› $150,000,000 verdict in personal injury case
An Oregon Appeals Court denied a request by defendant I-Flow for a new trial in Mulnomah County Circuit Court following a January 22 jury verdict against the pain pump manufacturer. Jurors awarded $5.475 million for damaging the right shoulder of Portland, Oregon, resident Matthew Beale, placing blame on the On-Q Painbuster infusion pain pump device manufactured and marketed by I-Flow.
Justin was just 17 years old when he was diagnosed with chondrolysis of his right shoulder. The condition occurs when the cartilage in the shoulder joint wears away causing bone to rub against bone. For more than a year, Justin suffered from such incredible pain that he was not able to use his right arm for even small tasks of everyday life, like combing his hair or putting on a shirt. The pain even kept him awake at night. But even more disappointing, Justin wasn’t able to compete as a swimmer, something he had participated in and trained for since he was just 7 years old.
Dr. David S. Bailie, an orthopedic surgeon in Scottsdale, Ariz., says he’s lost hours of sleep over a rare joint condition he started seeing far too often in his patients who had had arthroscopic shoulder surgery. “There’s nothing worse than a surgeon doing something that causes a problem, not fixes a problem,” he told the New York Times.
Since 2005, Dr. Bailie says he has seen dozens of patients come to him months after surgery with worsening pain and limited mobility. The diagnosis was chondrolysis, a condition in which the cartilage in the shoulder joint wears away leaving bone to rub against bone. There is no cure for chondrolysis and in some cases, total shoulder replacement is required.
