The children of a woman who died after taking a popular blood thinner have been awarded $1.25 million in a Pradaxa verdict by the first jury to hold drug maker Boehringer Ingelheim responsible for an uncontrollable bleeding death.

According to the complaint, Betty K. received a Pradaxa prescription in October 2011 to treat nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat. After experiencing unstoppable bleeding, Betty allegedly was in the hospital for a 20-day stretch in May 2013. She died Sept. 2, 2013.

The Pradaxa verdict legitimizes the claims made by Claude and Claudia, Betty’s children, that she never recovered from the extreme bleeding episode that she was forced to endure for nearly three weeks.

Claude and Claudia accused Boehringer Ingelheim of committing fraud by claiming Pradaxa was just as safe and effective as warfarin when the company knew Pradaxa users had a greater risk of uncontrollable bleeding.

At the time Betty was taking Pradaxa, there was no antidote for the medication’s anti-clotting effects. Warfarin’s blood thinning action can be stopped with an IV dose of vitamin K in the event of an accident or surgery.

The $1.25 million Pradaxa verdict consists of $250,000 on the count of fraud and $1 million in punitive damages, the maximum allowed in the state of West Virginia. The jury said in the Pradaxa verdict that the blood thinner caused Betty’s injuries, but did not cause her death.

Significance of Pradaxa Verdict

The $1.25 million Pradaxa verdict for the plaintiffs in West Virginia is the first of its kind.

At the beginning of October, a Connecticut man lost his case when he alleged Pradaxa caused him to suffer an internal bleeding episode that almost took his life.

Boehringer Ingelheim was also victorious in the spring of 2018 in two separate cases. A woman filed a Pradaxa lawsuit after her mother, aged 82, died after taking the medication, and a woman filed suit after she suffered a gastrointestinal bleed she believed was linked to her Pradaxa use. Juries did not find in favor for either of those plaintiffs.

Pradaxa was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2010. Within the drug’s first three months on the market, the FDA had received 307 reports of complications from internal bleeding.

More than 260 people died that first year from internal bleeding, gastrointestinal bleeding, hemorrhaging and stroke, according to the FDA.

Before the antidote Praxbind became available in the fall of 2015, the only way to stop Pradaxa’s blood thinning effects was by flushing the blood through dialysis. Besides taking hours to remove the Pradaxa, dialysis patients often need multiple blood transfusions.

In May 2014, Boehringer Ingelheim agreed to pay $650 million to settle 4,000 state and federal Pradaxa lawsuits. The company did not admit any wrongdoing when they agreed to the settlement.

The Pradaxa Verdict Lawsuit is Case No. 3:!5-cv-06424, In Re: Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate) Products Liability Litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.