Christopher v. XYZ Birth Control Company, et al. (2009) (Los Angeles Superior Court)

$2,450,000.00

This is a product liability and medical negligence case. Audrey Christopher was 32 years old housewife and mother of two minor children, when she suffered catastrophic injuries when a dormant arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in her brain hemorrhaged due to a thrombosis of a draining venous blood vessel. Audrey Christopher’s use of XYZ contraceptive patch caused a venous thrombosis in a draining vein from a previously unknown arteriovenous malformation. This resulted in permanent brain injury and related damages. Audrey Christopher suffered a respiratory arrest due to increased intra-cranial pressure which resulted in permanent injuries. She became a spastic quadriplegic who has great difficulty talking. She requires life time care. Plaintiff sued the pharmaceutical company on the basis of failure to warn of known side effects of the birth control patch, the chiropractor who was treating the Plaintiff with cervical manipulations for two (2) weeks before her hospitalization and failed to properly diagnose and refer her to a neurologist, and the doctors that provided care to the Plaintiff at the time of her hospitalization for failing to promptly perform surgery. The parties settled for $2,450,000.00 with majority of the settlement from the pharmaceutical company.