Yaz Bellwether Trials Postponed

Judge David Herndon has postponed Yaz bellwether trials, set to take place earlier this month, in favor of a mediation process that will hopefully allow plaintiffs and defendants to come to a settlement agreement outside of court. The mediation will begin "without delay" and overseeing the discussion will be Professor Stephen Saltzburg of George Washington School of Law. 

Protective order granted in Yaz lawsuit

Plaintiff Kerry Sims was going to be the first Yaz plaintiff to see her case in court. The first bellwether trial was set to be Sims v. Bayer et al. Sims, not unlike many other Yaz plaintiffs, has linked her acute left-sided pulmonary embolism, which was diagnosed on the 18th of July 2008, to her Yaz use. Yaz pulmonary embolism is a condition in which a blood clot becomes lodged in one of the lungs' major arteries. It is a condition that may result from Yaz deep vein thrombosis. 

The trial was set to begin on January 9, 2012, and shortly beforehand the plaintiff asked the court for a protective order that would prevent the defendant from taking the deposition of Dr. Vikram Rao and that would also prevent the doctor from testifying during the trial. Dr. Rao is a radiologist employed by St. John's Mercy Medical Center who interpreted Sims' chest X-ray two days before she was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism. 

The Yaz lawyer for Sims argued that the addition of Dr. Rao to the witness list had been untimely because discovery had been closed for months and the defendant had already been required to serve witness lists by November 21, 2011, although Dr. Rao was added on the 20th of December of that year. Judge Herndon granted the protective order on December 30, 2011. This was just a day before he stopped bellwether trials from moving forward in favor of mediation.

Yaz deep vein thrombosis and other side effects 

Thousands of women have filed lawsuits alleging that they are the victims of serious Yaz side effects. The popular birth control has been linked to a number of conditions, mostly related to blood clots. Yaz blood clots can lead to Yaz deep vein thrombosis, Yaz pulmonary embolism, Yaz stroke, and many more life-threatening conditions. Yaz contains the progestin hormone drospirenone, which has been shown in studies to cause a greater risk of blood clots than other forms of hormonal birth control.