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One of Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary companies has asked a federal appellate court to enter a stay of litigation in a lawsuit involving its Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip implant device. The company is seeking this time-out, claiming that it needs to appeal a $490 million jury verdict against the medical device manufacturer. During March 2016, a federal jury in Texas returned a verdict against DePuy Orthopedics, the subsidiary in question, totaling $490 million in favor of five plaintiffs who alleged the subsidiary’s hip implant caused them serious injuries.

Following a two-month trial on the product liability claim, the jurors concluded that DePuy’s metal-on-metal hip implants, which were a spinoff model based on the Pinnacle hip implants, were designed in an unreasonably dangerous manner and that DePuy had failed to include appropriate warnings with the products about the dangers that users may face. To recover compensation in a medical device case, the plaintiff must show that the medical device was designed in an unreasonably dangerous fashion. This can also include facts showing that the company failed to include proper warnings or instructions with the device. Here, for example, the plaintiffs alleged that DePuy failed to warn patients about the likelihood of metal fragments entering patients’ bloodstreams and causing metallosis. The jury returned a verdict form awarding $130 million in compensatory damages and $360 million in punitive damages.

Prior to this, in October 2014, the first case litigating whether the Pinnacle hip implant was defective was concluded when a federal jury returned a verdict stating that DePuy was not liable for the plaintiffs’ injuries and awarding the plaintiffs zero damages.

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Moll Law Group ha presentado su primera demanda contra el fabricante de Nexium, AstraZeneca, en nombre de un residente de Tennessee que sufrió heridas graves y potencialmente mortales después de haber sido prescrito y de tomar el medicamento Nexium. Presentada en el Distrito Oeste de Tennessee, la demanda alega que los acusados sabían o deberían de haber sabido que Nexium formula un serio riesgo de lesiones renales y que el fabricante de medicamentos fallo en proporcionar las instrucciones adecuadas en relación con las consecuencias potencialmente mortales que podrían resultar del uso de la droga.

El demandante comenzó a tomar Nexium en el 2003 y continuó utilizándolo hasta el 2008, cuando fue diagnosticado con una condición grave e inducida por fármacos de nefritis intersticial aguda a través de una biopsia. Como resultado de su condición, él estaba obligado a someterse a diálisis tres veces a la semana y está en espera de un trasplante de riñón.

Nexium es un tipo de inhibidor de la bomba de protones (IBP) que se utiliza para disminuir la cantidad de ácido que produce el estómago. Este tipo de medicamento se utiliza comúnmente para tratar la enfermedad de reflujo gastroesofágico (ERGE) y la úlcera péptica (PUD). Aprobado originalmente bajo el nombre de Losec en 1988, Nexium es un medicamento IBP de segunda generación y se pretende que sea una mejoría de la versión de primera generación, comúnmente conocida como Prilosec. Continue reading →

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Moll Law Group has filed its first lawsuit against the maker of Nexium, AstraZeneca, on behalf of a Tennessee resident who suffered severe and life-threatening injuries after being prescribed and taking the drug Nexium. Filed in the Western District of Tennessee, the complaint alleges that the defendants knew or should have known that Nexium poses a serious risk of kidney injuries and that the drug maker failed to provide adequate instructions regarding the potentially life-threatening consequences that could result from the use of the drug.

The plaintiff started taking Nexium in 2003 and continued using it until 2008, when he was diagnosed with a severe and drug-induced case of Acute Interstitial Nephritis following a biopsy. As a result of his condition, he was required to undergo dialysis three times a week and is awaiting a kidney transplant.

Nexium is a type of proton pump inhibitor (PPI) that is used to decrease the amount of acid that the stomach produces. This type of drug is commonly used to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and peptic ulcer disease (PUD). Originally approved under the name Losec in 1988, Nexium is a second-generation PPI drug and was intended to be an improvement on the first-generation version, commonly referred to as Prilosec.

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A former sales representative for the medical device manufacturing company Zimmer Biomet (“Zimmer”) has filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming that the orthopedics provider fired him as a result of the testimony he provided during a grand jury hearing against a physician who was accused of performing unnecessary knee replacement procedures. Further catapulting this story into the public eye is the fact that the sales representative, named Dominick Pistone, is the brother of Joseph Pistone, an FBI agent who served as the basis for the movie Donnie Brasco.

As a sales representative, Pistone sold Zimmer products for 25 years until the company terminated his employment in June 2015. The lawsuit also alleges that some time in 2007, Pistone learned that a physician who has not been identified by name was “performing numerous double knee replacements, well above the average . . .  primarily for financial gain and not in the best interest of the patients.”

Additionally, the complaint states that the device the unnamed doctor used in these procedures was not subject to FDA approval. The CEO of the company that formally manufactured the device, OtisMed, was sent to prison for two years, and the company was required to pay an $80 million settlement to Stryker, which had acquired OtisMed during 2009.

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In some cases, a plaintiff’s own conduct may contribute to an injury, decreasing the amount of damages awarded. In other cases, the plaintiff’s conduct may bar compensation completely. In a recent case, a boy’s family was barred from compensation after he was killed in a skateboarding accident.

Two brothers were skateboarding in a resort town when one of the brothers tragically died in a skateboarding accident. The two brothers had been riding their skateboards down a hill when one boy’s skateboard hit a small gap between the road and the concrete surrounding a manhole cover. The skateboard stopped, and the boy was thrown from the board. The boy was not wearing a helmet and suffered a traumatic brain injury. He ultimately died as a result.

The boy’s father and brother brought a wrongful death claim against several defendants, including the local water district and the local community association. The defendants moved for summary judgment, arguing that by participating in skateboarding, the boy assumed the inherent risks of skateboarding. The court of appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision to grant the summary judgment motion, since the claim was barred by the assumption of the risk doctrine.

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Consumers across the country should be aware of two recent events involving dangerous, contaminated, and inappropriately labeled food products. First, only a few weeks after school was dismissed for the summer season, nearly 50 different varieties of pre-packaged sandwiches have been recalled from almost 40 different school districts after reports surfaced that the sandwiches may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The company that makes the sandwiches, Let’s Do Lunch, attempted to describe the event as a minor threat due to the summer holiday, stating that any residual product can simply be discarded. The outbreak came to light after the USDA inspected the facility where the sandwiches were packaged, and tests from the inspection came back positive for Listeriosis.

The affected school districts cover 29 states across the nation and many major cities, including Sacramento, Houston, Portland, Albuquerque, and Indianapolis. The FDA initiated a recall of the affected products, which includes a complete list of the affected states and school districts. The company has expressed its intention to work closely with the school districts to ensure that any potentially affected products are pulled from distribution and not served to students.

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In some cases, the cause of an injury is clear. But in certain cases, especially when people have a long, complicated medical history, the cause of the injury can be a major point of conflict in the case. In a recent case, the defendant argued that it was not liable because a man’s preexisting conditions were the actual cause of his injury. In that case, a man tripped and fell over an unsecured metal plate in front of a grocery cart corral. He suffered injuries on his knee, arm, neck, shoulder, and face. As a result, he had to receive extensive medical care, including two spinal surgeries. The man sued the grocery store for negligence.

The store retained a medical expert. He did not examine the plaintiff before formulating an opinion and preparing his report, but he did review the man’s medical records. Based on the medical records, the defendant’s expert determined that the man had a preexisting spinal condition that existed before the fall, and an MRI he had taken after the fall did not show an “acute injury.” The store then requested that the man undergo a physical examination by the store’s expert.

The trial court denied the request, but the state’s supreme court reversed. Since the man’s physical health and the extent of the injuries he sustained at the store were directly at issue, his condition and its cause were relevant. Thus, the physical examination was directly related to the condition in controversy, and the information could not be obtained through other means. Accordingly, the man was required to submit to a physical examination by the defendant’s expert in order to consider his past physical health as well as his present and future condition and the extent of his damages.

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Recently, a group of doctors filed a lawsuit against Intuitive Surgical, the maker of the da Vinci surgical robot. According to their complaint, which they filed in the Northern District Court of Georgia, the device caused metal debris to travel to patients’ brains during mitral valve surgical procedures. This condition is referred to as metallic microemboli. Additionally, the complaint states that Intuitive Surgical and a number of other companies and individuals manufactured and marketed the surgical robot even though they knew that it had certain defects that could result in metallic debris reaching surgical patients’ brains.

The plaintiffs include two patients who underwent surgical procedures for mitral valve-related conditions that involved the da Vinci surgical robot. After surgery, both plaintiffs discovered that metallic debris had traveled to their brains. The injuries that the plaintiffs have suffered as a result are severe, including neurological injuries, emotional suffering, and substantial medical costs associated with diagnosing, monitoring, and treating the microemboli. The plaintiffs are seeking to certify a class action lawsuit encompassing other patients who underwent mitral valve surgeries involving Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci robot.

In May 2016, Intuitive Surgical released an Urgent Product Safety Notice informing the public that its da Vinci robotic device could create metal particulates that could travel to surgical patients’ brains. According to the company, it has not received any notices or reports indicating that patients have suffered injuries of the nature described in the safety notice.

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Medical malpractice cases are extremely complicated because they involve a highly specialized knowledge of medicine and medical care. In a recent case, a medical malpractice claim was filed against a woman’s doctors after she died while in their care. The woman went to the emergency room at a hospital to seek medical treatment. The emergency room doctor ordered tests and diagnosed the woman with an incarcerated hernia and possible bowel obstruction, and he tried to reduce the hernia.

The ER doctor then called the woman’s primary care physician, who told him to call another surgeon. The surgeon came and reduced the woman’s hernia, and the woman was admitted to the hospital. On the following morning, the woman went into septic shock and experienced cardiac arrest, for which she was resuscitated. She then went into surgery to address a perforated bowel. The woman was then given medication for her blood pressure. Subsequently, her primary care physician switched her to a different medication. Suddenly, the woman’s blood pressure dropped, and she died.

A medical malpractice claim was filed against the woman’s medical providers. The defendants wanted to exclude the testimony of the plaintiffs’ two expert witnesses. They argued that the witnesses had not sufficiently testified as to the cause of the woman’s death, as required under the Daubert case. Under the Daubert case, a U.S. Supreme Court decision, an expert’s scientific testimony must be based on reasoning or methodology that is valid and can be appropriately applied. The factors to consider are whether the theory has been or can be tested, whether it has been subjected to peer review and publication, its error rate, its maintenance and standards, and whether it is generally accepted within the scientific community.

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In a recent case, a woman filed a complaint against CVS for negligence and wantonness. The injury occurred on September 2, 2013 after the woman fell on an unknown substance in a retail store. She filed the claim on August 26, 2015. When she filed the complaint, she filed an “Affidavit of Substantial Hardship,” which indicated that she could not pay the filing fee. A few weeks later, the court granted her hardship petition and waived the fee. However, the court later reversed its earlier order and denied her hardship petition. The woman then paid the filing fee. CVS then moved to dismiss the lawsuit because the two-year statute of limitations had passed before she paid the filing fee or before her hardship petition had been granted.

The state’s supreme court held that under a state statute, a plaintiff has to pay the filing fee or have a hardship petition approved within the statute of limitations. Even though the woman filed the complaint within the statute of limitations, it was insufficient to commence an action to extend the statute of limitations. The two-year statute of limitations had passed before she paid the fee or her petition was approved. Thus, even though she filed within the time period, her complaint was not timely and was dismissed.

Statutes of Limitations in Illinois

For legal proceedings, individuals have to file claims within a specified period of time, called a “statute of limitations.” The reasoning behind these laws is that there is a reasonable period of time that defendants will be subject to claims, so evidence will still be available, and so a person with a valid claim will pursue it with diligence.

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