• Home
  • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Remembering Erika
  • Our Current Focus
    • Contraceptive Choices >
      • Be Informed
      • CONTRACEPTIVE CHOICES
      • Things to Know About Contraception
      • CNN Article about Contraceptive Choices
    • Synthetic hormones
    • Video about Blood Clots
    • Video about Deep Vein Thrombosis & Pulmonary Embolisms
    • True Stories >
      • Share Your Story
    • Disinformation >
      • What Drug Reps Don't Tell Doctors
      • Drug Company Dishonesty
      • Drug Safety: Changed By One Little Sentence?
      • What Doctors Don't Know About Drugs
  • Media
    • IN THE MEDIA
    • Vanity Fair - Danger in the Ring
    • Katie Utehs/KTVU.com
    • FDA approved NuvaRing despite experts’ safety concerns
    • Marie Claire Article: Is Your Birth Control as Safe as You Think?
  • References
    • RESEARCH
    • Danish Study: NuvaRing has increased risk
    • FDA-funded Study: Increased risk of VTE with the NuvaRing
    • Thrombotic Stroke and Myocardial Infarction with Hormonal Contraception
  • Donate
    • Donate
  • Our Team
  • About Us
Return to "True Stories"

Amy Westbrook - Age 22  Died, massive Pulmonary Embolisms

Picture
I stand amid the roar Of a surf  tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand, Grains of the golden sand 
How few  Yet how they creep,Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep   while I weep
O God  Can I not grasp Them with a tighter clasp?
O God can I not save One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem, But a dream within a dream

Edgar Allan Poe

This was one of Amy’s favorite poems.  She was a 22 year old college kid that was enjoying the university experience for the first time.  Being away from home: the freedom, the fun, but not necessarily the studying.  Amy was our youngest daughter, 5 years younger than her sister and 7 years younger than her brother.  Growing up she absolutely adored her big brother; anything he said or did was gospel. They were very close. She became closer to her sister as she followed her to Colorado State to go to college where her sister became her advisor and friend at school.

Amy was our last hurrah as children go, she was our last and because of the age difference she may have been treated a little differently than the older kids, (at least that’s what they claim). 

Her brother and sister played soccer so of course Amy had to as well. She started playing when she was 4 and she quit playing when she was   6. During that time she only had one soccer coach, that was I, her dad.  That may give you some insight to how close we are.  She was and is Daddy’s little girl to this day.

In High School as well as college Amy loved anything Asian, she took two years of Japanese & got to go to Japan with her best friend & Mom for two weeks.  She loved it.  I also believe that’s where she developed her love for travel.  During her second year in college, one of her roommates received a study abroad to Australia (Brisbane).  Amy’s school was out & her roommate invited her to come on down, she went for two weeks.  Upon her return I asked her where did the money come from?  She had used her tuition money I had given her.  I was not a happy dad but now I’m so glad she went.  
 
She worked part time while going to school and at work is where she met Dillon.  Now my
daughter had boy friends in high school but they were more like buddies, not Dillon.  He was her first real love and trying to be responsible she went to the County Health Dept. to get birth control. They gave her the NuvaRing, told her how to use it, never told her about any side effects nor did they ask her about her health. They handed it out like candy.
 
When she called us to complain about not feeling good and said she was having some trouble breathing, we told her to go to the doctor which she promised to do. She thought she was coming down with the flu.  At   0:30 a.m. on Nov.   8th she texted to a friend that she was going to the hospital to find out what was wrong with her. The time of her death was put at  1 :00 a.m., as she never made it out of bed.  Her boyfriend was in the next room studying and didn’t hear a thing. 
 
After using NuvaRing for 6 months she was dead from a massive PE, I know was caused from NuvaRing. On that day I lost my baby, the world lost a loving, caring girl who was becoming a beautiful young woman.
 
Ron & Sandy Westbrook



IMPORTANT: 
Information shared on this website is intended to
enhance (not replace!) discussions with your doctor and other health care providers.