Nashville, TN – Leah Mayfield, 20, was a popular and vibrant student at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville. By Leah’s junior year she was a leader in her sorority, on the Dean’s list and on her way to becoming a nurse.
“She was all about laughing and having fun,” said Traci Mayfield of her 20-old-daugher Leah. “We were more than mother/daughter, we were best friends.” She went on to say, “She blossomed into a beautiful young lady up there. You can just see the transformation in pictures,”
Leah and her mom spoke every day even though Leah was hours away attending college. But Leah had built tons of close relationships with her friends at her sorority. “They would call her mama Leah, just as a joke. If anybody was sick, if anybody wasn’t feeling good – they would call Leah,” said Mayfield.
A Daughter in Distress
That’s why, when her sorority sisters found her passed out in the shower, they immediately called 911 for an ambulance. They told the dispatcher that she was pale and breathing heavily in a pant.
Prior to the ambulance arriving Leah became conscious and was able to call her mother. She told her that she was feeling tingly all over and that she was scared. Her mother told her that she and her father were on their way.
That would be the last time they spoke to their daughter. She died in the hospital an hour later.
The Cause is Revealed
Doctors said Leah died because of a blood clot in her lung. The official cause of death was a pulmonary embolism.
“You go in the room and there’s your child, your baby girl lying on the stretcher,” said Mayfield. “How does this happen to a healthy 20 year old young lady?”
Leah’s mother and father never expected the answer they received. An emergency room doctor said the birth control pill Leah started taking six months before, called YAZ, could have caused the blood clot.
Yaz has been proven to raise the body’s retention of potassium. Elevated levels of potassium can lead to clotting in the heart, arteries, and brain leading to side effects such as:
- Stroke
- Heart Attack
- Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)
- Myocardial Infarction
- Cerebrovascular Accidents
- Pulmonary Embolism (PE)
- Death
A New Lawsuit Gets Added to the Already Mounting Numbers
Bayer, the producer and distributor of the popular birth control drugs Yaz 28, Yaz, Yazmin, and Ocella, has hundreds of lawsuits and thousands of complaints plaguing them.
The FDA has issued stern warnings regarding Bayer’s advertising of the drug. Their commercials have touted the drug as not only a birth control pill, but a pill that cures the symptoms of PMS. In their commercials they tout that their drug cures:
- Irritability
- Bloating
- Increased appetite
- Feeling anxious
- Moodiness
- Fatigue
- Muscle aches
- Head aches
Attorney Beth Alexander is suing Bayer on behalf of Leah’s parents. The lawsuit claims “hundreds of young women have suffered serious or fatal injuries as a result of taking this widely prescribed medication.”
“I think that they were trying to promote the drug as being better than other birth control pills when it in fact is more dangerous than other birth control pills,” said Alexander.
The lawsuit claims “the FDA received reports of more than 50 deaths” where those who died were users of YAZ. It said Bayer “ignored the increased risks of the drug.”
She said it made $600 million the year Leah died. That’s quite an incentive to keep a drug that dangerous on the market.
Mayfield does not want her daughter to have died in vain. She’s warning others about the drug.
“She didn’t have to die. She didn’t have to die because of a pill,” said Mayfield.
Protecting Yourself
If you or anyone you know are currently taking Yaz 28, Yaz, Yazmin, or Ocella and are noticing health problems including:
- Blurred vision
- Numbness on one or both sides of the body
- Problems with balance and walking
- Sudden headaches
Contact Phillips Webster for consultation and to review your options
