Defective Products

Florida product liability attorneys Farah & Farah, P.A., are pleased to announce the creation of Florida-ProductLiability.com—a free public information site devoted to coverage of product recalls, product liability settlements and other issues that are important to those who have suffered injuries because of defective products.

In our consumer-driven society, defective products prose a significant threat to the lives and well-being of everyday people. Almost any type of product can be poorly designed or insufficiently tested in such a way that innocent consumers are at risk.

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Believe it or not, it was 1992 when Congress passed a law calling for the creation of a database of rebuilt or stolen vehicles. The purpose was to inform consumers shopping for a used vehicle whether they were getting a car that had been in a wreck or had been rebuilt.

The 16-year wait is now over.

A U.S. judge has ruled that the Department of Justice has until January 30th to make this information available to consumers. The deadline comes about after Public Citizen, Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, and Consumer Action all sued the DOJ in February, arguing that the delay in putting together a published database was putting consumers at risk.

Now consumers can shop with the help of the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System. Information included will be the validity of the car’s title, the mileage, whether or not it has ever been stolen, whether or not it was ever in a wreck and rebuilt and sold to unsuspecting consumers as new. Most states do not require a clear title so buyers can have this information.

The problem of course is that these vehicles may be too dangerous to drive. From frame damage to suspension damage and other structural damage that can affect the structural integrity and handling on the road. The wait will soon be over for this vital information for consumers.

Doctors and patients need to be aware of a substance used to promote bone growth during spine-repair surgery. Made by Medtronic Inc. “Infuse Bone Graft” has led to complications, largely during the “Off-label” use of the liquid.

The FDA has reportedly received 38 adverse health reports over four years concerning side effects. The Infuse Bone Graft is put in a metallic cage containing a spongy material that is placed between the spinal vertebrae. When the drug is used in surgeries on the cervical spine around the neck, it can lead to swelling of the neck and throat tissue.

For patients that means compression in the airway and someone could have difficulty swallowing, breathing and even speaking.

For some patients the symptoms are so bad that a tracheotomomy has had to be performed to allow the patient to breath. For its part, Medtronic says the rate of complications is low and reports to the FDA of problems are few.

The procedure to repair the spine is not uncommon. Every year, an estimated 500,000 undergo spinal-fusion to repair and stabilize damaged discs. Also used to treat conditions such as scoliosis, which is a curvature of the spine, the infuse bone graft has become a best seller for Medtronic, averaging about $815 million in the year that ended in April.

Remember Medtronic is the same company that had to issue a recall of some of its defibrillators because they were prone to depleted battery power. This is a problem for someone who has undergone heart surgery – you’d like there to be few surgeries and for the pacemakers and defibrillators to last many years.

Medtronic also had to recall a line of defibrillator wires which were known to deliver multiple shocks and in some cases death. The company had to settle more than 2,600 lawsuits concerning battery depletion for about $114 million.

A wise consumer must ask their doctor about their financial relationship with Medtronic. Many who are on the receiving end have written favorably about the off-label use of Infuse on web sites.

Conflicts-of-interest are common and justified within the industry. Doctors are paid for giving seminars, for consulting, for educational meetings – and the end result is often that they push the product.

Congress will soon insist that major drug companies disclose these relationships in the name of “transparency” and many have agreed to begin databases, beginning next year to disclose what they pay and to whom. But it pays to ask now. #

The Consumer Product Safety Commission, along with six retailers, is recalling nearly 900,000 Simplicity bassinets because of a strangling hazard. 

The recall follows the death last week of an infant girl from Kansas who became entrapped between the bed’s metal bars. Last year another infant girl from Missouri died when she strangled in the bars of the bassinet.

The Simplicity 3-in-1 and 4-in-1 convertible bassinets have metal bars that are covered by an adjustable fabric, attached by Velcro.

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Be on the lookout for a product called Total Body Formula and Total Body Mega Formula. Some people who have taken the “diet aid”, which was sold in health foods stores, have muscle cramps, hair loss, joint pain, diarrhea and fatigue.

The products are supposed to have been pulled from store shelves, but you might still have some at home.   

An FDA analysis of Total Body Formula and Mega Formula found they contain hazardous amount of the trace minerals, chromium and selenium. The samples contained up to 17 times the recommended intake.

A couple in Athens, Georgia tells the news paper that they took the supplement to be healthy. Now they are anything but.

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If you look at the states listed on the FDA’s website as the ones from which you can safely buy tomatoes  free from salmonella contamination,  Florida remains the only state broken up by counties.

That’s because the suspected site of the nationwide contamination - that has so far sickened 552 people in 32 states- is centered in central or south Florida.

Florida was in the middle of harvesting tomatoes when the salmonella outbreak was first identified in Mid-April.

This weekend, FDA inspectors are heading to Florida farms looking for the source of the rare Saintpaul strain of salmonella in tainted tomatoes. A packing house is where many tomatoes from various farms come in and the contamination could be spread.

Florida tomato growers are feeling the pinch. In Mulberry, Florida, East Coast Brokers & Packers have hundreds of boxes of tomatoes just being help in a warehouse. The industry will cost the state hundreds of millions in revenue.

Salmonella sickness includes nausea, vomiting and cramps and diarrhea. The elderly and very young, anyone immune compromised can become serious ill or salmonella can even become fatal if it gets into the blood stream.

Check FDA’s Web site for an update on how our state is faring. 

A report released this week by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Medical Examiner’s Commission concludes that prescription drugs killed more Floridians in 2007 than illegal drugs.

In fact, the rate of death is reported to be over three times as high as deaths caused by all illegal drugs combined.

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Merck and its aggressive legal team are on a roll, overturning jury verdicts across the country that ruled in favor of patients injured by the arthritis drug, Vioxx. 

Last Thursday, the Fourteenth Court of Appeal in Texas overturned a $26 million verdict brought by Carol Ernst. Her husband, Robert died after taking Vioxx in 2001. The three judge panel threw out the conclusions of a jury and the plaintiff’s expert and ruled there was no evidence that the drug caused the blood clot that killed Ernst. 

And the same day, a New Jersey Appellate Court overturned a $9 million punitive damage verdict awarded in 2006, saying that the jury shouldn’t have been allowed to award punitive damages against Merck, or find the drug maker committed fraud.  

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The smoking cessation drug has already been linked to vivid dreams, suicide, depression and psychosis.  And now organizations in charge of public safety are getting worried.

This week, the Federal Aviation Administration banned the use of the smoking cessation drug for pilots and air traffic controllers.

Now the trucking industry wants drivers of big-rigs to stay off the drug.

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No one knows why 21-year-old James Rowland drifted in his pickup trust into an oncoming lane just after midnight early Thursday morning.  

The Florida Highway Patrol reports that Rowland was driving east on Normandy Boulevard in Jacksonville when he collided head on with a tractor-trailer.

Both vehicles burst into flames and Rowland was killed at the scene. The driver of the big rig and his passenger were only slightly injured but the damage to his vehicle is estimated at about $75,000. 

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