Article - March 31, 2008 - Lawyers and Settlements

Did Heparin Kill My Wife?

By Lucy Campbell

Minneapolis, MN: Harold'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.

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