› $150,000,000 verdict in personal injury case
One of the three principal shoulder pain pump manufacturers facing lawsuits over serious injuries associated with the use of the pain pumps is no stranger to controversy. It was also engaged in an illegal scheme for which it was prosecuted for paying hundreds of thousands – and possibly millions – of dollars to physicians for using its hip and knee replacement products exclusively.
For a long time, physicians didn’t know why patients who had shoulder surgery began suffering from a painful condition known as chondrolysis, in which the patient loses the cartilage in the shoulder. “This goes all the way back to about the year 2000. People who had surgery seven or eight years ago who thought they would recover are now seeing that they have lost their cartilage and they don’t know why,” says Frank Woodson, shareholder with Beasley Allen Law Firm. “However, now that the literature is expanding and more and more doctors are finding out about this and they’re telling patients to contact attorneys to get advice on what recourse they may have.”
Nine people in Arizona who claim they were permanently injured by a medical device designed to deliver pain medication to the shoulder joint, are suing the makers of the device for more than $68 million, according to the Phoenix Business Journal.
Manufacturers of pain pumps were denied approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to use the devices in a different manner than what had been previously approved by the FDA for shoulder surgery. But that didn’t stop the manufacturers from advising physicians to use the devices improperly. That improper use has lead to a painful and debilitating condition in many shoulder surgery patients.
