Heparin Recall Timeline

The Chicago Tribune has published a timeline of the progression of the Baxter problems with Heparin, which resulted in deaths and hundreds of adverse reactions. It is clear from this documentation that Baxter had lots of warning that things could go bad.

Click here for the story.

One of my first reactions to this story is why nothing was done when the first reactions occured at Children's Hospital in November. Children and sometimes older people can be like the canary in a coal mine. Their getting sick will warn others of the danger. But from Nov. 19 when the first children got sick in St. Louis, until January 7, when dialysis patients had a series of reactions at the same hospital, Baxter didn't show any public awareness of what might be going on. A full 10 days later, the first recall was done.

One of the constants throughout my experience as an attorney representing those injured by the wrongful conduct of others, is that it is the most vulnerable individuals who have the worst results. I spent all of yesterday in a deposition, where my entire point with the doctor, which after hours, he eventually admitted, that it is the people with the most vulnerabilities before hand that are most likely to be impaired by wrongful conduct.

The defense experts seem to think that if they can find enough wrong with the plaintiff before the bad conduct of those they are hired by, it will excuse the defendant. But the reality is, that the more vulnerable a person, the more severe the wrong doing.

We know that with children we have a greater risk of harm. That is why we put kids in car seats. And no defense attorney would have the guts to claim that bad conduct is excused because the same conduct wouldn't injure an adult. Yet, just because a young jock wouldn't be injured by bad conduct, doesn't mean that an older adult, who has a troubled medical history, can't be injured thereby.

With respect to Heparin, Baxter should have known that when children were getting sick, it might mean that something was wrong. They were the canaries... someone should have heard the warning. Baxter should have heard the warning, especially when producing a product for consumption by the already compromised. In this case, children and the kidney patients who make up such a substantial percentage of the early cases were the ones who fell ill first. I wonder if the Chinese workers were sick even earlier?

Next: Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2008

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Heparin Information

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FDA Information

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Gordon Johnson is the Owner of the Johnson Law Office.

Disclaimer

To contact us
call 800-992-9447

For Our Latest Information on Heparin go to our Blog:

Heparin Glossary

TOPICS:

• Reports of serious drug reactions hit record
• Heparin - Misdiagnoses of HIT
• Heparin-bonded Catheters
• Adverse Heparin Reactions: Symptoms and Side Effects
• Drug Stayed on hospital shelves despite recall
• Regulator says hospitals need strict heparin rules
• The New England Journal of Medicine: MIT Study
• FDA: Heparin Warning
• Contaminated Heparin Can Do More than Kill
• Heparin Lawsuit: Areas of Inquiry
• FDA Press Releases
• Scott v. Baxter Lawsuit
• Reporting Heparin Problems
• Understated Adverse Reactions
• Baxter Widens Heparin Recall
• FDA Intercepting Heparin
• FDA Plans For Full-Time Staff in China
• Heparin Purity - China Doesn't Seem to Care
• Baxter Didn't Know About Absence of Inspection
• German Heparin Also Contaminated
• Heparin Contaminant Identified
• Heparin Recall Timeline
• Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2008