California Heparin Adverse Reaction Lawyers, Contaminated Blood Thinner Attorneys, FDA Recall Lawyers Serving Patients Given High Dose Baxter Heparin Commonly for Kidney Dialysis, Heart Surgery, Suffering Alergic Anaphylactic in Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, Orange County, San Jose and Sacramento Attorneys.

Our Heparin adverse reaction lawyers are pharmaceutical product liability attorneys who have been involved in the prosecution of many of the largest drug liability cases of the past 25 years. Our California Heparin attorneys are currently investigating the scores of verified adverse reactions, including allergic-type or anaphylactic reactions including severe hypotension, in many cases leading to death. Other adverse reactions that have occurred in association with contaminated Heparin use include swelling, nausea, vomiting, sweating and shortness of breath. Most commonly the allergic or anaphylactic reactions have occurred shortly after administration of a bolus or high dose of contaminated Heparin. If you or a loved one suffered an allergic or anaphylactic reaction after having been given Heparin, you are invited to contact our California Heparin Adverse Reaction Lawyers for a free consultation.

Below our California Heparin lawyers discuss some of the information with regard to the means by which it appears that Heparin given to patients in the United States was contaminated in China, the reports of adverse reactions, the FDA and CDC conclusions that there is an association between the use of high doses of the contaminated Heparin and a number of adverse allergic or anaphylactic reactions including severe hypotension and death. But first our Heparin attorneys will describe quickly what medical conditions and treatments the drug is most commonly used for because many who have suffered the adverse reactions may not know that they were administered Heparin.

Heparin is an anticoagulant sometimes described to the patient as a "blood thinner." It is commonly used during kidney dialysis and in heart surgery, as examples, and is used in to treat a variety of conditions including deep vein throbosis and pulmonary emboli. Also, some medical devices are coated with Heparin, such as the Medtronic devices featuring the Carmeda BioActive surface. And as of April, 2008, the United States Food and Drug Administration sent correspondence recommending that device manufacturers test for contamination. Since the patient will often not be informed that he or she may be given Heparin in connection with the foregoing treatments and procedures, our California Heparin lawyers would urge that where severe hypotension or death or other allergic-like or anaphylactic adverse reaction has occurred during or immediately after medical treatment in which intravenous drugs were given, including in particular kidney dialysis or heart surgery, that the patient obtain a competent pharmaceutical product liability lawyer to obtain and review the medical records.

Most of the severe allergic or anaphylactic reactions and deaths associated with contaminated Heparin use appear to have been cases in which "bolus" or high doses of Heparin were administered. Initially, in early 2008 it was thought that the contamination may have been limited to certain lots of the drug but subsequent investigation has confirmed that the contamination is not limited to particular lots. And as of the study period in 2008 it appears that from 5% to 20% of the samples were contaminated.

The manufacturer of the contaminated Heparin is Baxter HealthCare Corporation, which produces approximately 50% of all the Heparin distributed in the United States. It appears that the contamination occurred at Baxter's manufacturing facilities in China, which had substituted oversulfated chondroitin sulfate made from animal cartilage. Properly manufactured, Heparin is derived from the mucus membranes of pigs. The latter process is more expensive, and our Heparin attorneys are investigating whether the former process may have been fraudulently employed by Baxter's China companies as a cost saving measure.

Again, if you or a loved one has suffered severe hypotension or death, or other serious allergic or anaphylactic reaction following kidney dialysis, heart surgery, treatment for deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolus or other intravenous use of Heparin, you are invited to contact our California Heparin lawyers for a free consultation and case evaluation.