I am a TRASYLOL victim!

• by chiliman
• 2008-06-09 11:06:10
• General Posting
• 1059 views
• 0 comments

(If you haven't seen it, first click on, or c&p the link below to view the "60 Minutes" piece from February 2008 exposing the dangers and destruction caused by the now FDA-pulled surgical drug, TRASYLOL.)

http://tinyurl.com/6ydt3w

TRASYLOL, a drug made by BAYER AG, has been off the market for less than a year. It was used solely during open heart surgery to control bleeding. It cost $1,200~$1,500 a dose, vs its strongest competitor that cost just $50 a dose and was equally effective at controlling surgical bleeding.

As some of you know, I had double heart-valve replacement, and a third tricuspid valve repair in December 2005. I knew nothing about Trasylol, or in fact that I had been given it until I just happened to catch the "60 Minutes" piece in February of this year.

Three days after open-heart surgery, I was implanted with a Guidant 1290 pacemaker, which will be changed to a CRT/ICD on June 19th.

Why, because over the past 2 1/2 years instead of significantly improving from my new valves, which worked perfectly, everything else cardiac related started to go downhill, including 2 MI's, and 3 V-Tach events that required sustained hospitalization.

None of my cardiologists could make sense of why these events were occuring and were baffled and frustrated as to why, as all tests were inconclusive. But I've become weaker and weaker as my heart functioning has diminished down to an ejection fraction of 18%. And, given that I am especially fortunate to have no atherosclerosis with completely clear arteries, the MI's in particular just didn't make sense...until now!

TRASYLOL, (Google it; lots of info) has already claimed over 25 thousand lives from renal failure to heart attack, and yet surgeons (including mine) continued to use it after safety bulletins had been posted for over two years prior to my surgery!

I am writing this as a "heads-up" to anyone who had, or knows anyone who had open-heart surgery prior to November 5, 2007 when Bayer AG finally pulled the drug off the market. CHECK YOUR MEDICAL RECORDS and find out. Statistically, TRASYLOL patients have a 50% chance of dying within 5 years of receipt of the drug. I am hoping that my new CRT/ICD will give me an edge to beat those odds.

Thank you for reading this, and if anyone has a particular recommendation for the best model CRT/ICD, I'd like to know, as I am happy that I will be free of my Guidant.