Dana A. Martin is the mother of a girl who died after taking Yaz birth control pills. She has filed a lawsuit against the makers of Yaz as well as the pharmacist from whom her daughter got the pills.
Dana’s daughter, Sophia Clair Martin, died July 10, 2009, of a blood clot that went to her lungs after taking Yaz. At the time that Sophia started taking Yaz, she already had a condition known as an arteriovenous malformation of her right lower extremity, a condition which is defined by a circulatory system defect that affects the flow of her blood. That condition put Sophia at an even greater risk of hemorrhaging. This is where the story involves the second defendant in the case, Moody’s Pharmacy.
Before Dana would allow Sophia to take the Yaz, she wanted to talk to the pharmacist to be sure the drug was safe. Dana claims that after talking to defendants Seamus N. Kloos and Leslie Sauzek, pharmacists at Moody’s, she was assured that Yaz was safe for Sophia to take. Neither defendant warned Dana about the risks the drug posed to patients with blood disorders like the one that Sophia had.
It didn’t take long for Sophia to start suffering from the blood clot that would eventually take her life. Sophia was suffering from a shortness of breath and excruciating pain and suffering that lasted right up to the moment that she passed out. Dana’s claim alleges that the pharmacists were negligent when they didn’t tell her about the risks of bleeding and that Yaz posed a higher chance of Sophia suffering from major side effects that outweighed other oral contraceptives that don’t contain drospirenone.
Bayer didn’t get off the hook either, as the company also is named in the lawsuit as defendants for not properly warning the public of the adverse side effects of its drug. Bayer also is accused of not conducting proper studies before releasing the drugs on the market.
