Troubled Children’s Hospital Is Sued Over Toddler Who Died After Surgery
The parents of a 3-year-old who died after heart surgery at North Carolina Children’s Hospital in 2016 are suing the institution, saying it failed to disclose internal concerns about the quality of its care.
Tasha and Thomas Jones, the parents, also allege that doctors didn’t warn them about problems with the heart surgery program, and...
Powder Keg: FDA bowed to industry for decades as alarms were sounded over talc
At an invitation-only gathering late last year, U.S. regulators and their guests huddled at a hotel near Washington, D.C., to discuss the best way to detect cancer-causing asbestos in talc powders and cosmetics.
The “Asbestos in Talc Symposium,” sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration, was dominated by industry hands: Most of the 21 non-government...
Used car dealers didn’t want to fix deadly defects, so they wrote a law to avoid it
Carlos Solis never knew he was driving with a “shrapnel bomb” inside his steering wheel.
The 35-year-old father of two was waiting to make a left turn on a suburban road outside Houston when another car struck the front end of his Honda Accord, triggering its airbags.
Instead of protecting Solis, the defective airbags shot a...
Supplements touting brain benefits may contain unauthorized ingredient
Many supplements marketed for brain health may contain piracetam, an ingredient not proven effective for preventing or easing dementia or cognitive impairment and not approved for sale in the U.S., researchers say.
In an analysis of five products purchased online, researchers found that four contained piracetam, sometimes in dangerously high amounts. The fifth, which was...
J&J Can’t Get $70 Million Risperdal Award Tossed on Appeal
A Pennsylvania appeals court upheld a $70 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson in a lawsuit charging its Risperdal anti-psychotic drug caused a man to grow female breasts and also ruled that punitive damages may be available in the case.
In addition to upholding the verdict for Tennessee resident Andrew Yount, the Pennsylvania Superior Court...
Don’t eat romaine lettuce from California’s Salinas Valley, CDC warns
Federal health and regulatory officials warned consumers Friday not to eat romaine lettuce of any kind harvested from the Salinas Valley, one of California’s major agricultural regions, because it may be contaminated with a particularly dangerous type of E. coli bacteria that has sickened 40 people in 16 states.
The Centers for Disease Control and...
Johnson & Johnson loses pelvic mesh class action in Australia
More than 1,350 Australian women won a seven-year-old class action lawsuit on Thursday against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) for misleading patients and surgeons about the risks of the pharmaceutical giant’s pelvic mesh implants.
The suit is one of many J&J has faced in the United States, Canada and Europe over the implants, used to treat...
Moms still seeking answers from IKEA after deaths of their children
IKEA pulled in $6 billion in U.S. sales last year. Crystal Ellis wants that number to be lower.
The Seattle mom's 2-year-old son, Camden, was killed by a falling IKEA dresser in 2014, which has since been recalled by the company. Three years later, she requested to meet with the president of the retailer, pleading...
Phillips recalls imaging system over concerns that it might crush patients
The Food and Drug Administration has issued a Class 1 recall—its most serious such notice—of the Forte Gamma Camera System, worried it could cause serious injury or even death.
Concerns stem from the possibility that the 660-pound system’s detector may become detached from the device without warning, potentially crushing or trapping patients, according to an...
FDA Keeps Brand-Name Drugs On A Fast Path To Market ― Despite Manufacturing Concerns
After unanimously voting to recommend a miraculous hepatitis C drug for approval in 2013, a panel of experts advising the Food and Drug Administration gushed about what they’d accomplished.
“I voted ‘yes’ because, quite simply, this is a game changer,” National Institutes of Health hepatologist Dr. Marc Ghany said of Sovaldi, Gilead Science’s new pill...
