I am now very worried reading this article about people putting claims in after using Xarelto. Please read carefully and let me know your feelings.
Xarelto producers battling lawsuits
Bayer and Johnson & Johnson have been named defendants in more than 20,000 drug lawsuits now pending in state and federal courts around the USA. All of these claims were filed on behalf of patients who allegedly suffered gastrointestinal haemorrhage, cerebral haemorrhage, haemorrhagic strokes and other episodes of life-threatening internal bleeding due to its use.
Among other things, plaintiffs allege that the Bayer and Johnson & Johnson downplayed the drug’s risks and wrongly marketed it as an improvement over a decades-old blood thinner called warfarin. The lawsuits point out that warfarin-related bleeding can be stopped via the administration of vitamin K. However, there is currently no approved antidote to reverse Xarelto bleeding side effects.
More than 19,000 lawsuits against the drug have been filed in the federal multidistrict litigation underway in the Eastern District of Louisiana. The proceeding convened three bellwether trials in 2017, all of which concluded with defence verdicts.
Last month, however, a jury in the Philadelphia Court of Common Please awarded US$28 million, including US$1.8 million in actual damages and US$26 million in punitive damages, to a woman who suffered a severe gastrointestinal bleed a little over a year after she was prescribed Xarelto.
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Anita5858
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I agree it is not a straightforward decision but your GP will help you. What is clear though is that if the consultant said you must take an anticoagulant, you should consider what he has said very seriously.
We can’t advise you about your medication, and nor should we. Only your doctors can do that.
That is America for you. Would these people have sued doctors for not anticoagulating them and allowing them to have a stroke ? The whole nonsense about lack of antidote is crazy. There is no antidote for warfarin. There may be a reversal agent but seldom available unless in a hospital environment . Vit K takes a lot of time to work so nothing is instant.
You have to make a decision and stand by it but please do so from a position of education not fear.
Dear BobD I find your comments very informative. I will see my GP and discuss my very intolerant digestive system with her. Perhaps I have to take something like Lancap.
I've been on Xarelto 20 mg for a year. All of my major joints (hips, shoulders) hurt badly. I suspect that my dose is too high, but this is the only way that the drug has been studied.
Hi KVMJ, this is interesting, can you pin your onset of joint pain down to the start of taking Xarelto? I would be so glad to know how you are dealing with the problem.
I took Eliquis prior to Xarelto. It took about 4 months before I experienced problems (purpura covering both forearms and hair loss). It took about 4 months to experience the joint problems after starting Xarelto. I also get faint bruising and the occasional purpura on my left forearm. I think that the dose is too high for me,but I also know that this drug hasn't been studied at lower doses.
Only in America.........you may note these people seem to be alive and well enough to sue, and their lawyers greedy enough to encourage them!
There is a risk in taking almost any medication. I don't know the stats but if they weren't in favour of anticoagulation you wouldn't be prescribed it. In other words, you are more likely to have a massive stroke without anticoagulation than a bleed with it unless you are already prone to bleeding, which your doctor should be aware of.
But if the fear of bleeding makes you more anxious than the fear of stroke then you are entitled to refuse anticoagulants and feel comfortable with your decision 💕
So true. At the moment I am trying to find out about all the pros and cons on both ways. Luckily I am not an anxious person, more an investigator because I am analytical.
I refused anticoagulation when I was 66. Leaned on very heavily by all the doctors in my GP practice, I was told that I was at serious risk and could have a stroke at any moment. I withstood their pressure for several weeks, mindful of my second cousin who died at 47 from a brain haemorrhage and the fact that I all too frequently find myself in the minority group when there's something like a 85% / 15% divide. I can find myself in the less than 1% bracket - I share my blood group with about 0.6% of the population.
It can be a no win situation to take a stand against medical advice however strongly you feel. You're told you are damned if you don't and feel damned if you do.
In the end I decided I'd prefer to bleed to death than have a stroke, but every pill felt like poison and the disruption to my life was overwhelming. Knives, the potato peeler, trips in the car, things in the dishwasher, you name it, everything seemed like a lethal threat.
I stopped living and merely existed. I hated the medication and the fact that I had given in and that my sudden end felt so near. Days away, if not sooner.
But time went by and not much happened. Minor accidents were just very inconsequential. No disasters, serious accidents, severed arteries, haemorrhages.
Five years on and how different things are. Now happy taking Xarelto / Rivaroxaban, I have no qualms about the lack of antidote or reversal agent. I just feel safe and grateful that the protection is so simple.
Thanks Rellim2. Your precautions in the beginning are where I am now, but you really gave me more peace of mind seeing that you are on Xarelto for 5 years and feel save.
It was Warfarin for two difficult years. I took to Xarelto like duck to water three years ago and it felt like sunshine after a long dark tunnel.
• in reply to
PS We aren't really safe because anyone, with or without anticoagulation, can have a serious bleed and come to a sudden end. But it doesn't often happen! I think the risks are very overstated for those who take one of the new anticoagulants. There are things that can be done to stop serious blood loss and you have to be very unlucky to have a haemorrhage that's out of control.
• in reply to
I felt that way, I’m 65, Just started xarelto about 6 mo ago. One day I just decided to quit worrying about the “ what if’s” and live my life. I bought a helmet and climbed on my horse and pray everyday that God will keep me in sinus rhythm and safe!
I take xarelto, I don't have joint pain and am not unduly worried about the excess bleeding risks. My primary concern has always been stroke prevention and will continue with anti coagulation.
Taking any medication involves a balance of benefits:risks. I take apixaban rather than Xarelto/rivaroxaban but I think the point still applies …. a massive stroke is far worse to my mind than a bleed. Only you can decide what matters most to you.
I’ve been using Xarelto for 3 years with no problems. I was told not to continue full contact martial arts due to a risk of brain bleeds. I tried one more before, Noac, I forgot the name, begins with a p I think, made my gums bleed constantly.
I had a year on xaralto. My ChadsVasc score was 0, but I needed anticoagulation priot to cardioversion. I chose the NOAC over Warfarin for ease of control. My Dr's only advice was to wear a helmet while cycling.
I did actually fall off my bike once, I had a small cut on my elbow, which may have bled for two minutes more than normal. No problem at all. I am now off all meds, and anticoagulation it not considered necessary as I have had an atriclip fitted.
It is a closure device for the Left Atrial Appendage (where the majority of blood clots are formed). The atriclip and watchman devices are commonly used in the USA to prevent clots in AF patients who can't take anticoagulents. Not so common in the UK, but my ablations were done as part of a clinical trial which included the atriclip.
I’m British/American. I had a stroke in 2014 because I hadn’t been anticoagulated. Upon discharge, (in the UK,) I asked the consultant neurologist for Dabigatran (Xarelto), having read widely about NOAC’s. He smilingly prescribed it. I feel safe now.
When I was first diagnosed and anti-coagulation suggested I was back and forth to the US - Dabigatran had been released about 3 years before. Every other TV advert was for drug class actions and when I got very concerned, like you I did a lot of my own research. What I uncovered was that about 90% of the claims for ‘excess bleeding’ were for a cut on the hand which took longer to stop bleeding than the norm. That’s how US operates.
Remember that lawyers make money out of propagating fear.
Trying to navigate what is essentially over prescribing or lack of adequate research is really difficult and what was learned out of those first cases - was a much more rigorous assessment criteria of prescribing - an analysis of each person’s circumstances and age. Some dosage recommendations were adjusted land applied and many of the risks from bleeds were then diminished. It is all about risk v benefit - better with - or better without. That is what we do when we work with our doctors - assess the risks and decied. There is no such thing as no risk.
Personally, I think many problems may be caused by people not taking their meds as prescribed - with or without water, on time or forgetting they have taken their meds and taking double doses - I know I have been in that situation several times so what I do is stick by my childhood mantra of a teacher - ‘if in doubt - do nowt’. Not always applicable of course, but in this situation- a good one.
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