On May 24, 2012, trial attorney Michael Brady Lynch, Esq., founder of The Michael Brady Lynch Firm in Orlando, FL, and attorney Joseph Peiffer, Esq., of the New Orleans, LA, firm of Fishman Heygood, filed a Pradaxa bleeding lawsuit on behalf of the estate of a Kentucky woman who suffered an uncontrollable internal bleed after being prescribed Pradaxa.
Attorneys Lynch and Peiffer filed the Pradaxa bleeding lawsuit on behalf on the Estate of Opal Smiley in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. “Opal Smiley suffered an internal bleed after being prescribed Pradaxa and languished in a hospital, near-death, for almost two week with uncontrollable bleeding”, said Attorney Lynch. The Smiley case has been filed against Pradaxa manufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, an irresponsible company that still has not recalled Pradaxa from the market despite the huge risk of Pradaxa bleeding dangers.
Attorney Michael Brady Lynch has been a leader in Pradaxa litigation nationwide, having recently lectured to hundreds of his attorney colleagues on Pradaxa for the American Association for Justice (AAJ) and Mass Torts Made Perfect. Pradaxa has been the subject of intense scrutiny from Attorneys Lynch and Peiffer due to the alarming adverse event reports related to Pradaxa streaming in daily to the US and foreign regulatory bodies. From October 2010 to March 2011 alone, 272,119 prescriptions for Pradaxa were issued in the U.S., records show. During that time frame, there were 932 “serious adverse events” reported to the Food and Drug Administration, with more than 500 reports of severe, life-threatening bleeding and 120 deaths.
Attorney Lynch said “The US numbers for Pradaxa bleeding events is truly staggering. It is on the verge of a national health disaster.” As of December 2011, the FDA had received more than 500 reports of deaths in the U.S. linked to Pradaxa, according to court records. In 14 months on the market, Pradaxa was linked to 900 reports of gastrointestinal hemorrhages, over 300 reports of rectal hemorrhages and over 200 reports of cerebrovascular accidents associated with Pradaxa.