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Ethicon 15/6
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Government facing massive payout if women aren't warned about mesh implants
Jun 14, 2015 | Daily Record and Sunday Mail
By Marion Scott
As well as the products, one of the most used devices in Scotland, Ethicon’s TVT-O, has twice been found defective by US courts. -
Sling the Mesh: Kath’s campaign gathers support from around the world in its first week
Jun 12, 2015 | Ely Standard/Wisbech Standard
By Kath Sansom
A spokesman for Johnson & Johnson Ethicon, which released its mesh product on to the UK market in 1997, said this week: “We are always concerned when a patient experiences adverse medical events. -
Bergen Judge Martinotti Tapped for Federal Bench
Jun 12, 2015 | New Jersey Law Journal
By Charles Toutant
As a multicounty litigation judge, Martinotti is handling a docket of 9,000 trans-vaginal mesh cases. Defendants in that litigation are Ethicon, a division of Johnson & Johnson, and C.R. Bard of Murray Hill.
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Government facing massive payout if women aren't warned about mesh implants
Jun 14, 2015 | Daily Record and Sunday Mail
By Marion Scott
The Government have been warned that they face a massive payout if they fail to warn women who have been given a defective mesh device by the NHS.
Ministers have said they will not begin to contact women who may have been given implants considered dangerous in the US until after a safety review.
Last week the Sunday Mail revealed that six of the country’s 11 health boards had used a device at the centre of a $100million payout in America.
The boards used either Advantage Fit or Pinnacle implants manufactured by Boston Scientific who were found negligent in the design of both in a case which saw Deborah Barba given the massive award.
As well as the products, one of the most used devices in Scotland, Ethicon’s TVT-O, has twice been found defective by US courts.
Now campaigners want to establish a clearer picture of which patients in Scotland were given the treatments for bladder and pelvic organ prolapse.
Lothians Labour MSP Neil Findlay and East Renfrewshire Conservative MSP Jackson Carlaw have lodged motions in the
Scottish Parliament urging action over women given any of the devices.Scottish Mesh Survivor spokeswoman Olive McIlroy, 57, from Renfrew, said: “The Government have a legal duty to ensure patients weren’t harmed.
“They must do the right thing now.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “This review will report in the summer and will allow a thorough assessment of the evidence.”
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Sling the Mesh: Kath’s campaign gathers support from around the world in its first week
Jun 12, 2015 | Ely Standard/Wisbech Standard
By Kath Sansom
If ever a week could be mind-blowing then the last one has hit the mark.
What started as a small idea has grown to a Facebook page with more than 450 members and a hand of friendship and support from women across England, Scotland, Wales, Canada, New Zealand, Belgium and America.
All of us are fighting the same cause – to stop an operation that has life-changing consequences for women when it goes wrong. Some of these women have been fighting since 2002.
Much has been achieved already but there is still more to do to make governments worldwide sit up and take notice of the terrible suffering.
Women are in wheelchairs or on crutches, others housebound. Many have leg, pelvic and abdominal pains. Lives have been changed.
Earlier this year US lawyer Adam Slater told the BBC that the mesh problem was “worse than asbestos”.
The Government’s watchdog body, the MHRA, says the operation has a low risk of 1-3 per cent. But campaigners argue many haven’t heard of the MHRA, which is why the figure is so low.
A Parliamentary question showed that in 2010 there were 603 women who had mesh removed. The number officially logged with the MHRA was 15.
NE Cambs MP Steve Barclay, who backs Sling The Mesh, is calling for updated figures.
He has already written to the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, and to Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS medical director, raising urgent questions on the safety of TVT mesh and whether patients are receiving adequate information about the risks.
He has also asked why the product has been suspended in Scotland and some products de-registered in Australia and whether adequate measures are in place, including sufficient clinicians to deal with problems when they arise.
Manufacturer: Mesh devices are safeA spokesman for Johnson & Johnson Ethicon, which released its mesh product on to the UK market in 1997, said this week: “We are always concerned when a patient experiences adverse medical events.
“The use of implantable mesh is backed by years of clinical research. Ethicon’s devices are among the most studied products for this condition.
“Ethicon’s midurethral slings have been the subject of report in hundreds of studies including randomised controlled trials, meta-analyses, systematic reviews and professional organisation analyses.
“Our products have been evaluated by numerous medical societies that have analysed efficacy and complication rates and have determined that the devices are safe and effective.”
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Bergen Judge Martinotti Tapped for Federal Bench
Jun 12, 2015 | New Jersey Law Journal
By Charles Toutant
The White House has nominated Bergen County Superior Court Judge Brian Martinotti to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
If confirmed, Martinotti would replace U.S. District Judge Stanley Chesler, of Newark, whose retirement is effective June 15. Martinotti became a Superior Court judge in 2002, and from 1987 to 2002 he was with the law firm of Beattie Padovano in Montvale, first as an associate and then becoming a partner in 1994.
Martinotti, 54, becomes the state's third district court nominee awaiting confirmation. Civil and criminal litigator John Michael Vazquez was nominated to the court March 26, and is intended to replace recently retired Joel Pisano. And Bergen County Counsel Julien Neals was nominated Feb. 26 to replace Faith Hochberg, another recent retiree. The district has also seen another judge, William Martini, take senior status recently, but no replacement for him has yet been nominated.
Martinotti graduated from Fordham University in 1983 and from Seton Hall University School of Law in 1986. He served as law clerk for Judge Roger Kahn of the Tax Court of New Jersey from 1985 to 1986. Martinotti also served as a member of the borough council of Cliffside Park from 1991 to 2002, and has held the jobs of municipal public defender, prosecutor and tax attorney in various towns.
As a multicounty litigation judge, Martinotti is handling a docket of 9,000 trans-vaginal mesh cases. Defendants in that litigation are Ethicon, a division of Johnson & Johnson, and C.R. Bard of Murray Hill.
In 2014, Martinotti worked with a federal judge in Minnesota to reach a $1.2 billion global settlement of roughly 3,800 suits over Stryker hip implants that were recalled because of corroding metal components.
In addition, Martinotti is handling mass litigation against DuPont over environmental contamination in Pompton Lakes and commercial bribery claims against Prudential Life Insurance Co. of America in Newark, brought by former employees.
Practitioners ranked Martinotti fifth out of 34 Bergen County judges in the Law Journal's 2012 Superior Court Judicial Survey. In the survey, he received his highest rankings in the categories of courtesy and respect to litigants and lawyers and lack of bias as to race, gender and party identity.
Lawmakers have been slow to approve new federal judges. Nationwide, federal courts have 58 vacancies and 13 nominations pending—not counting Martinotti's—but only four judicial candidates have been confirmed in the 114th Congress, according to the federal judiciary.
"We have a superb district court in New Jersey, and given the case load in the district and the superb work the district judges do, it's extremely important to the district court and to all New Jerseyans that these nominations move along," said Paul Zoubek, president of the Association of the Federal Bar of the State of New Jersey.
In fact, given the volume and caseload of the district, New Jersey needs "a couple more judges" in addition to the 17 who are currently authorized, said Zoubek, who is with Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads in Cherry Hill.
U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Robert Menendez applauded President Obama's nomination of Martinotti in a joint statement.
"I know Brian Martinotti to be an exceptionally capable jurist who presides with an abiding commitment to integrity and justice," Booker said in the statement. "Brian's distinguished career as a civil trial attorney and judge on New Jersey's Superior Court have prepared him to effectively serve the people of New Jersey and our nation on the federal bench. I look forward to celebrating his swift confirmation by the Judiciary Committee and the full Senate."
"For over 10 years, Judge Martinotti has shown that he has the legal judgment and judicial temperament to be an excellent addition to the New Jersey District Court," Menendez said in the statement.
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