<p>Federal officials are investigating the death of a Piedmont Hospital patient who died after receiving blood improperly matched by the American Red Cross in Atlanta.</p><p>Federal and Red Cross officials have not identified the patient but family members of Rodney English, a 34-year-old man with spina bifida, say the hospital told them the investigation has focused on his case.</p><p>English, who used a wheelchair most of his life, was being treated at Piedmont for an infected pressure sore on his hip. Relatives say they aren't sure what happened after he received eight units of blood March 6 and 7. He went into a coma and died March 12, said Pam McDaris of Lilburn, English's aunt. There was no autopsy.</p><p>No one has claimed responsibility for the death, although the Food and Drug Administration has not blamed the hospital or the Red Cross for the man's death. The FDA, Piedmont and the Red Cross say patient privacy laws prevent them from disclosing English's full medical circumstances that could help explain his death.</p><p>"This is a Red Cross story," said Piedmont spokeswoman Nina Montanaro. "Piedmont received a mislabeled unit of blood."</p><p>The Red Cross acknowledges failing to identify a rare antibody in English's blood. That caused the Red Cross to give him a mismatched unit March 6, six days before he died.</p><p>The common blood types are based on the presence or absence of A, B and Rh antigens, substances on red blood cells. People who have an antibody, or allergy, to a particular antigen can experience serious side effects, even death, if they get the wrong blood.</p><p>But the Red Cross says it does not believe the problem caused the death because fatal transfusion reactions happen quickly, not nearly a week apart, said Dr. Jerry Squires, chief medical officer of the Red Cross.</p><p>The FDA inspected the Red Cross after English died. Its initial report, dated June 10, contained several allegations about blood-testing methods involving his case. But a second version of the report was issued Sept. 2 dropping nearly all references to the death and the circumstances surrounding it.</p><p>The FDA also said in the June 10 report that the Red Cross had failed to properly investigate two other transfusion-related deaths since July 2003 _ unnamed patients given blood from the Red Cross Blood Services Southern Region in Atlanta, which serves 140 medical centers in Georgia, North Florida and South Carolina.</p><p>The FDA has acknowledged changing its inspection documents, effectively downplaying Red Cross responsibility. The FDA also says it deleted other questions it had raised about the Red Cross in Atlanta, some of which involved two other deaths after blood transfusions.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x2865988)</p>
