A group of four living plaintiffs have joined the mass legal action over alleged Xarelto bleeding deaths.

Among the Xarelto lawsuits is a family suing on behalf of Mary B. who allegedly died from Xarelto complications.

According to the Xarelto bleeding lawsuit, Mary took Xarelto from 2013 until early 2015 when she suffered from massive internal bleeding.

Mary lived in Westchester County in the state of New York. She was hospitalized in March 2015 and died in July of that year. The Xarelto bleeding lawsuit was filed by Plaintiff Sandra B. as a representative of her estate.

Xarelto is an anticoagulant or blood thinner. Drugs like this maker it harder to form blood clots, which can protect against conditions where blood clots form in the body and block the blood supply to vital organs.

However, patients taking anticoagulants carry the risk of the drugs working too well, resulting in uncontrolled bleeding. The Xarelto bleeding lawsuit alleges that Xarelto carries special risks that made it more dangerous than similar drugs.

Xarelto has no specific reversal agent. Older anticoagulants like Warfarin have known antidotes or reversal agents. This means that if patients taking the drug suffer internal bleeding or other forms of uncontrollable bleeding, doctors can use a second drug to “turn off” the drug. Drugmakers are scrambling to develop reversal agents for Xarelto and other later-generation anticoagulants.

This Xarelto lawsuit alleges that drugmakers were aware—or reasonably should have been aware—of the risk of Xarelto bleeding. The Xarelto bleeding lawsuit states that postmarket reports and peer-reviewed research illustrated the risk of Xarelto bleeding.

The Xarelto bleeding lawsuit holds that the drugmakers’ actions were negligent and fraudulent, and that prompting Xarelto over older drugs allegedly led to the injuries and deaths.

Under US law, drugmakers are legally obligated to review medical research and reports of complications reported in FDA surveillance databases for signs that their drugs are having unforeseen consequences.

The Xarelto lawsuit seeks to recoup costs stemming from injuries, pain and suffering and wrongful death allegedly caused by Xarelto. The Xarelto bleeding lawsuit also seeks to recoup legal fees and other costs related to the case, as well as have the court award survivors and next of kin punitive damages.

Punitive damages are a type of settlement money that goes above and beyond compensating victims. Punitive damages are designed to punish offenders and discourage further misconduct.

U.S. law strictly limits the circumstances in which punitive damages. However, drugs over allegedly defective drugs and medical devices are one of the few cases where plaintiffs are allowed to seek punitive damages.

The mass action against Xarelto argues that drugmakers have committed fraud and negligence, making them liable for the deaths and injuries allegedly caused by Xarelto.

The Xarelto Bleeding Lawsuit is  Case No. 2592, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.