Family Files Suit after Texas Man Dies from Heparin Injection

Lufkin, TXThe family of a man who allegedly died from complications arising from a contaminated heparin injection has filed a product liability lawsuit against the makers of the blood thinning agent, Baxter, and the medical facility that administered the drug.

The family of Lloyd James Robinson claims that the man died from a hypersensitivity-type adverse reaction to the coagulant he was injected with while undergoing treatment at the Davita Lufkin Dialysis center, according to the South Texas Record.

Baxter produces heparin using an active pharmaceutical ingredient that is manufactured in China's Scientific Protein Labs, a location that allegedly fails to conform to US regulations.

In 2008, Baxter announced an international recall of all varieties of Heparin after discovering that several doses were tainted with a counterfeit active ingredient. Roughly 100 people have died from reactions linked to Heparin injections.

The dialysis center claims that they never actually used the drug, casting aspersions on the results of the case.

"That facility wasn't administering the Baxter Heparin in question at that time, so the connection here between the alleged cause of death and a drug we weren't delivering to patients is tenuous at best," Brad Chase, the clinic's director of communications, tells Renal Business Today.