Can you really die from taking the contraceptive pill?

Is it safe to take the contraceptive pill? CREDIT: ALAMY--Sophie Murray CREDIT: CASCADE

Are doctors asking the right questions? CREDIT: ALAMY

Fallan Kurek collapsed at home. The 21-year-old woman turned blue as she struggled to breathe and died in hospital, three days later. 

The cause of death was recorded as a pulmonary embolism on her lung. Her parents, Julia and Brian Kurek, claimed that the doctors told them it was caused because of her contraceptive pill.

This week, an inquest returned a narrative verdict - one that names the circumstances of death, without targeting a specific individual. Kurek died from a "massive" pulmonary embolism after the side-effects of the Pill were not effectively treated, South Staffordshire Coroner Andrew Haigh ruled.

Kurek, a teaching assistant in Tamworth, began suffering from breathlessness, and pains in her legs and ribs. It eventually emerged that she had a large blood clot on her lung.

Her mother, Julia, said: “[The paramedics] asked me whether there was any heart problems in the family, or if Fallan had taken drugs - definitely not. The third question was, 'Is she on the Pill?'

"I said, 'Yes, is that relevant?' and he said, 'We know what it is' and off he went.

"Brian and I just looked at each other, we couldn't believe it. We felt angry when they first mentioned it could be the Pill. She was only on it to regulate her periods. I couldn't believe nobody had said the Pill could do this.”

"Of every 10,000 women taking the combined Pill, on average six would develop blood clots as opposed to two in 10,000 women not on the Pill."

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