On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Defective Products on Tuesday, May 14, 2013
One of the ways drug maker Boehringer Ingelheim has touted its anticoagulant Pradaxa to doctors and patients in Alabama and elsewhere is to claim that the drug has a lower risk of causing intracranial hemorrhage, or bleeding inside the skull. Whether or not that is true, many patients have found that a bleeding incident while on Pradaxa can quickly turn dangerous because there is currently no effective antidote doctors can use to stop the bleeding. Many observers call Pradaxa a defective product and several former patients have sued Boehringer Ingelheim for failure to warn them of this side effect.
Because of the lack of antidote, intracranial bleeding incidents in Pradaxa patients can be more dangerous than for those on comparable drugs. That is the conclusion of a recent journal article on the subject.
On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Dangerous Medical Devices on Thursday, May 9, 2013
Regular readers of this Birmingham product liability blog have often read about men and women who had to undergo a procedure called "revision surgery" after a defective or dangerous medical device that has been implanted in their bodies. Revision surgery refers to the process of removing a medical implant. Patients often undergo the procedure after a defective device, such as the Stryker Rejuvenate artificial hip system, has caused serious side effects in their body.
While the removal of defective devices may be necessary if the device has been recalled or is causing side effects, undergoing revision surgery is not as easy as snapping your fingers. In fact, it is frequently a lengthy, difficult procedure.
On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Dangerous Medical Devices on Monday, May 6, 2013
We have used this blog to pass along information about the product liability litigation surrounding transvaginal mesh, a medical device manufactured by several companies, including Johnson & Johnson. While many women in Alabama have been harmed by these dangerous medical devices, sales of the mesh were not limited to the United States. In fact, women throughout the world say they were harmed by transvaginal mesh, which J&J and its competitors marketed as a solution to pelvic organ prolapse, or POP.
That is a condition where women's weakened pelvic muscles cause their internal organs to sag into the vagina. The meshes designed by the medical device companies are implanted into the patient's body to theoretically hold the organs in place.
On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Dangerous Medical Devices on Monday, May 6, 2013
We have discussed transvaginal mesh several times for our readers in Birmingham and elsewhere. Among the symptoms experienced by thousands of women in Alabama and around the world who were implanted with one of these defective medical devices are pain and urinary incontinence. Besides those symptoms, the mesh, which can become embedded in body tissue and cause swelling, often causes a more delicate but potentially devastating side effect: difficulty with sexual intercourse.
Many women have found that having transvaginal mesh in their bodies makes sex too painful. This difficulty with intimacy can profoundly affect women who are married or in a relationship. While sex is not the only aspect of most romantic relationships, it is one of the most important ones for many people. The loss of the ability to have sex due to transvaginal mesh can have serious consequences.
On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Defective Products on Tuesday, April 30, 2013
We have previously discussed the multi-district litigation, or MDL, that was formed in federal court in another state to handle some of the product liability cases filed against Boehringer Ingelheim, the manufacturer of the potentially dangerous drug Pradaxa. A federal court may establish an MDL when there are several plaintiffs across the country with similar product liability claims against a manufacturer to consolidate pretrial proceedings such as pretrial motions and discovery.
So far, the MDL for the Pradaxa litigation has consolidated more than 120 cases from around the country, which may be remanded back to the plaintiffs' local federal districts for trial later.
On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Dangerous Medical Devices on Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Readers in Birmingham who have been following our discussion of the defective Stryker Corp. Rejuvenate and ABG II hip implants may be interested to hear the story of an orthopedic surgeon from another state who once regularly used the device on his patients. Over the past year, more and more of the surgeon's time has been taken up in revision surgeries to remove the defective medical devices. "This has been the worst year of my life," he said.
As we have previously discussed, Stryker issued a recall of the Rejuvenate hip components after frequent complaints from hip replacement patients that the device, which uses a system of metal necks and stems, was causing them severe pain and other complications. In this particular surgeon's case, 100 of the approximately 400 patients he implanted with one of the recalled hips have required revision surgery to remove it. He expects to have to do about another 100 such procedures, a failure rate of 50 percent. Some observers expect the failure rate to reach up to 90 percent worldwide.
On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Defective Products on Monday, April 22, 2013
While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration continues to side with the drug maker Boehringer Ingelheim's claims that its anticoagulant Pradaxa is sufficiently safe, an increasing number of patients, doctors and observers are expressing concern that the drug's lack of an antidote has caused thousands of injuries and hundreds of deaths. Among the critics is Public Citizen, a consumer watchdog nonprofit that recently included Pradaxa in its "worst pills" list.
An edition of Public Citizen's newsletter recently included an article titled "Worst Pills, Best Pills." In that article, Public Citizen warned readers about the drug's potential side effects. Among the most serious complications Pradaxa can cause is internal bleeding. That is a fairly common side effect of anticoagulants, but unlike with competing medications there is no antidote for Pradaxa, making bleeding difficult to control.
On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Defective Products on Thursday, April 18, 2013
Five French executives went on trial this April for supplying women with hundreds of thousands of faulty breast implants. The matter has triggered fear in consumers. For over 10 years, 300,000 women around the world have received breast implants from the French company, Poly Implant Prothese (PIP). The pending litigation includes 5,000 civil plaintiffs and 300 attorneys.
Sources report that PIP's founder and chief executive has recently admitted to filling the implants with an unapproved and homemade recipe, which is made from an industrial-grade silicone gel. This makes the product unsafe.
On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Product Liability on Wednesday, April 17, 2013
The number of children in the U.S. taken to emergency rooms for injuries in moonwalks or bounce houses in 2010 was 15 times higher than in 1995, according to a study in the medical journal Pediatrics. Even more surprising, most of that jump in the injury rate occurred between 2008 and 2010. How often are children injured in the inflatable jumping attractions? According to the researchers, one child is hurt, on average, every 46 seconds while jumping around in a moonwalk.
The researchers haven't yet established exactly why injuries are skyrocketing. One possibility is a failure to provide adequate directions for their safe use on the part of moonwalk manufacturers or rental outfits. Another is that cheaper products flooding in to the country are not as safe as those manufactured here. Or, it may be simply that their increasing popularity translates into a larger group of children who could be injured.
On behalf of McCallum Hoaglund Cook & Irby, LLP posted in Product Recalls on Wednesday, April 10, 2013
A nationwide recall of 10 million pounds of frozen food products for possible E. coli contamination may have come too late for schools in 15 states. Rich Products Corp., the company that manufactured the contaminated food, admits that up to 150 tons of food may have reached school cafeterias, a frightening though for parents in Alabama.
Of the 10 million pounds of frozen food that was sent out by Rich Products, about three million are still on the market despite the recall and about 300,000 pounds may have gone to schools for student lunches. Most of the recalled food were pizza dippers and pepperoni pizzatas.
