Product Liability Lawyer Blog

August 11, 2016

Testosterone Therapy Can Cause Prostate Tumor to Grow

Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) has become increasingly common over the past decade. In the past, there had been little interest in giving patients testosterone hormones unless they had a relatively rare medical condition known as hypogonadism. This condition involves a patient with an extremely low testosterone count caused by a defective hormone gland and is causing developmental disorders in younger patients. In fact, this was the only medical condition for testosterone hormone was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and still remains the only approved use.

While the vast majority of the millions of men taking testosterone replacement therapy on a regular basis do not suffer from hypogonadism, the reason they can get the drug involves a gray area in FDA regulations that allows a doctor to prescribe a drug for what is known as off-label use. While this is technically allowed, we have seen recent cases where doctors are being fined and subject to discipline for allowed these so-called Low T clinics to prescribe patients testosterone hormone using their respective DEA numbers without them having actually examined the patients. Continue reading

August 7, 2016

Hip Resurfacing as an Alternative to Total Hip Replacement Surgery

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

In total hip replacement surgery, the deteriorated natural hip joint is cut out and site is prepared to receive the artificial hip joint. The site must be prepared very precisely so as not to allow for any unnecessary movement of the artificial hip joint.

If the hip joint is not placed exactly as required, it can move from side to side or otherwise rock in place and this can result in device failure. While the vast majority of surgeons are good at what they do and would never incorrectly implant an artificial hip device, it does happen. Continue reading

August 4, 2016

Stem Cell Research Being Used in Place of Total Hip Replacement

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

In the past couple months, many people have heard about stem cell treatments being used to try to avoid major joint surgery. Much of these news came from the baseball world, where the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (LAA) allowed doctors to perform a stem cell treatment instead of “Tommy John” surgery on two pitchers.

In the case of these baseball players, Tommy John surgery (named after the first pitcher to get the procedure, more formally known as an ulna collateral ligament or UCL procedure) can save a career, but it takes over a year for the pitcher to return to the game in most cases. The new procedure uses stem cells from bone marrow (not embryonic stem cells), and they may be able to regrow the damaged tissue instead of needing a replacement. Unfortunately, for one of the two pitchers, it did not work, so they had to do the Tommy John procedure after all. Continue reading

August 1, 2016

Hefferan v. Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc. – Jurisdictional Issues in Product Liability Lawsuits

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

For the second time in a week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has dismissed a product liability claim, citing forum non conviens. This is a discretionary power a court has to dismiss a case when another court (or forum) is better suited to hear the case.

The dismissal isn’t going to prevent a plaintiff from re-filing the case, but depending on the facts, he or she may run up against a statute of limitations issue. It’s always better to thoroughly research such issues ahead of time so that it doesn’t become time and money wasted.

There are many considerations that go into determining the proper forum in a product liability lawsuit, including:

Where plaintiff lives;
Where defendant is headquartered/ operates/ distributes;
Where the injury occurred.

July 29, 2016

J&J Seeks Expedited Appeal for $151M Pinnacle Verdict

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Johnson & Johnson lost a $500 million federal case in Texas earlier this year involving its Pinnacle hip replacement devices. However, the company won an important victory recently when the U.S. District judge overseeing the case slashed that damage award to $151 million, finding the punitive damage award excessive.

The verdict had been in favor of five plaintiffs and three spouses, who after a two month trial were collectively were supposed to receive $360 million in punitive damages and $140 million in compensatory damages.

Although the judge denied the company’s request to set aside the verdict or grant a new trial, the medical product behemoth is now seeking an expedited review of the verdict. The company has argued that jurors were improperly biased after hearing evidence that was both irrelevant and unfair during the trial. Attorneys for plaintiffs, however, say the bid for a new trial is nothing more than a flimsy attempt to snag a “do-over” after the strategy they employed during trial went awry. Continue reading

July 26, 2016

$8 Million Award for Defective DePuy Hip Affirmed

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

A man’s $8 million damage award for a defective hip has survived an appeal before the 4th District Court of Appeal. The trial was the first of thousands of product liability claims filed over the ASR hip device.

Plaintiff alleged that the device failed just 5 years after the surgery, despite promises that it was supposed to last most if not all the rest of his lifetime.

The case was Kransky v. DePuy, and expert witnesses, including a biomedical engineer, testified in the case that internal data from the company showed these hips started to deform and change shape in just one year’s worth of walking in the human body. This high rate of deformity was known to those in the company, who ignored this reported “red flag.” Continue reading

July 23, 2016

Massive Recall on Frozen Appetizers over E. coli Fears

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

According to a recent news feature from Food Safety News, over 22 tons of frozen appetizers (marketed as Kabob’s Hors d’oeuvres) have been recalled to due a recent outbreak of E. coli bacterial illness. There are many different products this company manufactures that are sold to restaurants and big box retailers and discount warehouses. There are dozens of different varieties of recalled products, including mini pizzas, spring rolls, pot stickers, and many other similar frozen appetizers that are not shipped ready to eat, as they do require cooking.

The problem did not come from the factory where the frozen food products were manufactured, but rather it was from the flour manufactured by General Mills, Inc. and shipped to this company for use in their food products. As soon as the flour company notified them of the potential for E. coli contamination, the company voluntarily recalled any product that used that flour to avoid any injury. Continue reading

July 20, 2016

New Study on Outcomes of Different Hip Replacement Procedures

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

There are a variety of ways a total hip replacement surgery can be performed these days. While every procedure ultimately involves making an incision and removing the patient’s deteriorating hip and replacing it with an artificial device, some doctors will make an anterior incision, some will cut along the side, some will cut through the muscle, while others will move the muscle. There is now a special table that doctors can use to give them better access to the site of procedure, and in some cases, doctors will use computers to make the map the site and even robots to perform the actual surgery.

While the proponents of every one of these techniques obviously claims that their procedure is the best, a recent report outlined in News Medical looks at the results following various techniques to see which one actually has better results in the various cases. Continue reading

July 17, 2016

Improving Chance of Successful Total Knee Replacement

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

In the past two decades, the number of patients undergoing a total knee replacement procedure each year has gone up considerably. As the number of surgeries has increased, there have been many advancements in the techniques used by surgeons to perform the total knee replacements. The recovery time, too, has lessened and the chance of success has increased.

According to a recent news feature from ABC, there are certain things that can be done to increase the chances of success even more, so as to avoid the chance that the device will fail after the procedure to the greatest extent possible. Continue reading

July 15, 2016

J&J Fires Back on Pelvic Mesh Marketing Lawsuit

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

In California, the state attorney general recently announced her office would be pursuing legal action against drug manufacturer Johnson & Johnson for its alleged false advertising and deceptive marketing of its vaginal mesh products.

Now, Johnson & Johnson has fired back on those claims,with a spokeswoman telling Legal Newsline that the decision to sue the company was not just, and that the company has no plans to settle the case. Instead, it plans to fight the allegations vigorously.

Of course, it likely has no choice. To concede that it deceptively marketed or falsely advertised would be to put ammunition in the hands of thousands of plaintiffs who are still waiting for their day in court with the medical product manufacturer. Continue reading