Trasylol May Have Caused Advanced Kidney Failure

Driggs, IDMark L. (not his real name) suffered kidney failure shortly after his open heart surgery. However, he does not know for sure if Trasylol was used. Mark is now trying to determine whether or not doctors gave him Trasylol to stop him from bleeding during surgery.

"I had my second open heart surgery in 10 years and the first one went fine," Mark says. "The second surgery was done a year ago last November. After the surgery I was kind of sick and came to learn that I was experiencing kidney failure. We don't know for sure what happened. It may have been related to an allergic reaction to a pain medication and it could have been that my kidneys were already compromised from the surgery, which caused me to become sick.

"I didn't know until a couple of weeks after the surgery that I was at an advanced stage of kidney failure. I felt pretty good following the surgery, but within 24 hours of being home I had a reaction to some medication and started downhill. I felt really sick, had no appetite, felt like I had a fever and I was lethargic. I really didn't have any energy. I found out I had advanced kidney failure—I had about five percent function of my kidneys. I had blood testing every day for about a week; after that, things got better but I was very close to needing dialysis if I hadn't improved.

"I'm not yet sure if I was given Trasylol during the surgery. My hospital bill did not indicate any drugs by name, just mentioned them generally. I don't know whether the pills I was on at the time exacerbated a situation that started with Trasylol but it seems like quite a coincidence that I had the open heart surgery and kidney failure.

"The other things is, because it was my second open heart surgery, I went into the surgery knowing there was a possibility of some bleeding issues. Dealing with scar tissue can cause problems and I did have some bleeding during that second surgery. It is possible that Trasylol would have been part of the plan for my surgery because of that. But I don't know how quickly Trasylol would have worked. Would they have used Trasylol while I was bleeding to make it stop? I don't know that.

"People need to make sure that they know what could potentially be given to them during a surgical procedure. When you're a patient, be an enquiring patient. Find out what is going on."

Many patients are now investigating a possible lawsuit against the maker of Trasylol, alleging that it knew about the drug's risks but did not adequately inform the public about those risks. If you or someone you know has had open heart surgery and suffered serious side effects, contact a lawyer to discuss your legal options.