DEATH---AGAIN!!!!

I have been taking coumadin--blood thinner---for 12 years since I had congestive heart failure and was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation New Year's weekend 1999-2000. In
June 2009 I started to do the Philips blood level tests at home instead
of going into the doctor's office a few times a month and I didn't have
any problems with it. The readings are suppose to be between 2-3
but around 4 weeks they were 1.2, 1.4, 1.6 and 1.2 My doctor increased
the dosage but it didn't seem to help. On December15 he almost doubled the amount--instead of taking 5mg per day I was taking 10mg 4 times a week and 12.5mg 3 times. I do  my testing on Thursdays and when I took it December 22 it was
still 1.4 I thought I would call the doc and tell him that I wanted to come
in and take a test there but I was told he was on vacation until the
following Tuesday so I decided I would wait until then. An hour or two
later I noticed that parts of my body--tongue, thumb--were getting
filled with blood. A couple of hours I noticed my computer chair
was wet and to my surprise it was blood. My recliner, dining room chair
and bed had blood on them. Making a long story short I called the
doctor's office and wrote a few people an e-mail about my bleeding and
ALL insisted I call 911 but I know better (HA!) and said if I was still
bleeding in the morning I would call 911. Making the story even
shorter--blood was gushing out of my rectum and I was spitting out
blood. 911 here I come and by 7:40 AM I was in the ER.

in the ER on the left--my private room on the right

I
was not allowed food or water as they had to put plasma in my blood
stream. Remember my level is suppose to be between 2-3 and it was 1.2
the day before? Well it was 10+ in the hospital. The bottom line is that
I didn't have anything to eat or drink for 40 hours, got plied with
plasma and eventually it came down to 2.5.

The ER doctor said I was not to take coumadin again and that I should see my doctor and talk to him about the
alternatives. Very strange, for me, but I didn't sleep at all the whole
time I was in the hospital. I didn't know whether to go to sleep or eat
when Allen arrived to take me home. I bought a couple of subs at Subways
and went home, fell into bed and got up an hour later.

The
next day being Christmas I went to our little get together on the
breezeway. It being Monday and a legal holiday there was no way I could
have gotten ahold of my
doctor so I plan to call the office tomorrow, tell them to get copies of
my hospital file and go see my doctor on Wednesday and see where we go
from there.

I did e-mail Philip's and Hemosense, the manufacturer and distributor of the testing machine. To my surprise I did get a response  a couple of hours later from the Hemosense company with a young lady asking me dozens of questions---I think
trying to find something to blame the false readings on--didn't work. I
am not a suing person but I might in this case.

This is the letter I sent:

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