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Morcellation Media Monitoring 06/02/2016
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J&J’s Ethicon, plaintiffs seek to wind down power morcellator MDL
May 31, 2016 | Reuters Westlaw
By Jessica Dye
Lawyers for Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon unit and plaintiffs suing the company over injuries and deaths allegedly caused by its power morcellator devices have asked a federal judge in Kansas to formally dissolve multidistrict litigation created for the cases last year. -
Morcellator Blamed for Spreading Deadly Cancer
May 31, 2016 | Top Class Actions
By Kim Gale
Ethicon and its parent company Johnson & Johnson are facing a lawsuit involving a woman who succumbed to cancer spread through a morcellator device used during a relatively routine surgery.
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J&J’s Ethicon, plaintiffs seek to wind down power morcellator MDL
May 31, 2016 | Reuters Westlaw
By Jessica Dye
Lawyers for Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon unit and plaintiffs suing the company over injuries and deaths allegedly caused by its power morcellator devices have asked a federal judge in Kansas to formally dissolve multidistrict litigation created for the cases last year.
In a May 27 filing, the parties told U.S. District Judge Kathryn Vratil in Kansas that they have “successfully resolved the vast majority of cases filed in the MDL.” Just four individual cases remain, which can be sent back to their respective home districts for further proceedings, the parties said.
The filing said that 42 cases in total had been transferred into the MDL since it was created in October. A lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, Aimee Wagstaff of Andrus Wagstaff, said that individual case settlements were confidential, and declined to comment on the overall amount.
”We are very pleased with the outcomes for our clients and the swift justice they received from the MDL court,” Wagstaff said.
The cases were all filed within the past few years in response to growing controversy over the devices. Power morcellators, made by J&J and several other manufacturers, are used to remove uterine fibroids, noncancerous growths on the uterus wall. The devices contain spinning blades that grind fibroids into smaller pieces, which are then removed through tiny incisions in the body.
In April 2014, the Food and Drug Administration warned that the devices could spread potentially cancerous tissue throughout the body, and said it would discourage their use for fibroid treatment in most women. J&J subsequently suspended worldwide sales of the devices. The Wall Street Journal reported last year that the FBI was probing what the company knew about the devices’ possible side effects.
As concerns over the devices grew, plaintiffs filed a number of lawsuits in federal courts against J&J alleging its power morcellators spread cancerous tissues or other danger growths called recurrent parasitic fibroids. J&J has denied its devices were to blame.
Last year, plaintiffs’ lawyers sought to create an MDL for the cases. The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation granted the request, and consolidated them before Vratil.
After the MDL was created, both sides “worked efficiently and cooperatively to conduct significant pretrial discovery and early evaluation of the merits of the individual actions,” according to Friday’s filing.
Most of the cases were resolved individually, negating the need for continued coordination of pretrial proceedings, the filing said. Plaintiffs’ lawyers leading the litigation said they were unaware of any currently pending cases that could be transferred into the MDL, and said they did not represent any potential future claimants.
Both sides asked the court to retain jurisdiction over any disputes regarding settled or dismissed cases, as well as the distribution of common benefit fees.
An Ethicon spokeswoman, Samantha Lucas, confirmed the resolutions but declined to provide further details. “We believe that Ethicon acted appropriately and responsibly at all times in relation to its morcellation devices,” she said, adding that the company did not admit liability and would continue defending the remaining cases.
The case is In re Ethicon Inc Power Morcellator Products Liability Litigation, U.S. District Court for Kansas, No. 15-2652.
For plaintiffs: Aimee Wagstaff of Andrus Wagstaff, Paul Pennock of Weitz & Luxenberg, Robert Horn of Horn Aylward & Bandy and Kirk Goza and Brad Honnold of Goza & Honnold
For Ethicon: Deborah Moeller of Shook Hardy & Bacon, James Murdica of Barnes & Thornburg and John Winter of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler
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Morcellator Blamed for Spreading Deadly Cancer
May 31, 2016 | Top Class Actions
By Kim Gale
Ethicon and its parent company Johnson & Johnson are facing a lawsuit involving a woman who succumbed to cancer spread through a morcellator device used during a relatively routine surgery.
Plaintiff Nancy D., as administrator of the estate of Majorie H. claims that Ethicon and Johnson & Johnson knew of the risk of spreading both benign and cancerous tumors, but failed to warn not only the public, but also the medical community.
A power morcellator is a medical device that chops and grinds tissue during laparoscopic surgery so that the small chunks of tissue can be vacuumed out through small cuts in the abdomen rather than through larger incisions used in traditional surgery.
A side effect of using the morcellator is that it scatters pieces of tissue throughout the abdominal cavity where cancerous and benign tissue can seed and grow anywhere. Sometimes, even benign tissue grows around the intestines, causing obstructions. In other cases, previously undetected cancer cells attach to organs where new tumors grow.
In the case of Marjorie, the morcellator was used to perform a laparoscopic hysterectomy, which included removing her uterus, uterine fibroids, ovaries and cervix. The surgery was done to relieve her of post-menopausal bleeding.
How Did a Morcellator Spread Cancer?
During the surgery, a morcellator was used to grind the tissue for its removal. As a result of the morcellator’s unyielding ability to spew bits and pieces of tissue throughout the abdomen, cells – including cancer cells that had not yet been diagnosed – were disseminated throughout her torso’s cavity and took seed, resulting in lung cancer.
Testing of the morcellated specimens were positive for leiomyosarcoma, a rare and deadly form of cancer found in connective or supportive smooth muscle tissues of the body, including that of the uterus.
The power morcellator sprayed cancerous tissue throughout Marjorie’s abdominal cavity where it metastasized to her lungs, resulting in fatal lung cancer.
The lawsuit recognizes that the morcellator could have been fitted with a surgical bag designed to catch the spewed fragments rather than let the tissue land and seed throughout Marjorie’s body.
Tracing the Morcellator to Her Lung Cancer
Marjorie had her hysterectomy at West Virginia University Hospital on May 25, 2012.
In September 2012, Marjorie visited her doctor because she was experiencing severe back pain. A CT scan showed not only a tumor on her back, but also tumors in her abdomen and in her lungs.
Failure to Warn of Morcellator Risks
Marjorie did not receive information prior to her surgery that the use of the morcellator included risks such as the upstaging, dissemination and seeding of cancer or the seeding of even benign tissue growth.
She was under the impression that since her surgeon provided her information regarding the risks of the surgery that she went in with full knowledge of the possible outcomes.
Use of the morcellator came with no product warnings that it could cause any yet-undiagnosed cancer to spread and become fatal lung cancer in her system merely months later.
The Power Morcellator Lawsuit is Case No. 5:1-cv-50, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.
The lawsuit alleges that the morcellator that shredded, grinded, and cored the organs for removal in the hysterectomy sent pieces of cancerous tissue scattering throughout her remaining organs, where the cancer took seed and grew and caused her lung cancer.
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