In October 2003, Sonny Morrill suffered his second heart attack in 8 years, resulting in his second heart bypass surgery.

“One reason why I was really not overly concerned about this surgery being successful is that he’d been through it once before,” his widow, Melissa Morrill, said. But when doctors put her husband on a dialysis machine after the operation, she knew something was wrong.

Three days later, Dr. Thomas Kelly left Melissa a message saying he wanted to call in a specialist. When she returned his call, she found out Sonny was dead.

After a January 2006 paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded Trasylol increased patients’ risk of heart attacks, strokes and renal failures, Morrill joined a dozen patients and families in suing Bayer. The class action lawsuit claims the use of Trasylol caused death or irreparable kidney injuries.

In September 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held an advisory meeting, during which Bayer said it had presented all of its information about the drug. The panel voted in support of Trasylol. But days later, a researcher contacted the FDA, stating Bayer hid significant evidence; namely, a review by a Harvard doctor that found Trasylol patients were at an increased risk for kidney failure as well as congestive heart failure, stroke and death.

The company countered by saying it “mistakenly” failed to mention the study.

“Bayer knew this drug causes this sort of complication and they still kept it on the market,” Morrill said. “My husband was just a number, a form of income for them.”

As of August 2007, the FDA has not taken any action against Bayer.

Source: Kris Hundley, “Drug warnings fall flat,” St. Petersburg Times, August 5, 2007.