HITT is the development of low platelet counts in the blood due to the administration of heparin – a blood thinner or anticoagulant – which can lead to a stroke, heart attack, deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism. How can you tell if you've been injured due to HITT? Our legal expert provides the answers.

Recognizing HITT injuries

We asked Doug Kreis, a Florida products liability attorney whose firm represents those injured due to HITT, to explain how someone would know if they or a loved one has been injured due to a HITT event. Here's what he told us:

If an individual or one of their loved ones has had surgery and suffered a Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia event or has been found to have had a stroke, a heart attack, a deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism after a surgery, they need to look into whether or not it was caused by the introduction of Heparin. It’s easily detectable and in many instances we’ll find that the death certificates of individuals actually state the cause of death as “HIT” or “thrombotic event.”

If those things occurred, then it’s very likely that the person suffered a HITT event – which probably could have been prevented. They would therefore potentially have a legal cause of action in medical malpractice against both the hospital and the physicians that were involved.

An investigation will generally reveal what happened during the surgery. Physicians are supposed to do blood tests, look at platelet counts and watch for a precipitous decline or decrease in the platelet counts, which is a tell-tale sign of the onset of a HITT event. So, it’s really about the timing of this and a physician needs to monitor the situation, take certain precautions and either discontinue or lower the amount of Heparin that’s being introduced into the body.

Timing is key

Kreis explained how timing factors into recognizing HITT injuries, or the potential of a HITT injury – either before surgery, after systems appear or post surgically:

• Before surgery. Laboratory tests should be done prior to surgery to identify whether or not a person is at risk for suffering a thrombotic event through the introduction of heparin.
• After symptoms appear. Testing can also be done after the onset of some symptoms that appear to mimic a HITT event to identify if that’s what happened, because then there are immediate steps that physicians need to take to either try to slow or remedy this thrombotic process.
• Post surgically. When looking at the situation post surgically, you're going back and investigating what really happened to see if you have some cause of action. That can be done by looking at medical records, looking at the blood workup, looking at nursing notes, looking at the operative report and then post-op notes. It all becomes quite clear that a person suffered a HITT event.