If It's Not One Darn Thing

It's Another


I was wandering around the Internet early this morning looking for something to rant about when I found this NY Times story about a Heparin recall that hits just a little too close to home.

The problems with heparin, which is used to prevent blood clotting during dialysis and after some surgery, were first reported last month at a hospital in Missouri. Since then, the number of reported adverse reactions has risen to 448, the F.D.A. said. “Yes, we have gotten more and we are continuing to evaluate those reports,” Dr. Kweder said.


At first, the agency said it believed that four people had died after allergic reactions to the drug. On Thursday, officials said as many as 17 more people may have died, but they described the links to heparin as more tenuous.

The adverse reactions have included decreased or low blood pressure and fast heart rate. Not all of them are known to involve Baxter products, but the drug agency did not issue warnings involving any other products.

In addition to low blood pressure and a heart rate of 120 - 135 BPM, my doctors had a hell of a time stabilizing my body's reaction to the drug and had to constantly adjust the dosage, sometimes taking me off entirely and other times increasing the infusion rate and adding a "bolus" dose to catch me up.

Any way, I sort of stewed around on the issue most of the day, then I did a Google search in the last hour and found that the Chicago Tribune was saying that the recall had been extended to all of Baxter's IV Heparin products--a product I took a couple thousand milliliters a day of for the entire 16 days I was hospitalized.

Baxter International, which has experienced problems with a widely used blood-thinning product but held off on mounting a recall because of concerns over a shortage, said late Thursday that because the nation's supply of heparin has now increased, it is moving ahead with a full-scale recall of its product.

More than 400 people have suffered adverse effects that may be related to Baxter-made heparin, and four patients who used it have died.

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that it has completed the inspection of the Chinese plant owned by the supplier of the active ingredient in Baxter's heparin product but still had not determined the cause of the problem.

In mid-January Deerfield-based Baxter recalled nine lots of the heparin, disclosing for the first time that there had been scores of adverse reactions. It said at the time that it had not yet determined the source of the problem but thought that whatever the difficulty was, it was limited to the nine lots it was recalling.

Later, however, the company disclosed it had determined that the problems were not limited to the nine production lots it had recalled.But, it said, company officials and the FDA decided that because the number of heparin producers is limited and because the product is so widely used nationwide in many kinds of surgery as well as in kidney dialysis, Baxter would suspend production but would not recall the heparin on the shelves of hospitals, drug distributors and medical clinics.

On Thursday, however, Baxter said "the FDA has now concluded that there is sufficient capacity on the part of other suppliers that Baxter's recall will not jeopardize access to this drug."Baxter said it is taking the "precautionary step" of recalling all remaining heparin products on the market, even though the vast majority of the reports of adverse reactions have been associated with the multidose form of the product.

I'm not a jump on the bandwagon...sue the pants off the bastards sort of guy, but I'm also pissed that I spent at least an extra week in the hospital at great expense and developed new blood clots in my left arm WHILE I WAS ON HEPARIN TREATMENT.

Excuse me while I call my attorney...I want to know the brand name on those bags of liquid they pumped into me this month. I hope it wasn't Baxter, but then again...