NEED TO KNOW
Áine Rose Hurst, 19, died of a blood clot in her brain that was caused by her combination birth control pills
Her mother, Kerry Hurst, told Sky News that Áine thought she had a hangover, but her headache persisted
The teen died of the blood clot, and her family says they want to raise awareness of the real risks of hormonal birth control
A teen girl who thought she had a bad hangover was experiencing early symptoms of a fatal blood clot in her brain, her mother says — one that is believed to have been caused by her birth control pills.
Áine Rose Hurst had been taking birth control pills since she was 15 to help alleviate her heavy periods, her mother, Kerry Hurst, told Sky News, sharing that Áine took a break from the medication when she was diagnosed with high blood pressure.
However, the 19-year-old from the English town of Bolton was put back on the same prescription — a combination of estrogen and progestin — when her blood pressure stabilized. “We was concerned and we voiced that concern with her and she just said, ‘Well that’s what the doctor has said,’ ” Hurst shared.
Stock image of birth control pills.
Getty
Three months later, Áine stayed at a friend’s house, but called her mother to say, “ ‘Coming home, I’ve got a hangover.’ “ (The legal drinking age in England is 18.) However, over the next few days, she kept complaining of a headache.
“I was encouraging her to drink plenty of water, fluids, and take regular painkillers,” Hurst said. Then, in the early morning, Áine came into her bedroom, “crying, saying that her head was really hurting, that it was getting worse.”
They contacted her doctor, who told them to go online and make an appointment. When Áine continued to deteriorate, her mom called the U.K. emergency line. The representative prompted Hurst to ask Áine questions. “At first she was responding,” recalls Hurst. “But then she just stopped responding, and her head was going back.”
“She started forming at the mouth. And at that point, they told me there was an ambulance on his way.”
Paramedics intubated Áine at her home and brought her to the hospital, where a CT scan discovered a blood clot in her brain — one that was too big to treat. “They told us that if she was to survive, she probably wouldn’t be the same person. And once they tested her brain to see if there were any function, if there wasn’t any response, they would turn the machines off at that point, which they did,” Hurst said. “In the end, there wasn’t any brain function and turned the machines off. She died within minutes.”
Áine’s fatal blood clot was a rare, but a known side effect of some hormonal birth control pills. An investigation into her death cited the pill [as] believed to have caused the clot, and the coroner’s court concluded that it’s a “recognised but rare side effect,” according to the BBC.
Áine Rose Hurst
Kerry Hurst/SWNS
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“I don’t think there’s a lot of awareness out there of the side effects,” her aunt, Dawn Kidd, told Sky News, sharing that Áine’s pills came with a “102-page leaflet which nobody reads,” where the risk of blood clots were listed.
Although it’s rare, birth control pills can increase the chance of developing blood clots, the Cleveland Clinic explains, with the risk falling somewhere between 1 and 5 people per 10,000, annually. Pills that contain estrogen — like the type Áine had been taking — are the only ones linked to that risk.
As Hurst told Sky News, “We just want more awareness around the potential side effects and what young women are taking and putting in their bodies.”
Read the original article on People