Another Yaz lawsuit has been filed in California. This time the plaintiffs are Crystal Guzman and her husband, David Esparza II. Their lawsuit was filed on February 3, 2012, in the Superior Court of the State of California, Los Angeles.
In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim that the manufacturer of Yaz, Bayer, is directly responsible for Crystal’s gallbladder disease. Crystal blames the birth control pills for causing her condition. This particular Yaz lawsuit is going to join a large group of other similar lawsuits brought against Bayer in Los Angeles. In almost the entire group of lawsuits filed against Bayer over Yaz, the drug giant is being accused of hiding the side effects linked to the birth control pills. Crystal’s lawsuit may even join up with the coordinated proceedings that began in September 2011 with Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl presiding.
Crystal Guzman was diagnosed with gallbladder disease and had to have her gallbladder removed on February 18, 2010.
Other serious side effects are also caused by Yaz. Those side effects include heart attacks, strokes and blood clots that can lead to pulmonary embolisms and deep vein thrombosis. For its part, Bayer continues to maintain that the pills are no more dangerous than other birth control pills that don’t contain drospirenone, which is the main ingredient in Yaz and its sister drug, Yasmin. The blood clots that have been linked to Yaz have also been the subject of much controversy with the FDA. This blood clot link caused the FDA to conduct a panel advisory meeting to discuss the real links between Yaz and blood clots; however, the panel voted that the benefits outweighed the risks in taking Yaz. Only after the vote did the public learn of the financial ties many of the panelists had or still have to Bayer.
While Yaz blood clots have been getting the most attention lately, gallbladder lawsuits are picking up steam again as more and more women are filing lawsuits among claims that Yaz or Yasmin caused them to have their gallbladders removed. With so many Yaz gallbladder cases pending, Bayer will certainly have its hands full trying to defend the pills when there is plenty of research proving that they are actually causing these conditions.
