Three more lawsuits have been filed against Medtronic, Medtronic USA, Medtronic International Technology, and Medtronic Puerto Rico Operations, reports the Madison Record. The three individuals, residents of Illinois, allege in their 60-count suit, that they suffer sudden shocks after being implanted with defective defibrillators made by the device maker, according to the Madison Record.

The complaints state that Lillian Tengstrand, Effie Thomas, and Marcus Williams received the implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs), which are surgically placed under the skin of the chest wall to decrease and increase heart rates, explained the Madison Record. Lead wires are placed into a major vein and attached to interior heart muscle. “Electrodes that sense the heart’s rhythm are built into the lead wires and positioned in the heart, where they monitor the heartbeat and can transmit an electric shock to abort a dangerous ‘overdrive pace,’ a very rapid rhythm, or pace the heart at a normal rhythm if an irregularity is detected,” the suit states, quoted the Madison Record. Continue »

Despite a well-publicized accident involving the deaths of a family and a number of its own investigations, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), denies claims that it did not find any defects regarding a huge automobile recall and “unintended acceleration,” said the LATimes.

The regulators have criticized the Toyota Motor Corporation for making “inaccurate and misleading” statements claiming there was no defect in the nearly four million cars that were recalled following an accident in California that involved a loaner Lexus and the deaths of four family members, said the LATimes. Yesterday, the NHTSA stated that the cars involved in the recall—Toyota and Lexus vehicles—contain an “underlying defect” that involves the cars’ accelerator pedal and driver’s side foot well, said the LATimes. Toyota maintains that the issue is with an “improperly installed floor mat.” Continue »

Centurion Medical Products Premie Pack and Meconium Pack Pediatric Tracheal Tubes have been recalled, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just announced. The tubes were manufactured with an internal diameter smaller than that indicated on label.

The recall has been directed to anesthesiology healthcare professionals and hospital risk managers and both Centurion Medical Products and the FDA have notified healthcare professionals about the Class I recall that involves Premie Pack, Kit Code LM 110 and Full-Term Meconium Pack, Kit Code LM115. Class 1 recalls are the most serious type of recall and involve situations in which there is a reasonable probability that use of these products will cause serious injury or death. Continue »

Drug giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) continues to make news with a Justice Department investigation into accusations of Medicaid Fraud, announced Business Week. The Justice Department recently settled with Omnicare over kickback allegations to the tune of $112 million.

The massive settlement concerned kickbacks involving the United States’ biggest nursing home pharmacy, Omnicare and generic drug maker IVAX Pharmaceuticals and is just a part of a larger probe into potential Medicaid fraud by Big Pharma, said Business Week. Some feel the investigation focuses on industry paying consumer drug providers for special treatment, according to Business Week. The profits are believed to compromise patient care and increase costs. Continue »

Bisphenol A—BPA—the ubiquitous, estrogen-mimicking chemical that hardens plastic has, according to another emerging study, been found in some popular canned foods, said FoxNews.

According to Consumer Reports’ December issue, it “tested soups, juice, tuna, and green beans,” said FoxNews, and discovered “19 name-brand foods” contain some level of BPA. As we have previously noted, BPA can be found in everything from baby bottles, sippy cups, water bottles, aluminum can linings, eyeglasses, and cars, to DVD and CD cases and some dental sealants. BPA can also be found in appliances and windshields; on recyclable bottles, BPA, as a component, can be verified if the item contains recycling number 7. We recently wrote that BPA has also been found to be present in common paper receipts. With BPA turning up in carbonless copy and thermal imaging papers, its common usage has grown exponentially. Continue »

Another Bernard Madoff associate is making headlines. Yesterday, said CNN, David G. Friehling, 49, Madoff’s “long-time accountant” pleaded guilty and agreed to a nine-count plea. The admission included securities and investment advisor fraud, making false filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and tax law violations, said CNN.

“I am truly sorry for the suffering of all my victims,” Friehling told the court, quoted CNN, which noted the accountant’s family lost about a-half million dollars with the disgraced financier. Friehling argued that he “committed these crimes as an independent auditor,” not as part of Madoff’s historic and massive Ponzi scheme, said CNN. Continue »

Two meat packing firms have been named in lawsuits filed by the families of two New England children stricken with E. coli infections.

The first lawsuit names Fairbank Farms of Ashville, New York as a defendant. The complaint, which was filed on behalf of a 12-year-old Massachusetts girl, claims she became ill as a result of eating E. coli-tainted meat that came from Fairbank Farms in September. Continue »

Diet sodas have been linked to a reduction in kidney functioning, according to an emerging study cited by WebMD. While diet sodas may help in keeping caloric intake down, the beverages might be doubling the risk of kidney function decline, said WebMD.

The research looked at women who consumed two or more diet sodas daily and found they experienced a 30 percent decrease in “a measure of kidney function” based on a large follow-up, said WebMD, referring to research that was just presented at the yearly meeting of the American Society of Nephrology in San Diego, California. “Thirty percent is considered significant,” said researcher Julie Lin, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a staff physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, quoted WebMD. She noted that this is “especially true,” given that most participants began the study with what were considered well-preserved kidney function levels. Continue »

An iPhone class action lawsuit has been filed in Alabama by a consumer who claims Apple Inc. and AT&T Mobility LLC misrepresented the iPhone’s multimedia messaging service (MMS) capabilities. MMS capability is key for sending text messages accompanied by a photo, video or other form of media.

The complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, alleges Apple and AT&T representatives have continually misrepresented, concealed, suppressed or omitted material facts to customers in their stores about the MMS functionality for the 3G and 3G-S iPhones. Continue »

Emergency responders who participated in Ground Zero rescue and recovery efforts following the 9/11 terrorist attacks tend to suffer from asthma at about a two-fold rate compared to the rest of the U.S. population, according to a new study detailed by Science Daily.

Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers presented the new asthma data, said Science Daily, at CHEST 2009, which is the 75th annual international scientific assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), in San Diego, California. Continue »