The family of a 16-year-old Jackson County, Missouri girl has filed a wrongful death claim following the girl’s death in a Jackson County Family Court’s detention center earlier this year.
Children’s Mercy Hospital, the hospital’s medical staff, the detention center and several detention center employees have all been named as defendants in the wrongful death lawsuit.
Kathia Casseus was found unresponsive and unconscious in her cell at the detention center, and was moved to the hospital. She died there of medical complications shortly after arriving. The cause of death was revealed to be blood clots in the lungs.
According to the lawsuit, Kathia was a special needs child with an IQ of 69. She was detained in the Jackson County system after taking her mother’s car for a joy ride and crashing into a carport, causing extensive property damage.
Last November she was taken to Mercy Hospital and prescribed the Ortho Evra birth control patch. This was done for reasons that her mother insists were never adequately explained.
There have been multiple studies indicating the Ortho Evra patch, along with other recent forms of birth control, is linked to excessive clotting in the blood. Several highly publicized cases of heart and lung failure due to birth control related blood clots seem to bear out the plaintiffs’ assertion that the birth control patch was directly responsible for Kathia’s death.
On February 21st, Kathia complained of foot pain and heart palpitations, both signs of cardiac distress. She later collapsed, and was put into her cell while a message was sent to the on-call nurse. Critically, the nurse did not respond to the message until after Kathia was found unconscious later that day, and only after 911 had already been called.
There was no comment from the county officials or the hospital who were named in the suit. There is no word or date for when proceedings will begin.
