December 9th, 2008 The number of Ortho Evra lawsuits continues to rise as more and more women argue they suffered blood clot injuries after using the birth control patch. To date, Ortho Evra’s manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson has shelled out $68.7 million in Ortho Evra settl...
November 7th, 2008 A woman living in Illinois filed a personal injury lawsuit against Mentor Corporation after her breast implant ruptured. Debra Landman alleges that her implant ruptured in November 2006, leaving her with serious injuries and disfigurement. Landman claims...
August 25th, 2008 Maple Leaf Foods recently just announced the expansion of its recall of cold cuts after the meat was linked to four deaths and dozens of illnesses across the country. Since the massive recall, shares of the company have fallen to their lowest level in...
July 28th, 2008 According to recent reports, patients who had surgery for dislocated shoulders are saying the product they used to control the pain caused more harm than good. Many patients have reported that in trying to ease their pain using the shoulder pain pump,...
June 3rd, 2008 Recent reports claim that an estimated 750 log swings are being recalled due to a defect in their manufacturing. The swings, which are made by Far East Brokers and Consultants, pose potential risks to consumers who sit and swing on the product. Pro...
May 14th, 2008 The family of a boy who suffered serious intestinal damage after swallowing a pair of Magnetix button magnets has settled with the toy manufacturer for $1 million. Lifelong Problems William Finley was 4-years-old when he underwent emergency surgery beca...
May 9th, 2008 Continental Tire North America Inc. is one of several defendants in a lawsuit filed recently over the death of an Arizona Border Patrol agent in November 2006. David Webb died of head injuries sustained in a single vehicle accident on Route 86. Accordin...
April 25th, 2008 A California woman has filed lawsuit against the maker of popular Nalgene plastic sports bottles, claiming that the toxic substance used in the manufacture of the product — Bisphenol A (BPA) — could sicken consumers. Harmful Health Effects ...
April 15th, 2008 A popular tool in construction work — the air-powered nail gun — is the source of over 40,000 injuries every year in the United States, according to a national estimate. The guns are made by different manufacturers, but all use compressed air...
April 8th, 2008 The maker of the Ortho Evra birth control patch is seeking legal protection from lawsuits over injuries caused by the product with arguments in favor of a concept known as pre-emption. Pre-emption Johnson & Johnson is arguing that it cannot be held...
March 31st, 2008 A three-judge federal appeals panel upheld a $2.8 million jury award in a faulty fire alarm case involving the deaths of a father and daughter. William Hackert Jr., a 56-year-old employee at General Electric’s Corporate Research and Development Cen...
February 29th, 2008 The owners of approximately 4.6 million Ford vehicles have been urged to bring their vehicles to dealerships to fix a cruise control problem that has been linked to hundreds of engine fires and three deaths. Concerns about Remaining Vehicles Since 1999...
February 28th, 2008 About 24,000 Indonesian-made cribs were recalled over faulty railing, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced today. According to the recall, the wooden cribs have support spring brackets that are too long and prevent the mattresses from ...
February 5th, 2008 Evenflo has recalled about one million defective child car seats after government testing showed they could fail to protect children during side-impact collisions. Recalled ModelsThe models affected by the recall include Evenflo Discovery models: - 390-...
January 22nd, 2008 The Food and Drug Administration approved a labeling change for the Ortho Evra birth control patch based on a new study linking the contraceptive to a greater risk of potentially fatal blood clots than the pill. Ortho Evra is a transdermal patch that rel...
January 10th, 2008 A pet food company responsible for the deaths of dozens of dogs has agreed to a $3.1 million settlement with pet owners, according to one plaintiff’s attorney. Recall of Contaminated Food In 2005, Diamond Pet Foods recalled approximately 350,000 b...
December 28th, 2007 Medtronic, the world’s largest maker of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), has agreed to settle 2,682 product liability lawsuits for $95.6 million. Marquis ICDs The lawsuits were filed in connection with a voluntary recall issued by ...
December 19th, 2007 More than three dozen people in Texas and Illinois have fallen ill with blood infections caused by tainted medical syringes. No deaths have been reported, though one patient remained hospitalized on Tuesday. Single Batch AffectedThe syringes contain the ...
December 7th, 2007 Ford Motor Co. recalled nearly 1.2 million diesel trucks, vans, and sport utility vehicles on Thursday over a faulty engine sensor that could cause the vehicles to stall suddenly and possibly crash. The company has received reports of at least 14 accide...
December 5th, 2007 The Supreme Court heard arguments in a controversial case involving a defective heart catheter made by Medtronic on Tuesday. At issue is whether or not the manufacturer can be held liable under state law for the plaintiff’s injuries since the device...
November 20th, 2007 Boston Scientific Corp. has amended a settlement agreement involving faulty Guidant defibrillator claims to include an additional $45 million, bringing the total settlement amount to $240 million. The company initially agreed to settle more than 5,600 p...
November 19th, 2007 Reports of St. Jude’s Riata defibrillator leads puncturing holes in patients’ hearts are raising new concerns about the safety of medical heart devices. The reports come just weeks after Medtronic recalled certain models of its Sprint Fidelis ...
October 26th, 2007 The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced on Thursday the recall of one million foam baby seats sold at major retailers like Target, Wal-Mart, Toys “R” Us, Kmart, Sears, and USA Babies. According to the CPSC, there have been 28 reports of infants...
October 11th, 2007 Makers of over-the-counter infant cold medicines have issued a voluntary recall amid concerns of possible overdose risk, said the Consumer Healthcare Products Association. Overdose of these medications can lead to serious injury and death. “The reason t...
October 5th, 2007 Approximately 35,000 Baby Einstein play blocks were part of a massive toy recall announced on Thursday by the Consumer Product Safety Commission over concerns of unsafe levels of lead in toys made in China. This recall—which includes a total of 544,000 ...
October 4th, 2007 In recent years drug patches have been used and questioned by patients and doctors worldwide. In 2005, an Army Master Sgt. died in his sleep due to a drug overdose the night that he was given a painkiller patch after his respiratory surgery. Not only ...
September 24th, 2007 About 1 million Simplicity Inc. cribs were recalled last week after federal regulators discovered a design and hardware flaw that may lead to incorrect installation of the drop rail. The defect has been linked to the deaths of three children. According ...
September 20th, 2007 The New Jersey Supreme Court recently released a letter written by a former vice president of Johnson & Johnson to the company’s CEO, William Weldon. The letter was reportedly released at the request of the plaintiffs who are suing the company ...
September 5th, 2007 In its third recall issued this summer, Mattel is asking consumers to beware of excessive amounts of lead paint in nearly 800,000 toys including Barbie accessories, Geo Trax locomotive toys and Big Big World 6-in1 Bongo Band toys. Last month, the toy gia...
August 22nd, 2007 Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, and Target are just some of the stores that carry Chinese-manufactured merchandise. When consumers see an item labeled “Made in China,” they can usually expect a bargain. The question nowadays is are they bargains o...
August 14th, 2007 Following the August 1 recall of 1.5 million toys made in China, Mattel announced today that it is recalling another nearly 9 million toys made in China, due to concerns that the toys may have lead paint or magnets that could be swallowed by children. The...
August 8th, 2007 Baxter Healthcare Corporation has expanded a Class I recall to include nearly 1,000 additional electronic infusion pumps because of falsified inspection reports and safety data. Last month, the company announced a Class I recall of 534 of its COLLEAGUE ...
August 3rd, 2007 A group of physicians from Tennessee have recently taken a stand against the Ortho Evra patch by no longer prescribing it to their patients. The patch has been controversial throughout the years and the doctors feel it's far too risky to continue prescr...
July 27th, 2007 Botulism, a potentially fatal form of food poisoning, has become the basis of a nationwide recall of canned goods such as chili, stew, hot dog sauce, and pet food. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning to consumers, stating that more ...
June 28th, 2007 Last week, it was reported that 450,000 tubes of toothpaste made in China and containing a dangerous chemical have been distributed in the U.S. It is now clear that twice that number of tubes has been released in the U.S., to places such as prisons, juven...
June 26th, 2007 About 450,000 tires made in China for light pickup trucks, vans, and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) are the subject of a request for a recall by their U.S. distributor. The tires have an insufficient or entirely missing gum strip, which is a required safet...
June 22nd, 2007 Jennifer Gardner, 18, of Georgia was prescribed the Ortho Evra patch in March 2005 to help regulate her menstrual periods. As a perfectly healthy and active teenager, she didn't expect any real problems with the patch. She wore the patch for just five mon...
June 21st, 2007 Tubes of counterfeit toothpaste being sold in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania under a false "Colgate" label were recalled recently after routine tests by the FDA found diethylene glycol, an antifreeze ingredient, in the toothpaste. An FD...
June 20th, 2007 A new study revealed that babies in homes where one or both parents smoke have up to five-and-a-half times higher urine levels of cotinine, a nicotine toxin, compared to babies living in non-smoking homes. The findings were released today online before pu...
June 18th, 2007 Wooden train cars, buildings, and other parts of the popular "Thomas and Friends" line of toys are being recalled in the United States due to dangerously high levels of lead in the paint on the toys. If young children ingest the lead in the pain...
June 15th, 2007 A 17-year-old cross-country runner died last week due to an accidental overdose of the drug methyl salicylate, the active ingredient in the Bengay as well as anti-inflammatory adhesive pads and a third over-the-counter (OTC) product she was using. Arielle...
June 4th, 2007 This week's issue of the respected journal Cancer Research includes a study showing that cigarette smoke caused changes in the DNA of sperm cells, suggesting that a man's smoking habit may cause him to pass along genetic damage. The genetic mutations obse...
June 1st, 2007 Donna Grimes was driving her Ford Explorer that day in 2001, waiting to make a left turn on a street in Deerfield Beach, Florida. A man driving a Toyota Solara plowed into the back of her car at 60 mph, and as her car seat collapsed, she was catapulted ba...
May 21st, 2007 In response to lawsuits by several U.S. plaintiffs, Coca-Cola has agreed to compensate individuals who purchased either of two Coca-Cola beverages before September 2006 — Vault Zero and Fanta Pineapple. These soft drinks contained sodium benzoate and asco...
May 3rd, 2007 The Food and Drug Administration has asked Shelhigh, Inc. to conduct a recall of its implantable medical devices still on the market, even those in hospital inventories, because of safety issues. According to the FDA, the company's manufacturing process...
May 1st, 2007 A recent study found that approximately one in five cardiac defibrillators malfunctions 10 years after initial implantation, increasing the risk of death and other serious adverse events in patients with the devices. According to researchers, the electr...
April 27th, 2007 A new study—published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report— reveals that eight cases of an extremely rare and potentially fatal type of lung disease has been found in individuals who worked in Californi...
April 19th, 2007 This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it would be seizing a number of implantable medical devices—including surgical patches, pediatric heart valves, and annuloplasty rings—from Shelhigh, Inc. due to the company's bad manufacturing pr...
April 13th, 2007 The maker of the widely used Ortho Evra birth control patch, Johnson & Johnson, is trying to prevent negative attention over its dangerous contraceptive by purchasing the rights to domain names like Orthoevrakills.com and Deathbypatch.com. Ortho Evr...
March 26th, 2007 Several baby bottle manufacturers were slapped with a billion dollar class-action lawsuit that claimed their bottles leaked a dangerous substance into their contents under certain conditions. The suit was filed by attorney Robert Weiss on the behalf of ...
March 16th, 2007 Late in 2005, C.R.Bard Inc. issued a recall of the composix hernia patch , which is manufactured by its subsidiary, Davol Inc. The recall urged doctors to stop using the larger iterations of the product because a plastic ring in them was prone to breaking...
March 9th, 2007 Women who use the Ortho Evra birth control patch are more than twice as likely to develop potentially life threatening blood clots than women who use oral contraceptives, new research shows. According to a study published in the February issue of Obstet...
March 8th, 2007 Defibitech, LLC, has issued a worldwide product recall of its Lifeline AED and ReviveR AEDTM defibrillators. This recall affects all ReviveR and Lifeline AEDs (automatic external defibrillators) with software versions 2.002 and older. The Defect The se...
February 15th, 2007 This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration alerted doctors and patients of a possibly fatal bowel condition seen in some infants who received Merck & Co.'s RotaTeq, a new vaccine against a virus that causes severe diarrhea and is one of the lead...
February 9th, 2007 A new Ortho Evra lawsuit has been filed in California against the manufacturer and others involved in the development of the birth control patch, which has been the cause of thousands of serious adverse events in the U.S. Forty-six plaintiffs—most of wh...
December 29th, 2006 A new study has found that certain antacids – proton pump inhibitors – may increase the risk of hip fracture in those who are taking it. The study was conducted by University of Pennsylvania researchers and was published in the Journal of the...
December 15th, 2006 The mother of a woman who suffered fatal side effects after using the popular birth control patch Ortho Evra has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the drug maker, claiming the patch caused her daughter''s death. The manufacturer of the birth contro...
December 12th, 2006 A non-profit consumer awareness group who claims there are many toys on the market that may pose dangerous risks such as choking and other serious injuries to children, warns parents not to assume a product''s safety just because it''s on store shelves. ...
December 8th, 2006 Infants, particularly those born prematurely, should never be left to sleep in a car seat alone, warns a pediatricians'' report published in the British Medical Journal. The warning is based on a recent study of nine infants between the age of three days...
December 4th, 2006 New research indicates that the newer, stronger magnets being used in products such as jewelry, toys, and even clothing pose life-threatening risks to people who wear implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) or pacemakers. According to the Swiss i...
November 30th, 2006 A New York jury ordered DaimlerChrysler AG, one of the world''s largest auto manufacturers, to pay $25 million in compensation to a former employee who lost his lung to mesothelioma, a fatal cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. The supreme court jury ...
November 29th, 2006 Patients who are receiving stents—drug-coated heart devices—have four to five times an increased risk of developing blood clots, according to a new data analysis. The analysis conducted by the Cleveland Clinic was of 14 studies involving 6,675 patients. ...
November 27th, 2006 More than four million Polly Pocket toys worldwide have been recalled this month after three young children suffered serious injuries from swallowing the small magnets that fell off the play sets, announced the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The co...
November 22nd, 2006 A 31-year-old Colorado woman filed a product liability lawsuit against the makers of the popular birth control patch Ortho Evra after she developed pulmonary embolism (lung blood clots) and deep vein thrombosis (leg blood clots) she claims was caused by t...
November 3rd, 2006 Over 40 women in San Francisco filed lawsuits against the manufacturers of Ortho Evra alleging the birth control patch caused them to suffer severe illnesses and even death. According to one lawsuit, 43 women developed life-threatening blood clots and o...
October 26th, 2006 A woman who suffered severe injuries after being run down by a defective lawn mower has settled a personal injury lawsuit against Wal-Mart for $1.8 million in compensation. Joyce Burnside, 58, purchased a lawn mower from a South Carolina Wal-Mart store...
October 17th, 2006 A teenager who developed severe blood clots in her left leg after using the widely prescribed birth control patch Ortho Evra has filed a lawsuit against the drug maker Ortho McNeil, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. Seventeen-year-old Katy McKellip...
October 12th, 2006 Over 2,000 patients every year are suffering avoidable injury and death as a result of stents, small metal devices used to hold open heart arteries, according to two doctors who wrote an editorial published in a leading medical journal. The article is t...
September 22nd, 2006 Drug manufacturer Johnson & Johnson will update the warning label on the Ortho Evra birth control patch to include information that patch users may face double the risk of developing blood clots compared to oral contraceptives. According to the comp...
September 15th, 2006 A twenty-four-year old Texas woman has filed a federal lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson after the company''s defective birth control patch, Ortho Evra, caused her to suffer life-threatening blood clots and a miscarriage. Dangers of Ortho Evra Elizabe...
August 31st, 2006 An Idaho woman has filed a lawsuit against the makers of the Ortho Evra birth control patch, Ortho McNeil. This 34-year-old woman used Ortho Evra for less than two years before she developed a serious and life threatening condition called severe pulmonary...
August 31st, 2006 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Tuesday announced their proposal to ban the sales of over-the-counter skin-bleaching products, citing potentially severe safety risks. According to studies conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency and the n...
August 22nd, 2006 Every year, more than one million Americans are seriously injured as a result of defective medical devices, according to the Institute of Medicine. Johnson & Johnson''s Charite artificial spinal disc has added to that number, with over 130 severe adve...
August 11th, 2006 A Kentucky woman has filed a federal products liability lawsuit against Ortho McNeil, the makers of the controversial Ortho Evra birth control patch, and its parent company Johnson & Johsnon alleging the patch was directly linked to her near fatal blood c...
August 9th, 2006 A new study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that one in five external heart defibrillators designed to revive failing hearts has had some form of mechanical defect over the last ten years. Furthermore, the study concl...
July 14th, 2006 Another Ortho Evra lawsuit has been filed, this time on behalf of a 26-year-old woman who died from a pulmonary embolism caused by the dangerous and defective birth control patch. This patient had been using Ortho Evra for eight months before she became f...
July 12th, 2006 A statement released yesterday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration urged patients with potentially defective models of Boston Scientific/Guidant pacemakers and defibrillators to schedule an exam with their physicians as soon as possible. According ...
June 23rd, 2006 This week, an Ortho Evra lawsuit was filed on behalf of a 37-year old woman who suffered a bilateral pulmonary embolism, or blood clot in the lungs, due to use of the contraceptive patch. The lawsuit was filed in New Jersey against the makers of the patch...
June 23rd, 2006 A U.S. Food and Drug Administration analysis found that Guidant defibrillators may fail as much as 10 times more than the company projected last year. Guidant defibrillators have been implanted into thousands of cardiac patients and are used to restart ...
June 21st, 2006 A St. Louis woman recently filed a lawsuit against Bausch & Lomb, alleging that the company''s ReNu with MoistureLoc contact solution caused an eye infection that eventually required a corneal transplant. Marguerite Likes, who used the MoistureLoc soluti...
June 16th, 2006 Welch Allyn company MRL, Inc., announced yesterday a voluntary worldwide recall of more than 500 of its automatic defibrillators, citing the devices as carrying an “unacceptable risk.” The recall comes after the company discovered that its AED20 Automat...
June 14th, 2006 The parents of a Texas firefighter killed in a fire truck accident have filed a lawsuit against the vehicle''s manufacturer, citing negligence and disputing the state''s punitive damages cap. Christopher Brian Hunton, a 27-year-old Amarillo firefighter,...
June 1st, 2006 Seven survivors of a 2005 plane crash in the Amazon jungle have filed three product liability and negligence lawsuits against Boeing, the jet''s manufacturer, and others. On August 23, 2005, the Boeing aircraft crashed killing more than 40 people. Accor...
May 18th, 2006 The Food and Drug Administration issued a report on Monday stating that Bausch and Lomb delayed informing regulators of reports linking its contact lens solution to cases of a rare eye infection. The minister of health in Singapore reported 35 cases of ...
May 15th, 2006 Bausch & Lomb Inc. decided to permanently remove its ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution from the market as the number of confirmed cases of serious eye infection continues to rise. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday...
May 12th, 2006 Ortho Evra continues to cause life-threatening injuries in otherwise healthy women, research has confirmed that this drug poses serious and unacceptable risks, yet this defective drug remains on the market. Kristin Ribakusky-Templin—a 20-year old nursin...
May 5th, 2006 A 69-year-old Florida woman is suing Bausch & Lomb, claiming that the company''s contact lens solution gave her a fungal infection that caused her to lose an eye. Several weeks after Zoe Wade began using Renu with MoistureLoc in January 2005, she co...
April 28th, 2006 Makers of the Ortho Evra birth control patch have reportedly settled about a dozen lawsuits for millions of dollars in the last several months and more than 100 other claims are currently pending. One attorney said that Ortho-McNeil has been “appro...
April 26th, 2006 Implantable defibrillators, which can detect abnormal heart rhythms and deliver a life-saving shock, have an erratic history of reliability, according to three studies being published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The studies...
April 25th, 2006 A federal investigation concluded Monday that the FDA offices responsible for monitoring drug safety lacked structure and organization. The report argued for a restructuring that will give the agency greater authority to order drug companies to conduct sa...
April 21st, 2006 Seven product liability lawsuits have been filed against the makers of the Ortho Evra birth control patch by women who claim Ortho-McNeil didn’t warn of the blood clot risks. The lawsuits claim the “defendants failed to warn consumers and their health c...
April 11th, 2006 Makers of the popular contact lens solution ReNu with MoistureLoc have voluntarily suspended shipments of the products after health officials announced Monday the possible connection to a fungal eye infection that can cause temporary blindness. The C...
April 10th, 2006 A Redding, California family has filed a lawsuit against toy manufacturer, RoseArt Inc. and its subsidiary, Mega Bloks Inc. after their four-year-old son ingested Magnetix magnets that lead to serious intestinal injury. The parents of the child, Adam a...
March 24th, 2006 Kathleen Gohde leaned down to pay her last respects to her husband when she heard a beeping sound in his chest. The sound was coming from his defibrillator, a heart device that was supposed to control Allan Gohde''s heart beat. According to the product ...
March 20th, 2006 A federal wrongful death action lawsuit against Ortho McNeil, maker of the Ortho Evra birth control patch, was filed in New Jersey on behalf of a 20-year-old woman who died from a patch-related blood clot. In June 2004, the young, healthy woman died fro...
March 15th, 2006 Medical device manufacturer, Guidant Corp., which is already facing a number of troubles with its defibrillators and pacemaker products, has issued a warning to doctors on Monday about potential battery problems is some of its heart devices. The low bat...
March 9th, 2006 Newly released court documents in the Guidant product liability case, show a Guidant consultant advised the company last year of its ethical obligation to disclose data about their heart device defects. The two memos written by the consultant, Dr. Ri...
March 8th, 2006 The Food and Drug Administration announced last week it will launch an “exhaustive review” concerning the safety of medical patches, including Ortho Evra birth control patch and fentanyl pain patch both manufactured by Johnson & Johnson. As drug compani...
February 23rd, 2006 Guidant Corp. (GDT), one of the largest manufacturers of medical devices, is facing more than 145 individual lawsuits, and is expected to face thousands more in the future due to troubles with their heart devices. Guidant''s implantable cardioverter def...
February 21st, 2006 Ortho Evra maker, Ortho McNeil has released a study indicating that the transdermal birth control patch doubles a woman''s risk for blood clots. The studies were performed by the pharmaceutical company in response to a July, 2005 Associated Press report, ...
February 17th, 2006 According to Ortho McNeil, the Ortho Evra birth control patch doubles a woman''s risk blood clots, compared to women using a 35mcg oral contraceptive. These preliminary Ortho Evra blood clot findings were discovered in one of two company-sponsored studies...
February 16th, 2006 The United States Food and Drug Administration has issued the recall of all Balanced Salt Solution products manufactured by Cytosol Laboratories, based in Massachusetts. The FDA issues such recalls when a product clearly presents the risk of injury or ill...
February 13th, 2006 When Italian cancer researcher Morando Soffritti M.D. reviewed the seven-year research conducted by his team over the effects of aspartame on animals, he knew the results were going to cause quite a stir. After studying nearly 2000 rats—who were given the...
February 6th, 2006 Seven lawsuits have been filed by victims of the popular contraceptive Ortho Evra, alleging that drug makers Ortho McNeil failed to notify patients and health care providers of the serious risks associated with their product. Plaintiffs are claiming had t...
January 13th, 2006 A 37-year-old California resident has filed a lawsuit alleging that Ortho Evra use was responsible for her development of a blood clot in her lungs. Ms. Sanchez had been using the Ortho Evra birth control patch for just a few months before she noticed...
December 29th, 2005 The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has stated that as of December 21, 2005 it has received 18 additional reports of failing Guidant heart implants. The total number of failed heart implants has now reached 67, including seven that have resulted in ...
December 28th, 2005 Consumers who have been adversely affected by the controversial Ortho Evra birth control patch are beginning to come forward to seek compensation from maker Ortho-McNeil for their losses and suffering. The birth control patch, which has been used by over ...
December 15th, 2005 The city of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania is suing Guidant Corp. of Indianapolis, IN in order to recover costs that the city paid out for its employees when medical devices that Guidant Corp. manufactured were found to be faulty. Guidant Corp. is the highly pub...
December 13th, 2005 A recent report issued by the Wall Street Journal found that doctors across the country have ceased writing further prescriptions for the birth control patch Ortho Evra. The downturn in the number of prescriptions is largely due to all of the negative pr...
December 13th, 2005 There are an alarming number of false positive HIV tests being reported in cities such as San Francisco and New York. The affected units are the fast-acting OraQuick brand rapid HIV tests that are given out in the cities. The tests were extremely popular ...
December 2nd, 2005 On Nov. 10, the FDA warned that Ortho Evra exposed users to about 60 percent more estrogen than a low-dose oral contraceptive pill containing 35 mcg of estrogen. Since then, patients using the popular birth control patch have become concerned about the re...
November 23rd, 2005 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned earlier this month of increased hormone exposure to women who use the popular birth control patch Ortho Evra, and now many doctors have stopped prescribing it. Ortho Evra came onto the market in 2002 and has ...
November 23rd, 2005 Consumer watchdog group U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) warned parents against toys that can choke, strangle, poison or deafen children. Researchers for the group cited some toys that may violate a federal ban on small parts in toys intended ...
November 22nd, 2005 Public Citizen consumer group has called a proposed roof crush rule “so grossly inadequate that 70 percent of existing vehicles already meet it.” Every year, rollover crashes kill 10,000 people, and many deaths and injuries that result from rollover cra...
November 18th, 2005 Ford Motor Company, one of the country’s biggest automakers, announced its second major recall in two days, affecting hundreds of thousands of cars and SUVs. The third round of auto recalls involves 199,942 Ford 2006 model cars and trucks because of win...
November 18th, 2005 A jury in Miami ordered Ford Motor Company to pay $61 million to the family of teenager Lance Hall, who died on a Florida highway in 1997 when the Explorer he was riding in rolled over several times. According to the plaintiff''s attorney, if the Ford E...
November 16th, 2005 Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of consumer watchdog group Public Citizen''s Health Research Group, issued a statement urging consumers to avoid the use of Ortho Evra birth control patch. The group said it issued warnings to readers of its online Web site, w...
November 2nd, 2005 Johnson & Johnson said it might not complete its $25.4 billion purchase of Guidant Corp. because product recalls had injured the value of the medical device maker. Guidant issued recalls of its implantable heart devices earlier this year, and some expe...
November 1st, 2005 With Medicare denying the Johnson & Johnson Corporation’s request to have its Charite artificial disc replacement covered by insurance during 2006, the company is scrambling to find data to possibly get their product approved for use in 2007. J&J’s arti...
October 26th, 2005 Guidant Corp. received government subpoenas requesting documents from their heart device business, sending shares to a 4-month low. Yesterday, the leading makers of implantable heart devices – Guidant, Medtronic Inc. and St. Jude Medical Corp. - said th...
October 24th, 2005 More than 2 million people worldwide have drug-eluting coronary stents implanted, but some doctors and researchers are worried about the long-term problems they are seeing in a small number of patients. Although the reported rate is low, blood clots...
October 12th, 2005 Healthcare professionals were alerted of serious complications associated with the use of metallic tracheal stents in patients with benign airway disorders. The public health advisory, issued July 29, 2005, advised avoiding the use of the medical devices...
October 7th, 2005 A civil liability trial in Waco, Texas could result in sweeping national changes to the way that the country’s tour and long-distance buses are built and operated. The trial stems from a February 14, 2003 crash in which five bus passengers and two in the...
September 19th, 2005 DaimlerChrysler has recalled over 100,000 Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs due to the potential for the vehicles to develop serious engine fires, resulting in accident, injury, or even death. The recall affects 2005 models with 3.7-liter engines and automatic tr...
September 19th, 2005 Harvard University and government scientists reported there were heart defibrillator malfunctions before Guidant Corp. issued its’ massive recall in summer. Sponsored by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the research concluded about 20 of every 1,00...
September 19th, 2005 Public Citizen consumer group told the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that medical devices that have injured patients or increase the risks of harm should be withdrawn from the market when another device equally or more effective has become available. ...
September 12th, 2005 In June, the Food and Drug Administration issued a safety alert about Guidant Corp.’s heart devices, which were short-circuiting. The agency later updated the safety warning, saying the short circuits, while rare, posed significant risks because it could...
August 31st, 2005 Intrinsa is a medical patch designed to deliver small doses of testosterone through a woman’s skin to boost the level of male sex hormone in her bloodstream. The medication is intended to reenergize stalled sex drives in women, but women have proven more...
August 27th, 2005 Ortho McNeil’s Ortho Evra birth control patch went on the market in April 2002, and the drug company said 4 million women have since used it. The Associated Press recently released a report after analyzing federal drug safety reports, finding in 2004, wh...
August 3rd, 2005 Disetronic Medical Systems announced it was issuing a voluntary recall of its adapters used with its D-TRONplus insulin pumps because the adapters could cause overdose of insulin. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration posted the statement on its Web ...
August 3rd, 2005 Mounting concern over the risk of potentially fatal blood clots in patients with drug-coated stents has led a number of hospitals to cut back on their use. Drug-coated stents – tiny tubes that keep arteries open and clear of fatty deposits – were introd...
August 2nd, 2005 Guidant Corp. said it has received approval from the FDA to re-launch its top selling implantable defibrillator, which was recalled June 24 because of a faulty switch. After 88,000 defibrillators were recalled because of malfunctions, including the Conta...
August 2nd, 2005 Pre-World Ware II cars, like the Duesenberg, were made without even the most basic safety features mandatory on modern cars – the seat belt. Like many vintage cars, even when the Duesenberg is restored it cannot be brought fully up to date on the latest ...
July 31st, 2005 Guidant Corp. has issued a series of defibrillator and pacemaker recalls in recent months, affecting 150,000 devices. Now the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Charles Grassley, has asked the FDA to provide documents relating to Guidant’s se...
July 30th, 2005 Ten women filed a lawsuit against Ortho Evra maker Johnson & Johnson, alleging the popular birth control patch caused them to suffer strokes and blood clots. The lawsuit claims Ortho Evra is “defectively designed” and “unreasonably dangerous” and seeks...
July 29th, 2005 The Perrigo Company has issued a nationwide recall of all lots of concentrated infants’ drops that are packaged with a dosing syringe bearing only a “1.6 mL” mark. The recall has been issued because the dosing syringe may cause confusion in determini...
July 28th, 2005 CryoLife Inc. said it has agreed to settle a shareholder lawsuit for more than $23 million that accused the company of not disclosing enough information to investors before a 2002 government issued tissue recall. The settlement must be approved in fe...
July 27th, 2005 Guidant Corp. said it has received European regulatory approval to resume sales of its Contak Renewal 4 implantable defibrillator. The company had voluntarily removed the device in a series of recent defibrillator and pacemaker recalls. The Contak Re...
July 22nd, 2005 Guidant Corp. advised doctors last week to reprogram its implantable defibrillators because some of the devices were subject to “latching,” but the company has announced the programming change may actually increase risk to patients. About 21,000 of t...
July 22nd, 2005 Baxter International Inc. announced yesterday it has halted shipments of a popular infusion pump because of dangerous design problems. The company said about 250,000 of its Colleague brand pump used to administer intravenous medicines to patients might h...
July 21st, 2005 Guidant Corp. said it has fixed a switch problem in its latest models of heart defibrillators, which should allow the company to restart sales of the devices later this quarter. Last month, Guidant issued a recall of its implantable Contak Renewal 3 and ...
July 19th, 2005 The Food and Drug Administration is evaluating Guidant Corp.’s recent warning that replacements might be needed for nine pacemaker models made from 1997 to 2000. Some 28,000 of the affected Guidant pacemakers remain implanted in patients worldwide. La...
July 19th, 2005 In May and June, Guidant Corp. issued implantable cardiac defibrillator recalls affecting about 100,000 patients worldwide. Since then, doctors and patient advocates have criticized Guidant for failing to issue the recalls sooner. According to Thom G...
July 19th, 2005 Women using the birth control patch Ortho Evra are at a greater risk for suffering and potentially dying from a blood clot than those using the pill, according to a new report. Worn on the lower abdomen, buttocks or upper body, the Ortho Evra skin pa...
July 19th, 2005 Nissan North America Inc. said it will recall more than 140,000 Murano SUVs because of concerns that a broken wire in the alternator could deplete power to the engine and lead to a crash. The Nissan recall involves more than 125,000 vehicles from the 2...
July 18th, 2005 Guidant Corp. warned physicians that replacements might be needed for nine pacemaker models made between 1997 and 2000. The safety advisory affects 28,000 devices in use worldwide. Guidant is already under scrutiny for problems with its implantable...
July 18th, 2005 Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc. has issued its second recall of the redesigned Eclipse in one month. Both of the auto recalls involve potential brake failures, which could lead to increased braking distance. Mitsubishi spokesman Dan Irvin said ...
July 13th, 2005 Despite reports of more injuries related to Boston Scientific Corp.’s heart stents, the FDA said they did not plan on taking any further action against the company. Last year, Boston Scientific recalled more than 99,000 Taxus heart stents following repor...
July 8th, 2005 Guidant Corp. recalled 87,600 of its implantable cardiac defibrillators in three weeks, and now the company is facing increasing legal pressure from angry shareholders and worried patients. So far, securities fraud lawsuits were filed in June and J...
July 7th, 2005 A 62-year-old Texas man filed a lawsuit against Guidant Corp., claiming the company concealed a potentially fatal flaw in its implantable cardioverter defibrillator. The company issued a recall involving 50,000 of its implantable defibrillators afte...
July 7th, 2005 Auto recalls have been announced affecting the Ford Expedition and Navigator SUVs, Toyota Tacoma pickup trucks and Volkswagen Jettas. The Ford recall involves 10,061 Expedition and Navigator SUVs from the 2006 model year because tires on the driver’s...
July 5th, 2005 Guidant Corp. issued a recall on some of its defibrillators last month, but at the time, the FDA had not yet classified the type of product removal. The FDA has now classified 20,000 of the Guidant defibrillators as the most urgent type of recall, a Cla...
June 29th, 2005 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has ordered MedImmune Inc. to immediately discontinue use of its promotions flier for its nasal flu vaccine FluMist. The agency said the flier fails to include adequate information on the risks of the product, as wel...
June 29th, 2005 Last week Guidant Corp. issued its second advisory in a week because of malfunctions in five of its implantable defibrillators. In response, a Canadian class action lawsuit has been launched against the company. According to Adrien Lefrancois, a 37-yea...
June 28th, 2005 A securities fraud lawsuit was filed against Guidant Corp. and six of its executives, accusing the medical device company of covering up problems with its heart defibrillators. On June 17, 2005, Guidant issued new safety alerts because of potential m...
June 24th, 2005 The medical device company Guidant Corp., which is being bought by Johnson & Johnson, instructed doctors to immediately stop implanting five of its cardiac defibrillator models because of an electrical defect that can lead to device failure. Last wee...
June 24th, 2005 The FDA is notifying consumers that Vail Products is initiating a nationwide recall of its “enclosed” bed systems because they have caused patient entrapments resulting in severe neurological damage or death due to asphyxiation. Affecting about 5,000 of ...
June 23rd, 2005 Two-and-a-half years ago, a 4:15 a.m. phone call from a neighbor alerted Michael and Marla Iley that their 2000 Ford F-150 pickup was in flames, setting the side of their home on fire and melting the side of their 1998 Pontiac minivan. Insuranc...
June 21st, 2005 Guidant Corp.’s stock price reached its lowest price since the company agreed in December 2004 to be acquired by Johnson & Johnson. On Friday, June 17, Guidant announced it was recalling 50,000 of its heart defibrillators because of manufacturing flaws....
June 21st, 2005 The FDA announced on Friday, June 17, 2005 that Guidant has begun recalling 50,000 of its implantable cardiac defibrillators because of defects. Guidant reported there had been 45 device malfunctions, and two patients with the recalled devices died. ...
June 21st, 2005 Days after Guidant Corp. recalled about 50,000 of its cardiac defibrillators because of reported failures resulting in at least two deaths, competitor St. Jude Medical Inc., the world’s third-largest maker of implantable defibrillators, said it discovered...
June 20th, 2005 Guidant’s shares are trading lower after it announced it was recalling a certain implanted defibrillator that resulted in two deaths. The company announced June 17 that 50,000 of its implantable cardiac defibrillators in service could be subject to ...
June 17th, 2005 As many as 16 million Ford vehicles may be at risk for spontaneously catching fire, according to a recent Ford document obtained by a major news source. These fires are caused by a faulty cruise-control deactivation switch that can ignite even when th...
June 16th, 2005 Guidant announced on June 16, 2003 that its device to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms, the Ancure abdominal aortic stent, was going to be discontinued. The company has agreed to pay a $92.4 million fine as part of a settlement ...
June 2nd, 2005 Guidant Corp. is standing by its decision to continue selling an implantable heart defibrillator despite a potential flaw that prompted a redesign. The medical device company told doctors last week that the Prizm 2 DR defibrillator had failed in a sma...
June 2nd, 2005 The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported Guidant Corp. continued to sell potentially flawed implantable heart defibrillators for months after making changes to the device to fix an electrical problem. Reports indicate Guidant could face legal ...
May 25th, 2005 Toyota has issued a recalled on more than 4,900 of its redesigned Avalon sedans because of potential steering problems. Just one week after the car debuted, made only in Georgetown, Ky., the car company said the steering column on some early productio...
May 18th, 2005 Toyota Motor Corp. has announced it is recalling more than 750,000 pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) in the United States because of problems with the front suspension – making it one of its largest safety recalls ever. The Toyota ...
March 31st, 2005 Dementia is used to describe progressive impairment in brain function. In the U.S., the two main causes of dementia are Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. The most common form of dementia in the U.S., Alzheimer’s affects four million Americans,...
March 21st, 2005 According to statistics, the number of vehicle crashes taking the lives of Minnesota teenagers is rising. Vehicle crashes are already the leading cause of death among older Minnesota teenagers, but there is not evidence indicating the numbers are taperi...
January 27th, 2005 Ford Motor Co. announced it was recalling roughly 792,000 pickup trucks and SUVs because of a fire risk. The speed control switch could spark fires under the hood of the vehicles, Ford spokeswoman Kristen Kinley said. Ford is currently acquir...
November 7th, 2004 According to a Duke University Medical Center study presented at the American Heart Association''s scientific sessions November 7, coronary stents do not improve the long-term survival rates of heart patients. The coronary stent was intended to prevent pl...
November 5th, 2004 General Motors Corp. has announced it is recalling 1.23 million vehicles. The GM recall includes 871,473 Chevrolet TrailBlazers, GMC Envoys and similar vehicles and 256,025 Chevrolet Cavaliers and Pontiac Sunfires from the 2003 model year for separate tai...
October 19th, 2004 The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall of about 124,000 Avanti water dispensers. The hot water faucet on the units has a child-resistant safety feature to prevent young children from accessing hot water. Because the device ca...
October 15th, 2004 The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced IKEA''s Fargglad multi-color children''s chair has been recalled. About 7,279 units have been sold with the article number 400.548.40 from IKEA stores from May 2003 through September 18, 2004. The ...
October 6th, 2004 According to Consumer Union, the organization that publishes Consumer Reports, parents should be aware of defective electrical cords that are common in the marketplace, along with counterfeit batteries, leaky, disposable lighters and toys that can cho...
July 19th, 2004 Boston Scientific Corp. announced a recall of 85,000 Taxus drug coated heart stents after a death and serious injuries were linked to it. Just two weeks after a 200 heart stent recall because reports of malfunctions while being inserted into arteries were...
March 24th, 2004 After the Ford/Firestone rollovers that resulted in over 271 U.S. deaths, measures were enacted that safety groups believe were a positive step but so far insufficient considering the over 30,000 deaths in rollover crashes since then. Provisions have been...
March 22nd, 2004 In 2000, after the Firestone tire recall that involved millions of recalled tires and over 271 U.S. deaths, Congress ordered the auto industry to regularly turn over safety data to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The lawmakers did not ...
March 19th, 2004 Some consider Wisconsin''s lemon law the toughest in the country. When the lemon law was written 20- years ago, a consumer would be rewarded automatic double damages for a "lemon" if he/she is forced to take a manufacturer to court and wins. For Vern Hols...
February 26th, 2004 CryoLife is the nation''s largest supplier of living human tissue for implantation. With losses of $32.3 million in 2003 compared to a loss of $27.8 million in 2002, CryoLife maintains it is not concerned with the legal and financial problems the company ...
February 9th, 2004 DaimlerChrysler AG issued a Chrysler recall on about 3,200 of its 2005 model year Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Caravan, and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans due to a front right seat belt assembly defect. The affected auto recall vehicles increase risk of i...
February 9th, 2004 Just days after GM recalled around 1.8 million cars after receiving 80 reports of electrical defect problems that can result in spark fires in the steering column, 636,000 mid size SUVs were also being recalled. Last May, about 40% of U.S. consumers would...
January 13th, 2004 Auto manufacturer DaimlerChrysler announced on Tuesday that they were recalling 2.7 million Chrysler cars in an attempt to correct a potential problem with the floor-mounted gear shifts. The Chrysler recall includes the 1995-1999 Chrysler Cirrus, ...
January 12th, 2004 GM, the world''s best selling automaker, announced it was issuing a recall that affects about 824,000 cars. The automaker will be fixing possible power steering problems that could be affecting cars built from January 1996 through Oct...
An injunction entered yesterday in the U.S. District Court forbids the Union, N.J. company Shelhigh from distributing the medical devices it manufactures until the company's facilities, manufacturing methods, and quality control processes meet relevant FD...
Officials are investigating claims that Chinese-made drywall is posing health risks to thousands of American consumers. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, investigations are currently underway in several Florida homes. To date, the Flor...