My condolences on your loss...
This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about. Why should doctors or the government have all the information and make all the decisions for us? We are literate adults. And all of us here in FreeRepublic can use the internet. If the FDA kept all the data for those drugs online, you could have looked up the side effects and not had to rely on the "experts". You could have raised the BS flag. Or accepted the risk knowingly.
Sorry but the government is not the only one with the information. First, everyone has the right and the responsibility to inquire about the drugs they are taking--what they are for, and the possible side effects.
The Physicians Desk Reference (PDR) is a book that is available in any library for as long as I can remember--way before anyone ever heard of the internet. It will give information on any commonly used drug.
If you are on an experimental drug, you also have a document provided by an Institutional Review Board that gives every last detail re complications of the treatment.
Again re Coumadin, it is not a new or exotic drug. It has been used for thinning blood clots way before I got into medical issues (I am a long way from being a youngster.) If the patient doesn't have a blood clot i.e., thrombosis, there may be other reasons why the physician wants to keep the patients blood thin.
It's still the physician's responsibility to monitor the patient on this drug. And, let's not ignore the patient/family responsibility to understand the drugs/treatment.