7am News, Sports and Obits

Latest WGIL news
Click to play or
Right click and "Save Target As" to download
Click for Galesburg, Illinois Forecast
Home - Cancellations - Community Events - Contact Us - Mornings - News - Obituaries - Pictures - Programs - Special Events Audio - Sports - Weather
Jury Awards Estate of Man Given Contaminated Drug
CHICAGO (AP) -- A Cook County jury has awarded $625,000 to the estate of a man given the blood thinner heparin that was contaminated with fake ingredients sourced in China.

Hundreds of lawsuits were filed against Deerfield, Ill.-based Baxter International Inc. and its supplier, Wisconsin-based Scientific Protein Laboratories, after federal regulators determined in 2008 that heparin was contaminated with a nutritional supplement that mimics the real drug in routine tests for potency.

Thursday's verdict in favor of the estate of Steven Johansen of Oak Forest was the first to result from the litigation.

Attorneys say the man received low doses of contaminated heparin in December 2007 during dialysis. He later received a higher dosage and died.

After heparin was linked to hundreds of life-threatening allergic reactions, the drug was recalled by Baxter International.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
06 10 11 by Newsroom
News management powered by Xpression News

Click here for the WGIL News Archive

Click here for national news

The following provision applies to all visitors (which shall include persons and representatives of legal entities, whether such representatives are persons or digital engines of a kind that crawls, indexes, scrapes, copies, stores or transmits digital content). By accessing this Web site or digital service, you specifically acknowledge and agree that: (i) Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium; (ii) No Associated Press materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use; (iii) The Associated Press will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing; (iv) The Associated Press is an intended third party beneficiary of these terms and conditions and it may exercise all rights and remedies available to it; and (v) The Associated Press reserves the right to audit possible unauthorized commercial use of AP materials or any portion thereof at any time.