William Kokoszka, a 54 year-old Connecticut resident, has filed a personal injury lawsuit against Zimmer Inc., for extreme pain and injuries due to a defective artificial hip manufactured by Zimmer.

In each case, the patient experienced excruciating pain following implantation of the Zimmer Durom Cup and all have, or soon will, be forced to undergo a painful revision surgery.

“At my age, I wanted to continue my active lifestyle, including spending time with my family, working with my charities, traveling with my husband, and being able to perform basic daily activities,” stated Renee Donnelly, age 74, of Paradise Valley, Arizona, one of the patients that filed a lawsuit.  “However, once I was implanted with the defective Durom Cup, my life became very limited.”

“I used to lead a very fulfilling and active lifestyle, traveling abroad, exercising regularly, volunteering, and working in my garden.  Now, my life is so limited due to the pain that the defective Durom Cup implant has caused me,” stated plaintiff Karen Hoggarth, age 54, of  Westerville, Ohio. “I can’t even walk up the stairs without pain.”

“The quality of life physically and mentally, today and in the future, for myself and my family has been permanently damaged by the defective Zimmer Durom Cup I received in 2006,” added William Kokoszka, another plaintiff from Meriden, Connecticut.  “Zimmer should be accountable for its negligence and disregard for the safety of patients implanted with the Zimmer Durom Cup.”

Zimmer Durom Cup Lawsuits

The Durom Cup was first sold in the nation in 2006 and was implanted in over 12,000 patients over a two year period.  The estimated failure rates of the Durom Cup ranges between 20% and 30%.

After the Durom Cup was introduced in the United States, Zimmer began receiving complaints from physicians that the artificial hip was failing.  “Despite warnings from leading orthopedic surgeons, Zimmer continued to aggressively market the Durom Cup in 2007 and into 2008, blaming surgeons for the growing failure rate,” stated attorney Wendy R. Fleishman of the national law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP.

Learn more about the Zimmer Durom Cup and defective hip implant lawsuits.

GlaxoSmithKline insists that the study was reliable and that it demonstrated that the drug is safe. Critics assert that the study conducted by GlaxoSmithKline was flawed, manipulated and that its findings cannot be trusted.

The nation’s leading medical advisory group, The Institute of Medicine, released a report last week “concluding that Avandia increased the risks of stroke, heart failure and death compared with Actos.”

Beginning today, the FDA will determine in two days of hearings on whether Avandia should be withdrawn from the market.

Read an earlier entry outlining a New York Times report that exposed how Avandia is linked with risks of heart failure.

Patients taking Avandia that suffered serious side effects are welcome to contact a Lieff Cabraser attorney to learn about their legal rights for no charge or obligation.

As published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, one study found that Avandia, as compared with other diabetes medications, increased the risk of heart attacks by 28% to 38%.  The other study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that Avandia, as compared with another diabetes drug, Actos, increased the risk of stroke by 27%, heart failure by 25%, and death by 13%.

Both studies were released in advance in the Food and Drug Administration hearing that will determine if Avandia should stay on the market.  In the meantime, The American Diabetes Association has recommended doctors to discontinue prescribing Avandia.  The U.S. Senate Committee on Finance called for Avandia’s removal and charged the FDA with knowledge of the drug’s dangerous link to cardiovascular health risks before it was reported to the public.

The manufacturer of Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline, defended the safety of the drug and denied the findings reported by studies.

Read an earlier entry explaining a New York Times report that exposed the heightened heart failure risks of Avandia.

Patients taking Avandia that suffered serious side effects are welcome to contact a Lieff Cabraser attorney to learn about their legal rights for no charge or obligation.

Paxil, Paxil Oral Suspension, and Paxil-CR are trade names of the drug Paroxetine, which is a member of a class of drugs known as “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors” (SSRIs). A 2005 study based on 3,500 pregnant women, linked Paxil to twice as many birth defects compared to other antidepressants when taken during the first three months of pregnancy.

The birth defects identified in the study included congenital defects, heart defects and persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN), a potentially fatal disease.

If your child was born with birth defects and you were prescribed Paxil or other antidepressant drugs while pregnant, please contact our law firm to learn about your rights for no charge or obligation.

According to the article, Dr. Berger, a top surgeon, consultant, trainer, and artificial joint designer for Zimmer Holdings, began complaining to the company concerning the alleged premature failure of one of its artificial knees, the NexGen CR-Flex, an advanced version of the standard Zimmer knee, known as the NexGen. Dr. Berger then went public with the claim strengthened by a study that he confirms proves it. In response, Zimmer denied the claim and blamed the premature failure of the NexGen CR-Flex on Dr. Berger’s technique. Dr. Berger’s contract was not renewed the following year.

Dr. Lawrence Dorr, another major Zimmer consultant, alerted the company of the failure of one its artificial hip models, the Durom hip. As with Dr. Berger, Zimmer denied the claim and blamed the problem on Dr. Dorr’s technique.

American manufacturers of orthopedic devices, a $6.7 billion annual business, are not subject to the voluntary system of investigations by outside panels. Artificial joints, such as Zimmer’s NexGen knee and the Durom hip, are cleared for sale under law by the Food and Drug Administration without being subject to testing in patients. Moreover, the long-term performance of artificial joints is not tracked in the nation.

Bloomberg Businessweek also published an article that sheds light on surgeons’ conflicts of interest in recommending certain hip and knee implants over others. The article, titled, “New Hips Gone Awry Expose U.S. Kickbacks in Doctors’ Conflicts,” explains the government’s involvement in supervising the financial relationships between surgeons and major manufacturers of knees and hips due to the widespread ‘kickbacks’ that occur. Zimmer Holdings Inc. is listed as one of the major knee and hip manufacturers that cut physician payments as a result of the government’s intervention.

Read these full articles on the The New York Times and Bloomberg Businessweek websites. Learn more about Zimmer Durom Cup Hip Implant Injuries and the rights of victims.

Walter Thomas, a 63-year-old retired manufacturing plant supervisor, may be left with a permanent limp, he alleges in a personal injury lawsuit filed against Zimmer Inc, the manufacturer of his faulty artificial hip implant.

Thomas, a 63-year-old retired manufacturing plant manager, endured agonizing pain for months, many hip dislocations, two revision surger

ies, and has been left with a potentially lasting limp due to Zimmer’s allegedly defective hip implant.

“This has been a very trying time in my life for me and my family,” Thomas stated.  “When my artificial hip was implanted in May of 2007, I was hoping for a quick recovery.  Never did I think that I would have to endure two additional surgeries, three hip dislocations which resulted in trips to the Emergency Room, several weeks of physical therapy, and the frightening prospect of being permanently handicapped because of Zimmer’s faulty product.  To me, this lawsuit is about holding Zimmer accountable for what they did to me.”

“Zimmer’s belated suspension of sales of its defective product was too little, too late for Mr. Thomas and for countless other folks, who needed safe and effective hip implants to restore their ability to sit, stand and walk without excruciating pain” stated Thomas’ attorney Mark P. Chalos of national law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP.
“Now, those same men and women suffer from pain worse than before the ‘fix’ to their hips, and some, like Mr. Thomas have permanent limps. Zimmer should do right by Mr. Thomas and his family.”

Learn more about Durom Cup injuries and the rights of victims.

In April 2010, Ms. Mercado was diagnosed with a severe lung disease as a result of her exposure to ConAgra’s microwave popcorn which contained butter flavorings with added diacetyl. The disease is associated with inhaling butter flavoring vapors and has been identified as bronchiolitis obliterans — literally, an obliteration of the lung’s airways. Breathing tests can identify difficulty in moving air in and out of the lungs, called lung obstruction. In the case of bronchiolitis obliterans, that obstruction is “fixed,” meaning it doesn’t respond to normal asthma medications.

About her injury, Ms. Mercado stated, “I have always taken good care of myself and never would have thought that something as seemingly harmless as eating microwave popcorn would have hurt me so badly.” The lawsuit charges that Ms. Mercado sustained a severe lung disease after consuming microwave popcorn containing the butter flavoring chemical diacetyl. The chemical is used for the aroma and taste in butter, some cheeses and snack and bakery products.

Learn more about diacetyl injuries and the rights of victims of diacetyl-related lung diseases.

On April 30, 2010, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall of thousands of Simplicity cribs due to suffocation and strangulation dangers. The current recall includes seven Simplicity crib models sold at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., Babies R Us and other national stores. The Simplicity recall includes all full-sized cribs with tubular metal mattress-support frames, which can bend or detach, causing the mattress to collapse and creating a space that a baby can roll into, become trapped in and suffocate.

According to the CPSC, at least one child became trapped in his Simplicity crib and suffocated in 2008. The company at large has been subject to about a dozen recalls since 2005 with links to 13 crib deaths.

Graco Crib Recall

On April 30, 2010, the CPSC recalled 217,000 Graco dropside cribs manufactured by LaJobi. The agency confirmed that there have been 99 complaints of dropside problems with the cribs. The recall is the result of hardware failures in the wood cribs. According to news reports the dropside (the side of the crib that moves up and down) can break or detach, resulting in a dangerous gap between the crib mattress and crib side that creates the risk of suffocation or strangulation.

The decision to update the labels came after two studies that were commissioned by Bayer showed that the risk of Yaz and Yasmin was comparable to that of other oral contraceptives on the market, according to press reports.

Click here to learn more about the risks associated with Yaz and Yasmin.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration yesterday proposed a record civil penalty of $16.4 million, less than 2 percent of Toyota projected net profit for the year ending March 31, related to a January recall of 2.3 million U.S. autos for accelerator pedals that allegedly stick. Toyota failed to act in a timely manner after knowing of the problem since at least September 2009, LaHood said.

“It certainly bolsters our cases,” said Robert J. Nelson, a lawyer at San Francisco-based Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP, who has filed 20 lawsuits on behalf of individual clients claiming personal injuries or deaths caused by sudden- acceleration incidents. “It demonstrates Toyota has been less than forthright with the U.S. government and with consumers.”

The Japanese automaker waited at least four months before telling the agency that accelerator pedals might stick, LaHood said yesterday in a statement. Companies have five business days to report safety defects, the agency said.

Read the full article on the SF Gate website.