Hubley’s Tell of Family Heparin Tragedy

Posted on 8th May 2008 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

Baxter recall of heparin, FDA recall heparin, heparin, heparin adverse reactions, Scientific Protein Laboratories

Yesterday’s blog was about the emotional investment it takes for my staff to listen to the tragic stories that people have as a result of the Heparin contamination. Today, I thought it might be important to focus in on one such story, not on one of our clients, but on the tragedy of Randy Hubley , as told to the House of Representatives in testimony last week.

Colleen Hubley, a dialysis nurse for 7 years, testified about her emotional experience from the contamination of heparin that caused the death of her husband. Her husband was a dialysis patient whose kidney transplant rejected in May 2006. Her prepared statement said that they were the first couple in Toledo area to do “home hemodialysis” (which is the provision of hemodialysis in the home of people with stage 5 chronic kidney disease). For the full prepared statement of Colleen Hubley, click here.

Two years later he had a surgery that he needed to start “in-center dialysis” and he started that at the Toledo Fresenius Clinic in Ohio. Later he was sent home to continue his hemodialysis routine. That is when Colleen says he began to get worse:

“This was the last week of his life. I wish I could tell you that at least the last few days of his life were good for Randy. I could take solace in that. However, the weekend prior to his death was awful.”

Colleen tells about January 11, 2008, the day her husband’s condition worsened:

“Randy [began to have] low blood pressure, severe diarrhea, abdominal pain, jaw pain, his throat was sore and felt “tight” to him, making him feel he needed his inhaler to breathe easier, something he didn’t normally need too often. Because of this, he barely could make it to the restroom.”

That night, she decided to sleep next to him on the couch. She was awoke to find him clutching is abdomen, unable to breathe and grabbing his chest. Colleen called 911 before he collapsed. She gave him CPR while her son helped her. When the paramedics arrived, they were barely able to get a breathing tube in his throat due to the swelling. Randy was taken to the ER and Colleen says,”[she was] notified that even if they got him back, it was hopeless.”

She watched her husband die right in front of her eyes and there was nothing that could be done. Later she found out that his death might have been due to heparin contamination.

“As a nurse, I thought I would be there to save my husband from any errors, but I guess I was naive. I never thought that the lifesaving medication we were relying on might be contaminated.”

Colleen Hubley asked that Baxter and the FDA take more responsibility to make sure that every drug that is given is free from contamination. Her sole purpose for sharing this tragedy, “to make sure this doesn’t ever happen to anyone else. Please do not let his death be in vain, We, as a family, need to know that some good can come of this tragedy”.

A tragic story, a story that puts a face on the statistics that the FDA has been publishing for months. But the Hubley family tragedy didn’t start with Randy. His mother, Bonnie Hubley, also died of a Heparin reaction, a month earlier. For the Prepared Statement of Leroy Hubley, Randy’s father, click here. Yes, a mother and son, under the same suspicious circumstances.

Why is it one family might have been struck twice by the same contaminant? Because both deaths occurred before the CDC and the FDA alerted the world about the recall on January 17, 2008. If it were just this family that was shattered by this poisoned, it would be a murder investigation centering in Ohio. But the coincidence isn’t forensically relevant when potentially thousands of others nationwide have been poisoned as well.

Bonnie Hubley’s death is not the first nor the last case where the diagnosis wasn’t understood, until this catastrophe became known. Until the extent of the contamination is fully disclosed by Baxter and other makers of Heparin, the real human cost of Baxter’s penny shaving decision to import intravenous drugs from China will not be known.