Dr. Dianne Zwicke, MD

I send this email every January 10th because that is the day that my father passed away from an infection called sepsis ...that he developed by the method that they used to administer the drug Remodulin because he had developed pulmonary arterial hypertension. He first was administered this drug in November of 2007 and spent a month in the hospital. They used the intravenous IV infusion method in which they put a catheter in his arm. The doctor had told us that this was temporary and that they would be changing the method to the subcutaneous infusion method in which they were going insert a small catheter under the skin in his abdomen and the reason for this was because doctor Zawicki had told us that they do not like to leave it in the arm to long because there is more of a risk for infection. We kept asking when this procedure will be changed because my dad was doing really well with it and had finally started getting the color back in his face and was walking down the halls and was not losing his breath. We were thrilled that he was doing so well. Dr. Zawicki said she wanted to wait awhile because he was doing so well.

December came and he still was in the hospital with the IV in his arm. We asked if he could get out for Christmas and then we would bring him back and they said that would be o.k. and we had a nurse come to the house to show us how to mix the remodulin and change the IV and then in January they would be changing to the subcutaneous infusion method. My dad collapsed on January 1st and we called the ambulance to take my dad back to the hospital because he was feeling very week and he was running a temperature. When my father arrived at the emergency room the nurses had very little knowledge of remodulin and what you do with it. My mother and I had a card that we were given by the nurse that came to the house who specialized in it and we explained it to the nurses in the emergency room. As the days went on my dad just kept getting worse so doctor Zawicki put him on antibiotics, but what she didn’t tell us was that he had developed sepsis from the IV that was still in his arm.

My dad lay in the hospital in terrible pain for 10 days while his organs slowly shut down, while all of this was going on we still did not know that he had developed sepsis because the doctor never came to talk to us until the night before he died. My dad was in so much pain he was thrashing his arms and legs constantly before they finally gave him enough morphine so he could relax. He died on January 10th of 2008.

The reason I write this email every year on the anniversary of his death is because I want people who are using remodulin or have a loved one who is being told that they need to go on remodulin to please ask questions, make sure that they administer the remodulin by subcutaneous infusion instead of intravenous IV infusion. If they would have done this for my father he may be still living. The actual way we found out what killed him is when we received the death certificate signed by Dr. Zawicki and it read reason of death. Sepsis. She did not even have the decency to tell this to our faces. I know a lot of you are saying this is a very bitter person, and you are right I am very bitter even 5 years later, but what you don’t understand is that my dad was a very active man and 1 year before his death he was still climbing tree stands for deer hunting. This drug does a lot of good and prolongs the lives of many people when it is administered correctly by nurses who are actually well trained in the procedures that are so very important to follow when taking care of patients that are on remodulin.

I hope this letter helps people understand how valuable it is to read as much information and ask as many questions as possible before starting any treatment of any kind. I really wish I would have had the information that I have now when we were going through this with my dad. more details