Doctor says 22,000 died amid Bayer drug recall

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Yahoo News

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The lives of 22,000 patients could have been saved if U.S. regulators had been quicker to remove a Bayer AG drug used to stem bleeding during open heart surgery, according to a medical researcher interviewed by CBS Television's 60 Minutes program.

The drug Trasylol was withdrawn in November at the request of the FDA after an observational study linked the medicine to kidney failure requiring dialysis and increased death of those patients.

It had been given to as many as a third of all heart bypass patients in the United States at the height of its use over a period of many years, according to the report.

Dr. Dennis Mangano, the study's researcher, said during the program that 22,000 lives could have been saved if Trasylol had been taken off the market when he first published his study in January 2006, according to a CBS News report on its Web site ahead of a broadcast slated for next Sunday.


Read more: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080215/tts-uk-bayer-deaths-a8bf950_2.html

[MannyGoldstein]

1. That's More Than Seven 9/11s Worth of Deaths!

Vioxx was about sixteen 9/11s.

Why aren't more people outraged?

[Serial Mom]

5. Well I am!

And not enough mental health care for the shooters in America - look at the all of them!

We have been duped into believing spending billions to protect 3,000 of us from another 'terra' attack while probably more than 100,000 are dying EACH YEAR from the "medical" profession (insurance companies,docs, hospitals, pharmas, etc.) not doing a very good job!

[acmavm]

2. Oh shit, this is NO surprise. Amurikan Big Pharma funds testing

in all major hospitals to get their drugs approved. After my strokes I was forced, forced is exactly what I mean to say, to take a drug that made me sicker than I've ever been in my life. The first day they gave it to me I told them I couldn't take it. I couldn't stand smells, light, sound, movement, anything. That was the sickest day of my life and the I was in the most pain I'd ever been in. The 8 mini strokes and the 2 'catatrophic' ones were a picnic compared to the treatment.

The second day they made me take it same thing. The third day I literally begged them. They told me 'you'll get used to it'. I thought I was going to die that day. I think they did too.

For months after I got out of the hospital they kept trying to talk me into taking that drug, even saying they'd only give me 'half doses'. I refused.

Once drugs have been tested and 'approved' for treatment it is next to impossible to get them 'unapproved'. And the medical profession does not give a shit how bad these drugs are for you. They just keep on pushing them. That this study is getting as much attention as it is just surprises me.

[MannyGoldstein]

3. Ugh. An Awful Experience.

I hope that there's not a repeat!

[Demeter]

4. Whew! Glad You Are Still With Us!

I had a similar problem, trying to keep my child alive in the hospital--they wouldn't listen to me, since I wasn't a doctor, but my kid was bleeding to death because they wanted to try some drugs instead of the surgery she needed.

If you have to be your own researcher, diagnostician, nurse, pharmacist, dietician, and pep coach, what do we need the medical profession for?

[acmavm]

12. I had every last one of these side effects and they kept forcing me to take

this shit: Aggrenox

What side effects may occur?
Side effects cannot be anticipated. If any develop or change in intensity, inform your doctor as soon as possible. Only your doctor can determine if it is safe for you to continue taking Aggrenox.

More common side effects may include:
Abdominal pain, back pain, bleeding, diarrhea, dizziness, fatigue, headache, indigestion, joint pain, nausea, pain, vomiting

http://www.healthsquare.com/newrx/agg1552.htm

[formercia]

8. Was his name Herr Doktor Mengele?

Don't they long for the old days when all they had to do is call up the Totenkopf unit and have them send over another group of inmates.

[formercia]

6. From the people that brought you ZYKLON-B

Bayer, part of the IG Farben cartel. Old habits die hard.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. kick

[TwilightGardener]

9. I worked with open-hearts as a nurse, and never even heard of this drug--

maybe it was only something they gave in the OR, by the perfusionist or something? Huh.

[joeglow3]

10. I am going to ask my sister-in-law

She is a perfusionist. I wonder how much it was used.

[pattmarty]

11. F-ree market D-rug A-ssholes. Looking out for you!!!!!

[Orsino]

13. Well, then, we obviously need to do away with more regulations...

...since the government lacks the funding, will and competence to enforce them.

[Robeson]

14. Hurry Congress! Pass legislation to stop those lawsuits!....

....Protect Bayer at all costs!

:sarcasm: