Darlene firmly believes that hundreds of people, like her husband, could be developing NSF after having a gadolinium-based contrast agent with a MRI/MRA. "What is most disturbing is that these people don't even realize what is happening to them," Darlene says, "mainly because doctors and the drug companies are trying to convince everyone that the patient has to have kidney or renal failure before developing NSF, and they avoid the words NSF or NFD like the plague.
It is absolutely VITAL that health professionals and the makers of these contrast agents step up to the plate and be held responsible. It cannot be put into words how horrible this has been and there IS NO END IN SIGHT."
Darlene says her husband couldn't have been healthier before he was injected with the contrast agent. One day he was chopping wood and renovating their home; the next day he had pains in his chest--they went to the ER. There was nothing wrong with his heart so he had a MRI to check for blood clots. To make a long story short, and seven hospital visits later, he is in complete kidney failure.
"My husband hasn't been able to urinate on his own; he has lost all muscle strength and balance, and his skin on his arms and hands is so dark and looks like alligator skin, but the least little scrape causes tears and bleeding," says Darlene. "The bruising is awful everywhere. His medications would have cost us around $3,000 a month--we thank the wonderful VA for this.
READ MORE MRI HEALTH RISKS LEGAL NEWS
If you are given contrast dye, make sure they give you something to flush this dye out of your system right away or it can kill you. Go online and check out your symptoms and compare it with what you had done in the hospital; get medical records of receiving this contrast agent.
This is from my heart to everyone who may be hurting; my family is seeing a perfectly healthy man get destroyed right in front of our eyes."
READER COMMENTS
Maria Ramos
on
I tried to submit a claim and was told that there's no proof that the dye that was used several times in my MRI's was the cause, apparently once it leaves the body there shouldn't be any effect,,, I hurt so much with everyday pain, headaches and memory loss smh
Sherry
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David Brandenburg
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because all i wanted to do was sue someone for malpractice,
i then asked him if he had any ideal how long the statute of limitations was and when he said no i told him it was 2 years and that he has been letting me die of this disease without any kind of treatment. now 2.5 years ago i was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, which i believe is related to the NSF/NFD being that slightly over 30% of Multiple Myeloma patients have kidney problems. and of course since i have been diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma 2.5 years ago i am still waiting to receive treatment for it, personally i think my doctor is doing everything in his power to let me die to cover up what they have been doing at the clinic. i am currently trying to move to Portland, OR. where i might be able to get into a clinical trial, its the only chance i have to live more than another year or two. this disease NSF/NFD is a very nasty disease besides turning your skin to look [at least in my case] like orange peel or old shoe leather and the skin turns shades of gray and brown, but thats not the worst of it the worst part is the ligature contraction which causes severe muscle spasms from my stomach down through my legs and feet. every morning my calves and feet and toes get muscle spasms, the toes turn down and the foot points straight down and at the same time the foot tries to turn sideways like your trying to walk on the outer edge then the calve starts and it works its way up into the groin muscle and stomach and they are so strong that it tears the muscles. 2 months ago i had a episode where a muscle tore away from the side of my 3rd lumbar vertebrae leaving a 1/2 inch wide gap next to the spine thats about 2.5 inches long, where you can sink your fingers into the hole and feel the side of the vertebrae. so far i have had about 6 muscles to tear from muscle spasms in my back, but the worst is the severe muscle weakness and lack of stamina. i used to be a black smith and made truck trailer leaf springs by hand using an anvil and 16 pound sledge hammer, now i am lucky if i can pick up the sledge hammer thats how weak i am. sometimes i get out of bed to go to the bathroom i am so weak i cant walk the 15 steps to the bathroom and make there in time to keep from peeing on myself. the ligature contraction has the toes on my feet acting like there are springs in them that keep my toes pointed straight out, and when i walk and the toes bend it feels like they are being broken off with each step. and it makes the skin hyper sensitive to touch and at the same time makes it itch like crazy all the time, so that when you try to scratch the itchy spot it feels like you are ripping the skin right off of the foot and also watch out for the hard skin nodules that start out on the arms and back and in the hair line they kind of feel like a callus but itch real bad. all in all this is one very nasty disease that punishes you every minute of the day and i wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy not for all the money in the world!. if you need to have a MRI with a contrast agent please make sure they give you dialysis immediately after the they get their pictures with the MRI, this will insure you wont come down with this disease. please don't end up like me because i pray to God every night to let me die and i cuss him every morning that i wake up alive. and now they tell me that my kidneys are about to fail and that i need to find a civilian doctor to take care of this for me, but the reason i still go to them is because i cant afford to pay the 20% copay so here i was worried that i was going to die from the Multiple Myeloma which eats holes in the bones to the point where your body can't support its own weight but it looks like death will be coming sooner than i thought thank God. but for those of you who are still healthy please heed this warning and stay away from gadolinium dye especially the one made by General Electric, its the worst one and the one thats caused the most cases of NSF/NFD. sorry almost forgot, it also makes your body feel like you have had someone beating you all over with a ball bat all of the time to where you go through the day in severe pain. i hope i can get to Portland,OR so that i might have a chance because i love living even in this bad of condition, and i really don't want to die at 59. if you do get this disease you need to contact Dr. Shawn Cowper he is the foremost expert in this disease. i will tell you a way to help control the muscle spasms but you will probably wont like it, but it works so much better than any of the pain pills and muscle relaxers. marijuana/ cannabis will help to control the muscle spasms so well that most days, if i have any of it i don't have to take the muscle relaxers!. and that is a big thing to me because i have seen 2 friends die from muscle relaxers in the last 5 years, and most people forget that their heart is a muscle and that if you take to much it stops your heart!. at least you don't have to worry about cannabis killing you, because it would take you smoking several hundred pounds in 15 minutes to give you enough to kill you. also for those of you who worry about getting high, don't because if you do get high it only last for about 2 hours and if you are in severe pain it don't do anything to you but take care of the pain and muscles spasms. i quit smoking this stuff back in the late 70's and only took it back up about 4 years ago and i wish i had taken it up sooner. for those of you with these diseases my prayers go out to you, just remember what the Bible said in Genesis about how god gave us all the plants of seed and bud for our use, its just a shame the government don't believe in God, otherwise why make such a harmless plant a schedule one drug that is worse than speed and heroin.
Alfreda Rodgers
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Darlene
on
Amelia
on
Certainly there must be safer ways to scan.I'm so sorry to hear about what happened to Darlene's husband.This is so sad.Even before I read this article I was thinking I don't want this dye in my system because maybe it would effect other organs or I would be allergic to the dye.