16-year-old Sophie Murray, from Accrington, Lancashire, died due to a blood clot formed while on treatment with an oral contraceptive.
During the inquest into her death, it emerged that Sophie became ill about a year after commencing treatment, suffering chest pains and difficulty breathing. She was found unconscious on November 8 last, and was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.
After asthma attack was initally given as the cause of death, further examination showed that an 8mm blood clot had killed the youngster.
While the active component in oral contraceptive is known to cause thrombosis (blood clots) in some cases, a pathologist did stress that such severe effect on an otherwise healthy and young individual was “very rare.”
This is the second death linked to the contraceptive pill in less than a week. 21-year-old teaching assistant Fallan Kurek, from Tamworth, Staffordshire, also died of a blood clot related to the medication.