With all the stories we hear about people suffering from opioid addictions, most of us likely think that perhaps the most dangerous prescription medication on the market is OxyContin or some other related drug.
A recent published study conducted by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) notes that blood thinners, or anticoagulants, are far more dangerous than any other drug that is prescribed by doctors.
To reach this conclusion, researchers at ISMP reviewed the tens of thousands of cases in which patients were prescribed blood thinners during 2017. In at least 22,000 cases, patients suffered severe injuries after taking such a medication. Another 3,000 died. At least 48 percent of those cases were serious enough that the patients were admitted to the hospital.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suspects as many as 10 times the reported cases may occur, yet go unreported.
Blood thinners are often used to treat clots that form when patients have pulmonary embolisms, strokes, atrial fibrillation or deep vain thrombosis. They tend to develop if people are sedentary a lot or after hip or knee replacement surgeries as well.
If too strong of a blood thinner is prescribed, then even the smallest cut could result in a patient bleeding out and dying. While many blood thinners have antidotes to them that can reverse a potentially fatal event like that from occurring, there’s no guarantee a patient will get it in time.
Some blood thinners on the market, like Xarelto, don’t have antidotes yet. Other drugs had theirs approved just within the past few years. Up until then, there was little doctors could do to save patients who had started bleeding out.
Patients who have suffered adverse reactions or died from taking blood thinners like Warfarin, Xarelto and Pradaxa have received hundreds of millions of dollars as settlements to their personal injury lawsuits.
If you’ve suffered ill effects after being prescribed a blood thinner, then a Houston attorney can advise you of your right to file a lawsuit in your case.
