miscarried her child, which she attributed to the side effects she suffered after using the Ortho Evra birth control patch. When she became pregnant again in 2005, Barraso had to give herself daily in.jections of blood thinners in order to prevent a similar miscarriage.
Barraso’s birth control patch lawyer says that the Ortho Evra birth control patch was responsible for the injuries that she suffered, as well as for the lifelong risk of miscarriage that she must bear. “Her life was put in jeopardy by a company that made a harmful product,” says Ortho Evra birth control patch lawyer John David Hart. “And the tragic thing is, the company continues to market and sell this product even today.”