Especially with expensive devices, hospitals/ surgery centers only keep a few in stock and order them on an as needed basis. Ideally, we then could match each surgery with the specific stapler based on the surgery date and delivery date. We also obtained the operating reports for all surgeries in which the PPH03 stapler was used. A packing list is a document shipped with the device which contains crucial identifying information about the device: the date shipped, the number of products shipped, the lot number of the product, and the expiration date. We subpoenaed the packing lists for all PPH03 staplers ordered by the surgery center.
ETHICON ENDOMECHANICAL SERIAL NUMBER
There was no lot number or serial number recorded in the operative report identifying the medical device used. Months later, you can pull the operating report and use the sticker to trace and identify the device used. Identify the missing product through shipping recordsįrequently, medical devices come with a sticker identifying the specific device which is then affixed to the operating report. I began gathering every piece of circumstantial evidence to show the defect. (3) there was no way to test the device to prove the defect. (2) even if the device was one of the recalled lots, it was not necessarily defective because only a small percentage of the recalled devices was defective and (1) plaintiff could not prove the subject device was one of the recalled lots From day one, Ethicon gloated in its defense that we could never prove the defect without the product. Despite numerous complaints by surgeons of the firing problems, Ethicon waited over a year to recall the stapler and seven months after our client’s The stapler stapled plaintiff’s upper rectum to the lower rectum, causing an occlusion, and requiring a diverting colostomy which plaintiff endures to this day. After several weeks of games, it became clear Ethicon’s subsidiary had the evidence Ethicon and its lawyers knew it, and intentionally concealed it.Įthicon manufactured a PPH03 Stapler for use in hemorrhoid surgery. One year before that, I was convinced Ethicon and their attorneys concealed a vital piece of evidence.
In December, 2015, a jury returned a verdict for our clients in the amount of $9.8 million in compensatory damages and $70 million in punitive damages against Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, LLC. I welcome them because I know they will make me work harder, add passion, and pour through each document, depose every witness, and leave no stone unturned until I find what defendant is trying to hide through their deceitful or dilatory behavior. Now, I welcome an opponent who makes my life difficult with scorched earth litigation tactics and their client who puts profits over people. In the past, when I would get a case with an evil opposing counsel, I would sigh and begrudgingly go on, hoping to minimize all interaction.
Let’s face it: there are some truly despicable lawyers out there who bully, lie, cheat, and conceal evidence. It should be channeled to fuel the fight, to never get tired, to never give up, and to grind it out to the end. That kind of hatred, born out of compassion, need not be suppressed. What is embarrassing about this natural, basic, raw human emotion we feel toward someone who wrongs our clients? Who violates the most important concept that makes us human – the ability to care for another human being? And who does not care for human suffering but instead places profits above people’s lives? It is a skill necessary to being a good advocate.īut we rarely talk about hate.
ETHICON ENDOMECHANICAL HOW TO
We rightfully give speeches about compassion: how to understand our clients and fight for them by putting ourselves in their shoes. When I say “hate,” I mean the emotion born in your stomach that spreads rapidly through your body, heating every cell as it travels past your heart and up to your brain, filling it, nearly paralyzing the brain with its overwhelming presence.
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