Posted on 12/21/2004 11:36:34 AM PST by Ellesu
Livermore, CA (LifeNews.com) -- The parents of California teenager Holly Patterson, who died last year after complications from the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug, are suing the maker of the abortion pill. The Pattersons filed wrongful death and product liability lawsuits against New York-based Danco Laboratories.
In September 2003, Holly Patterson received the RU 486 abortion drug, also known as Mifeprex or mifepristone, from a Planned Parenthood abortion facility near San Francisco.
She reported severe pain and bleeding afterwards and died days later at a local hospital.
In October 2003, the Alameda County Coroner's office determined that Patterson died as a result of septic shock brought on by an incomplete abortion.
Frank Gentle, supervising coroner investigator, said "septic shock, due to endomyometritis (inflammation) due to therapeutic, drug-induced abortion," caused Patterson's death.
Last month, Cynthia Summers, marketing director for Danco Laboratories, claimed the abortion drug was not responsible for California teenager Holly Patterson's death.
"We believe our drug is not to blame," she told the New York Times. "The drug is safe. It's effective. And it provides another option for women to end early pregnancy."
Summers again defended the drug after hearing of the lawsuit.
She indicated that "no causal relationship between the use of the Mifeprex regimen and the unfortunate death of Ms. Patterson has been established."
However, Dr. Lester Crawford, the FDA's acting commissioner of food and drugs, disagreed. "Our investigation reveals that it was due to mifepristone," Dr. Crawford said.
The Patterson's lawsuit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, says Danco failed to properly warn doctors of the potential dangers of Mifeprex.
The lawsuit also names the Population Council, a pro-abortion group holding the patent rights to the drug; Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, which gave Holly the abortion pills; and ValleyCare Health System, which operates the hospital where Patterson died.
Mark Crawford, the attorney representing Monty and Deborah Patterson, discussed the case with the Contra Costa Times newspaper.
"I haven't filed this thing to get publicity," he said. "It's filed because there's been some wrongdoing on the part of the drug manufacturer and drug sponsor here in not getting the warning out."
The FDA has received 676 reports of problems resulting from the abortion drug, including three deaths, seventeen potentially fatal ectopic pregnancies, and seven women had serious infections like the one that led to the death of Holly Patterson.
That prompted the agency to revise the already significant "black box" warning label placed on the drugs to include new information highlighting the dangerous associated with the mifepristone abortion pill.
As a result of the increased security warnings on the labels, Danco indicated it would send a letter to all of its abortion drug customers highlighting the FDA label changes.
A setback for Murder Inc.
Couldn't have happened to a better drug! Wonder if My Little Pony would have taken this case???
Let's see..we pull valuable drugs from the market because of some study..yet this one, which is directly related to many deaths..is somehow sacrosanct..
I think parents should be barred from collecting any abortion-related damages in those states (all but Utah) where so-called "parental consent" legislation means nothing and they do not have the right to be informed, even, of the procedures performed on their minor daughters.
(1) The law would be more consistently unjust such that folks might wake up.
(2) It would avoid setting in stone the current "depends what your meaning of 'Is' is" model where legal abortion co-exists perfectly with Peterson-style wrongful death damages which only enrich the pots of trial attorneys like pro-abort Edwards.
Are they taking the pill several times a week? Does anyone know what the effects would be if this drug is used so often.
Clearly the abortionists don't care, the pharmaceutical company doesn't care.......
IT'S UP TO US!!!
I've often wondered something about the "parental consent" debate. Suppose an underage (under 18) teenager goes to have an abortion and the abortionist performs it (no parental consent). Suppose the young girl goes back home and experiences complications. Not necessarily a botched job, but normal complications from said surgery. The complications are bad enough that she winds up in a hospital where, of course, the parents find out that she had an abortion. Who's responsible for the resulting hospital bill. Should the parent's insurance pay? Why? The original surgery was done by adults without parental consent and it wasn't necessary. Should the parents pay? Why? They never gave consent for the original surgery. I'm sure that there has to be precidence here. Anybody know? Have there been lawsuits? If so, outcomes?
I think he should. He could channel to the victim and tell us what she feels.
This case has class action written all over it.
To whom did she report these problems? What action did they take? During the "days" that it took her to die who was treating her? The article certainly doesn't give very much information about a suit that seems to blame everyone they can name.
Would she have died had she NOT taken the drug? Hmmm.
Maybe if we had "free" medical care nobody would have to pay. After all, it would be free.
Sooner or later.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/997510/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1086684/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/990440/posts
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/992765/posts
Here are some past links about Holly Patterson.
The MSM love to feature stories about fatalities and adverse side-effects associated with prescription drugs; but I wonder if they'll make an exception in this case because it relates to their favorite drug.
Abortion kills!
Apart from the insurance issue, a more important consideration is that if the parents are unaware that the girl has had surgery, they will be less likely to notice, interpret, or respond to any complications, including complications that might be life-threatening.
I thought PPFA scammed their way in with this under the Clintonian regime with a promise that the manufacturer and distributor were except from lawsuits?
A few less dollars in the coffers of the abortion industry. It's a start. Well, I guess they have to take the "safe" out of the "safe, legal and rare" pro-abortion saying now. Of course, the "rare" reference has always been bogus. As for the "legal" ... two or three Justices away on that one.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle:
Monty Patterson said his daughter Holly Patterson had visited Planned Parenthood in Hayward last Wednesday and on Saturday had begun taking drugs prescribed to end her pregnancy. Patterson's daughter lived with him in Livermore and did not tell him about the pregnancy, he said."On Sunday, she was crying and crying, and she told me she was having cramps, that she had a bad period," said Patterson, a home builder who said he had learned of the pregnancy only hours before his daughter died.
Between Sunday and Wednesday, Holly Patterson was bleeding severely, in acute pain and unable to walk, her father said. Her boyfriend rushed her late Sunday to Valley Care Medical Center in Pleasanton, Patterson said. She was given painkillers and released, Patterson said.
"She went back into the hospital in the middle of the night Wednesday, and she died at 2 p.m.," Patterson said. "The doctor told me that she hadn't aborted all of the fetus, and she had fragments left in her, and she had a massive systemic infection and went into septic shock."
-PJ
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