Massachusetts Daily Collegian

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A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

Cause of death determined for UMass student Chloe Malast

Christina Yacono/Daily Collegian
(Christina Yacono/Daily Collegian)

The Massachusetts state medical examiner determined that a 21-year-old University of Massachusetts student died last October due to a blood clot which may have been caused by the use of birth control, according to the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

The office ruled Chloe Malast died in her McNamara Hall dormitory in the Sylvan Residential Area because of “pulmonary thromboemboli due to probable deep vein thrombosis of lower extremities in a person using oral contraceptives,” according to an examiner spokesperson.

Malast, who was a Commonwealth Honors College student, was found in her dorm on Oct. 19.

According to the Mayo Clinic, estrogen in birth control pills can increase the risk of blood clots. The National Blood Clot Alliance says the risk of a developing a clot for the average woman taking oral contraceptives is 1 in 1,000.

The Department of Public Health could not be reached for comment Monday.

Anthony Rentsch can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Anthony_Rentsch.

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    FallonJul 7, 2015 at 3:41 am

    In Spring semester 2014, I was diagnosed, in layman’s terms, a blood clot in my brain. The crippling migraines sent me running out of a lecture hall in Thompson and unable to do anything on my own. Walking and eating was out of the question for me. I went to UHS twice, were both times I was sent back to my dorm with just a “Migraine”. No matter how much I told them that this was not normal for my body, they kept telling me the same thing. If it wasn’t for my dad driving 2 hours to bring me home and my mom taking me to the ER, I would have been days away from a stroke or death according to my team of doctors. Moral of the story is that birth control has a lot of risks that doctors are not telling their patients straight out. There needs to be more awareness regarding this topic. In less than a year at least two college-aged girls had a blood clot due to birth control on the same college campus.

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