Lawsuit Over Multiple Pulmonary Emboli from Yaz Filed in Louisiana

A lawsuit has been filed by a woman from Louisiana who says that she suffered multiple pulmonary emboli due to side effects of Yaz birth control pill. 

The Yaz pulmonary emboli lawsuit was filed on June 8 in U.S. District Court in New Orleans by Heather Gillespie against Bayer Corp., Bayer Healthcare, Bayer Pharmaceuticals Corp., Bayer Health Care Pharmaceuticals, Berlex, Berlex Laboratories, Bayer Schering Pharma AG and Bayer Healthcare AG.

According to the complaint, Gillespie took the pills for less than a year before she was diagnosed as having multiple blood clots which had broken free and traveled through her pulmonary system, causing permanent and debilitating injuries. She seeks an undetermined amount of damages for medical expenses, pain, suffering, mental anguish, physical disfigurement and impairment, financial and earnings losses and court costs, according to a story in the Louisiana Record.

Yaz is a birth control pill manufactured by Bayer that contains drospirenone, a new “fourth” generation progestin. Drospirenone is only found in Yaz, it’s precursor, Yasmin, and generic versions of each pill, which are marketed as Gianvi and Ocella, respectively.

More than 1,100 Yaz suits and Yasmin suits have been filed in the U.S. on behalf of women who allege that they suffered injuries such as a stroke, heart attack, pulmonary emboli, deep vein thrombosis, gallbladder disease and other complications. All federal Yaz and Yasmin cases are consolidated in an MDL, or multidistrict litigation, centralized in the Southern District of Illinois for pretrial litigation. There are also state court Yaz and Yasmin lawsuits consolidated in Pennsylvania and New Jersey courts.

Pulmonary emboli from Yaz can occur when blood clots travel through the blood stream and becomes lodged near the lung. This can cause a sudden blockage of the artery that brings blood into the longs, causing serious and potentially fatal injuries. Symptoms can include difficulty breathing, chest pain, palpitations, abnormally low blood pressure, rapid breathing and rapid heart rate.