Our Firm has heard from numerous women in the U.S. who allegedly experienced the spread of uterine sarcomas and other cancers due to uterine morcellation.
New York, New York (PRWEB) October 23, 2014
Concerns over power morcellators (http://www.consumerinjurylawyers.com/defective-medical-devices/morcellator-sarcoma-cancer-lawsuit/) and their potential to spread uterine cancers are now making headlines overseas, Bernstein Liebhard LLP reports. According to the U.K.’s Channel 4, some in that country are now questioning why the devices are still in use there, despite their possible risks. At least one doctor interviewed for the report told the network that a moratorium should be imposed on uterine morcellation until more data becomes available. The group U.K. Sarcoma is also calling for morcellators to be withdrawn until a consensus on their safety can be reached.*
“Our Firm has heard from numerous women in the U.S. who allegedly experienced the spread of uterine sarcomas and other cancers due to uterine morcellation. Considering the widespread use of these instruments, we are not at all surprised that the morcellator controversy is now being addressed in the U.K.,” says Bernstein Liebhard LLP, a nationwide law firm representing victims of defective drugs and medical devices. The Firm is now evaluating potential morcellator lawsuits on behalf of women who may have experienced the spread of undiagnosed uterine sarcoma and other cancers due to uterine morcellation.
Power Morcellators and Cancer
Power morcellators are used in minimally invasive gynecological surgeries to shred tissue and fibroids so that the material can be removed from the body via a small abdominal incision. In the U.S., the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has already issued an alert discouraging doctors from using power morcellators due to the possibility that they may spread undetected cancer cells present in the uterus into the abdominal cavity. According to the agency, as many as 1 in 350 women may have undiagnosed uterine cancers, and dissemination of the malignancy via morcellation can result in an upstaging of the disease and greatly reduce a woman’s chances for long-term survival.
Over the summer, Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon, Inc. unit decided to withdrawal its power morcellators from the global market due to their uncertain safety profile.** Several U.S. health insurers, including Highmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Harvard Pilgrim and Fallon Health have limited their coverage of uterine morcellation, while a growing number of hospitals have decided to ban or severely restrict such procedures.***
Court documents also indicate that a growing number of morcellator lawsuits have been filed in the U.S. on behalf of women whose cancers were allegedly spread via uterine morcellation. For example, a complaint filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California claims that a Gyus Power Morcellator promoted the growth of seven cancerous tumors in the plaintiff’s abdomen. Among other things, the lawsuit accuses Gyrus ACMI LP of failing to provide adequate warning about the morcellator’s potential to spread undetected cancer cells present in the uterus throughout a patient’s body. (Nielsen, et ux. v. Gyrus Acmi LLC, No. 2:14-2375)
Victims of uterine sarcoma and other gynecological cancers that were allegedly spread by a power morcellator may be entitled to file their own claim against the manufacturer of the device used in their surgery. To find out more about filing a power morcellator lawsuit, please visit Bernstein Liebhard LLPs website, or call the Firm directly for a free, no-obligation case review at 800-511-5092.
*blogs.channel4.com/victoria-macdonald-on-health-and-social-care/womens-lives-risk-power-morcellator-surgery/2523, Channel 4, October 22, 2014
**ethicon.com/sites/default/files/managed-documents/Ethicon%20Morcellation%20Devices%20Customer%20Letter%20Final.pdf, Ethicon, Inc., July 30, 2014
***in.reuters.com/article/2014/08/02/highmark-procedure-idINL2N0Q80IY20140802, Reuters, August 3, 2014
***telegram.com/article/20140809/NEWS/308099942/0, Worcester Telegram, August 9, 2014
About Bernstein Liebhard LLP
Bernstein Liebhard LLP is a New York-based law firm exclusively representing injured persons in complex individual and class action lawsuits nationwide since 1993. As a national law firm, Bernstein Liebhard LLP possesses all of the legal and financial resources required to successfully challenge billion dollar pharmaceutical and medical device companies. As a result, our attorneys and legal staff have been able to recover more than $3 billion on behalf of our clients. The Firm has been named by The National Law Journal to the Plaintiffs Hot List, recognizing the top plaintiffs firms in the country, for the past 12 consecutive years. Bernstein Liebhard LLP is the only firm in the country to be named to this prestigious list every year since it was first published in 2003.
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