The U. S. Food and Drug Administration have sent a team to investigate the death of two Delaware hospital patients who were given the blood thinner heparin.

Two of the three patients, a 71-year-old man and a 64-year-old woman, suffered adverse reactions after being administered the drug and died over the weekend confirmed a spokesman from Beebe Medical Center in Lewes, Del.

All the three people were using heparin supplied by Baxter International Inc., of Deerfield, Ill., though there is no evidence that directly links the deaths to the blood thinner.

The two patients who died both received pre-mixed intravenous bags of heparin and were both flown by helicopter from Beebe while one died at Christiana Hospital in Delaware, the other died at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

Erin Gardiner, a spokeswoman for Baxter said the company immediately contacted the FDA, and both the agency and Baxter sent medical teams to Delaware to investigate. An FDA spokeswoman said the agency is working with the hospital and Baxter Healthcare Corp., provider of the drug.

In 2008 there was a recall of heparin bulk supplies, vials of the medicine and drug-coated medical devices from several companies after tainted heparin was reportedly linked to some 80 deaths. These cases mostly involved allergic reactions and cardiac complications while the current two involved cranial bleeding.