They were given this tremendous overdose of heparin at the hospital because of a labeling mix-up.

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The anti-coagulants warfarin and heparin can be easily reversed if a patient develops major bleeding.

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Coumadin takes weeks to start having an effect, but Exanta begins working in two hours, like heparin.

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"Almost all forms of heart surgery require heparin, " says Mark Stafford-Smith, a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist at Duke University.

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But cardiologists haven't given up on old-fashioned heparin, which is often used in combination with other anti-clotting drugs.

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In the heparin case Chinese suppliers replaced the main ingredient with a cheaper, dangerous substance that still passed authentication tests.

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Improvements on the Horizon: Heparin has been around for about 70 years.

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's (nasdaq: MDCO - news - people ) Angiomax, which appeared to be as effective as heparin but safer in a recent clinical trial.

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Neutralase, an enzyme that chews up heparin, could replace protamine.

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In the past decade major problems with Chinese-made food and drugs has led to thousands of deaths, mostly in China itself, but many in rich countries too, including at least 150 deaths in the U.S. from counterfeits of the drug heparin.

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