Jacksonville Personal Injury Blog

Surgical instruments meant to be tools for healing in the hands of skilled surgeons are increasingly becoming instruments of sickness and even death in our nation’s hospitals. According to NBC News, hospitals nationwide have revealed that the use of dirty surgical instruments have led to outbreaks of potentially lethal infections.

NBC cited an incident at a Houston, Texas hospital in 2009 where operating rooms were closed for two weeks while the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigated a rash of six potentially fatal post-operation infections that happened within a small time frame. The culprit? Arthroscopic shavers and drainage tubes that weren’t completely sterilized of bacteria, blood, and organic matter.

According to Joe Eaton, an investigative reporter with the Center for Public Integrity, the reasons for the growing problem are varied. He states that some of the polymers used in newer high-tech devices will melt if heat-sterilized in the traditional way that glass and metal instruments are and must be cleaned by hand. They then are sent to a hospital basement and cleaned in some cases by, “poorly paid and poorly trained technicians whose last job might have been at Burger King.”

He also points out that manufacturer designs of some surgical instruments make complete cleaning virtually impossible and suggests that hospitals need to be more tightly regulated to ensure that devices are clean before surgery.

Currently, only 25 states have requirements that hospitals report surgical infections. Florida was one of the first states to adopt mandatory hospital-acquired infection reporting. Some 90,000 people die of hospital-acquired infections every year and studies have suggested that up to 75% of them could be prevented.

This report is truly frightening because surgery related infections are avoidable if proper care is taken to clean instruments. If you or a family member has been injured as a result of a surgery-related infection caused by medical negligence, the Florida medical malpractice attorneys at Farah & Farah would like to speak to you. Call us at (800) 533-3555 for a free and confidential assessment of your case.

Last year, the Florida Legislature banned the sale of “bath-salts,” — dangerous synthetic drugs that had been marketed as bath salts and were sold in head shops, corner stores, and online, where they were easily bought by teenagers. Before the ban, the products had been sold legally. But Florida authorities moved against the products, which contained the synthetic drug MDVP, because of reports of hallucinations, violent behavior, muscle damage, kidney failure, and even death associated with their use.

As a result, several forms of synthetic cathinones (bath salts) and synthetic cannabinoids (known as K2) were banned by the state of Florida. In September of 2011, The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) also placed an emergency ban on products that contain MDPV and methylone — key ingredients of “bath salts.”

But now, chemists have tweaked the formula to get around the law and the drugs are back in Florida.

New batches of the product are being marketed as bath salts, herbal cigarettes, and plant food, and have been implicated in the recent hospitalizations of three Charlotte County high-school students who overdosed on it. Florida lawmakers want to make it a third-degree felony to manufacture or sell the drugs in their new form.

Florida authorities are urging parents to talk to their teenagers about this — and to check their purchases.

Establishing Liability, Protecting Your Rights

Although these products have been, or will be banned, there are still unregulated products being sold everyday that do harm to people. Establishing who is liable for those injuries can be complex and confusing. That’s why you need the experienced team of personal injury attorneys in Florida at Farah & Farah on your side if you or a loved one has been harmed by a dangerous or defective product. Call us at (800) 533-3555 so we can investigate your claim and can start working to get you compensation from liable parties.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating how fake vials of the widely used cancer drug Avastin found their way to 19 doctors and clinics in the United States — raising alarms that the large, and growing, multi-billion worldwide drug-counterfeiting trade is making further inroads into America.

Reuters reported that the trail of the fake Avastin led back to an Egyptian company called SAWA. Hadicon, the Swiss-based import/export company that purchased the fake drug from SAWA, provided an address for the company that was located in Giza, a suburb of Cairo. However, reporters who went to the location revealed that no such company existed and locals had never heard of it. Egyptian authorities say the company is not registered with the Egyptian Health Ministry either.

Hadicon, which claims it was unaware that it was exporting a phony drug, sold to a British company, which in turn exported it to a Tennessee-based wholesaler called Volunteer Distribution.

This latest bogus drug scare, along with past incidents of counterfeited Viagra, Lipitor, and Alli that have hit the U.S. market, highlights the growing complexity and dangers of the worldwide drug supply-chain. Drugs and drug ingredients sold in the U.S. are increasingly being manufactured overseas in countries with spotty regulations and poor oversight.

Last year 1,700 cases of drug counterfeiting were reported worldwide. The U.S. accounted for six percent of those cases.

Fake Drug Dangers

With more drugs and drug ingredients being imported from overseas, it is becoming clear that stricter oversight of imported drugs and drug ingredients is sorely needed. Fake drugs are not only illegal, but also potentially deadly. If any drug has harmed you, you have legal recourse to obtain compensation for your injuries. Call the Florida dangerous drugs lawyers at Farah & Farah for a free and private consultation. We’re available day or night at (800) 533-3555.

Sources http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/21/avastin-egypt-idUSL5E8DL8R020120221;http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/ucm291960.htm?utm_source=fda&utm_medium=website&utm_term=Aspirin&utm_content=f1&utm_campaign=HomePageSpotlight

With the reauthorization of the Medical Device User Fee Act (MDUFA) currently being debated in Congress, medical device industry lobbyists, congressmen, and consumer watchdog groups are locking horns in a battle for the future of medical device regulation.

The MDUFA, which has to be reauthorized every five years, requires a user fee to be levied on medical device manufacturers seeking approval for a new device. A recent agreement reached between the industry and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would double the current user fee level — fees the agency claims are needed to hire more qualified device reviewers and managers to speed up the approval process.

Some consumer groups are crying foul. Public Citizen, a consumer watchdog group, claims that members of Congress, influenced by powerful medical device industry lobbyists, have introduced 14 bills that aim to speed up the approval process at the expense of patient safety. They go on to state that the current approval process is far less rigorous than the one used for new drugs, and point to a study by the Institute of Medicine that concluded the FDA process used to clear 95 percent of moderate- and high-risk medical devices, and even the process for approving the highest-risk devices, fails to ensure they are safe and effective.

200,000 medical device-related injuries and malfunctions — and more than 2,000 deaths — are reported to the FDA every year.

Mandating Safety

In 2011 the medical device industry spent $33.3 million on lobbying in Washington D.C. The law firm of Farah & Farah believes that patient safety, and not profits, should always be the most important consideration when medical devices are approved for use. If you believe you have been injured because of a faulty or malfunctioning medical device, call our Florida medical defect lawyers at (800) 533-3555 for a free and discreet consultation.

Sources: http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2011/Medical-Devices-and-the-Publics-Health-The-FDA-510k-Clearance-Process-at-35-Years.aspx; http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/31200

According to a study by the Office of Inspector General (OIG), only 14% of incidents where patients are harmed by medical care ever get logged into hospital incident reporting systems. Sixty-two percent of the events didn’t make it into the systems because staff did not think they needed to be reported.

Federal regulations require that as a condition of participation in the Medicare program, hospitals must, “track medical errors and adverse patient events, analyze their causes, and implement preventative measures and mechanisms that include feedback and learning throughout the hospital.”

Apparently, none of the three organizations that accredit hospitals in the U.S. have a standardized list of reportable events and medical errors that hospitals can reference, nor did any of the 189 hospitals covered in the study have a definitive list of events that required reporting.

The OIG report stated that along with more minor “temporary-harm” events, some “adverse-harm” events that led to patient deaths — such as hospital-acquired infections and excessive bleeding caused by hospital-administered drugs — also went unreported.

Some 25% of incidents that usually get reported also did not get logged in. Hospital administrators cited time constraints or staff thinking that, “somebody else would report the incident” as possible reasons.

Making Hospitals Safe

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that 98,000 people die of hospital-acquired infections each year alone. That’s why the law firm of Farah & Farah believes it is critical that hospitals accurately track information that can be used to reduce medical errors and save lives. If you or a loved one has been harmed during a hospital stay, please call our Florida hospital malpractice attorneys at (800) 533-3555. The call is free and so is your first consultation.

Sources: http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-06-08-00220.pdf; http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/756540

A jury has been selected for the trials of a mother and father, who Investigators say admitted they left their 3-year-old girl and 6-year-old boy home alone on several occasions. The consequences of their actions ended in tragedy in Arlington, Florida in June of 2010, when the children were found drowned in a neighbor’s pool.

The parents have been charged with aggravated manslaughter and negligence.

According to investigators, the mother of the children left them unattended to go to work. Before leaving, she called her husband to come home, but he stayed at work, admitting to detectives he wanted to work more hours.

A neighbor found the gate to his front yard open and discovered both the children in his pool. An autopsy found that both had accidentally drowned.

The Florida Department of Health states that Florida loses more children under five-years-old to drowning than any other state. The Florida Residential Pool Safety Act requires that all residential pools have at least one safety feature designed to “deny, delay or to detect unsupervised entry to the swimming pool, spa or hot tub.”

Those safety features include: pool covers, enclosures that surround the perimeter of the pool, exit alarms and self-closing, self-latching doors that provide access to a pool.

The key element for keeping children safe and preventing accidental drowning is proper supervision when they are around pools. According to Florida law, pool owners also have a shared responsibility to make sure their pools are inaccessible to small children who might be unsupervised. The Florida personal injury attorneys at Farah & Farah stress that accidental drowning can be prevented if everybody acts responsibly. If you think somebody has been negligent and one of your loved ones has been harmed, please call us at (800) 533-3555.

Sources:http://www.doh.state.fl.us/injury/DrownPrevent.html
http://www.news4jax.com/news/Trials-set-for-parents-of-drowned-kids/-/475880/8764564/-/lwkcj6z/-/index.html

Cape Coral rescue workers claim that they could not get into a house to respond to a 911 call from a woman because three pit bulls inside the home held them at bay. The family of the woman, who died as a result of the delay, is looking for answers.

It took Cape Coral police fifty minutes to get inside the home. They claim the dogs were a severe threat, and that one of the dogs had broken a front window trying to get to them. “In 16 years, I’ve never seen a dog put his head through a window. That’s a bit of a game changer,” one senior officer who had been on the scene told WBBH News.

The sister of the victim said police should have just killed the dogs, but police countered that shooting them posed too big a risk because a child was in the house. They went on to say that using non-lethal deterrents like pepper spray or stun guns can yield equally unpredictable results when dealing with dogs.

Dog Attack Statistics

Each day about 1,000 people in the United States require emergency care for a dog bite injury. A 2009 report issued by dogbite.org revealed that there were 88 fatalities attributed to dog attacks in one three year period from 2006-2009. Pit Bulls were responsible for 52 of those attacks. In addition, the average cost of a bite-related hospital stay in 2008 was $18,200.

Protecting the Rights of Injury Victims

A dog attack, whether minor or severe can be traumatic, life altering and expensive. The Florida dog bite attorneys at Farah & Farah are here to see that your medical expenses are paid and that you get any further compensation warranted for your pain and suffering Call us at (800) 533-3555 today.

Sources: http://www.nbc-2.com/story/16901110/2012/02/09/dogs-hold-rescuers-at-bay
http://www.dogsbite.org/dog-bite-statistics.php

In December of 2011, a Florida woman went into surgery to have cysts removed from her head. What began as a routine surgery in Crestview, Florida ended with her being flown to a burn unit in Alabama after a flash fire during surgery torched her face and neck.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), while fires during surgery are relatively rare, there are still 550 to 650 surgical fires every year in the United States. Some cases have led to second and third degree burns to patients. And, although deaths are less common, they have been reported to the FDA and usually occur when a patient’s airway is burned in a fire.

Surgical fires occur in oxygen-rich surgery environments where an Electrical Surgical Unit, a laser or a device with an optical light source, is used. These two elements, when combined with fuel sources such as surgical drapes or alcohol-based skin preparation agents, can lead to an increased risk of a fire with the potential for serious injury, disfigurement, and even death.

The FDA states that surgical fires are completely preventable if the surgery staff conducts a thorough fire risk assessment before an operation and takes steps to eliminate all potential fire-hazards in an operating room. In 2010, the FDA and partners launched a surgical fire prevention initiative designed to promote safety in surgery settings.

Simple due diligence by medical professionals can go a long way in avoiding potential harmful outcomes for patients during surgery. At Farah & Farah, we believe in your right to as safe a medical environment as possible. Our Florida medical malpractice attorneys are ready to take your call if you have been hurt or incapacitated due to medical negligence. Call us at (800) 533-3555 and let’s get the conversation started.

Sources: http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-12-01/news/30464749_1_flash-fire-cyst-panhandle-hospital; http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/Safety/AlertsandNotices/ucm275189.htm

A bill that would allow school districts to enter into agreements with local governments and organizations to use public school playgrounds is making its way through the Florida House of Representatives. A similar bill has been introduced in the senate.

The stated concept behind the legislation is to help in the fight against the epidemic of childhood obesity. By making playgrounds accessible on weekends and after school hours, lawmakers are hoping to widen the array of venues children have access to for physical activity.

However, some school district officials are concerned about safety issues. Bay District Schools Chief Operating Officer, Dr. John Haley said that to ensure safety, “there has to be a set of rules … similar to pool rules.”

According to WMMB News, while some parents like the idea of the public gaining access to school playgrounds, others aren’t quite so sure. While one man agreed with the proposed bill, he stated, “I just want to make sure it doesn’t endanger the kids, security would be an issue.”

Playground Safety

It is estimated that more than 200,000 children are severely injured in playground accidents every year. From 2001 to 2008 the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) investigated 40 deaths associated with playground equipment. A 2002 survey found that 75 percent of all public playgrounds lacked adequate protective surfacing.

Experts acknowledge that adult supervision and regular maintenance are key to keeping kids safe on playgrounds.

Help Prevent Child Injury Accidents

Getting Florida kids outside and active should be a top priority. However, when it comes to playgrounds, the FIRST priority is to keep children safe. If your child has been injured because of unsafe playground conditions or another person’s negligence, the personal injury attorneys in Tallahassee at Farah & Farah will work tirelessly on your behalf to see that justice is done.

Sources: http://www.wmbb.com/story/16699453/school-playgrounds-for-public-use; http://www.abc-7.com/story/16903384/keep-your-kid-safe-on-the-playground

Florida has never had a ban of any kind of texting while driving, and this year’s Florida legislative session may be a repeat of years past. The parents of a teenager killed in a head-on auto accident in 2008 because the other driver was texting behind the wheel came to Tallahassee to share their story with lawmakers hoping this year will be different. The girl’s parents told TBO.com that losing a child is something you never want to experience, especially from something that could have been avoided.

In their case, their 17-year-old daughter was returning home from a play rehearsal at Bishop McLaughlin Catholic High School in Spring Hill about 7:15 p.m. A 19-year-old was eastbound on Hudson Avenue near Hays Road when she crossed the road and hit the first teen head-on. Both girls were wearing seat belts, and both died at the scene.

Texting While Driving

A ban on texting while driving has passed three Senate committees so far this legislative session, but it is yet to be heard in the house. Some lawmakers, such as Rep. Irv Schlosberg who also lost his daughter in an auto accident, say there are obstructionists who do not want to see any sort of legislation or ban on texting.

The proposed legislation would make texting behind the wheel a secondary offense, meaning that you could not be pulled over for that offense alone. You could receive a ticket for texting after being pulled over for something else.

Distracted Driving

Texting while driving is thought to remove your focus on driving by 400 percent. The American Medical Association (AMA) has called texting behind the wheel a “public health risk.” Yet Florida has never had any kind of ban, whether just on teens, on texting, or on cell phone use at all.

Federal estimates are that every year, 6,000 individuals are killed in car crashes by distracted drivers.

If you have been injured in an accident caused by a distracted driver, the distracted driving accident attorneys in Jacksonville of Farah & Farah can help you get compensation for your injuries. Please call (800) 533-3555 for a free consultation.

Source: http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2012/feb/05/parents-of-fatal-texting-accident-want-b-19946-vi-25928/; http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/accidents/article899658.ece

It happened Tuesday afternoon, February 7. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) ruled that lawsuits filed in federal courts around the country against three synthetic vaginal mesh manufacturers could be transferred to be heard by one federal judge in West Virginia.

The cases were filed against American Medical Systems Inc. (MDL No. 2325), Boston Scientific Corp. (MDL 2326), and Ethicon, Inc. (MDL 2327).

The JPML ordered that 82 actions against American Medical Systems be transferred, 22 actions against Boston Scientific, and 36 cases against Ethicon be transferred to the U.S. District Court Judge who will hear the consolidated cases - Chief Judge Joseph R. Goodwin of the Southern District of West Virginia. There will be three different MDL’s consolidated against the three manufacturers to be heard by Judge Goodwin who is familiar with synthetic mesh injuries; he currently oversees the C.R. Bard Avaulta lawsuits.

The female plaintiffs all report similar injuries after receiving synthetic mesh for pelvic organ prolapse or stress urinary incontinence, common female problems. These complications range from intense pain, disability, mesh erosion and shrinkage, nerve damage, and infection, among other injuries. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received more than 4,000 reports of injuries in its database, which is thought to represent just a fraction of what exists in the real world because the database is little-known and difficult to access.

As it stands now, the cases should move forward much more efficiently. Plaintiffs will be able to share the discovery gathered from the manufacturers, which is part of the litigation process. Judge Goodwin should also be able to understand how to handle claims if two different types of mesh have been used on the same women, as happens occasionally. In addition, there won’t be conflicting court rulings from around the country that would have to be sorted out.

An MDL is a special procedure, somewhat similar to a class action, in which noncriminal cases are consolidated into one court. Unlike a class action, individuals can file their own product liability lawsuits.

Expect the first of these defective product lawsuits to begin to be heard in 2012.

Any woman experiencing complications from defective surgical mesh can call the transvaginal mesh attorneys in Jacksonville of Farah & Farah at (800) 533-3555. The consultation is free and confidential.

Florida State Senator, Oscar Brayon (D), has proposed legislation that would allow cameras to be installed on all Florida school buses. According to Brayon, bill SB 250 shouldn’t alarm privacy advocates, because it is really meant to address what he perceives as a rampant disregard for the “stop arm” law in Florida. The law requires that all vehicles stop when a stopped school bus’ lights are flashing and its stop sign is extended. The cameras, which would function much like red light cameras at intersections, would record vehicles violating the law. The violators would then be subject to a $200 fine.

By placing the cameras on the buses, Brayon is hoping to prevent serious injuries or fatalities to schoolchildren caused by pedestrian accidents in Florida. “Nowhere you’re going is so important that you should put a child’s life at risk,” he told First Coast News.

According to a 2011 National Stop Arm Violation Survey, school bus drivers in Florida documented over 20,000 vehicles violating the law statewide in just one day, potentially putting thousands of kids at risk. The survey goes on to say that as many as 13 million violations of the law may occur nationwide every year.

The National Coalition for School Bus Safety reports over 22 million children ride the bus to and from school every day.

We agree that protecting school children traveling to and from school should be a top priority. A Florida pedestrian crash lawyer at Farah & Farah will work side-by-side with you if your child has been injured due to the negligence of another. Call us at (800) 533-3555 for a free consultation today.

Sources: http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/article/239411/3/Bill-Proposes-Cameras-on-School-Buses-to-Catch-Bad-Drivers; http://www.ncsbs.org/testimonies/fatalities_and_injuries.htm

Of the many dangers on the road in Jacksonville and throughout Florida that we have to contend with, perhaps the greatest hazard of them all is: ourselves.

According to the NHTSA, we are driving ourselves to deadly distraction— to the tune of 5,474 traffic fatalities in 2009 alone. Although any activity that can divert a person’s attention away from the task of driving — such as eating, talking to passengers, grooming, or adjusting a car radio — is considered distracted driving, it is cell phone use and texting while driving that is drawing the greatest scrutiny from state governments and federal agencies.

According to various studies, drivers who use a hand-held device while driving are 4 times more likely to get into crashes while those who send and receive texts create a crash risk 23 times greater than driving while not distracted. Sending and receiving a text while driving takes a driver’s eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds. A vehicle going 55 mph covers an entire football field in that time.

Even more frightening, 40% of American teens say that they have been in cars where driver cell phone use put people in danger.

While 9 states currently prohibit drivers from using handheld cell phones and 35 states ban texting while driving, Florida has no restrictions on cell phone use while driving. In November of 2011, the Department of Transportation (DOT) prohibited the use of hand-held cell phones by interstate truck and bus drivers while operating their vehicles.

Driving any vehicle should command a person’s complete and full attention. If you have been injured in a Florida accident by a distracted driver, call a Farah & Farah Florida personal injury attorney at (800) 533-3555 today.

Source: http://www.distraction.gov/

A 6-year-old-boy was listed in critical condition after two cars collided in an intersection in his Pompano Beach neighborhood and one of the cars struck him. The little boy was riding his scooter on the sidewalk when a man who was driving an Oldsmobile Cutlass ran a stop sign on NW 5th Avenue and hit a Toyota Camry. After the initial car accident in Florida, both vehicles continued to careen out of control. While the Camry spun several times and ended up in a front yard, the other car struck two more vehicles, a tree, and the little boy.

According to neighbors, the street has a reputation for speeding drivers, and a local resident told one local television news station that the Oldsmobile driver had just gotten a new engine in his car and was probably going 100 miles per hour before the accident occurred. Five adults, four from the Camry and the Oldsmobile motorist, were taken to North Broward Medical Center where they were treated and later released.

No charges have been filed while Broward County officials continue to investigate.

Reckless driving is one of the leading causes of accidents on our roads. Many of the accidents in the United States are a result of irresponsible acts that could have been prevented. If you or a loved one has been injured due to the reckless act of another person, the Florida personal injury lawyers at Farah & Farah will help you to get the compensation you deserve to help get your life back on track. Call us at (800) 533-3555.

Sources: http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/01/29/6-year-old-boy-critically-hurt-after-cars-crash-onto-sidewalk/;http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/robert-glover-jr-six-year_n_1241479.html;http://voices.yahoo.com/reckless-driving-accidents-fatalities-6960612.html

The C.R. Bard Company of New Jersey, is one of nine synthetic surgical mesh manufacturers whose products are used in women to treat stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. Avaulta is the best known Bard product, and despite the fact that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received several thousand reports of complications from synthetic mesh, the Avaulta surgical mesh system is still on the market.

Of particular concern are the “arms” that are made of a form of plastic, a synthetic polypropylene mesh. Once implanted in the body, they grow into tissue and can adhere to organs, making them very difficult to remove. Complications may include erosion into surrounding tissue and organs, pain, nerve damage, migration of the mesh, and hardening of the plastic. The arms can be problematic to remove and, in some cases, surgeons will opt to leave the arms behind, sentencing the patient to a lifetime of pain and possibly disability. Other Bard products include Avaulta Plus, Avaulta Solo, and Avaulta Biosynthetic. Once the mesh is out, a woman may need reconstructive surgery to put damaged tissues back in place, such as reconstructing the vagina, the rectum, or the pelvic floor.

There is no wonder why the FDA suggested in its July 13, 2011 Public Health Notification that the risks associated with synthetic Avaulta mesh may not be worth the benefit.

At Farah & Farah, our Jacksonville synthetics mesh injury attorneys understand it is difficult to discuss your pelvic surgery complications. That is why we have assigned compassionate and understanding women to discuss your case and your injuries. A statute of limitations does apply so we have opened the door to a complimentary consultation. You will not have to pay anything for us to take your case unless we secure an award on your behalf. Our number is (800) 533-3555.

With thousands of transvaginal mesh and bladder sling mesh lawsuits filed in state and federal courts around the country, it’s becoming increasingly clear that they cannot be tried separately. Lawsuits filed against the major manufacturers - C.R. Bard, Ethicon, American Medical Systems, and Boston Scientific - have in some cases been consolidated with other lawsuits against the same individual manufacturer.

On Thursday, January 26th, a federal panel of judges met to consider whether all of the cases should be consolidated before one federal judge. The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) met in Miami to decide whether all of the cases, numbering in the thousands, should be consolidated before one judge in the Southern District of West Virginia. Judge Joseph R. Goodwin is already overseeing the C.R. Bard surgical mesh lawsuits and is therefore familiar with the issues, which include patient injury and a failure to inform by the manufacturers who may have understood that their products were defective.

The Judicial Panel delayed making any decision on the consolidation request.

Cases heard in an MDL can use a similar set of facts and share in the discovery process, where each side asks for and receives documents from the other side that can become evidence in their case. Injured plaintiffs keep their legal bills down when they can all share in discovery. In addition, consolidating cases in an MDL avoids any conflicting court rulings that can come from different judges in different jurisdictions.

Synthetic surgical mesh is used to treat pelvic organ prolapse in women, as well as stress urinary incontinence. It is a petroleum-based polypropylene mesh-like substance, permanently implanted to hold up the organs in place when they have fallen within the body. Age, genetics, childbirth, and a lack of exercise are all thought to contribute to the conditions.

However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reports a five-fold increase in complications such as mesh erosion, migration, shrinkage, nerve damage, and intense abdominal pain, as well as infection. And the FDA has no real handle on the actual number of complications because the manufacturers are not required to track them. The Jacksonville transvaginal mesh injury attorneys of Farah & Farah are sensitive to listening to your concerns following a mesh implant. There is a limited time within which to bring an action, so starting the conversation may put you one step closer to finding some resolution to your pain and disability. Call us at 1(800) 533-35555.

Source: http://www.transvaginal-mesh-lawsuits.com/