Sometimes, patients may not know the symptoms they’re experiencing may be side effects of their medication. Bleeding while on Pradaxa can be mistaken for other complications.  Such is often the case when a patient experiences internal bleeding or hemorrhage. Symptoms of internal bleeding or hemorrhage can include bruising without any known cause, bleeding from the gums, coughing up blood, frequent nose bleeds, discolored urine and vomiting blood.

Now, lawyers are investigating why the drug causes these side effects, and who should be held accountable. In many cases, if a drug is found to be dangerous, the company that manufacturers the drug can be held accountable for patient injury. Those companies could then be required to compensate patients for injury done by their use of the drug.

What is Pradaxa?

Pradaxa is a blood thinner (anticoagulant) drug that is manufactured by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals. It was originally approved in 2010 by the FDA. At the time, it was seen as a superior alternative to anticoagulants on the market, lauded as a desirable alternative to Coumadin (also known by the generic name warfarin). It was advertised as requiring less management, and as being easier to use than Coumadin, which built popularity.

Pradaxa was marketed as requiring less frequent physician monitoring than Coumadin. Additionally, it was advertised as more convenient because patients only needed to take it once a day, as opposed to twice a day, as was necessary in the case of Coumadin. It was also advertised as not requiring a patient to alter their diet and exercise habits.

However, after just three months of being on the market, the FDA began receiving reports that Pradaxa patients were suffering severe bleeding. While all blood thinners can increase a patient’s risk of severe bleeding, the bleeding while on Pradaxa was more severe than bleeding when taking Coumadin because it was harder to stop.

A patient who was taking Coumadin and suffered a bleed could be treated by having their system flushed with vitamin K, which negated the effects of the blood thinner, allowing the blood to clot normally and enabling the bleeding to stop. However, this technique was reportedly ineffective in the case of bleeding while on Pradaxa, increasing the likelihood of the Pradaxa bleed to be severe or fatal.

Experts argued that the advertised convenience of Pradaxa was not backed up by sufficient research into the efficacy of the drug. Some experts claim that the drug would have been safer had it been taken twice daily, although the drug’s manufacturers said that they had designed the drug to be able to be taken once daily.

Allegedly, the drug company had not researched the effects of the spikes and lows that a large, once daily dose of Pradaxa would have on a patient’s system, and had not designed the drug to not cause such dangerous fluctuations, causing a higher likelihood of a dangerous bleed.

Lawyers are investigating patient reports of bleeding while on Pradaxa (dabigatran). If you or a loved one took the blood thinner Pradaxa and experienced any of the following severe side effects, you may have a legal claim.

• Brain hemorrhage
• Gastrointestinal bleeding
• Heart attack
• Internal bleeding
• Kidney bleeding
• Stroke

Additionally, those who have loved ones who died from Pradaxa bleeding can potentially file a wrongful death lawsuit.