California Woman Awarded Nearly $10 Million in Ethicon Stapler Lawsuit

A California woman was awarded nearly $10 million for injuries she suffered during surgery when a defective hemorrhoid stapler malfunctioned.

The judgment was made against the Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc. and J&J Healthcare Systems, Law360 reports.

The woman who brought suit, a retired San Jose police officer, was injured during hemorrhoid surgery in January 2012. An Ethicon PPH 03 hemorrhoid stapler misfired, sealing the woman’s anal canal shut. She was hospitalized for 21 days and underwent a number of surgeries to try to fix her damaged bowel. She suffered massive infections and continues to struggle with the aftermath of her injuries. She has needed to wear a colostomy bag since the surgery and she has internal and external scarring, Law360 reports.

The jury found that a defective manufacturing process reduced the lubrication applied to the Ethicon stapler, causing it to fire with more force than stated in the device specifications. The woman’s attorneys say Ethicon knew about the defect for more than 10 years before it recalled the stapler. Almost 145,000 units sold between 2011 and 2012 were recalled, among them, the one used in the plaintiff’s surgery.

During the surgery, the doctor inserted the stapler and had trouble firing it because of the defect. When the doctor was unable to remove the stapler, she fired it again, sealing the woman’s anal canal shut.

The woman’s surgeon was named in the lawsuit, but the jury found she was not to blame because Ethicon and J&J Healthcare Systems never warned customers about the stapler’s defect, Law350 reports. During the trial, the woman’s attorneys told the jury that Ethicon did not inform surgeons about defects reported by other surgeons.

The jury awarded the woman and her husband $8.5 and $1.3 million respectively for medical costs, pain and suffering, disfigurement, loss of consortium, embarrassment, and humiliation, according to Law 360.

An American who now lives in Germany is trying to get his suit alleging injuries from a defective Ethicon hemorrhoid stapler heard in a U.S. court. He says that the staples used in his hemorrhoid surgery in July 2012 in Germany came loose, damaging his rectal wall, resulting in infections and injuries that required 20 additional surgeries. Ethicon has asked that the suit be thrown out of U.S. court because virtually all the witnesses and many relevant documents are in Germany, according to Law360.

from Parker Waichman http://www.yourlawyer.com/blog/california-woman-awarded-nearly-10-million-in-ethicon-stapler-lawsuit/