21-year-old dies after taking contraceptive pill

Fallan Kurek was taking combined pill Rigevidon

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A girl has died from taking the contraceptive pill, her devastated parents have claimed.

“Fit and healthy” Fallan Kurek had been taking combined pill Rigevidon for just 25 days but began to feel shortness of breath and pains in her limbs.

The 21-year-old passed out on the stairs at her home earlier this month after vomiting and turning blue as she struggled to breathe.

Fallan was rushed to hospital but died three days later.

Doctors had prescribed Fallan, a teaching assistant from Tamworth in Staffordshire, the contraceptive pill to regulate her periods.

Miss Kurek spent three days in intensive care but was then pronounced brain dead and tragically died hours later with her family at her bedside on May 14.

Her cause of death was recorded as a pulmonary embolism on her lung but her parents claim doctors said it was caused by the contraceptive pill she had been taking for just 25 days.

Her mum Julia told The Birmingham Mail: “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. It should say it on the pack that they can kill and the label.”

Days before her collapse, Fallan said she began was suffering with breathlessness and pains in her legs and ribs.

But when she visited a the doctor, her parents say they dismissed it as a bruised sternum.

Yet just days later Fallan got up out of bed in the morning, took her pill, and started to feel breathless again.

She then collapsed down the stairs, and was rushed to hospital by paramedics.

When she got to hospital, her mum Julia says medics asked whether her daughter had been taking the pill.

She said: “While they were working on her someone came in to talk to me.

“They 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?’ He said, ‘We know what it is’ and off he went.

“Brian and I just looked at each other – we couldn’t believe it.”

Fallan’s condition soon got worse. Julia said: “On Wednesday night we were told her blood pressure and heart rate had gone sky high, and she needed an emergency CT scan.”

“I just had a horrible feeling. We knew that something bad had happened.”

A scan revealed that Fallan had become clinically brain dead after being starved of oxygen before arriving at the hospital.

Fallan’s ventilator was then switiched off on Thursday, and she died shortly after.

Her dad Brian said: “Fallen was looking forward to the rest of her life.

“She was confident, cheeky, bubbly, and the mother hen to all her friends.

“We just don’t want any other family to go through this.”