Fresenius Sued Again in Cardiac Death Lawsuit

BOSTON, Feb. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Nix Patterson and Roach, LLP and Feazell & Tighe LLP announce the filing of a wrongful death lawsuit against the manufacturer of GranuFlo®, Fresenius Medical Care North America.  The lawsuit was filed in Boston federal court on February 27, 2013, by Bettye Alexander, whose late husband Gary Alexander suffered a heart attack and died following hemodialysis treatment using GranuFlo®.  Mrs. Alexander alleges that Fresenius failed to warn that GranuFlo®, which has been used as part of a dialysate prescription at thousands of dialysis clinics over the last decade, puts patients at a substantially higher risk of cardiac arrest, stroke, and sudden cardiac death. 

Nix Patterson & Roach, LLP and Feazell & Tighe LLP currently represent more than 1300 people alleged to have suffered cardiac arrest, stroke, or sudden cardiac death following the use of GranuFlo® or a similar Fresenius dialysate product, NaturaLyte®

The lawsuit alleges that Fresenius was aware of the risk for years, long before Mr. Alexander underwent his hemodialysis treatment.  An internal memo written by Fresenius in November 2011 warned that the use of GranuFlo® was associated with a 6 to 8 fold greater increase of cardiopulmonary arrest and sudden cardiac death in the dialysis facility.  That internal memo, which covered only a single year and a third of Fresenius's clinics, identified 947 cardiac deaths.  Fresenius sent that internal memo to its own network of dialysis clinics.  But Fresenius sells GranuFlo® to thousands of other dialysis clinics as well.  It did not share this information with any of them until almost five months later.  The internal memo was leaked anonymously to the FDA in March, 2012, and a recall of GranuFlo® and a similar product, NaturaLyte®, was issued later that month.  For more information on the recall, please visit http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/Safety/ListofRecalls/ucm309990.htm

Mrs. Alexander, who is also represented by Kreindler & Kreindler LLP, seeks compensatory and punitive damages for the unnecessary and unfortunate death of her husband.

Plaintiffs with cases against Fresenius have filed with the Judicial Panel of Multidistrict Litigation (JPML), seeking to consolidate all GranuFlo® lawsuits in a single federal court in order to coordinate pretrial proceedings and efficiently manage the litigation.  Fresenius has joined in that request. 

If you suspect you or a loved one has been injured by GranuFlo® or NaturaLyte®, call Feazell & Tighe LLP toll-free at 877-508-0588, http://www.feazell-tighe.com or email Austin Tighe at [email protected] .

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SOURCE Feazell & Tighe LLP