[Ichneumon]

Did she get the script for the patch from a clinic? Planned parenthood? Or did she go to the family physician? Family physicians are unheard of so I will assume it was a type of clinic. So did this 'clinic' just hand over a script for this? Or did they do a work up? Ortho Evra is documented to cause a higher rate of blood clots. Do the clinics screen black girls for genetic diseases like sickle-cell? Or is that politically incorrect?

Also, complications like this seldom show up and instantly make someone suddenly drop dead. I wonder if there were warning signs that she was having a bad reaction to the medication, and they weren't followed up on (by girl *or* parents *or* physician -- any/all could have been lax).

So many questions, so little information in the article.

[WV Mountain Mama]

My sister got a blood clot in her thigh and was in excruciating pain, not to mention that her leg was swelling and I think it had some discoloring. She went to the hospital and they missed the clot in the ultrasound. She was in major pain all night and went to her orthopedic surgeon in Pittsburgh the next day. He sent her to one of the Pittsburgh hospitals and they couldn't believe that the first hospital missed a 6 inch blood clot, she was still in much pain and had the swelling. She was on the pill and got her blood clot from sitting with her legs scrunched up in the back seat of a sports car for several hours.

[Calpernia]

Yes, physicians schedule follow ups for monitoring complications.

Vs. clinics who don't see you until a new script is needed.