Did Heparin Kill My Wife?

Minneapolis, MNHarold's wife was a shining light in her local community. Vibrant, involved, she was loved by everyone. But in 2004 she received news that she had breast cancer. After several rounds of chemotherapy, she contracted a lethal blood infection, for which the doctors could not determine a cause. On February 29, 2008 she died, at home, with her husband by her side. Harold suspects that tainted heparin may have caused her death.

"She was 66 years old. She had a huge funeral, and people said it was the most beautiful funeral they'd ever attended, and she never should have died," Harold said in an interview with LawyersandSettlements.com. "I'm finding it very hard. I'm taking antidepressants."

"So what could possibly have happened? "In 2007 my wife became very tired, and her hemoglobin dropped. So she went to emergency where they gave her a blood transfusion. It helped, but five days later she felt ill again," Harold said. "Then in November she began suffering from terrible nausea and stomach pain. She went back to the local emergency. The doctors knew she was ill but didn't know what was causing it."

Harold's wife tried to continue her chemotherapy, and in fact had two sessions in November. "On December 10 she had what was to be her last chemotherapy. Her platelet levels were very low. She started to become very tired, with terrible nausea and pain. The doctors didn't know if this due to the chemotherapy or the cancer, or something else," Harold said.

"Then they gave my wife a bone marrow biopsy. And the bone marrow came up negative, meaning it wasn't the bone marrow causing the illness. The doctors said that they really didn't know what was wrong, but they couldn't continue her chemotherapy because she was too ill," Harold said.

Granted, it's not unusual for cancer patients to become ill from their treatments, so ill in fact that they cannot finish chemotherapy. But whatever was ailing Harold's wife couldn't be strictly explained by the disease or the treatment.

So, on the 23rd January, the doctors called in a specialist. "Her kidneys were failing and her blood counts were dropping. The specialist determined that she had HUS—or Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome—which is when the blood is contaminated," Harold said.

In fact, HUS is an illness usually contracted by children. It is characterized by nonimmune hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia and renal impairment. The are several causes of HUS, the most common cause is bacteria-related, and people can contract it from foods like milk or apple juice. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that it can be drug induced. The publication Drug Week reported the following in Oct 27, 2006:

"There are many causes for HUS, but adverse reactions to drugs have been increasingly reported. Even the NSAIDs which have been reported as safe and effective painkillers are described as cause of recurrent HUS."

Harold's wife was hospitalized the very day she was diagnosed with HUS, and prepared to begin two weeks of plasma transfers. "They went on every day almost, for two weeks. At the end of that time her platelets were down, and her kidneys were no better, and the doctors said she was dying," Harold said. "They sent her to hospice. Her lungs started to fail, and they put her on oxygen, and from that point on she went down hill very quickly. She died about three of four days later."

But what caused Harold's wife to contract HUS? "She had a permanent port for chemotherapy, which was flushed prior to every chemotherapy session. And they used it for blood testing. I heard her use the term heparin, and I know that's what they use to flush out ports. I asked my doctor, and he said yes, that's what is used to flush out the ports," he said. "The 23rd of January was when I read about the first recall of Heparin, and I thought to myself, this was about the time my wife was diagnosed with HUS. At that time, the doctors had said there had been another 12 cases across the country recently, including seven deaths."

"As soon as I saw that name - heparin - on the TV screen - I recognized it. This was the first time I had a clue as to what may have caused her death," Harold said. "I put two and two together and decided to find out exactly what my wife was given in the hospital - was it the Baxter heparin? They were giving her plasma every day, so they flushed her port out every day, I know, I was there in the hospital during her exchanges."

But her doctors didn't provide any further explanation. "The doctors didn't talk about it at all. On her death certificate they put the cause of death as metastatic cancer, but I know she didn't die of cancer. I don't think they tried to cover it up, but I think at that point they didn't know anything about the heparin," Harold said.

Harold wants to find out if the heparin his wife received could have been contaminated, and therefore contributed to her death. A lawyer could help him gain access to the necessary medical records, which he has a right to see.