January 2008 Archives

Kidney failure, stroke, heart attack and death following open heart or bypass surgery have been caused by Trasylol®, a drug manufactured by the German pharmaceutical conglomerate, Bayer AG.  

It was intended to limit bleeding during surgery procedures. 

But in November 2007 Bayer AG was forced to pull Trasylol® from the market following a request by the FDA. 

As Californians absorb the grim news of the budget, the idea that tens of thousands of families will lose health insurance is slowly looking like it might become a reality.

MRIs are so routine that medical patients usually feel they have nothing to worry about when their doctors recommend them. 

But an emerging and dangerous disease, that is essentially being ignored by the media, may force people to take a second look. 

Some MRI's inject a contrast into the blood street that contains gadolinium, an exotic magnetic metal.  If the patient has kidney problems, the coating on the gadolinium washes away and the metal invades the bone marrow, causing  nephrogenic systemic fibrosis, a man-made skin disease that causes the hardening of skin and a painful death.