Three people suffered cerebral hemorrhaging after being given a pre-mix of heparin at a Lewes, Del. hospital Friday, according to a Beebe Medical Center spokesman. Two of the patients later died -- it is unknown what role heparin played in the deaths.
All the patients were given heparin, a blood-thinning agent made by the Baxter Healthcare Corporation, said hospital spokesman Wallace Hudson.
Two of the patients died over the weekend at other hospitals. A 71-year-old man died at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del. and a 64-year-old woman died at the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore, Md., said Hudson.
The third patient remained hospitalized at Christiana Hospital, he said.
Beebe Hospital has stopped using Baxter-made heparin as a precaution, for now.
The hospital contacted both the Federal Drug Administration and Baxter about the deaths, said Hudson.
Baxter sent reps out to the hospital on Saturday. The investigation is ongoing, Baxter spokesperson Erin Gardiner said.
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The FDA is also investigating the deaths, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
The agency disputed a widespread problem. “This appears to be an isolated incident,” FDA spokeswoman Karen Riley said in a statement to Delaware Online.
The deaths have some worrying about a heparin contamination outbreak. More than 80 deaths last year were blamed on contaminated heparin from China, the Wall Street Journal reported.
This batch of pre-mix IV-dispersed heparin was from a different supplier than the viles that were recalled last year, said Gardiner. "There is one lot of heparin we are focusing on, from a North American source," Ms. Gardiner told the Journal. "It was not produced by Chinese manufacturers."
