Wallet Card says "Do Not Give Me Heparin"

Butler, PAMarie was given Heparin in September 2006 during and after surgery for a knee replacement. The next day her blood pressure fell to the point that she needed a blood transfusion.

"I was very light-headed and was completely out of it," says Marie. " I didn't even recognize my husband while I was in the hospital. They had nurses attending to me 24/7 and checked on me every 15 minutes…"

Marie says she usually has high blood pressure so this was very strange. "Both my husband and I asked how this could have happened but we never got an answer." Marie spent five days in hospital and seven days in rehab before they let her go home. Even then, a home nurse came by each day and checked her blood pressure.

"I believe Heparin caused my blood pressure to drop because it had never happened to me before and I have had numerous operations," says Marie. "Then I read about Heparin and said ohmigod that is to blame. It was very scary."

In February 2008, Baxter Healthcare recalled all its Heparin after concerns that about the drug being contaminated; the manufacturer ordered the product taken off shelves and not to be administered to any patient. Now, the California Pharmacy Board has begun the process of citing and fining 94 hospitals and the head pharmacist at each facility for not complying with the recall— according to Virginia Herold, executive officer of the pharmacy board, some pharmacies did not remove potentially tainted Heparin from hospital pharmacies.

In May, according to the Los Angeles Daily Journal, in at least 29 of the cases investigated, hospital pharmacists still seemed to be dispensing heparin.

Also in May, China's State Food and Drug Administration regulatory agency said that Baxter and U.S. officials had failed to cooperate with their investigation into tainted batches of the blood-thinning drug heparin. The Chinese officials said they had been denied access to samples and information during an April visit to Baxter laboratories in New Jersey. Baxter officials rejected those claims. FDA officials said they were prevented from sharing information about individual patients by federal privacy laws.

So who is to blame for at least 81 deaths in the US that has been linked to Heparin use?