Personal Injury

January 11, 2015

Hysterectomy Morcellator Cancer 2015 Update

There are many product liability lawsuits being filed against the manufacturers of power morcellators. The injured women claim that patients and doctors should have been warned about the risks associated with use of the medical devices during minimally invasive, laparoscopic hysterectomies.

What Are Power Morcellators?

Power morcellators are medical devices that are used during laparoscopic hysterectomy and myomectomy procedures. The device allows the surgeon to grind up the uterus or uterine fibroids and remove the tissue through a small incision in the abdomen. The medical device is used during minimally invasive surgery, and reduces recovery time, scarring and speeds up recovery time.

December 18, 2014

Xarelto Louisiana MDL For Uncontrollable Bleeding Lawsuits

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation announced consolidation and centralization of all nationwide Xarelto lawsuits filed in federal courts before U.S. District Judge Eldon E. Fallon in the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Over 50 Federal Xarelto Lawsuits

Bayer Healthcare and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals subsidiary are exposed to at least 50 product liability lawsuits over their new-generation anticoagulant. These personal injury and wrongful death claims are pending in 24 different federal courts.

November 14, 2014

Boston Scientific Ordered To Pay $26.7 M in Florida Transvaginal Mesh Cases

by Dr. Shezad Malik

In the first federal trial involving Boston Scientific Corp., the vaginal mesh manufacturer was ordered by the jury to pay $26.7 million to a group of four women who blamed the company’s vaginal mesh inserts for their personal injuries.

Jurors in federal court in Miami found that Boston Scientific officials defectively designed their Pinnacle pelvic-organ implants and failed to properly warn doctors and their patients about the device’s risks.

The verdict is the first in a federal case against Boston Scientific over the Pinnacle inserts and the first to combine more than one plaintiff’s claims.

November 13, 2014

West Virginia Actos Bladder Cancer Trial

by Dr. Shezad Malik

An Actos Bladder Cancer trial in West Virginia state court has started over allegations that Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s popular diabetes drug Actos causes bladder cancer.

The West Virginia trial comes shortly on the heels of a $2 million verdict in Philadelphia on October 3 over the blockbuster drug.

It will be only the eighth case to go to trial out of thousands filed. Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., was slammed and ordered to pay more than $2 million to a plaintiff who claimed that the company’s Actos diabetes medicine caused her bladder cancer.

This was the latest Actos trial over bladder cancer claims from the medication.Jurors in state court in Philadelphia found that the Japan-based Takeda failed to properly warn Frances Wisniewski’s doctors about Actos’s cancer risk.

According to Wisniewski’s attorney, Mike Miller, the jury found Takeda “clearly failed to warn, and it clearly caused her damage. She’s got a life of bladder cancer; it’s a fair verdict,” he added.

Takeda Knew in 2004 of Cancer Link

October 24, 2014

Jury Finds for J&J DePuy In Texas Pinnacle Hip Trial

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Johnson & Johnson was found not liable for personal injuries and product liability by a Texas jury in the first case to go to trial.

Jury Found For Johnson & Johnson DePuy

The Dallas federal jury ruled unanimously against the plaintiff Kathleen Herlihy-Paoli, who said the two metal-on-metal Pinnacle hips she received in 2009 were defective and that the company failed to warn patients and doctors about the device’s risks.

October 15, 2014

Cook IVC Filter MDL Litigation Heading to Southern Indiana

by Dr. Shezad Malik

According to the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML), all pending federally filed Cook inferior vena cava (IVC) filter lawsuits will be consolidated and centralized before U.S. District Judge Richard L. Young in the Southern District of Indiana, for coordinated pretrial proceedings.

This order by the JPML establishes a nationwide federal Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) in one courthouse. This MDL will include all product liability and personal injury lawsuits involving side effect complications with Cook IVC filters.

What are Cook IVC Filters?

October 3, 2014

Report: Cook IVC Filter Lawsuit MDL Centralization Hearing

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, earlier this week, considered the application for all Cook Celect and Gunther Tulip IVC filter lawsuits filed nationwide in U.S. District Courts. The application was brought by the plaintiffs and they requested that the litigation be centralized before one judge for coordinated pretrial proceedings, as part of an MDL, or Multidistrict Litigation.

Cook Medical 27 IVC Filter Lawsuits

Currently, Cook Medical faced at least 27 different IVC filter lawsuits pending in 11 different districts. Plaintiffs have requested that the litigation be transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana as part of the MDL.

September 19, 2014

Report: DePuy Pinnacle First Texas Bellwether Trial

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The first federal bellwether trial against Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy subsidiary for its allegedly defective Pinnacle Hip Implant has been underway for the past 3 weeks in Dallas, Texas.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas oversaw jury selection on September 2 and over the past three weeks there has been a parade of company executives, paid doctor consultants and defense experts subjected to withering cross examination by the plaintiffs team of lawyers.

DePuy Orthopedics Inc., is facing the first bellwether trial over allegations that the Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip was defectively designed and caused metallosis. According to the plaintiff Kathleen Herlihy-Paoli, the cobalt-and-chromium alloy caused an infection that resulted in the artificial hips to be removed.

September 6, 2014

Cook Celect, Gunther Tulip IVC Filters Lawsuit Update

by Dr. Shezad Malik

There are at least 27 Cook Celect IVC filter or Cook Gunther Tulip IVC filter lawsuits filed nationally in different U.S. District Courts. The plaintiffs have similar allegations that the medical devices were defectively designed and caused patients to be injured after receiving the filters.

What is the Cook Celect?

Cook Medical manufactures the Celect Vena Cava Filter. It was approved in 2008 under the FDA 510(k) approval process. This process is a short cut to getting approval for medical devices.

September 5, 2014

J&J Ethicon Hammered for $3.27M in Trans Vaginal Mesh Trial

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A federal jury in West Virginia today hammered Johnson and Johnson’s Ethicon subsidiary over its transvaginal mesh device. The jury awarded $3.27 million to Jo Huskey over its defective Gynecare TVT Obturator, or TVT-O, transvaginal mesh device. This is one of 33,000 product liability injury lawsuits that claim Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon Inc unit sold defective transvaginal mesh devices.

Federal Jury Verdict

After a two-week trial, jurors found Ethicon liable for selling defective mesh devices and failing to warn patients and their doctors that they were at risk from serious side effects including pain, erosion, perforation and infection.