Morcellator Lawsuit Alleges Ethicon Gynecare Morcellator Allowed Deadly Uterine Sarcoma to Spread, Led to Missouri Woman’s Death, Bernstein Liebhard LLP Reports
New York, New York (PRWEB) December 13, 2014 -- The family of a Missouri woman has filed a power morcellator lawsuit (http://www.morcellatorlawsuit2015.com) against Ethicon, Inc., which alleges one of the company’s Gynecare morcellators allowed an aggressive form of uterine sarcoma to spread throughout her body, ultimately leading to her death, Bernstein Liebhard LLP reports. According to their complaint, which was filed on December 3rd in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Missouri, the Decedent underwent a minimally-invasive procedure to remove uterine fibroids in December 2012, at which time a Gynecare morcellator was used to cut tissue into small pieces in order to allow for its removal through a small abdominal incision. The lawsuit alleges the morcellator caused undetected leiomyosarcoma to spread beyond her uterus, which resulted in the rapid upstaging of the disease to its most deadly stage. (Case 4:14-cv-01074-JTM)
“Our Firm has heard from a number of women, as well as their families, who also allege that uterine morcellation resulted in the upstaging of a deadly cancer. We are monitoring the litigation involving this issue very closely,” says Bernstein Liebhard LLP, a nationwide law firm representing victims of defective drugs and medical devices. The Firm is providing free legal consultations to women who were diagnosed with advanced uterine cancers following uterine morcellation.
Uterine Morcellation and Cancer
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has been reviewing the association between uterine morcellation and cancer since April, when it first discouraged the use of power morcellators in hysterectomies and fibroid removal procedures.* On November 24th, the agency issued a second alert that warned against the use of the devices in most women, and asked power morcellator manufacturers to add a new black box warning – the strongest possible safety notice – regarding this life-threatening complication to their labels.
In its most recent morcellator cancer warning, the FDA noted that the prevalence of unsuspected uterine sarcoma in patients undergoing hysterectomy or fibroid removal surgery is 1 in 352, while the prevalence of unsuspected uterine leiomyosarcoma is 1 in 498. Both of these estimates are higher than the clinical community previously understood. A power morcellator can disseminate these cells beyond the uterus, upstaging the disease and greatly reducing a woman’s chances for long-term survival, the agency said.
In July, Ethicon, a unit of Johnson & Johnson announced that it was removing its Gynecare Morcellex, Gynecare X-Tract and Morcellex Sigma morcellators from the market.**
Alleged victims of uterine sarcoma or other cancers allegedly spread via power morcellation may be entitled to compensation for their injury-related damages. To learn more about filing a morcellator lawsuit, please visit Bernstein Liebhard LLP's website. To obtain a free legal review, please call 800-511-5092.
*fda.gov/medicaldevices/safety/alertsandnotices/ucm393576.htm, FDA, April 17, 2014
***ethicon.com/sites/default/files/managed-documents/Ethicon%20Morcellation%20Devices%20Customer%20Letter%20Final.pdf, Ethicon, Inc., July 30, 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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Contact Information:
Felecia L. Stern, Esq.
Bernstein Liebhard LLP
info(at)consumerinjurylawyers(dot)com
http://www.morcellatorlawsuit2015.com
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Felecia L. Stern, Power Morcellator Lawsuit Information, http://www.morcellatorlawsuit2015.com, +1 800-511-5092, [email protected]
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