A jury in California returned a verdict for $8.3 million against Johnson & Johnson, makers of the recalled DePuy hip replacement device. It is estimated that more than 90,000 of these ASR hip implants were recalled in mid-2010. At the time, the company said that 12 percent were expected to fail within five years. The verdict, which came in the Los Angeles Superior Court following a six-week trial, is the first of many to follow….
That’s the headline of a recent front-page story in USA Today (March 8-10, 2013). The newspaper reports that doctors sew up patients with mistaken objects inside more than a dozen times a day – the most common being sponges, needles and instruments. The story talks about a woman who had to undergo six hours of emergency surgery in Alabama to remove a sponge the size of a washcloth that was left during her C-section. It…
March 11, 2013 The Supreme Court of the United States Historical Society is hosting its inaugural gala. Clifford Law Offices is a proud benefactor of the event that will take place Wednesday (March 13, 2013) in New York. Paul Cappuccio, General Counsel of Time Warner and Ted Ullyot, General Counsel of Facebook, are the evening’s honorees. Guests will be treated to a rare viewing of the first official printing of the U.S. Constitution. The document,…
March 11, 2013 The Good Samaritan Law – that which protects people who help in emergency situations – has been much abused over the years. Hard to believe, but even doctors have tried to invoke it when responding to a “code blue” in a hospital. Bob Clifford, columnist for the Chicago Lawyer monthly magazine, writes about the law in Illinois and the latest case to examine and apply the statute that was originally enacted nearly…
A Los Angeles jury is deliberating in the first defective DePuy hip implant case on behalf of a 65-year-old former prison guard in Montana who alleged he suffered metal poisoning and other health problems from the company’s ASR XL hip implant he received in 2007. Johnson & Johnson, makers of the device and the defendant in the action, face thousands of lawsuits as “the world’s largest seller of health-care products failed patients before recalling 93,000…
The National Law Journal awards personal injury law firm, Clifford Law Offices, and its Chicago injury attorneys with the #11 verdict in the country for 2012.
Clifford’s Notes, Chicago Lawyer March 1, 2013 By Robert A. Clifford A hospital patient goes into cardiac arrest and a “code blue” is called. An independent contractor physician from the emergency room responds as part of his job and he negligently intubates the patient. The patient, as a result, suffers permanent brain damage. The family files a negligence action against the hospital and the physician. The doctor responds by saying that because he was a…
It always seems even more tragic when a medical helicopter crashes because it inevitably involves people who work day and night in an attempt to save lives. The Friday crash in Oklahoma that left two people dead and a third person critically injured did not involve a patient, but the pilot and a flight nurse were killed. The Eurocopter AS 350 helicopter reportedly was on its way to Watonga, Oklahoma, to pick up a patient….
Federal and local authorities are still examining the cause of a small jet that crashed in eastern Georgia shortly after 8 p.m. Wednesday (Feb. 20, 2013). It is being reported that five of those aboard were affiliated with a vein clinic in Augusta, Georgia, that also had offices in Tennessee. Among them, according to the Huffington Post, was a surgeon and members of his staff. Two pilots also reportedly were aboard that business jet. Five…