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GranuFlo lawsuits swell into the thousands

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As of Dec. 15, 2014, there were 2,289 GranuFlo lawsuits pending before the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The GranuFlo attorneys at the law firm of Reich & Binstock represent dialysis patients who claim their injuries, or the injuries of family decedents, were the result of GranuFlo risks to which they were unwittingly exposed.

There is still time for a GranuFlo patient who suffered cardiovascular injury to pursue compensation. Cases already have been filed in most states, and they have continued to mount.

Toward the end of 2014, the defendant in GranuFlo lawsuits, Fresenius Medical Care North America, filed a census of 2,217 pending cases that were pending as of Dec. 12. GranuFlo lawsuits have been filed in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The only states not represented are North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

The only states in which hospitals or dialysis clinics are not named are South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming. Eleven clinics or hospitals named in GranuFlo lawsuits are located in Massachusetts, the state in which the multidistrict litigation court, or MDL, resides.

Fresenius reported to the court that, as of Dec. 12, “approximately 2,136 allege that the use of GranuFlo or (companion dialysis chemical) NaturaLyte resulted in death. The remaining plaintiffs are suing for non-fatal injuries.”

As a Massachusetts plaintiff alleged in a pending GranuFlo lawsuit filed in 2013, medical research linked GranuFlo and NaturaLyte to the following potential effects of high bicarbonate levels:

  • Cardiopulmonary arrest
  • Heart problems
  • Metabolic alkalosis
  • Low blood pressure
  • Sudden myocardial infarction or heart attack
  • Stroke
  • Death

One Chicago GranuFlo victim suffered a stroke following dialysis and was hospitalized for two months of rehabilitation. She has continued to suffer from paralysis on the right side of her body. Her GranuFlo lawsuit alleges, among several claims, Fresenius never warned her about the serious risks associated with the compound.

Plaintiffs assert that Fresenius had a duty to do more to protect the health of dialysis patients than it did. The claim is based on the emergence of a smoking-gun company document.

Fresenius in November 2011 circulated an internal memo to its clinics that referred to hundreds of adverse cardiopulmonary outcomes that had occurred within the treatment facilities. Indeed, the memo concerned a case-control study of 941 dialysis patients in 667 facilities who had suffered cardiopulmonary arrest during treatment in 2010. Officials with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, explains plaintiffs, received an anonymous copy of the memorandum. And only then did sweeping protections go into effect.

Upon examination of the facts, the FDA in March 2012 practically compelled Fresenius to issue a Class I recall of GranuFlo and NaturaLyte. The FDA deems Class I as “the most serious type of recall and involve[s] situations in which there is a reasonable probability that use of these products will cause serious adverse health consequences or death.”

Unfortunately, thousands of injured dialysis patients who, so to speak, “didn’t get the memo,” were seriously injured – and, in some cases, they died.

Reportedly, a couple of “bellwether” GranuFlo lawsuit trials are slated for early 2016 at the Massachusetts federal trial court.

If nothing else, GranuFlo lawsuits will hold the manufacturer accountable for its actions and perhaps for its inactions.

Anyone who suffered any of the aforementioned complications following the administration of GranuFlo and NaturaLyte may contact one of the GranuFlo attorneys at Reich & Binstock for a free consultation. The law firm operates in all 50 states.

Contact Reich & Binstock either at the toll-free number below or by submitting an electronic message through the form located on this web page.

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