MLFCCA

Wendy
R. Fleishman of the national plaintiffs’ law firm Lieff
Cabraser Heimann Bernstein, LLP and Lisa Rodriguez of the New
Jersey-firm, Trujillo, Rodriguez, and Richards, LLC, announced that Joan
Cummins of Hackettstown, New Jersey, today filed a wrongful death
lawsuit against Bayer Corporation charging that its oral contraceptive,
Yaz, caused the sudden death of her eighteen-year old daughter, Michelle
Pfleger.

Eighteen-year old Michelle Pfleger of Hackettstown, New Jersey, died last September on her way to a college class. On May 10, 2011, her mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceutical Corporation charging that Michelle Pfleger’s death was caused by a fatal side effect from Bayer’s birth control drug Yaz. (Photo: Business Wire)

On September 24, 2010, Michelle Pfleger collapsed on the way to her
morning class at Elon University in North Carolina. The emergency team
rushed Michelle to a nearby hospital, but despite all of their efforts,
they were unable to save her. The autopsy report showed that Michelle
died from cardiac arrest triggered by a pulmonary emboli, which is a
blood clot in the lungs that can lead to abnormally low blood pressure
and sudden death. Michelle was prescribed Yaz for the treatment of acne.
The Complaint charges that Yaz caused the fatal blood clot in Pfleger’s
lungs.

“One day she was a freshman at college so full of hope and promise and
the next she was gone,” said Michelle’s mother, Joan Cummins. “I can
only hope that by publicizing what happened to Michelle, I can keep
another family from having to go through this.”

“As alleged in the Complaint, Yaz is a dangerous prescription drug sold
without adequate warnings about the risks of serious and fatal
injuries,” stated attorney Wendy R. Fleishman. “Bayer failed to warn
doctors and patients that Yaz poses a greater risk of serious side
effects than previous generations of oral contraceptives.”

The filing of the wrongful death lawsuit follows the publication last
month of two studies in the British Medical Journal finding that women
taking oral contraceptives with the hormone drospirenone, which includes
Bayer’s Yaz and Yasmin, have a three-fold or two-fold increased risk of
developing serious blood clots than women taking earlier-generation oral
contraceptives that do not contain drospirenone. In one study, the risk
of blood clots in the veins and the lungs was more than three times
greater for women prescribed contraceptives containing drospirenone.

“The FDA’s adverse event database for Yaz reveals many serious adverse
events associated with use of the drug, including many deaths, strokes,
heart attacks, blood clots in young and healthy women,” added Fleishman.
“Bayer must take legal responsibility for injuries Yaz has inflicted on
young women and teenagers across America.”

Yaz
Lawsuit: Legal Resources for Patients
Injured Due To Yaz Side Effects

The law in most states provides several personal injury claims for
persons who have been seriously injured by a medical device or
prescription drug with dangerous, undisclosed side effects.

If you or a family member have suffered a serious injury or a loved one
died after taking Yaz, or similar drugs Yasmin and Ocella, please read
our Yaz
side effects FAQ webpage to learn more about your legal rights and
submit a complaint.

About Lieff Cabraser Heimann Bernstein, LLP

Recognized as “one of the nation’s premier plaintiff’s firms,” Lieff
Cabraser Heimann Bernstein, LLP is a sixty-plus attorney law firm with
offices in San Francisco, New York and Nashville. For the last eight
consecutive years, the National Law Journal has recognized Lieff
Cabraser as one of the top plaintiffs’ law firms in America. Learn more
about us at www.lieffcabraser.com.

Trademark Notice

Yaz and Yasmin are registered trademarks of Bayer Schering Pharma
Aktiengesellschaft. Ocella is a registered trademark of Barr
Laboratories, Inc. The use of these trademark is solely for
informational and product identification purposes.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6718134lang=en