Posted on 01/23/2016 8:05:40 PM PST by kathsua
British court officials are investigating the death of a young teen who died on vacation last fall after developing a rare blood clot disorder from a birth control pill.
The Daily Mail reports 16-year-old Sophie Murray was rushed to the hospital on Nov. 8, 2015, after her lips turned blue and she became breathless in the middle of the night. Murray died later that day from a pulmonary embolism due to deep vein thrombosis, according to the report. Doctors said the birth control prescription that she was taking contributed to her death.
The news report has more about the inquest into her death:
[Dr. Richard Prescott] told the hearing that the ‘large clot’ was 8mm in diameter and if it had been detected earlier she could have been given blood thinners and survived.
The inquest heard how Sophie was using the ‘common’ pill Microgynon and a leaflet accompanying the prescription warned how using it ‘increases the risk of developing a blood clot’ and in ‘very rare cases’ a blood clot can form but it is ‘very rarely fatal’.
Joanne Birch, a specialist nurse in sudden and unexpected deaths, said only six out of every 10,000 women on the contraceptive pill develop DVT, compared to only two in 10,000 without the pill, and that fatalities are ‘extremely rare’.
[Sophie’s mother Shelley] Crichton told the hearing how Sophie’s breathing had become worse since returning from holiday and she was struggling to walk to school, dance or enjoy exercise DVDs and complained her body was ‘aching’.
Crichton said she took her daughter to the doctor, where they ran tests and prescribed her an inhaler, but it didn’t help. Three days before her death, the teen went back to her doctor, who prescribed a different inhaler and medication, the report states.
Her doctor, Paramundayil Joseph, told the inquest that Sophie did not have the usual indicators of a pulmonary embolism: She was young, not overweight or a smoker and did not have any family history of the illness. He also said that trouble breathing can be a sign of many different diseases.
Her tragic death follows on the heels of a case involving another young British woman who died last year of very similar circumstances. Fallan Kurek, 21, died in May 2015 from a pulmonary embolism on her lung that was caused, in part, by her birth control medication, according to The Telegraph.
The report states Kurek also consulted a nurse about the chest pains and breathing trouble that she was experiencing, but the nurse reportedly told her that “it wasn’t the pill.â€
In May, Kurek reportedly passed out on the stairs at her home after vomiting and struggling to breathe. After three days at the hospital in intensive care, Kurek died, according to the report.
Artificial contraception is an issue that pro-lifers take varying positions on. Some argue that birth control can help reduce abortion rates by preventing unwanted pregnancies, while others argue that it leads down a slippery slope to abortion. No matter what their position on birth control, pro-lifers agree that even one innocent life lost is one too many.
She could have been having crippling menstrual cramps, heavy bleeding or irregular periods. I had start taking birth control pills in my late teens because of heaving bleeding and unbearable pain. Sometimes the pills are necessary.
Edit: meant to type “heavy” bleeding.
Really, and do you really want the world to know that? I beg your pardon, don’t believe you and I will leave it at that. What did girls do before the advent of the “pill?” Humanity survived, even without the pill.
Three years ago my pastor’s wife very nearly died because a pulmonary embolism caused by birth control pills. She was one of the lucky ones who survived due the prayers of hundreds of people.
What the hell is your problem?? Why would I be ashamed of a health problem when I was younger?? I don’t really care if you “believe” me or not, you’re a nobody.
You are a nasty creature. Get help, you need it.
I have heard that is indeed one use for the pill. My husbands sisters suffered horribly as young women from painful menses. As a result , he was always so understanding to that particular issue. It spoke volumes to me about his compassion and character.
I suppose there are those men who feel it is a woman’s burden to suffer in pain and silence as though it is a shameful thing. We are blessed though that modern medicine is comprised of men and women who think and research for ways to cure disease and create medicines to alleviate pain. A man on the thread for the Black Plague was cured by antibiotics when he was in Vietnam. It is sad when side effects from these meds result in a death, when the patient was seeking help.
Thank you for your thoughtful post. God Bless your husband:)
I agree, women shouldn’t be ashamed for suffering from menstrual problems. At times my pain would be so bad that I would literally be physically ill & lying on the floor crying. And I’m someone that normally has a high tolerance for pain. It was regrettable that I had to get on the pill but it helped.
I don’t understand why that poster was so incredibly rude & hostile. Maybe he just hates women:)
We are blessed to have the medical options we have today. I agree, one must be really vigilant about the side effects & possible dangers of the medicine we take. That’s fascinating about the man being cured in Vietnam.
Thanks & hope that you & your family have a great week:)
“So tell me, why is a 16-year-old “virgin?†girl taking birth control pills?”
Maybe the British version of Rick Perry mandates it.
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/16/140530716/in-texas-perrys-vaccine-mandate-provoked-anger
Hmmmmmmmmmm.
The risk of DVT and pulmonary embolus decrease after the first month of therapy. There are other things to consider. A smoker who goes on the pill and gets on a long flight is really playing Russian Roulette. As with any medication, you pay your money and you take your chances. Hopefully, the medication doesn’t do more harm than good. They could have put her on one of the new anticoagulants like Pradaxa, but then she might hemorrhage. It’s payday for the lawyers.
The infertility specialist performed some additional tests on me including weekly blood tests over the course of two months, and he determined I had a hormonal imbalance. Even though my cycles seemed normal, my hormonal problem caused a very short luteal period - the period between when an egg was released and menstruation started, and the estrogen and progesterone imbalance also meant that the lining of my uterus was not conducive to a fertilized egg implanting, so he put me on a low dose birth control pill for 3 months to stabilize the imbalance, then on a fertility drug, followed by insemination with my husband's sperm to optimize our chances for conception.
Unfortunately, after nearly a year of these treatments, it did not work and we had moral and ethical issues with the next step which would have be IVF.
I also had a niece who like you CrimsonTidegirl had severe menstrual problems in her teens, starting at about 14 years old - debilitating cramps and extremely heavy bleeding for over a week at a time, bleeding so heavy that even with the heaviest pads available, she still bled through, making going to school difficult, and she also had frequent periods (one about every 15-20 days' vs the normal 28 days) to the point she became anemic. She too was put on birth control pills in order to regulate her cycle and it helped her greatly.
Perhaps it is the EU government's answer to all those sex assaults by Muslim economic migrants? Since they won't kick them out and send them back, and they won't mass arrest them, at least they can prevent European women from having to bear their young! / S
And these can be handed out with no parental consent or even awareness?
There are many who would argue that a sixteen year old girl on birth control is not quite innocent.
And I should have read the other comments first...
Diagnostics is far from a precise art. There are many cases where a set of symptoms fits many diseases/causations.
When I was 14 my doctor gave it to me to cure acne. This is common.
Thanks for sharing your story. I am so sorry to hear that the treatments weren’t successful. I also sympathize with you & your husband about having qualms about IVF. I have moral questions about IVF & would make the same decision in your shoes. I will pray for a miracle for you & your hubby, you never know what can happen.
Yes, I was like your niece. In addition to the pain, I bled too much & was also anemic.
Birth Control pills aren’t perfect but unfortunately sometimes they are needed for medical reasons. I wasn’t thrilled about taking them but they gave me my life back & don’t regret taking them. I’m glad they helped your niece.
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