Safety News Article Excerpts

Chicago Tribune, "Heparin taint tied to deaths FDA: 3 fatalities linked to material in Baxter product"

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for the first time, has conclusively linked deaths of patients infused with the blood thinner heparin to a foreign substance found in specific lots of the drug made by Deerfield-based Baxter International Inc. In an interview Tuesday with the Tribune, the FDA said it completed its review of 93 death reports related to heparin that the agency received from Jan. 1 to March 31, a period when there was a dramatic spike in potentially deadly allergic reactions from patients who had been injected with heparin. The popular blood thinner is used widely in large dosages, often before patients have dialysis or heart surgery. More...

New York Times, "Zimmer Hip Sales Suspension; A Call for a Warning System on Artificial Joints"

Dr. Lawrence Dorr, a nationally known orthopedic surgeon in Los Angeles, realized last year that something was very wrong with some of his patients. Months after routine hip replacements, patients who had expected to live without pain were in agony. "I saw one of Zimmer's engineers at a meeting, and I told her that you should pull this cup because you are crippling patients," Dr. Dorr said. More...

New York Times, "Complaints Undermine Zimmer Hip Cup Device; Hundreds Expected to Require Revision Surgeries"

Zimmer Holdings, the nation's biggest producer of orthopedic devices, says it will suspend sales of an artificial hip component that some doctors have complained was failing at a high rate. The company lowered its earnings outlook as a result of the suspension, and its shares fell sharply Wednesday. More...

Ortho Supersite, "Zimmer temporarily suspends marketing, distribution of Durom acetabular hip replacement component"

Zimmer Holdings Inc. announced in a press release that it is temporarily suspending marketing and sales of the Durom acetabular component – also known as the Durom Cup – in the United States. The company also lowered its earnings outlook as a result of the suspension, and its shares fell sharply the day after the announcement was made. The company will update labeling for the Durom Cup to provide more detailed surgical technique instructions to surgeons, and the company will implement a surgical training program in the United States. More...

News Inferno, "Zimmer Durom Cup Hip Device Sales Halted Over Questionable Design"

The nation's biggest producer of orthopedic devices says it is suspending sales of an artificial hip component that some say is failing at high rates. Zimmer Holdings, based in Warsaw, is also lowering its earnings outlook due to the suspension; shares fell sharply yesterday. The Durom cup has been implanted in over 12,000 patients since it was first sold in the United States in 2006. More...

Portfolio Media, "New Study Hints At More Fosamax Problems"

While the litigation over Fosamax continues to unfold, another clinical study has been released that suggests the osteoporosis drug may actually hinder bone growth and increase the possibility of fractures. The study, conducted by physicians at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma, indicated that extended use of Fosamax and other bisphosphonates may increase the risk of femur fractures, News Inferno reported. The study also revealed that long-term use of Fosamax can suppress bone metabolism, which reportedly restricts the repair of microdamage and increases the chance of breaks. More...

Learn more about Fosamax injuries and your legal rights.

San Francisco Chronicle, "Hospital error blamed for more infant Heparin overdoses"

The case of 14 babies who received accidental overdoses while in intensive care has raised new questions about how a common blood-thinning medication could be given to infants repeatedly in the wrong dosage. Unlike a previous case involving twins of actor Dennis Quaid, the Texas newborns got the overdose because of an error at the hospital pharmacy, not a labeling problem. Quaid sued one of heparin's manufacturers last year after his children's overdose was traced to a hospital pharmacy worker who grabbed vials of the wrong dosage because the labels looked almost identical if turned a certain way. More...

Learn more about Heparin injuries and lawsuits and your legal rights.

CNN, "Up to 17 babies given overdoses of blood thinner, one dies"

A Corpus Christi, Texas, hospital is investigating how up to 17 babies in a neonatal intensive care unit received overdoses of the blood thinner heparin. One of the babies died. The infant was one of 17 who may have received a more concentrated form of heparin than was prescribed, Christus Spohn Hospital South said in a statement. Officials at Christus Spohn Hospital South say corrective action was taken after the discovery of the overdoses. More...

Daily Green, "Is Golf Causing Diabetes? NIH Says Pesticides Commonly Used on Golf Courses Linked to Disease"

          A pesticide commonly used on the turf at golf courses was linked to a whopping 250% increase in diabetes risk to the workers who apply the pesticides, according to one of the largest studies of its kind, by the National Institutes of Health. The chemical, trichlorfon, was associated with an 85% increase in risk of diabetes for even infrequent users, and a 250% increase in risk for those who had applied it more than 10 times. Of those who used the chemical frequently, 8.5% developed diabetes, versus 3.5% of those who had never used it. The pesticides main current use is on turf, such as at golf courses. More...

Detroit Free Press, "Rules on car roofs need to be better, senators warn"

          Key U.S. senators warned federal auto safety regulators today that Congress would act if regulators produce unacceptable and ineffective rules for strengthening vehicle roofs to protect people in rollover crashes. The debate over the exact cause of deaths in rollover accidents, which claimed 9,362 lives in 2006, and how much blame rests with a vehicle's roof strength has raged for years among safety advocates and automakers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been working on a new plan for boosting roof-crush standards ahead of a July 1 deadline, since its first proposal issued in August 2005 faced sharp criticism from automakers and safety groups. More...

Medical Devices Today, "Physician-initiated Alert Sparks Zimmer Investigation Of Durom Hip Failures"

Zimmer is investigating failures of its Durom hip implants after a prominent joint reconstruction surgeon sent a letter reporting a series of problems with the device to the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons. More...

Detroit News, "NHTSA to investigate 1.7 million Ford Windstar vans for cruise control defect"

          The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a preliminary defect investigation into 1.7 million Ford Windstar vans. The vehicles have a cruise control deactivation switch that's been recalled in nearly 10 million other Ford vehicles. NHTSA said they've received 130 complaints of fires in the vans, with 36 complaints in the last year. Two of the fires caused structural damage to homes, NHTSA said. More...

3TV (Phoenix, AZ), "Teen dies in Yamaha Rhino ATV rollover accident"

          A 15-year-old boy has died of injuries he suffered during an off-road-vehicle rollover Friday afternoon in the far Northwest Valley. Maricopa County Sheriff's Investigators said the boy was among four teens riding on the small four-wheeled Yamaha vehicle called a Rhino when it overturned near 102nd Avenue and Jomax Road at about 4:00pm. The teen was taken to a local hospital where he died of his injuries. The other three teenage boys were not seriously hurt.

To learn more about Yamaha Rhino rollover injuries and lawsuits, please visit www.yamaharhinorolloverandrecall.com.

FOXNews.com, "Quaid testifies of Heparin overdose peril to newborn twins"

Actor Dennis Quaid told Congress today of a harrowing, near-fatal drug mixup in which his newborn twins were administered 1,000 times the normal dose of a blood thinner

          Actor Dennis Quaid told Congress Wednesday that the near-fatal overdose of Heparin given to his newborn twins last November underscores the need to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable through lawsuits, a remedy that is becoming increasingly problematic for injured consumers. At issue before the House Reform and Government Oversight Committee is a move by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to step in and defend the pharmaceutical companies against such lawsuits. More...

Sacramento Bee, "Settlement to aid injured boy; Magnets from a toy were swallowed by 4-year-old, severly injuring intestine"

William Finley, a 4-year-old then living in the Shasta County city of Anderson, began vomiting on Aug. 2, 2005. When it didn't stop after three days, he was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where doctors were unable to diagnose his ailment. The surgeon found the large intestine had been punctured and discovered a "pair of button magnets stuck together within the pelvis." William's parents identified the magnets as coming from a "Magnetix" toy he received the previous Christmas. William would have died within hours if not for the surgery. More...

Learn more about Magnetix toy magnet injuries and your legal rights.

Reuters, "Death Rate Rises on Trasylol: Bayer pulls Trasylol supplies after study"

          Bayer AG is removing remaining supplies of its heart-surgery drug Trasylol from the U.S. market after a long-awaited study found it raised the risk of death compared to two alternatives, U.S. regulators said on Wednesday. The announcement followed publication earlier on Wednesday of a Canadian study by the New England Journal of Medicine that showed patients given Trasylol had a more than 50 percent higher death rate than patients who got other, cheaper drugs. More...

New York Times, "Defective Ceramic Hip Implant Latest News: Squeaking Artificial Ceramic Hips"

          Hundreds of patients have become guinea pigs in an unfolding medical mystery. Their artificial hips are made of ceramic materials that were promoted as being much more durable than older models. But for reasons not yet fully understood, their hips started to squeak, raising questions about whether the noises herald more serious malfunctions. More than 250,000 Americans get total hip implants each year, a procedure that generally costs close to $45,000. Hip replacements have a success rate of more than 90 percent, based on patients’ achieving relatively pain-free mobility after recovery periods that range from a few months to a year. More...

LA Times , "Contaminated Blood Thinner Heparin Called a Worldwide Problem"

        A contaminated blood thinner from China suspected in dozens of U.S. deaths has become a worldwide public health problem, with 10 other countries detecting the often-toxic ingredient, federal investigators said Monday. More...

International Herald-Tribune, "Merck wrote drug studies for doctors"

          The drug maker Merck drafted dozens of research studies for a best-selling drug, then lined up prestigious doctors to put their names on the reports before publication, according to an article to be published Wednesday in a leading medical journal. The article, based on documents unearthed in lawsuits over the pain drug Vioxx, provides a rare, detailed look in the industry practice of ghostwriting medical research studies that are then published in academic journals. The article cited one draft of a Vioxx research study that was still in want of a big-name researcher, identifying the lead writer only as "External author?" More...

New York Times, "Faulty Ford cruise control switch has been blamed for 1,500 fires"

          After six recalls to correct problems with millions of Ford Motor Company cruise-control switches blamed for almost 1,500 fires, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration took an unusual step. In February, it issued a consumer advisory urging owners whose vehicles had not yet been fixed to have the switches disconnected immediately. More...