Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog
A Multnomah County jury ordered a medical-device company to pay $4.75 million to a Portland, Oregon, man and his wife in a product-liability lawsuit that may have national implications, according to a report in The Oregonian.
The jury found I-Flow Corp. liable for destroying the cartilage in Matthew Beale’s right shoulder and leaving the 38-year-old father of four with constant pain and a disabled arm, the newspaper reported.
According to the lawsuit, I-Flow, a unit of Kimberly-Clark Corp, encouraged surgeons to use a “pain pump,” which delivers pain medication via a catheter to the affected spot, in an unapproved and unsafe manner for patients recovering from shoulder-joint surgery.
The newspaper said the verdict is notable not just for its size but also because I-Flow and other manufacturers face hundreds of similar lawsuits alleging that such pumps have caused severe cartilage deterioration, called chondrolysis, in patients around the country.
After dozens of reports of chondrolysis, the Food and Drug Administration in November issued a statement clarifying that it hasn’t approved such devices for prolonged infusion of medicine to joints.
Kimberly-Clark, which on Friday reported a 2009 profit of just less than $2 billion, bought California-based I-Flow for $325 million late last year.
If you or a family member has been personally injured because of the fault of someone else: by the use of dangerous and defective drugs, bad products, or toxic injury etc then please contact the Fort Worth Texas Defective Drugs Product Liability Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 214-390-3189 or Contact Me Online.
The Dr. Shezad Malik Law is currently evaluating and accepting I Flow Pain Pump cases.