The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "transfusions" ...
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Government Orders Columbia to Tell Patients 'True Nature' of Drug Study
Columbia University Medical Center conducted a study with experimental surgical fluid on patients undergoing open heart surgery. Subjects were not made aware of the risks of potentially fatal bleeding caused by the fluid. Some of the study's subjects were poor, Spanish-speaking patients who were enrolled without giving formal consent. At least two patients died and more than two dozen required transfusions.
Tags: Columbia University Medical Center; open heart; surgery; fluid; internal bleeding; fatal; study; experimental; emergency room;
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Hepatitis C: Silent Alarm
This series documented the government's numerous failures to warn the American public about hepatitis C, a disease that has infected more than 4 million people in the United States. The series found that the federal government promised repeatedly to raise a public alarm about the disease but reneged almost every time. As a result, most people with hepatitis C don't even know they have it and may be spreading it. The series also found that Congress and CDC give hepatitis C a fraction of the funding and attention they give other disease such as West Nile, that has killed several hundreds. The government promised a search to find nearly two hundred thousand patients who received infected blood transfusions before 1992, when a test was available to screen out infected blood, but four years later, the campaign had stalled. The blood industry in the 1980's delayed a screening test six years that could have prevented hepatitis C in more than 300,000 patients who received blood transfusions. the government never ordered the test even though it was aware of the seriousness of the disease.
Tags: hepatitis c; virus; AIDS; public alarm; Congress; Center for Disease Control and Prevention; HCV; funding; West Nile; infected blood transfusions; infected blood; blood industry; screening test; donated blood; CDC; CDC spending; HCV money; National Institute of Health; Health and Human Services; U.S. Food and Drug Administration; FDA's Office of Blood Research and Review; Blood Products Advisory Committee; Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability; blood banks; Community Blood Center of Kansas City; Oklahoma Blood Institute
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Red Cross Investigation
CBS investigates "widespread mismanagement and fraud" the Red Cross has been grappling with. Based on internal memos and audits, the series reports on how Joseph Lecowitch, head of the New Jersey chapter stole more than one million dollars. Other findings are that many chapters have not remitted their Sept. 11 donations to national headquarters; chapters are dipping into the National Disaster Fund "for unnamed purposes;" blood has been taken from donors who said they tested positive for AIDS or were not properly screened; and suspected transfusion-related diseases are not investigated.
Tags: Elizabeth Dole; lobbying; FDA; safety; health; embezzlement; fraud; charity; 9/11; TAPE; TRANSCRIPT
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Blood Errors
The series -- the result of an intensive Freedom of Information battle with the Food and Drug Administration -- "was two-pronged: an initial (three-part) series found hundreds of hospital patients across the U.S. had died following blood transfusions. The investigation found that "hospital labs mislabeled blood, nurses transfused it into the wrong patients, phlebotomists drew blood samples from the wrong people and, in some cases, deadly contaminated blood was transfused into patients." A secondary investigation "developed as an offshoot of the series. A special blood plasma made on Long Island and sold by the American Red Cross to thousands of hospitals was killing liver transplant patients." Newsday documented 16 deaths in liver transplant patients and found that the plasma was deficient in a crucial protein, making it especially dangerous to people with liver disease.
Tags: blood; hospitals; medicine; American Red Cross; transfusions; Long Island; plasma; Food and Drug Administration; FDA; FOIA; database mapping project
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Bad Blood
Newsday investigation finds transfusion errors in hospitals kill scores of patients each year. Overall, at least 441 patients died between 1995 and 2001 following transfusions. Experts suspect the actual number of transfusion-related deaths is much higher and that some hospitals fail to report them to the government as required. Flaws in state and federal reporting systems, insufficient government monitoring of hospitals and ambiguous federal regulations all help to minimize the problem.
Tags: blood; transfusions; hospitals; blood banks; blood type; plasma
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Cardiac Conflict
The article disclosed the details of numerous deaths in the heart transplant program at a prominent Chicago hospital, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center. Among the central findings, the piece noted that several of Rush's own cardiac surgeons had serious concerns about medical decisions and patient deaths in the fast-growing and aggressive program. Concerns included the possible mismatching of donor hearts with some patients. The article also reported on patients who died; one died when a surgeon showed up late for an operation; another when his cardiac deterioration wasn't detected for hours; and another when medical staff members failed to take note of a recent transfusion that led to "hyper-acute" heart rejection.
Tags: Burton Cardiac conflict; Contest entry; Doctors; Health Care; medical malpractice
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No title (id: 13069)
This paper examines the ethical conflicts which were generated at Le Monde, France's newspaper of record, during the so-called "Contaminated Blood Affair" in 1989 - 1992, and their impact on coverage and investigation of the scandal.
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No title (id: 10929)
Money Magazine's investigation found that reasons for continued HIV transmission include inherent flaws in the screening test most commonly used in blood banks. The story concluded that American Red Cross and other blood banking leaders and FDA regulators have not done all they can do to reduce the odds of acquiring HIV through blood products. The article also makes recommendations that would improve the safety of blood supply, May 1994.
Tags: NY Rock American Red Cross Blood banks Transfusions 9 pages
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Bad Blood
This US News & World Report reprint examines the safety of donated blood. The investigation found that blood transfusions are far riskier that people believe. Profils a number of people who recieved blood transfusions and are now infected with HIV or have AIDS. The article finds that hospital patients are often not told of transfusion risks, official reports often understate the problem and that by March 1994, critical problems were still unresolved at blood centers, June 1994.
Tags: DC Newman Loeb Podolsky CAJ CAR Red Cross FDA FOIA Hemophilia 33 pages
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No title (id: 10042)
Dateline NBC reveals evidence of serious, widespread and ongoing deficiencies at America'a blook banks, including risk that even now several hundred Americans each year contract the AIDS virus thru blood transfusions despite government-approved screening processes, Oct. 5, 1993.