As the two year anniversary of the discovery of the Heparin Disaster approaches more and more cases are being filed. At this point it appears that there will most likely be 700 - 1000 cases filed on behalf of those who literally lost life and limb as a result of the failure of Baxter Health Care to understand the product it was selling.

Many clients and other lawyers are interested in understanding what a typical case looks like.

1. Method of Administration. About 90% of the cases involve Intravenous administration of the heparin, while the other 10% of victims received their heparin subcutaneously. Typically a subcutaneous injection will, understandably, not involve as sudden or initally severe reaction as the reaction from a bolus intravenous dose, but the results can be just as fatal.

2. Purpose of Administration. About 85-90% of affected patients received heparin for preventive, or prophylactic, purposes, while therapuetic purposes accounted for 10-15% of the injuries. These can be further broken down to Dialysis patients (70-75%) and cardiac patients (10-15%).

3. Type of Injury. About 80% of the injuries involve Contact / Complement Anaphylactoid-type Reaction constellation of symptoms. These include the following:
i. Hypotension (drop in blood pressure)
ii. Diarrhea
iii. Nausea
iv. Vomiting

Another 15% involve Heparin Induced Thrombocytopenia (HIT).

5% of the cases are so called "Supra-additive Effect" cases, involving bleed out cases or other coagulation issues.

4. Degree of harm. Death is the injury in 75% of the cases. Of those not involving death, most are Serious Permanent Injury (mostly HIT) (15%).

5. Time Frame. The large majority of cases occurred after September 15, 2007 and prior to April 15, 2008.

If you believe a client or loved one died during this time frame from symptoms described here, while undergoing dialysis or cardiac surgery, you should immediately seek skilled review of the medical file. You can reach us during regular hours toll free at 888-841-9623. Or you can email me at david@toledolaw.com or our heparin paralegal Serenity at serenity@toledolaw.com.

Labels: contaminated heparin, Heparin, heparin attorney, heparin injury, heparin lawsuit, heparin lawyer