Artificial hips offer many patients the opportunity to live active and full lives, but sometimes they don’t always work as intended. Thankfully, these are relatively rare situations. Unfortunately, if it’s your artificial hip that fails, there’s not much comfort in knowing the artificial hips in most other patients work as designed. Because an artificial hip failure can be such a serious problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) takes steps to ensure artificial hip medical devices receive adequate review and scrutiny before being approved for use in patients. One such step is to con ..read more

The Camp Lejeune “Elective Option” has been open for a while now and allows eligible individuals affected by contaminated water from Camp Lejeune to seek monetary compensation for their injuries. The goal of this administrative process is to make it faster and easier to receive monetary compensation and avoid going to court. A potential problem with the Elective Option is that it’s only available to those with officially recognized medical conditions. Another issue is that it has predetermined monetary payouts for certain injuries. This means it can result in certain people receiving less comp ..read more

For a while now, Stryker has had issues with some of its hip replacement artificial implants. One troublesome type in particular has been the LFIT V40 series. Specifically, in some of these Stryker hips corrosion forms where the femoral head connects with the femoral stem. This would often lead to taper lock failure, or a compromised joint that would loosen and cause metallosis. This issue helped lead to a recall in 2016 and an expanded recall in 2018. One of the reasons for the 2018 recall was a higher-than-expected number of reports of the femoral head disassociating (disconnecting) from the ..read more

Not all artificial hips fail. Many total hip replacement surgeries are successful. Unfortunately, artificial hips, particularly “metal-on-metal” hips, have “failed” at a rate much higher than previous artificial hip systems, whose components typically consisted of a combination of metals, plastics, and ceramics. The metal-on-metal design placed a metal ball or head directly into a metal acetabular cup. By using a metal cup and a metal ball, these artificial hips forced metal to rub against metal with the full weight and pressure of the human body. As long as the metals held up, all would be w ..read more

I’ve written extensively about problems with some Philips CPAP and BiPAP machines, including alleged injuries, affected machines, recalls, and potential litigation. That litigation is ramping up, but a new concern has arisen over the FDA’s inadequate and delayed recall process. Specifically, governmental safeguards designed to protect the public from faulty or dangerous medical devices may not be working properly. Using the Philips recall situation as a prime example, let’s examine what going on with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and why there might be room for improvement in ho ..read more

I recently wrote about the start of what may become a wave of lawsuits against the maker of Ozempic due to certain side effects from that medication. In particular, several users claim that Ozempic and related drugs caused their gastroparesis, or the slowing (or stopping) of food from the stomach to the small intestine. The primary argument is that the Ozempic label did not contain adequate warnings concerning potential side effects. After this litigation began, Novo Nordisk (the maker of Ozempic) updated the Ozempic’s label. Could this have been in response to the existing litigation or fear ..read more

Let’s jump back into our discussion of the Elective Option in the Camp Lejeune toxic water litigation. In this Part 2 we will discuss qualifying injuries, proven exposure to toxic water, and the settlement possibilities within the Elective Option: How Do I Prove I Have a Qualifying Injury? You’ll need to provide medical documents indicating you were diagnosed and/or treated for a qualifying injury. These must be original or certified copies. If it’s impossible to provide either, you’ll need to sign a sworn statement explaining why you can’t provide an original or certified copy along with an u ..read more

The Camp Lejeune toxic water litigation continues to chug along in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, with no major developments. This isn’t too surprising given how it’s still early in the overall litigation. However, there’s been a major development in the administrative claims process. Specifically, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Department of the Navy have announced something called an “Elective Option.” On paper at least, this is designed to help speed up the time it takes for claimants to receive compensation, as well as ease the burden ..read more

Philips Respironics (Philips) is a major manufacturer of the CPAP and BiPAP machines that help people with central sleep apnea and obstructive sleep apnea. Philips also makes ventilators that have no doubt saved lives in hospitals and other healthcare settings. These machines use a special type of foam to reduce the sound and vibration coming from these devices. Unfortunately, the foam Philips chose years ago can degrade and injure users, which eventually led to a 2021 CPAP recall. Let’s take a look at a recent development concerning Philips and its ventilator, CPAP and BiPAP products. A Brief ..read more

You’ve probably heard about the blockbuster drug, Ozempic. Maybe you’re already taking it or perhaps you were just watching the Oscars earlier this year. Either way, it’s hard to not know about Ozempic and its growing popularity to not just treat type 2 diabetes, but also weight loss. As helpful as Ozempic is to lower blood sugar and/or weight, it’s also known for some unpleasant side effects. One possible side effect is gastroparesis, which has led to one of the first lawsuits linked to Ozempic. What Is Ozempic ..read more