Posted on Nov 20, 2012


Your kidneys are important organs and when working properly they produce hormones that help keep your bones and blood healthy. They also filter your blood to remove harmful wastes and extra salt and water. When your kidneys fail, you may need dialysis. Of the two types of dialysis, hemodialysis uses a machine as an artificial kidney. The machine has membranes to filter your blood, retaining proteins and nutrients while allowing wastes to pass through and be washed away by dialysates.  GranuFlo and NaturaLyte are two dialysates produced by Fresenius Medical Care (FMC), which supplies approximately one-third of the dialysis centers in the United States.

Fresenius learned of a high rate of cardiac arrests linked to their dialysate drugs in 2010 and issued an internal memo to its own dialysis clinics on November 4, 2011. Fresenius did not alert non-FMC physicians and clinics of the problem, despite the fact that over 100,000 patients were receiving the products at non-FMC facilities. The FDA learned of this problem and forced Fresenius to issue a statement on March 29, 2012 followed by a Class 1 Recall by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Fresenius Medical Care mislead and hid information about patient safety while continuing to profit from the sale of their products. Despite the empirical evidence that GranuFlo and NaturaLyte put patients at risk, FMC continued to market these products, even bundling them with other FMC products in order to offer huge discounts to purchasers.

If you or someone you know was using GranuFlo or NaturaLyte for dialysis and suffered cardiopulmonary arrest, metabolic alkalosis, sudden MI or heart attack, stroke or death, our attorneys can help you. Call our office toll free number 1-800-800-5678 for assistance.

Hupy and Abraham also represents other drug and medical device cases, including DePuy Hip implants, other metal-on-metal hip implants, Yaz or Yasmin, Fosamax, Actos, and Medtronic Spine devices. We also represent people injured by Asbestos/Mesothelioma.