Class Action Suits??

[southlakejr]

Have any of you ever participated in a class action lawsuit, particularly one involving a pharmaceutical company? How does this work, how did you decide which law firm to represent you, etc?

Specifically, I was just released from a 6 day ICU stay for pulmonary embolisms in both lungs and DVT in my left leg that my medical provider believes is a direct result of the contraception that I was taking, the maker of which is currently facing a lot of legal pressure for their failure to adequately notify patients of the risk of these particular side effects.

I'm not looking to pay off my house or anything crazy. But, my out of pocket medical costs (with pretty darn good insurance) will still be over 5k, not including the medications I am on that will not count against my OOP max. (One of which is 170 dollars a week! Here's hoping I don't need more than this first week!) I'm also missing a week and a half of work, as is my husband.

I consider myself an intelligent person, and one aware that all medications carry inherent risks. But if I had known that this medication has an occurrence rate of PE and DVT three times that of other contraceptive medications, and that this risk factor was still there despite the fact that I am a healthy, young, non-smoker... well, I would have chosen something else.

We can certainly work with the hospital to make a payment plan on what we will owe, but this is still a rather large and unexpected hit to our finances. Where do we go from here? Am I crazy for even considering to pursue this option?

 

[HM]

If there is a class action suit already in place, you have to work with the lawyers who already set it up. You'll get a portion of the proceeds if they win. You can also decide to hire a lawyer separately and deal with it as a separate individual.

 

[bdoyledimou]

go seperatly... a CAS will result in a net return of 10 cents for the most part --

to many people dilute the pool of the return and the lawyers take 50% off the top.

 

[SGB13]

So sorry you went thru this. Hope you are recovering fully. And good luck recovering your losses.

 

[Keli]

The only people that get money in a CAS is the lawyers, IMHO.

 

[ellochka]

Get a consultation with a lawyer. Class action is by definition for many-many small claims, where it is inefficient to hire a lawyer for individual claims. Yours is different. The co-pays may even be worth it. In fact, your insurance company or the hospital may be interested in this too, since most of the money ends up going to them to anyway.

 

[lelalittlelegs]

A little off topic, but...

I just wanted to say that in 1996 I had a stroke (CVA) due to the contraceptive oral pill that I was taking...Dianette. Lots of girls the world over lost their lives to this drug in the late 90's. I was never told this and my blood pressure wasn't routinely monitored every 3 months like it should have been whilst I was on it. Anyway, after the stroke I was never allowed another hormone, in any shape, again. Which was pretty devastating for an 18 year old girl. Fast forward to 2007 and I had a right calf DVT, a 6 inch clot in my groin and double pulmonary embolisms on each lung. I was just shy of 12 weeks pregnant. Why? Turns out that after extensive testing, my stroke and the DVTs/PEs were completely unrelated. I just had terrible luck. Now I am in England and it is impossible to sue anyone for anything here but during the original hospitalisation I got to know the family of a girl who was left permanently disabled from her stroke, also caused by Dianette. There were 7 Dianette girls in the same hospital at the same time. I had "only" lost vision and sensation on one side, others were far more unlucky. Anyway, her family went after the pharmaceutical company as her Father was a Barrister and they got a big fat zero. Big pharma were able to argue that the lawsuit was between the patient and the prescribing doctor as their drug came with adequate warning and to be fair, it really did. It terrifies me that people take so many drugs without researching them first or even reading the information slip provided. Obviously in 1996 there wasn't Google like there is today but I wish I'd had the chance to do my own research into the drug. Eventually the family were able to get some damages from the prescribing doctor but it was minimal as doctors here have the sharpest malpractice lawyers out there. And ultimately a non-necessary drug like the contraceptive pill was classed as not medically needed by the ruling judge. Essentially saying the girl didn't need it to survive or sustain life so she took it at her own risk. I know it's a very different culture in America in terms of lawsuits and I know that your healthcare system works differently to ours but if your prescribing doctor picked a drug that had a much higher reported rate of haematological risks, I would go after them. The drug companies provide all the warnings, we just blindly trust the doctors to choose the safest drug. They don't. It's always about money and cost. On the flip side as a direct result of what happened when I was pregnant I now have a 6 year old with a brain injury due to compromised blood supply during pregnancy. She has cerebral palsy, autism, extensive bowel disease and cannot swallow. The hospital never told me that when I was fighting for my life, the drugs they gave me crossed the placenta and permanently damaged my baby. I am still unable to sue anyone because I am met with "if we hadn't done what we did, both of you would have died" and I can't argue with that. So I hope you're successful in getting your costs covered and that you've made a full recovery and I want you to know that maybe you'll be the voice and driving force behind a generation of women who weren't able to make these doctors think twice about which drug they prescribe. Thanks for letting me vent. Go get 'em.

Oh, and find a new doctor.

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

Have any of you ever participated in a class action lawsuit, particularly one involving a pharmaceutical company? How does this work, how did you decide which law firm to represent you, etc?

Specifically, I was just released from a 6 day ICU stay for pulmonary embolisms in both lungs and DVT in my left leg that my medical provider believes is a direct result of the contraception that I was taking, the maker of which is currently facing a lot of legal pressure for their failure to adequately notify patients of the risk of these particular side effects.

I'm not looking to pay off my house or anything crazy. But, my out of pocket medical costs (with pretty darn good insurance) will still be over 5k, not including the medications I am on that will not count against my OOP max. (One of which is 170 dollars a week! Here's hoping I don't need more than this first week!) I'm also missing a week and a half of work, as is my husband.

I consider myself an intelligent person, and one aware that all medications carry inherent risks. But if I had known that this medication has an occurrence rate of PE and DVT three times that of other contraceptive medications, and that this risk factor was still there despite the fact that I am a healthy, young, non-smoker... well, I would have chosen something else.

We can certainly work with the hospital to make a payment plan on what we will owe, but this is still a rather large and unexpected hit to our finances. Where do we go from here? Am I crazy for even considering to pursue this option?

I also had a blood clot from taking the pill. You know what - there was a warning in the giant paperwork. I am not suing.

 

[pryncess527]

Specifically, I was just released from a 6 day ICU stay for pulmonary embolisms in both lungs and DVT in my left leg that my medical provider believes is a direct result of the contraception that I was taking, the maker of which is currently facing a lot of legal pressure for their failure to adequately notify patients of the risk of these particular side effects.


I consider myself an intelligent person, and one aware that all medications carry inherent risks. But if I had known that this medication has an occurrence rate of PE and DVT three times that of other contraceptive medications, and that this risk factor was still there despite the fact that I am a healthy, young, non-smoker... well, I would have chosen something else.

I think the odds are against you. Have you read all the tiny fine print paperwork that comes with the medication? Do you have any reason to believe this company actually hid information or falsified data in research? What do you consider "adequate notification" -- because I'm pretty sure all that fine print qualifies from a legal sense.
It is a shame that your doctor did not have a more thorough conversation with you about it, but unless the company has demonstrated some kind of negligence, I'm not sure what the lawsuit would be based on. The FDA seems aware that there is an increased risk of blood clots and DVT for some birth control pills:

http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety...ormationforPatientsandProviders/ucm257175.htm

You might search and see if there is an ongoing lawsuit against the company and try to join the class, but I'm not sure I'd start the process of opening up a class action suit where there is none. Maybe that's just my laziness.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

I agree that I don't think you will get a lot out if it. Every single hormonal birth control comes with the warning that it may cause DVT or clots. They don't have to say if the risk is higher or lower than other forms, just that there is a risk. Your beef is with your doctor, who should have told you the risks were higher with whatever form you were taking.

 

[RitaE]

I'm not sure you have a grasp on the differences between a Class Action Lawsuit and a Medical Injury/Malpractice claim.

If obtaining a reward for damages is something you believe might be appropriate for you circumstance, I'd begin by contacting a local or state Attorney referral service and getting some names of local attorneys who specialize in this area. Most of them will give an initial consultation on your specific case for free or low cost. Billing and legal fees will be dictated from there either on a contingency or hourly rate.

 

[rock_doctor]

The only people that get money in a CAS is the lawyers, IMHO.

Not true, we were in one and got 10¢. Seriously. They actually wrote a check for 10¢.

Good luck to the OP. I/we hope there are no lasting problems.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

Unfortunately the drug might have worsened your precondition. Smoking and blood disorders increase the potential for clotting. Plenty of warning labels out there.

I had a DVT/PE shortly after giving birth. They believed they were caused by bed rest. There were no clotting disorder testing then. Ten years later I got another PE after a long car ride to Disney. I was then diagnosed with a gene mutation that increases my potential for clotting. Of course after I had the first, I could never take hormonal birth control because of the increase clotting risk.

I actually got another PE while on blood thinning medication years later. My clotting factor level must have dipped.

Get a blood work up and find out if you have a disorder. They are much more common than you think, especially if you are from a white European background. Especially important if you eventually plan to have children.

Good luck! Speedy recovery!

 

[Debbie7452]

I also had a blood clot from oral contraception back in 2005. It was scary but I was "lucky" that I only had severe ischemic colitis and I recovered fully. There was a lot of medical costs involved but I don't think suing will get me much. I also was a healthy, non-smoker.

 

[Gracie09]

I received $100 from the de beers cas. $50ish from bar bri cas and $13 from the e-book one.
Is it going to make me rich, no but I filled out a form and eventually received a small check. :shrug: I don't go looking for them but if they contact me why noy

 

[MSLRAC]

I agree that I don't think you will get a lot out if it. Every single hormonal birth control comes with the warning that it may cause DVT or clots. They don't have to say if the risk is higher or lower than other forms, just that there is a risk. Your beef is with your doctor, who should have told you the risks were higher with whatever form you were taking.

I agree that I think your beef is with your doctor. Every hormonal contraceptive comes with the risk of clots and DVT. It's up to your doctor to monitor you and determine which medication is right for you. There are certain ones my doctor will not even discuss because he feels as if the risks are too high for any woman to be on them.

Unfortunately the drug might have worsened your precondition. Smoking and blood disorders increase the potential for clotting. Plenty of warning labels out there.

Get a blood work up and find out if you have a disorder. They are much more common than you think, especially if you are from a white European background. Especially important if you eventually plan to have children.

I also agree with this. My doctor now insists on screening for clotting disorders before prescribing any hormonal contraceptives and during your first prenatal appointment if you've never been screened. The practice started doing that after the PA in the office died of a stroke 3 days after giving birth to her second child because of an undiagnosed clotting disorder.

Sorry that this happened to you and I do wish yo a speedy recovery!

 

[southlakejr]

Well, there is currently a large national case involving this particular medication, so I contacted several of the attorneys involved to see what options are there (if any) And no, it's not a CAS, its MDL, but CAS seemed to be a more familiar term for most.

Truthfully, I don't expect to see anything out of it. But, if there is an option to reduce the burden of the out of pocket co pays, it seems worth a shot.

As for my doctor, I've been on this medication through several different GYNs, and never been screened for any type of clotting disorder. My current (and several past) MDs did refuse to prescribe some forms of contraceptives, based on the risks associated with it. This was not one of them.

The current case against the manufacturer is that they have misrepresented the dosing of estrogen. The manufacturer claims that the dose is absolutely consistent, whereas studies are showing that it can actually cause estrogen in the system to spike, particularly when starting or restarting. One of the appeals to the medication was a consistent and low dose of hormones, which was supposed to decrease the risk of serious side effects. Unfortunately, my treating surgeon has seen three women suffer from this in the last year, and all were using the same medication I was.

The important thing is that I'm okay, and I will be okay. But there is still a lot of recovery ahead of me.

And as a side note/PSA- please make sure that the women in your life are all aware of the signs and symptoms of clots and PE. The initial signs are pretty easy to dismiss but early intervention and treatment are the keys to a good outcome.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

Well, there is currently a large national case involving this particular medication, so I contacted several of the attorneys involved to see what options are there (if any) And no, it's not a CAS, its MDL, but CAS seemed to be a more familiar term for most. Truthfully, I don't expect to see anything out of it. But, if there is an option to reduce the burden of the out of pocket co pays, it seems worth a shot. As for my doctor, I've been on this medication through several different GYNs, and never been screened for any type of clotting disorder. My current (and several past) MDs did refuse to prescribe some forms of contraceptives, based on the risks associated with it. This was not one of them. The current case against the manufacturer is that they have misrepresented the dosing of estrogen. The manufacturer claims that the dose is absolutely consistent, whereas studies are showing that it can actually cause estrogen in the system to spike, particularly when starting or restarting. One of the appeals to the medication was a consistent and low dose of hormones, which was supposed to decrease the risk of serious side effects. Unfortunately, my treating surgeon has seen three women suffer from this in the last year, and all were using the same medication I was. The important thing is that I'm okay, and I will be okay. But there is still a lot of recovery ahead of me. And as a side note/PSA- please make sure that the women in your life are all aware of the signs and symptoms of clots and PE. The initial signs are pretty easy to dismiss but early intervention and treatment are the keys to a good outcome.

Could you PM me the name of the medication? I'm overly paranoid about stuff like that.