After taking the blood-thinning drug Pradaxa for three weeks, Charles Jackson experienced intestinal bleeding. His doctor told him to get off the drug, which he began taking after suffering a stroke last September. Months later, Jackson, 75, a retired truck driver from the rural railroad community of Hohenwald, saw a television advertisement imploring patients who had complications with Pradaxa to dial 1-800-BAD-DRUG to learn more about joining a lawsuit against the drug company. Now Jackson is among hundreds of other patients around the country who are teaming against an anti-stroke drug whose sales eclipsed $1 billion last year. Joining the suit thrusts Jackson into the high-dollar stream of product liability lawsuits, a burgeoning world of mass claims in which specialty law firms cast a wide net for injured consumers who represent the pitfalls of marketing risky products.
