Does anyone know someone on Pradaxa?

My dad was just diagnosed with Atrial fibrillation and was prescribed this. A friend of the family told us he was taking this, but there are recalls and he is on something else. I googled the problems with the drug and you can bleed to death with it and there is no way reversing it and hundreds of people died. My mom called and his dr said that this medicine is fine. There is another drug, but he prefers this one. Of course if it were me, I would insist on the other drug, but I cant tell my parents this. Is anyone on this drug or know of someone? I'm curious if anyone knows of someone who had problems with this drug. I am concerned he is staying on it.

Re: Does anyone know someone on Pradaxa?

I've had many patients in the ICU who come in from bleeds and we can't reverse the effects of it besides giving blood products. Most doctors prefer coumadin because they can monitor it and is reversible! Pradaxa can also cause kidney problems in the elderly. HTH

Re: Does anyone know someone on Pradaxa?

I am a big believer that you can't get hung up too much on the side effects listed on the information packet provided with a drug because every single drug will have a million of them.

With that being said, I will second what Sunflower said, I have also seen a lot of uncontrollable bleeds with Pradaxa. Coumadin is a funny drug also, some people can never find the right dosage to be theraputic, but you never know unless you try.

Athough Plavix does not have a reversal agent either, I have not personally seen the problems that Pradaxa has.