Heparin Contamination Can do More than Kill

It seemed so obvious, but a brain damage expert I know felt the need to say it twice: That which can kill can do a lot of damage to those who survive. The body is a closed vessel, that is designed to very closely monitor that which comes in and out, especially the things that get into the blood stream.

All organs are extremely susceptible to a disruption in what is supposed to be in the blood supply. That susceptibility applies not only to a poison that shouldn’t be there, but also if there isn't enough of what should be there: i.e. fuel to make the body work (glucose) and oxygen to make the fuel burn. Further, if the blood isn't circulating properly, the waste products from this biological fire will not be carried away. In a very similar way to how people will succumb to carbon monoxide poisoning, the body's cells and organs will be injured or killed by failure to properly ventilate (via the veins) the waste products created by keeping the body running.

When you put contaminated heparin intravenously into a human body, you bypass all of the body’s filters. The blood stream directly circulates that contaminant to every cell and organ. So what happens when a toxin runs amuck in our bodies? Almost anything that can go wrong, could go wrong.

Today I will talk about just the articulated theory from the CDC and the FDA of "acute allergic-type reaction has been defined as an episode of anaphylactic or anaphylactoid reaction". See http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5705a4.htm What can happen with anaphylactic shock? The body goes into shock. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaphylactic_shock and more specifically with respect to shock: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_%28medical%29

Some highlights from Wikipedia:

Shock is a serious, life-threatening medical condition where insufficient blood flow reaches the body tissues. As the blood carries oxygen and nutrients around the body, reduced flow hinders the delivery of these components to the tissues, and can stop the tissues from functioning properly.

And guess what can happen when the tissue stops functioning properly - brain damage and other organ damage, from a condition called hypoxia. See :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypoxic_encephalopathy

We know that reduced blood flow is one of the common symptoms of the Heparin contamination cases, because of the hypotension (low blood pressure) reported in most of these cases. Some highlights from Wikipedia about the risk of brain damage from Hypoxia:

Cerebral hypoxia refers to deprivation of oxygen supply to brain tissue. ... Extended periods of cerebral hypoxia can lead to brain death or permanent brain damage. ... The effects of certain kinds of severe generalized hypoxias may take time to develop. For example, the long term effects of serious carbon monoxide poisoning usually may take several weeks to appear. Recent research suggests this may be due to an autoimmune response caused by CO induced changes in the myelin sheath surrounding neurons.

Symptoms of hypoxia? Cognitive problems similar to what might be expected with a concussion. Amnesia, confusion, difficulty doing complex tasks, responding to unexpected processing demands. While there is some controversy about how much hypoxia can occur without long term damage, we believe this is the most important issue to evaluate in any Heparin contamination case.

So far no one at the CDC or FDA has announced any inquiry into whether hypoxic damage to the brain or other organs has occurred. While the brain is the most susceptible to permanent damage in a healthy person, since the recipients of this contaminant were those with compromised organs (hemodialysis patients for example), other organ damage may have occurred before the evidence of cerebral hypoxia showed up. Further, as vital organs like the kidneys and liver started to malfunction, other toxins could have been circulated into the blood stream.

It is time to insist the inquiry in this matter is no longer ruled by the presumption that those who survived the allergic reaction will have no long term damage. It is unimaginable that something toxic enough to have killed 62 people while affecting as many as 5,000 others, didn't leave some permanent damage behind.


http://heparin-law.com
http://tbilaw.com
http://waiting.com
http://vestibulardisorder.com
http://youtube.com/profile?user=braininjuryattorney
g@gordonjohnson.com
800-992-9447