Heparin's Deadly Side Effects

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But where agencies may lack muscle, the personal-injury bar doesn't. To date, plaintiff attorneys have filed 60 suits against Baxter and SPL in federal court. SPL CEO Strunce can claim his company's heparin met Chinese standards, but that's probably a meaningless defense in a U.S. trial. For American drug companies using sources in China, quality control is not just China's problem--it's also their problem.

In any event, it's too late for Johanna Staples, a kindergarten teacher whose husband Dennis, a popular disc jockey in Toledo, Ohio, died of a reaction to tainted heparin in January, a day shy of his 60th birthday. She says she's still afraid. "There are so many variables in how we receive our drugs that it's amazing there hasn't been a worse problem. Now look at all these kids sick in China because of tainted milk. Sometimes I get in a sheer panic thinking about it."