For the second time this month, a lender is suspending home foreclosures because of problems with legal procedures. The move by JP Morgan Chase impacts 56,000 foreclosures in 23 states where home seizures require a court order.

Earlier this month, GMAC Mortgage – the nation’s fourth largest home loan lender – announced a similar move. The company issued a two-page “urgent” memo dated September 17 telling brokers to immediately stop evictions, cash-for-key transactions, lockouts and to suspend sales of properties already taken back by the bank in foreclosure in the same 23 states. GMAC also began withdrawing affidavits in pending court cases. (more…)

Yet another DePuy lawsuit has been filed in relation to the ASR hip implant recall, this time in Ohio. The lawsuit seeks DePuy class action suit status on behalf of all US citizens who received an implant of the DePuy ASR XL Acetabular System hip replacement.

Recent data from the National Joint Registry of England and Wales showed that 1 out of every 8 patients (12%-13%) who had received the recalled devices had to undergo revision surgery within five years of receiving it. That report prompted DePuy to issue a worldwide recall of the he ASR XL Acetabular System, a hip socket used in traditional hip replacement, and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System, a partial hip replacement that involves placing a metal cap on the ball of the femur. Only the ASR XL Acetabular System was approved for use in the US. (more…)

Just a few days after a new study reported that Segway injuries are on the rise, news has broken that the owner of the company that makes the popular scooters has died in a Segway accident.

Since their introduction in 2001, Segways have been used as transportation for police departments, military bases, warehouses, corporate campuses or industrial sites. They have also become a popular mode of transportation for tourist wishing to sightsee, and Segway tour companies have popped up in numerous locations throughout the US. In most cases, such tours mark the first time a person has used a Segway. Often, the instruction provided by the tour company is inadequate, and often leads to Segway injuries. (more…)

Finally, the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has made its long-awaited decision on Avandia. It’s not yanking Avandia from the market, but the agency is making the controversial diabetes drug more difficult to get.

Under new restrictions announced today, patients in the US will only have access to Avandia if they and their doctors attest that they have tried every other diabetes medicine and that patients have been made aware of Avandia’s cardiac side effects. The restrictions also apply to Avandamet and Avandaryl. (more…)

How long did DePuy (Johnson and Johnson subsidiary) know about problems with its ASR hip implant system? Would you believe about three years before it finally issued a recall of the defective hip replacement (namely DePuy ASR hip implant) this past August?

Sadly, that’s true according to a report from the UK-based Independent. The newspaper is reporting that starting in 2007, the Australian Joint Registry – the second largest such registry in the world – issued seven reports to DePuy that identified problems with the hip implant system. The ASR system was finally withdrawn from the Australian market in December 2009. (more…)

Roughly 93,000 people across the globe were implanted with a recalled Johnson & Johnson DePuy ASR hip implant. So it’s really not that surprising that a man from Australia has decided to join a Johnson & Johnson DePuy ASR hip implant lawsuit in the US.

According to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane-based Bob Lugton, 66, is the first Australian to join a US lawsuit involving the Johnson & Johnson DePuy ASR hip implant. Lugton, whose health has been severely compromised through leakage of cobalt into his body and degradation of the hip joint, is scheduled to undergo surgery next month. (more…)

Health officials in Texas in Texas are trying to figure out if a sewage spill is behind a recent E. coli outbreak linked to at Fralo’s Art of Pizza in Leon Springs. In August, at least 24 people who ate at the restaurant became ill. The illnesses started right around the time a sewage spill occurred across the street from the restaurant.

The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that every year at least 2000 Americans are hospitalized and about 60 die as a direct result of E. coli infection and its complications. Symptoms of infection may include severe and often bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain and vomiting. Often, little or no fever is present. Most healthy adults recover within a week. Young children and the elderly are at higher risk for developing Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS) as a result of the infection. HUS can lead to serious kidney damage and death.
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Proton pump inhibitors, a popular class of heartburn drugs, could increase the risk of certain fractures if they are used over the long-term. Just this past May, the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) said it was updating the labeling for proton pump inhibitors because of this risk.

The new safety information was based on the FDA’s review of several epidemiological studies that reported an increased risk of fractures of the hip, wrist, and spine with PPI use. The majority of the studies evaluated individuals 50 years of age or older and the increased risk of fracture primarily was observed in this age group. Some studies found that those at greatest risk for these fractures received high doses of proton pump inhibitors or used them for one year or more. (more…)

DePuy hip replacement lawsuits involving the recalled Johnson & Johnson ASR hip implant could be consolidated in a multidistrict litigation. Such a consolidation would allow all Johnson & Johnson DePuy ASR recall lawsuits to be coordinated under one judge for pretrial litigation to avoid duplicative discovery, inconsistent rulings and to conserve the resources of the parties, witnesses and the court.

A motion requesting the consolidation into a DePuy class action was filed on September 3 with the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on behalf of a woman who originally filed a Johnson & Johnson DePuy ASR hip implant lawsuit in California federal court. The motion asks that all Johnson & Johnson DePuy ASR recall lawsuits be centralized in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey before Judge Susan D. Wigenton. Johnson & Johnson’s corporate headquarters are located in New Jersey. The panel is expected to hear arguments on the motion in November. (more…)

A Food & Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel is meeting today to determine the fate of the diet drug Meridia. The weight loss medication has been linked to a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Meridia has already been pulled from the European market. In the US, it is contraindicated for use in patients with a history of heart problems. (more…)