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Ethicon Media Monitoring 7/16/2018
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Firm Wants Mesh MDL Fee Committee To Explain Hour Cuts
Jul 13, 2018 | Law 360
By Andrew Strickler
Personal injury firm Kline & Specter PC pressed Thursday for a West Virginia federal court overseeing sprawling pelvic mesh multidistrict litigation to force a plaintiffs’ fee committee to turn over documents showing why it slashed the firm’s claimed common benefit hours. -
Health minister Steve Barclay MP praises women’s mesh implant suspension across England
Jul 13, 2018 | Wisbech Standard
By Clare Butler
Mr Barclay, who is a health minister, thanked Kath for “tirelessly and bravely” campaigning. -
New Netflix Doc 'The Bleeding Edge' Has 100% On Rotten Tomatoes – But It's Not An Easy Watch
Jul 14, 2018 | LADbible
By Jess Hardiman
The Bleeding Edge is all about technology in the US medical field, exploring the $400 billion medical implant industry... oh, and how it's the third leading cause of death.
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Firm Wants Mesh MDL Fee Committee To Explain Hour Cuts
Jul 13, 2018 | Law 360
By Andrew Strickler
Personal injury firm Kline & Specter PC pressed Thursday for a West Virginia federal court overseeing sprawling pelvic mesh multidistrict litigation to force a plaintiffs’ fee committee to turn over documents showing why it slashed the firm’s claimed common benefit hours.
The firm and partner Lee Balefsky, a member of the MDL's steering committee, said the fee committee headed by a co-lead counsel had employed “blanket” disallowances for the lion’s share of the firm’s September hour-and-expenses submission, which had totaled 32,270 hours, according to a Thursday motion. In February, the fee committee declined to approve just over 27,000 of the firm’s hours — about 85 percent of the total.
Co-lead plaintiffs' counsel, Henry Garrard of Blasingame Burch Garrard & Ashley PC, then declined the firm’s request for information about the decision to slash the firm’s hours, according to the motion.
But without knowing why specific entries were struck, the task of challenging the reductions is a “futile guessing game,” according to the firm’s motion, which seeks a court order compelling the handover of fee committee documentation. The Philadelphia-based firm, which saw a related March motion for information from the fee committee denied by the court, also raised the specter of abuse and self-dealing on the committee.
“Only further discovery will reveal the legitimate explanation for what has transpired related to the future proposed distribution of funds,” the firm told the court. “This process of determination of appropriate common benefit compensation is a most sensitive issue and fraught with potential for abuse, especially because the [fee committee] members and their close associates will be recipients of [fee] awards.”
The pelvic mesh litigations, first centralized in West Virginia six years ago as three MDLs covering 150 cases, have grown to seven MDLs with tens of thousands of individual cases. Shanin Specter of Kline & Specter said his firm has been involved for several years and represents several thousand women who claim the transvaginal mesh product is defective and caused them various injuries.
He said a significant but nonpublic amount of money has been collected over the years in a common benefit fund, and that the fee distribution process was still at an early stage. Kline & Specter was among several firms, he said, who had seen their initial hour submissions slashed "radically and absurdly."
“There is a clear interest for all the firms and lawyers involved, and for the public, for this to be done in an open and transparent way,” Specter said. "Every dollar they allocate to a nonfee committee member is a dollar they don't get themselves."
Garrard did not respond to a message seeking comment Friday.
Kline & Specter is represented in the motion by Charles Love III and Floyd Boone of Bowles Rice LLP and its own Shanin Specter and Lee Balefsky.
Plaintiffs' co-lead counsel are Henry G. Garrard III of Blasingame Burch Garrard & Ashley PC and Derek H. Potts of The Potts Law Firm LLP.
The referenced mesh MDLs are numbers 2187, 2325, 2326, 2327 and 2387, case number 2:12-md-02327, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.https://www.law360.com/articles/1062792/firm-wants-mesh-mdl-fee-committee-to-explain-hour-cuts
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Health minister Steve Barclay MP praises women’s mesh implant suspension across England
Jul 13, 2018 | Wisbech Standard
By Clare Butler
Mr Barclay, who is a health minister, thanked Kath for “tirelessly and bravely” campaigning.
It follows a safety review earlier this week that mesh implants to treat incontinence were being stopped immediately in hospitals across England.
In post on social media this afternoon (July 13), Mr Barclay said: “Following the Government’s announcement this week of a suspension of the use of vaginal mesh, I wish to pass on my thanks to constituent Kath Samson, who has campaigned tirelessly and bravely for this via her Sling the Mesh Group.
“Whilst it has taken longer than both of us would have liked, and there is more still to be done, Kath has succeeded in getting this issue firstly reviewed and then acted on.
“As a Health Minister I will continue to work with colleagues in the Department of Health to ensure those suffering from mesh complications are listened to.”
The news has prompted celebrations for women across the UK in Sling The Mesh campaign, launched by Kath in June 2015 with just 20 women.
The group now has more than 6,100 members.
http://www.wisbechstandard.co.uk/news/steve-barclay-mp-praises-mesh-suspension-1-5606194
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New Netflix Doc 'The Bleeding Edge' Has 100% On Rotten Tomatoes – But It's Not An Easy Watch
Jul 14, 2018 | LADbible
By Jess Hardiman
The Bleeding Edge is all about technology in the US medical field, exploring the $400 billion medical implant industry... oh, and how it's the third leading cause of death. I know, you thought it was going to be all about boring tech stuff, then BAM! They throw in the dark twist that we all absolutely bloody love.
With a tagline of 'What you don't know, can hurt you', the documentary's Academy Award-nominated filmmakers take on the huge American health care system - which, despite being the most technologically advanced in the world, isn't without its issues.
The synopsis reads: "From the Academy Award nominated filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering (The Invisible War, The Hunting Ground) comes a groundbreaking investigation into the crimes of Big Medical.
"America has the most technologically advanced health care system in the world, yet medical interventions have become the third leading cause of death, and the overwhelming majority of high-risk implanted devices never require a single clinical trial."
Through talking heads and troubling case studies, the doc targets several villainouscompanies, including Essure, a permanent contraceptive implant that has left many women with chronic pain and in need of numerous surgeries.
The Bleeding Edge also looks into controversial vaginal meshes, which are often used ingynecological procedures, even though the FDA didn't actually require human testingbefore approving it. One woman even explains in the doc that her husband cut his penis on her mesh when they tried to have sex shortly after it was inserted.
Reviewers are already singing its praises, following its worldwide premiere at this year's Tribeca Film Festival - with many people commending Dick and Ziering for taking on an important but not widely-publicised issue.
Frank Scheck, a reviewer for the Hollywood Reporter, wrote: "Chronicling the unnecessary pain and suffering of patients caused by complications of devices and procedures that received little or no testing, The Bleeding Edge is a terrifying eye-opener."
Eric John of Indiewire also reckoned it's a goer, writing: "The Bleeding Edge stands a good chance at enlightening more people who have been (or might be) hoodwinked."
Yep, consider our interest well and truly piqued ahead of its arrival on Netflix on 27 July.
http://www.ladbible.com/entertainment/film-and-tv-new-netflix-doc-the-bleeding-edge-has-100-on-rotten-tomatoes-20180714
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