Pradaxa is manufactured by the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim. Their website touts the drug as a new alternative to Warfarin for which a patient does not need to submit to regular blood testing, nor do they need to alter their diet. As a result, thousands of people nationwide began to take Pradaxa for their blood thinning needs.
The website also mentions some side effects that people can expect from taking Pradaxa. These include:
- Headaches
- Bruising
- Blood when coughing
- Pink or red urine
- Unexpected pain or swelling in the joints
These risk factors are especially high for people over the age of 75. In general, these are all symptoms of internal bleeding that the body is unable to stop due to the lack of clotting ability.
As a whole, these side effects were viewed as an acceptable risk when compared with the potentially life-saving benefits of Pradaxa. However, what the public did not know was that Pradaxa was responsible for many instances of unstoppable internal bleeding that led to many severe injuries and deaths.
