Yaz Lawsuit: What's It Worth?

Denver, CO"What is it worth to be afraid every time you feel a pain in your chest?" Liz asks her attorney, who is working on figuring that out. He is currently filing a claim on Liz's behalf against the makers of Yasmin and Yaz. "Getting money will be like frosting on the cake," she says. "I am just glad to be alive."

Liz was on birth control for 14 years without any problems before switching to Yaz on the advice of her doctor. "Two months after starting Yaz I accepted a job as an adventure tour guide in Montana. I moved there from New York," says Liz. "I was leading a trip and suddenly felt a pain in my back. I leaned over my horse—it was like a knife scraping down my spine—and my first thought was that it was intense heartburn.

"By the time we got up the hill I felt better, but I was really tired. That evening I felt that I had pulled a muscle between my ribs. I taught yoga for some time so I know about pulled muscles. The next day was the end of the trip with my group, but I was uncomfortable all night—at 2 am I woke, barely able to breathe and unable to move. It was terrifying because I was alone and new to Montana.

"I called my mother in Florida at 4am. 'Why are you calling me, call an ambulance!' she almost shouted.

"'It's just a pulled muscle, what can an ambulance do for me?' I replied.

"'They have drugs at the hospital, get over there," she insisted.

"But I have always been strong-willed and was not going to call 911. Instead I called a girlfriend. Thank god she answered the phone. She came over and freaked out—I was white as a sheet. She drove me to ER and the doctor immediately said, "Let's rule out a blood clot." I had a chest x-ray and they didn't see anything but they did see some fluid and diagnosed pneumonia. I was incredulous, how could I have pneumonia? I wasn't congested.

"I was admitted and put on a broad spectrum of antibiotics for a week. At that point they said I didn't have a blood clot. I was on so much morphine that I was constipated and miserable. I kept telling them that I didn't have pneumonia. They thought I had some resistant bacteria in my lung and wanted to test it. At that point I checked out, promising to come back the next day for a check-up.

"Next day I had a CAT scan to determine if there was enough fluid in my lungs to go ahead with this lung procedure. I complained that I didn't want any contrast dye but the radiologist insisted. Good thing he did—they found multiple clots in my lungs and had no idea how they missed them before.

"My doctor tried to cover his tracks, saying I got clots from lying in bed with pneumonia. They wanted to put me on Lovenox immediately but my insurance company wouldn't go for it; they said it was too expensive. So the doctor gave them a choice: Lovenox or I get admitted back to hospital. They chose Lovenox. One hour after I got the first shot, I felt better. The pressure in my side eased up and it was easier to breathe. And they put me on coumadin for six months.

"When I was first admitted, they asked if I was taking any meds. I mentioned Yaz but nothing more was said about it. In fact I was still on Yaz when they discovered the blood clots and even after that, while I was on coumadin!

"I started thinking: it was weird that I switched birth control pills just a few months ago. I knew that blood clots were a side effect of the birth control pill so it is unbelievable that the doctors didn't connect the dots. I was even on breathing treatments—if I dislodged that clot, it would have killed me. That doctor is lucky I'm alive!

"I did some preliminary research when I first started taking Yaz in 2006, but it was a relatively new drug and there wasn't much information. A few months ago my friend e-mailed me and said she had been prescribed Yaz and half of it was covered by insurance—it cost her $90. She didn't need Yaz while a generic pill would work. That's when I went online and saw all the Yasmin and Yaz lawsuits, and that's when I contacted an attorney.

"This morning I filled out some paperwork for my attorney and made a claim against the makers of Yaz. My attorney is confident that I can go forward with a lawsuit."