Dialysis Treatment Lawyers Reviewing Lawsuits for Heart Attacks and Sudden Death

Austin Kirk

By Austin Kirk
Posted August 10, 2012

ADD YOUR COMMENTS 14

The product liability lawyers at Saiontz & Kirk, P.A. are reviewing potential dialysis treatment lawsuits on behalf of individuals who suffered any of the following injuries during hemodialysis or within 48 hours after treatment:

  • Heart Attack
  • Cardiac Arrest
  • Stroke
  • Sudden Cardiac Death

Side effects of Granuflo and NaturaLyte acid concentrates, which have been commonly used during dialysis treatments throughout the United States over the past decade, may have exposed patients to an increased risk of serious and potentially life-threatening injury.

During dialysis treatment with GranuFlo dry concentrate or Naturalyte liquid concentrate, these components are diluted with purified water and combinated with sodium bicarbonate to help clean the blood of individuals whose kidneys are not function.

However, the products were sold without proper warnings and instructions about the rate at which the sodium acetate contained in the dialysis treatments is convereted to bicarbonate by the tissues and liver, which effectively increases bicarbonate levels beyond what was initially prescribed.

High bicarbonate levels may lead to metabolic alkalosis, which can lead to low blood pressure, cardiopulmonary arrest or a heart attack.

Granuflo and NaturaLyte were manufactured and sold by Fresenius Medical Care, which not only sells the products used at dialysis clinics throughout the country, but they also operate clinics that treat about one-third of the 400,000 dialysis patients in the United States.

As a result of inadequate warnings and instructions, doctors were not adequately warned about the risk of cardiac arrest and heart attack during dialysis treatment, which requires close monitoring of prescribed buffer levels.

Because most dialysis patients and family members of individuals who suffered a severe or fatal injury do not know the treatment products used during their hemodialysis, the lawyers at Saiontz & Kirk, P.A. are providing free consultations and claim evaluations to help determine if financial compensation may be available.

Request a free consultation and claim evaluation with our dialysis treatment lawyers to evaluate the circumstances a heart attack, stroke, cardiac arrest or sudden death that occurred during hemodialysis or within 48 hours after treatment.

CONTACT OUR DIALYSIS TREATMENT LAWYERS ABOUT A LAWSUIT

14 Comments • Add Your Comments

  • Eric says:

    My father-in-law died on 25 February, 2012 and the official cause of death was heart attack. Approximately 1 month prior he had an episode in which we had to call the paramedics. During the first event Charles, who had complained that the dialysis center had removed far too much water, was sitting at the dinning room table, had trouble breathing, went into a catatonic state, and exhibited loud snoring-like sounds. Once the paramedics arrived he came out of this state and was tired but coherent.
    On 25 February Charles’s wife came to get me and said, “Chuck is dying.” I went to him and his breathing was labored and his last words to me were, “I’m dying.” I was a combat lifesaver in the military and I lost his pulse at this point. He then made the snoring-like sound again and slipped away. Myself and his daughter, a licensed certified nursing assistant performed CPR until the paramedics arrived. Once the paramedics arrived it was obvious that they were merely going through the motions because he had passed.
    On numerous occasions Charles mentioned that this center (Davita Dialysis Center, Enterprise, Alabama) drew his fluid levels down too low. He was only a patient at this clinic for three months after transferring down to Alabama from Pennsylvania.
    A friend recently called and had seen a commercial indicating that there have been issues concerning dialysis patients and heart attacks.
    We believe that the medical examiner, based on Charles’s medical history, called the cause of death without performing a complete autopsy. Charles had numerous medical issues however he was able to function, albeit tired after dialysis treatments. It is a splinter in our collective minds that, although Chuck might not have had a great deal of time left, he did in fact still have some time left.
    His heart attack occured less that 12 hours after a treatment.

    Posted on August 16, 2012 at 7:33 pm

  • Mrs. Fulton says:

    My son is the youngest dialysis patient in his center and he constantly complains about the lack of care ofthat is given by the nurses and technicians that are supposed to be caring for the patient. He is now in ICU at local hospital because last week he was told his access site infiltrated and he could not be dialysised. He was told that he needed to have a doctor look at the site. On Friday he went in again and again he was told a doctor need to look at the access site but no doctor ever did. He asked the charge nurse whom should get the doctor to look at it me, or this center in which he never got a response. He called the center again on Saturday at my insistence to find out if a doctor was scheduled to look at his site and when, he was told again that a doctor would have to look at it but when and by whom she never answered. They have doctors come into the center every Wednesday and this event happened on a Wednesday, where was the doctor this day? The toxin in his blood stream caused him to have a major seizure in which he bit his tongue and broke a tooth off. Could this have been avoided I think so.

    Posted on January 16, 2013 at 10:54 am

  • Karen says:

    My daughter Emily was on hemodialysis when she passed away. This was four years ago and I still have all of the paper work from the hospital and the clinic were she was being treated. In my heart something did not feel right about this whole case. Emily was only eight yrs. old at this time, and on her autopsy report they wrote undetermined. It all started when Emily’s tube became blocked and they could not do dialysis’s on her for six full days. So they decided to replace the tube and put it on the side of her heart, we stayed in the hospital over night so they could do the surgery early and when she came out and she was trying to wake up from being put out she had a hard time waking up, and I have gone through alot of surgeries with my baby and I know how she should have acted. Now mind you, Emily acted fine and herself before surgery and had no pain and was playing in the toy room at the hospital. After surgery that evening the doctor was suppost to do dialysis on her before she went home but for some reason he could not get anyone to come up and do the dialysis treatment and asked us, me and Emily’s father if we just wanted to take her home since she had treatment at the clinic the following morning so we took our baby girl home. She still wasnt herself. The next morning her dad took her to dialysis treatment and she had about 30 mins. left of treatment and he said all of the sudden Emily stretched her whole body and out and said daddy I cant breath, thats when then called 911 and she died on the way to the hospital. I have never asked for the full story from her father because I have hurt bad enough lossing Emily she was my world. I will make a copy of each and every paper I have and let you read it all. I have a nurse friend and she even has questions about why they gave her certain medicines and why they stopped working on her in the ambulance. I just wish I had some answers because I know in my heart something went wrong and it was the doctors fault. After this happened he stopped doing dialysis on children. Emily was his first peds. patient in the Shreveport area, Before this we drove four hours one way for her treatments three days a week. I really dont think he knew what he was doing that is the doctor in Shreveport I loved her doctor in Dallas at Dallas Childrens Hospital. I wish you would just look over what I have and you can decide. Thank you.

    Posted on March 14, 2013 at 2:39 am

  • Anthony says:

    My 72 yr old father was in the hospital for severe leg pains and fluid built up in the lungs in December 2011. He was given dialysis every day in the hospital to remove fluid. I noticed him getting weaker and an onset of confusion with every treatment. He told me they were killing him but still followed the advice of the doctors to continue the daily dialysis. On his last day i watch them give him a dialysis treatment. His blood pressure dropped as they continued treatment and told me it was normal even though i never saw his blood pressure drop so low. He died 2 hours later. My father was a regular dialysis patient 3 times per week. I never felt he was given the right amount of treatment in the hospital and never got a real reason for his onset of confusion or leg pains. I had to share this because i feel that the daily dialysis treatments in the hospital is what did my dad in. I carry the guilt with me every day not stopping them .

    Posted on May 6, 2013 at 7:46 pm

  • julied says:

    My husband was a patient from Davita and he died of heart attack Prior to that he was given Zemplar and had a Thyroid storm, Thyroid storm may lead to heart failure and requires emergent medical treatment..

    Posted on May 10, 2013 at 5:58 pm

  • Princess says:

    I want to talk with Emily, eight years old, mother. Maybe we can be support to each other. My husband died on dialysis and something was not right.

    Posted on September 27, 2013 at 9:49 pm

  • Patient says:

    I read all the comments and it saddens me that all of you guys have lost loved one due to Techs / Nurses careless behaviors. I know for a fact that if your a patient and your not paying attention to your blood pressure or weight gain the techs / nurse don’t really care they are just going what’s on the books.

    Posted on October 28, 2013 at 8:22 pm

  • Debbie says:

    November 13, 2013. My mom has only been on Dialysis for a little over 2 weeks. She is in hospital now as I am writing this because she was at her Dialysis Appt. yesterday and had only been hooked up 40 minutes and I just happen to go back to give her a snack. The nurse said she was complaining of hard to breath. I started talking to her and she slowly tilted her head and stiffened up and was either seizing or stroking. We are still waiting for CT scan results. Makes me want to sit with her the whole time. I love my Mama and all this is very fresh. I felt so helpless watching her having that episode Plz say a little prayer for her . She is so tiny now and frail and I can see that she has a lot of fear of all this medical stuff sticking and probing her all the time. Thx , Debbie

    Posted on November 13, 2013 at 11:42 pm

  • Kernesha says:

    On December 14, 2011, my mother passed away while receiving Dialysis. This was a stinger to our family because she was in a recovery center and was suppose to be ONLY receiving therapy. I have been devastated every since along with my family.
    This is a journey we took together I was there for every dialysis appointment and listen to everything they had to say. her initial timeframe on the machine was suppose to be 3.5 hours however once we arrived at the clinic they changed it without doctors orders and stated it was fine. We later determined they were pulling to much fluid which lead to her being weaker. Over the years we watched as many people lost legs and feet; she would always say I wonder what is happening to these people limbs. Often times she would tell the stories about the people passing out because they were removing too much fluid and their blood pressure would drop. She even spoke of a time when she had the exact same problem happen to her and she felt as though she was going blind and could not see a thing. I hope this settlement or whatever is going to happen fixes the problems that plague the dialysis treatment centers and the operators realize that this is a very sensative issue.

    Posted on June 17, 2014 at 9:23 am

  • Kontina says:

    Hi, Debbie i have a brother in law who is now in Micu. On January 8th 2015 he had dialysis treatment. He complained of his head hurting and right ear. They gave him medicine on the machine but we don’t know what was giving. After getting off and going home he was fine. He ate something and took a nap. 4 hours after leaving dialysis he went into cardiac Arrest which later they said he suffer from a Stroke he been in the hospital for a 1 Month and. 6 days. He went into Cardiac arrest this past Monday.
    I would like to know did your mom come home ok. And what was the diagnosis if she had seizure or stroke.

    Posted on February 14, 2015 at 12:08 pm

  • jai says:

    My friend who’s mom died in 2000 several hours sfter dialysis treatment seems to think that her family is included in this lawsuit. Since GranuFlo and NaturaLyte were not approved for manufacture until 2003, how can dialysis patients who died in 2000 be a part of this lawsuit? Doesn’t make sense…

    According to the Fresenius Medical Care website, the company operates more than 2,100 dialysis centers in North America. They also claim to be the largest provider of dialysis products and services in the world. Fresenius North America makes its corporate headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts, while its parent company, Fresenius Medical Care is based in Germany.
    The company received FDA clearance to market and manufacture GranuFlo and Naturalyte in 2003.

    Posted on September 22, 2015 at 4:18 pm

  • Heidi says:

    My husband is on dialysis and will be on dialysis till he dies.
    He was on the kidney transplant list and was taken off for unnecessary reasons. Lack of social support, 6 months of counseling and a cyst infection he only had for 3 days were the reasons in the letter from the kidney coordinator.
    The nephrologist says she had nothing to do with this (she did)!
    No phone calls were returned and we try to go and appeal the decision and go told that their decision is final and if we ever come back to the transplant services office ever again, we will be arrested.
    My husband can’t sleep at night and his nerves are bad because he knows he is going to die on dialysis.
    I wish there was something we can do in this situation.

    Posted on February 10, 2016 at 3:13 am

  • Kieona says:

    My stepdad keeps passing out after dialysis because we they keep taking too much fluid from him. Today he passed out inside the Walmart. He woke saying what happened. This is the third time this has happened. But it happens after he gets fluid removed and my mom says they just took too much fluid from him in dialysis again. Doctor and ambulance bills are sure adding up.

    Posted on November 13, 2020 at 10:04 pm

  • Nancy says:

    My Husband James Williams was diagnosed with SEPSIS infection and received this from dialysis. Acute hypoxic respiratory failure and his organs failed due to multi-system organ failure. His death was June 3rd 2019.

    Posted on July 29, 2021 at 5:06 pm

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