Current Events

The device, called LPS Diaphyseal Sleeve, is used in reconstructive knee surgery. It was recalled because of the potential for fractures, the FDA said.

The agency said it has received 10 reports of incidents in which the device has malfunctioned.

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The suppliers of a new drug to treat anemia in patients undergoing kidney dialysis have recalled all lots of the product after reports that it had caused severe allergic reactions, including some that were fatal.

Affymax and Takeda Pharmaceutical, which jointly market the drug, Omontys, or peginesatide, announced the recall late on Saturday, and the notice was also posted by the Food and Drug Administration.

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If a laser spa treatment goes wrong, who’s to blame?

New evidence suggests that medical doctors who, in some cases, were not even present during the procedure are the most likely to take the heat from those who underwent the treatment.

Malpractice lawsuits related to laser procedures have surged over the last three decades, and dermatologists and plastic surgeons are faulted even if they were not involved in the procedure, according to a study by a pair of physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital.

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A Plymouth Superior Court jury on Wednesday awarded a Plymouth family $63 million after their 7-year old daughter suffered a severe allergic reaction 10 years ago to Children’s Motrin, a version of ibuprofen made by drug giant Johnson & Johnson.

The child, now a teenager, was originally given the popular pain reliever after showing signs of fever. But after continuing to take the drug, Samantha T. Reckis developed blisters and fatigue -- and the condition only grew worse.

Within days, it was diagnosed as Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis, a rare and serious reaction to some medications, including ibuprofen. Hundreds of people contract the disease a year in the United States -- nearly one-third of whom die and many other are either blinded or suffer other serious conditions.

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Check your medicine cabinets.

Triaminic Syrups and Theraflu Warming Relief Syrups, sold between May 2010 and December 2011, have been recalled by federal regulators.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission says the child-resistant caps can fail and enable the cap to removed by a child with the tamper-evident seal in place.

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18-thousand Million Dollar Baby Dressers made by Bexco are being recalled after two toddlers died in separate incidents.  According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the dresser can become unsteady when a child climbs into the drawers. Both children were reportedly trapped and suffocated when the piece of furniture fell over.  These dressers were sold at JCPenney, Amazon.com and BabiesRUs.com.

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General Motors announced a pair of recalls Thursday covering more than 12,000 vehicles.

The first recall is for 8,519 Chevy Malibu sedans from the 2013 model year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said one or more bolts in the vehicles' rear suspension may not have been fastened tight enough.

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Toyota Motor on Wednesday announced recalls involving more than 1 million vehicles in the U.S.

Some 752,000 Corolla and Corolla Matrix cars in the U.S. and thousands of similar vehicles in Japan, Mexico and Canada that were manufactured from December 2001 to May 2004 are being recalled for air bags that can improperly inflate.

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A federal judge in New Orleans accepted an agreement for BP to plead guilty to manslaughter and other charges and pay a record fine in connection with the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which ranks as one of the nation’s worst environmental disasters.

The agreement, announced in November, allowed a unit of the London-based oil giant to plead guilty Tuesday to 11 counts of seaman’s manslaughter in connection with the explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the gulf. The company also entered a guilty plea to one felony count of obstruction of Congress and two environmental misdemeanors.

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Johnson & Johnson executives knew years before they recalled a troubled artificial hip in 2010 that it had a critical design flaw, but the company concealed that information from physicians and patients, according to internal documents disclosed on Friday during a trial related to the device’s failure.

The company had received complaints from doctors about the device, the Articular Surface Replacement, or A.S.R., even as it started marketing a version of it in the United States in 2005. The A.S.R.’s flaw caused it to shed large quantities of metallic debris after implantation, and the model failed an internal test in 2007 in which engineers compared its performance to that of another of the company’s hip implants, the documents show.

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Olean General Hospital announced Thursday it mailed letters to 1,915 patients after an internal review raised the possibility that some of them may have received an injection from another patient’s insulin pen.

The issue follows recent news that 716 patients at the Buffalo Veterans Affairs Medical Center may have been exposed to HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C because of the inadvertent reuse of insulin pens that were intended to be used only once.

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