Lawyers for Heart Attacks and Wrongful Death Following Fresenius Dialysis Treatment

The lawyers at Saiontz & Kirk, P.A. are investigating potential lawsuits for individuals throughout the United States who have suffered sudden death, heart attack, cardiac arrest or other severe problems from hemodialysis treatment at a Fresenius dialysis clinic or at another center were Fresenius Medical Care products were used.

As a result of hemodialysis involving Granuflo or NaturaLyte, individuals may be entitled to financial compensation through a Fresenius dialysis lawsuit if they suffered any of the following problems during dialysis treatment or within 48 hours after:

  • Heart Attack
  • Cardiopulmonary Arrest
  • Stroke
  • Sudden Death
  • Catastrophic Heart Injury

Free consultations and claim evaluations are available with our dialysis treatment lawyers to help determine if you, a friend or family member may be eligible to make a claim. Request a free consultation and claim evaluation.

FRESENIUS DIALYSIS TREATMENT PROBLEMS

Fresenius Medical Care is the largest provider of dialysis services and products in the world, owning thousands of dialysis clinics and manufacturing most of the products used during dialysis treatments at other clinics, including machines, dialyzers, blood lines, needles and dialysis concentrate.

Fresenius Dialysis Injury Lawyers

Fresenius Dialysis Lawyers

In addition to Fresenius-owned clinics, Granuflo and NaturaLyte products may have also been used by other providers, such as:

  • DaVita Dialysis Centers
  • UltraCare Dialysis Treatment
  • Renal Ventures Dialysis Clinics
  • Others

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In recent years, many patients have received hemodialysis treatment with Fresenius Medical Care treatments including

  • NaturaLyte Liquid
  • Granuflo Acid Concentrates

Due to problems with the warnings and instructions provided with these dialysis products, inappropriate dialysis treatment prescriptions may have caused hundreds of individuals to suffer a heart attack, cardiopulmonary arrest or sudden cardiac death.

Ingredients contained in these Fresenius hemodialysis products convert to bicarbonate, and the products contain more of this ingredient than competing products.

Doctors were not adequately instructed to account for this extra bicarobonate when deciding how much bicarbonate to prescribe separately with dialysis treatment. This may result in a patients receiving a bicarbonate overdose, which is known to cause metabolic alkalosis and increase the risk of heart problems.

Reports have suggested that individuals who were borderline for elevated pre-dialysis bicarbonate levels may have faced a 6 to 8 times greater risk of cardiopulmonary arrest and sudden cardiac death in the dialysis clinic.

FRESENIUS LAWSUITS OVER HEART ATTACKS AND DEATH

Although Fresenius Medical Care knew or should have known about the potentially life-threatening side effects from NaturaLyte and Granuflo dialysis treatments, they failed to provide proper instructions and warnings about important steps that must be taken to reduce the risk of individuals suffering a heart attack or sudden cardiac death during dialysis.

According to an internal review conducted at Fresenius dialysis clinics, during 2010 there at least 941 patients who suffered a cardiac arrest during dialysis treatment.

Even after the company became aware of the shocking number of dialysis treatment heart problems, they failed to notify the FDA or issue a warning to clinics that were using their products.

In November 2011, Fresenius issued an internal memo about the risks associated with Granuflo and NaturaLyte (PDF), but they only provided this information to doctors at their own clinics. Although they stressed that their own doctors must carefully monitor prescription levels to reduce the risk of life-threatening problems, they failed to provide this critical information to the medical community.

After an anonymous source provided this internal memo about the Fresenius dialysis treatment problems to the FDA, the federal regulatory agency sent an inquiry to the company on March 27, 2012. Two days later, on March 29, 2012, Fresenius Medical Care finally issued an “urgent” dialysis warning to non-owned clinics (PDF), but the information provided about the risks with Granuflo and NaturaLyte was much less than was provided to their own clinics.

According to lawsuits over Fresenius dialysis treatments, it is alleged that the company was attempting to hide, mislead and obscure information about the risks in an attempt to maintain market share, placing their desire for profits ahead of the safety of dialysis patients.

FRESENIUS DIALYSIS LAWYERS REVIEWING CASES NATIONWIDE

Free consultations and claim evaluations are provided for families of individuals who suffered a heart attack, cardiac arrest or sudden death during dialysis treatment at a Fresenius Medical Care clinic or at another clinic that may have been using Granuflo or NaturaLyte.

Although many families may not know what specific dialysis treatments their loved one was receiving, our Fresenius dialysis lawyers can help determine if financial compensation may be available.

Fresenius dialysis treatment lawsuits allege that:

  • Fresenius manufactured and sold defective dialysis products that may cause a heart attack, cardiac arrest, sudden cardiac death or other health problems;
  • Granuflo and NaturaLyte were not safe as designed and were insufficiently tested;
  • Fresenius dialysis products contained inadequate warnings and instructions that did not fully indicate the full nature and extent of the risk of dangerous side effects.

Potential injury claims and Fresenius wrongful death lawsuits are being investigated for complications suffered during dialysis treatments throughout the United States. All lawsuits are pursued under a contingency fee agreement, which means that there are no out-of-pocket expenses to hire our lawyers and there are no attorney fees unless a recovery is obtained.

CONTACT OUR LAWYERS ABOUT A FRESENIUS DIALYSIS LAWSUIT