PRACTICE
AREAS:: ORTHO EVRA CONTRACEPTIVE
PATCH:: Attorney
Teen's Death Raises Concerns
over Birth Control Patch
By Charlene Israel and Ashley Forbes
CBN News Producers
CBN.com - (CBN News) - More than four million women
have used the stick-on contraceptive called the birth
control patch since its FDA approval in 2001.
But now there are questions about its safety.
Eighteen-year old Zakiya Kennedy was just like any
other young woman with dreams of becoming a model.
But in April 2004, the college student collapsed and
died.
Zakiya's father, Kevin Kennedy, said, "She was complaining
that her head was hurting. She felt pain in her leg.
She had felt dizzy."
An autopsy determined that Zakiya died from a blood
clot, possibly related to the Ortho Evra birth control
patch she had been using.
The patch works like the birth control pill, releasing
hormones through the skin. The pill and the patch have
been thought to be similar in effectiveness and in
health risks, and those risks have always been considered
to be extremely small.
But this week, the Associated Press released the findings
of its own analysis of the patch, saying that women
who used it ran a higher risk of dying from blood clots
than those on the pill--and that of 800,000 women who
used the patch in 2004, 12 died.
But the manufacturer of the patch, Ortho McNeil, said
that the actual number of patch users in 2004 was 2
million, which would place the risk at the same level
as the pill.
And both Ortho McNeil and the FDA maintain that the
patch is safe.
But for the family of Zakiya Kennedy, just one death
caused by a birth control product is too many.
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