She died after 25 days on the pill. She was only 21. As in so many blood clot cases caused by birth control, she was misdiagnosed when she went to the hospital struggling to breathe and experiencing pain in her legs and ribs. She was sent home diagnosed with a bruised sternum.
Four days later, she collapsed and was rushed to the hospital.
On May 14, three days after arriving at the hospital, she was pronounced dead. According to an article in Cosmopolitan, tests revealed a large blood clot on her lung.
Her name was Fallan Kurek, and she worked with disabled children in Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia. She had started taking the pill—a combination oral contraceptive—to regulate her menstrual cycle.
Why wasn’t Fallan warned about the possibility of blood clots that accompany pill use?
Why did the hospital not immediately connect her symptoms to the contraceptive she had just started taking?
Fallan’s devastated mother was quoted in the Birmingham Mail, “She was only on it to regulate her periods. I couldn’t believe nobody had said the pill could do this. It should say it on the pack that they can kill and the label.”
Annually, one in every 3000 women taking birth control pills will develop blood clots.
It is well known all across the medical community that the pill increases the risk for deadly blood clots. And that information is indeed printed on the very lengthy packet insert, which most women never read. But it is not displayed on the packet, the label, or any other prominent place. And even knowing of the possibility of blood clots, medical personnel didn’t connect the dots for Fallan Kurek.
Fallan’s mother, Julia, wants to let the world know about the dangers of taking the pill.
“This is all because of 25 days,” she said. Twenty-five days on the pill and another precious life was lost.
American Life League’s The Pill Kills project has been working for almost a decade to expose the dangers of the pill. Yet tragedies continue to amass as one woman after another dies or suffers profound health consequences because of the pill.
Over the past two weeks, American Life League has received multiple heartrending e-mails from those who have seen our reports on the dangers of the pill. Here is a sample:
I have a DVT [deep vein thrombosis] in my right leg from 20 years ago. It broke and went to my lungs. My leg is now hard as a rock and I live in pain every time I walk. I have COPD [because of] the clot in my lungs. All this caused by the birth control pill. It kills. Thanks, Donna.
Colleen writes that her 29-year-old daughter went blind after four to five years on massive doses of Provera and the insertion of a Mirena IUD, all given to her for the purpose of stopping bleeding. “She now has approximately 10 percent tunnel vision in her left eye, and has five stents inserted in her brain,” Colleen says. “I have no doubt whatsoever that Provera caused her blindness,” she goes on to say. “Women should not only be warned about death from clots, etc., but also that they can and do lose their eyesight.”
Joanie writes: “My 18-year-old daughter had a stroke six years ago and has aphasia.” Aphasia is a communication disorder that results from damage or injury to language parts of the brain. Joanie’s daughter had been on Yasmin for three months when she suffered the stroke and her nightmare began. She was only 12 years old.
News reports are continually popping up about young women killed or injured by the pill. You can read some of the most recent reports on The Pill Kills Facebook page.
Yet we are told over and over that this is extremely rare.
Women need to know the truth about the pill and other contraceptives. Young girls must be protected from contraceptive pushers. Join American Life League on June 6 for our National Day of Action to expose the perils of the pill.
People from all walks of life and more than 40 sponsoring groups will hit the streets and the Internet to educate about how the pill kills and injures women.
For more information and to get involved, visit our website, ThePillKills.org
And be sure to help us take over Twitter with the message that the pill kills on June 6. By usingthe hashtag #ThePillKills, we can raise global awareness about the dangers of the pill and other contraceptives.
[May 28, 2015, Rita Diller, http://www.all.org/article/index/id/MTQ4MzI/ ]
21-Year-Old Dies After Taking Birth Control Pill
Twenty-one-year-old Fallan Kurek died of a pulmonary embolism, caused by a birth control pill – Rigevidon – that she had been taking for less than a month.
Tragically, Kurek had been directed by her doctor to take the pill solely for the purpose of regulating her period.
The Daily Mail reports:
She had been taking the medication for just 25 days when she collapsed at home in Tamworth, Staffordshire.
Paramedics rushed to her house after she began vomiting – but minutes later she stopped breathing and turned blue.
…[T]ragically, after three days in intensive care, she was pronounced brain dead.
She passed away just hours later on Thursday May 14, surrounded by her loved ones.
Her cause of death was recorded as pulmonary embolism (blood clot) on her lung.
Kurek’s chest pain had been checked out at a hospital four days prior to her collapse. Sadly, her pain was dismissed and the cause went unrecognized.
It seems medical professionals did not ask if Kurek was taking any form of birth control until she was already on a ventilator.
At that point, staff at the hospital realized that she was likely suffering from a blood clot, but the damage had already been done.
Kurek’s parents question why they were not informed of the danger of blood clots.
This danger is three times higher among women who are on hormonal birth control pills than among women who are not.
Despite this fact, a spokesman from the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency says that “the benefits of any combined hormonal contraceptive far outweigh the risk of serious side effects.”
Yet this begs the question of whether a triple risk of possible death is truly worth a regulated period – especially when other options are available, though perhaps not as quick of a “fix.”
Kurek’s parents hope that telling their daughter’s story can bring attention to the real risks of birth control pills.
Mr and Mrs Kurek also hope that medical professionals will take more time to explain serious side effects to all women, not just those in high risk groups, such as smokers or overweight women.
‘They know the pill can cause blood clots,’ said Mr Kurek. ‘We can’t bring her back, all we can do is maybe save another life.’
Even Cosmopolitan agrees that Kurek’s story is both terribly sad and scary for women:
If you think an unplanned pregnancy or an irregular period is scary, this should put things in perspective: 21-year-old Australian Fallan Kurek recently died from taking birth control pills, which triggered a lung blood clot and heart inflammation, reports Birmingham Mail. She’d only been on the pill for 25 days.
Hannah McCann, another young woman, is speaking out about the dangers of birth control pills after suffering from a blood clot herself:
Hannah McCann said she was the “lucky one” after reading about the death of 21-year-old Fallan Kurek from Staffordshire in England who suffered a fatal blood clot after she was prescribed the same contraceptive pill. …
Hannah, also 21, was prescribed Rigevidon in December to regulate her periods after being diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome in October last year.
Just 21 days after starting to take the contraceptive pill, Hannah fell ill and doctors discovered she had a blood clot on the brain. She said doctors have since told her Rigevidon was the most likely cause of the clot.
Now the East Belfast student is speaking out to warn other women about the possibility of dangerous side effects of the contraceptive pill. …
“If you are going to use it for sex, use a condom instead and if you are going to use it for PCOS or to regulate your periods then take more advice because it has its own problems and it will not just make everything better in a heart beat.”
In January 2014, Vanity Fair released an expose on the Nuva Ring, another non-pill form of hormonal birth control.
Devastating results have been discovered in women using the Nuva Ring, too – including death from pulmonary embolisms.
While hormonal birth control is known to act by stripping the lining of a woman’s uterus, sometimes causing early miscarriages, it is also undoubtedly dangerous to women themselves.
It’s high time women were given the complete facts about hormonal birth control (including hormonal and copper IUDs).
They need to be aware of what can truly happen:
the ending of the lives of their preborn babies as well as damage and destruction to their own bodies.
[29 May 2015, Kristi Brown, http://liveactionnews.org/21-year-old-dies-after-taking-birth-control-pill/ ]