News & Resources
Red Flags Raised over St. Jude Heart Devices
Over the last few weeks, two extremely negative news reports were made regarding defibrillator leads manufactured by St. Jude Medical. Leads are used to transmit electricity to the heart from a defibrillator which delivers a shock if it detects problems with a patient’s cardiac rhythm. Last week, the FDA ordered St. Jude Medical to do more research on the safety of both its older Riata generation of leads as well as the new generation of Durata leads. The FDA also made the rare move of recommending patients who had received the Riata leads to go undergo additional testing to determine whether the device will fail.
Three lawyers from the Tampa-based personal injury law firm of Alley, Clark & Greiwe were recently selected by their peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2013 (Copyright 2010 by Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, S.C.). Tampa Personal Injury Attorney C. Todd Alley was selected in the fields of Mass Tort Litigation and Personal Injury Litigation. Tampa Medical Malpractice Attorney James D. Clark was selected in the fields of Medical Malpractice and Personal Injury Litigation. Tampa Medical Malpractice Attorney Don Greiwe was selected in the field of Medical Malpractice law.
In late June 2012, a FDA Advisory Panel (consisting of orthopedic surgeons, medical experts, industry representatives, and patient advocates) convened a two day hearing to publically discuss safety data on metal-on-metal hip implants.
Pradaxa Leads Country in FDA Safety Reports
According to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices’ QuarterWatch, the FDA received more safety reports about Pradaxa (dabigatran) than any other drug in the year 2011.
In May of 2012, Health Canada issued a safety advisory warning to Canadian orthopedic surgeons regarding metal-on-metal hip implants. The purpose of the advisory was to boost awareness in that country about significant health problems being reported in patients with metal-on-metal hip implants.
