By John Bisnar on March 5, 2013 -
This is part of an ongoing series we’ve reported on for the Depuy Hip Replacement. Bisnar|Chase has filed and is currently litigating these types of hip replacement failure lawsuits.
A Los Angeles jury is continuing to deliberate on a product liability lawsuit filed by Loren Kransky, which alleges that he suffered metal poisoning and other complications from Johnson & Johnson’s ASR XL metal hip implant, manufactured by J & J subsidiary, DePuy Orthopedics.
According to a news report in the Los Angeles Times, an attorney for Kransky stated during closing arguments that J & J played “Russian roulette” with patient safety when it ignored high failure rates and surgeons’ complaints with regard to the metal hips.
Both sides presented their arguments to jurors before the jury began deliberating. The plaintiff’s attorney said J & J knew that these medical devices were defective and were likely to fail earlier than expected, long before Kransky received his metal implant. He argued that the company put profits ahead of patient safety and took the gamble.
J & J attorneys argued that Kransky’s health problems were not due to the metal implant, but because of his diabetes, kidney cancer and other medical issues that had nothing to do with the artificial hip. Read the rest »
By John Bisnar on March 4, 2013 -
[This is part of an ongoing series of articles we've reported on for the Depuy Hip Replacement Failure. Bisnar|Chase has filed and is currently litigating these types of hip replacement failure lawsuits.]
A witness for Johnson & Johnson miscalculated when he testified that Loren Kransky’s metal hip replacement device failed because of the angle at which it was implanted, the plaintiff’s attorney said in cross-examination during the trial in Los Angeles.
According to a Bloomberg News report, expert Avram Edidin testified during the trial involving a product liability lawsuit filed by Loren Kransky, which claims that J & J defectively designed his metal hip device and failed to warn consumers about the risks. Kransky’s lawsuit is the first of 10,000 DePuy ASR hip device lawsuits to go to trial.
Discrepancy in Measuring Implant Angle
Edidin, a professor at Drexel University’s School of Biomedical Engineering in Philadelphia, testified that the ideal angle of the device’s placement is 45 degrees. He told jurors that Kransky’s surgeon placed the cup of the device at a 63- to 65-degree angle causing the metal to wear and cause complications. Edidin’s testimony was meant to convince jurors that the implant failure was the fault of the surgeon and not J & J. Read the rest »
By John Bisnar on March 1, 2013 -
Johnson & Johnson has been told to pay $7.76 million in punitive damages to a woman who has already won a $3.35 million compensatory award for serious injuries and complications blamed on the company’s transvaginal mesh device. The punitive damages were awarded by a New Jersey jury on February 28, 2013.
The verdict came in the first of 4,000 lawsuits to go to trial over the Gynecare Prolift mesh made by Ethicon, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. The jury, comprising six men and three women, turned in the verdicts after a six-week trial that included expert testimony from both sides.
The plaintiff in this case, Linda Gross, alleged that she suffered constant pain after receiving the Gynecare Prolift mesh implant to shore up weakened pelvic muscles. She also testified that she underwent 18 surgeries to correct the problems caused by the mesh. Gross also told the jury that the company misled her when it came to the safety of the mesh and the procedure.
Read the rest »
By John Bisnar on February 26, 2013 -
A jury in Atlantic County, New Jersey, awarded $3.35 million to 47-year-old Linda Gross for damages stemming from a Gynecare Prolift mesh device made by Ethicon, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.
According to a Reuters news report, the nine-member jury heard the case for six weeks before delivering the verdict on February 25, 2013.
The jury, comprised of six women and three men, determined that Ethicon had failed to adequately warn Gross and her doctor about the potential complications and injuries related to the vaginal mesh implant.
Fraudulent Misrepresentations
Gross ended up undergoing 18 surgeries in an attempt to correct the problem. In fact, news outlets that covered the trial reported that Gross remained standing throughout the proceedings because it was too painful for her to even sit down. She alleged in the lawsuit that she suffered from severe complications including mesh erosion, infections and nerve damage. The jury found in this case that the product was not defectively designed, but that Ethicon had made fraudulent misrepresentations about the product. Read the rest »
By John Bisnar on February 21, 2013 -
Fresenius Medical Care, the manufacturer of dialysis products GranuFlo and NaturaLyte, has no problem communicating about lawsuit claims according to an article in Lawyers and Settlements. However, they were silent about alkali dosing errors that resulted in numerous tragic deaths. The article states that while Fresenius could have communicated this valuable information in a nanosecond with a tweet, they chose not to do so.
GranuFlo and NaturaLyte are two products manufactured by Fresenius, which also happens to be the largest manufacturer of dialysis machines and the largest operator of dialysis clinics in the country. According to The New York Times, an internal memo from Fresenius in November 2011 cautioned its own clinics to watch out for alkali dosing errors as a result of using GranuFlo and NaturaLyte.
In 2010, 941 people died after suffering cardiac arrest in Fresenius clinics during dialysis treatments. Too much bicarbonate in the blood can potentially lead to heart problems. Fresenius did not communicate the danger posed by the products to other clinics and doctors until the internal memo was leaked to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Read the rest »
By Brian Chase on February 20, 2013 -
Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon unit properly designed a vaginal mesh implant and adequately warned consumers of its risks, a lawyer for the company told jurors who are about to decide on a lawsuit filed by a woman who blames the device for her 18 surgeries. According to a Bloomberg news report, the lawyer urged jurors in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to reject a product liability lawsuit filed by Linda Gross who maintains that Ethicon’s design of the Gynecare Prolift transvaginal mesh implant was defective. Gross also claims in her lawsuit that J & J failed to warn her and her doctor of the risks involved. Gross’s lawsuit is the first of 1,800 mesh lawsuits to go to trial. 
Addressing jurors during her closing arguments, the company’s lawyer said that Prolift has been “studied and studied extensively.” She claimed that it was not a defective or dangerous product and that doctors and consumers were well informed regarding the risks involved with the mesh device.
Read the rest »
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