Texas plaintiff Jeanne Jeffcoat is suing Janssen Pharmaceuticals for the injuries she allegedly sustained from its blood-thinning medication, Xarelto. Jeffcoat claims that as adirect result of ingesting the drug, she suffered severe and life-threatening internal bleeding injuries, which nearly caused her death.

Jeffcoat had been prescribed Xarelto by her physician, in order to reduce her chances of suffering a stroke, the Xarelto lawsuit states.

Xarelto is a powerful anticoagulant that is often prescribed to patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation, in order to prevent their blood from clotting and thereby, ultimately preventing an injury of that nature. She was prescribed Xarelto in March 2012, but only stayed on the medication for several months.

The drug reportedly caused the plaintiff’s blood to thin so much that it caused an internal bleeding injury. As of now, Xarelto does not have a reversal agent like its predecessor Warfarin, so in the case of bleeding injuries, immediate hospital intervention is required, Jeffcoat explains in her Xarelto lawsuit.

That is what happened to Jeffcoat in July 2012, as she was required to stay several weeks in the hospital. At that point she also stopped taking the blood thinner.

Jeffcoat is filing this Xarelto lawsuit against Janssen Pharmaceuticals for the injuries she sustained, alleging that they had been directly caused by the medication. At the time of her prescription, there were no warnings or indication on the drug’s label to indicate internal bleeding was a risk nor was there a notice that stated there was no reversal agent.

Jeffcoat insists that she never would have agreed to take Xarelto if she had known about the possible event of uncontrollable internal bleeding, and the fact that there was no way to stop it.

Jeffcoat’s legal team insists that Janssen and its business partners had the civil responsibility to warn their client and other patients of all possible Xarelto side effects, because they rely on the accuracy of the given information. She is suing Janssen for being allegedly responsible for manufacturing, selling, distributing, and marketing a dangerous drug. The charges include negligence, false advertising, concealing information, and misrepresenting a product.

This Xarelto Uncontrollable Bleeding Lawsuit is Jeanne Jeffcoat v. Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Case No. 1:14-cv-04524-DLI-MDG, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York

Overview of Xarelto Complications

Xarelto (Rivaroxaban) was approved in July 2011 as an anticoagulant drug, with the sole purpose of preventing blood clot attacks in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation.

Like other anticoagulants, the drug works by thinning out the red blood cells in the body, ideally providing for smooth sailing for the vital biological function.

This drug was originally manufactured, distributed, and marketed by Bayer Pharmaceuticals, but is now being produced by Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Reportedly, Xarelto became the top advertised pharmaceutical product featured in professional health journals in the fiscal year of 2013, based on pages and dollars spent. The aggressive marketing tactics paid off, as Xarelto quickly became a fierce rival to the dominant blood-thinner on the market, Pradaxa.

Unfortunately, like Pradaxa, Xarelto suffered from one major design flaw — it lacks a reversal agent in the case of uncontrollable bleeding. In the case that Warfarin patients suffered uncontrollable bleeding, they are able to use vitamin K to stop the injury, and thereby preventing an attack. Pradaxa and Xarelto have no such treatment method, and always require prompt hospital intervention in order to clot the internal injuries.