A woman’s Xarelto blood thinner lawsuit has been filed in Louisiana federal court, where there are nearly 20,000 other lawsuits that are part of this multidistrict litigation and affected by this medication.

Plaintiff Mary Kate J., a North Carolina resident, states that she took Xarelto from approximately Jan. 10, 2014 to Oct. 29, 2014 in order to treat her atrial fibrillation.

“As a direct and proximate result of Plaintiff’s use of Xarelto, she suffered serious and severe injuries, including gastrointestinal bleeding and acute blood loss anemia on approximately October 29, 2014,” her Xarelto blood thinner lawsuit states.

As a result of her injuries, Mary Kate says she had to undergo a number of blood transfusions and was hospitalized due to the side effects she suffered from taking Xarelto. She was advised by her physician to stop taking the medication due to her injuries.

Xarelto is an anticoagulant medication that is used to treat patients with atrial fibrillation, among other conditions. With atrial fibrillation, the body’s heart rhythm is irregular. Since the heart is not properly pumping blood, blood may begin to clot within the heart, and blood clots can lead to stroke or heart failure.

Xarelto works by preventing the blood from clotting. In this way, it can prevent the clots that can lead to stroke or heart failure in patients with atrial fibrillation.

However, in some circumstances, clotting is a necessary function of the body in order to stop bleeding, especially internal bleeding. Patients who take Xarelto may experience severe internal bleeding that could turn fatal if it is not helped in time. At other times, severe injuries may be sustained as a result of the uncontrolled internal bleeding, such as in Mary Kate’s case.

Unlike its predecessor anticoagulant drug warfarin, Xarelto does not have a reversal agent available in order to reverse the anti-clotting effects of the drug. With warfarin, patients could be administered intravenous vitamin K in order to restart the body’s clotting process.

No such antidote is available for patients who are taking Xarelto – a huge issue that plaintiffs argue was a major failure upon the manufacturers’ part. The manufacturers allegedly failed to warn patients and physicians that the anticlotting mechanisms of the drug could not be reversed by any available drug.

The Xarelto blood thinner lawsuit states that studies in clinical trials that were performed for Xarelto showed that there was an increased possibility of bleeding events. Yet these results were not widely shared with the medical community and with the public, essentially making Xarelto seem more safe than it actually is, the plaintiff claims.

As a result of her injuries, Mary Kate has raised a number of allegations in her Xarelto blood thinner lawsuit including strict liability, manufacturing defect, design defect, failure to warn, negligence, breach of express warranty, breach of implied warranty, negligent misrepresentation, fraud, violation of consumer protection laws/consumer fraud laws and demands a jury trial.

Mary Kate is seeking judgment against the defendants and is seeking compensatory damages for pain, suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life and other noneconomic damages, economic damages for medical expenses, out of pocket expenses and other economic damages, punitive and/or exemplary damages, pre-and post-judgment interest, attorneys’ fees and costs and any additional relief deemed just and proper by the Court.

The Xarelto Blood Thinner Lawsuit is Case No. 2:17-cv-17098, and is part of the Xarelto MDL In re: Xarelto (rivaroxaban) Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2592, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.