Boston Injury Lawyer Blog

A new report by Bloomberg News has brought to light a troubling trend in complaints received by federal regulators at the FDA. In tracking those involving metal-on-metal hip replacement systems since 2000, it became apparent that there were about 16,800 total filed and that the majority occurred over the last couple of years. The report, which comes before next week’s advisory committee meeting scheduled by the FDA to review the metal-on-metal replacement systems, points to some concerning data.

In comparing the number of adverse event reports for each year, the FDA saw 682 filed in 2008-four times as many as the previous year-but 12,137 filed last year. In addition, more than 14,000 of those complaints filed in the last decade involved people who required surgery to remove the implant. Perhaps most worrisome is the fact that many see these complaints as reflecting only 1% to 10% of all issues actually experienced in the United States.

Much of the concern surrounding the metal-on-metal hip replacement systems has surfaced in recent years due to reports suggesting that they may be prone to early failure, as well as a DuPuy ASR hip recall issued in August 2010 which impacted more than 93,000 systems sold internationally. The early failures are largely a result of the metal parts rubbing against each other, which can cause microscopic shavings of metal to be released in the body.
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Severe thunderstorms on Sunday affected much of southern New England and especially parts of Rhode Island, causing minor flooding and knocking down trees. Police also reported hail the size of golf balls in areas. The strong storms left about 1,200 National Grid customers without power due to outages Sunday evening. However, more than half had their power restored by Monday morning.

In addition, several children were apparently struck indirectly by lightening Sunday evening while playing outside. According to WBZ-TV, the three-ages 5, 13, and 14-were hospitalized at nearby Hasbro Children’s Hospital after being shocked just after 4 p.m. The three said they felt a “tingling sensation,” which is a sign of an indirect hit, according to police.
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A toddler who wandered off from his parents’ campsite in Farmington, N.H. Thursday night is safe and back with his parents today. Liam Davis wandered off from the area, which was described by police as “hilly, heavily wooded with rivers and streams,” at some point last night. Emergency crews were called shortly thereafter, at about 8:15 p.m., on reports of a missing child.

Several departments from around the area were called to respond, including a DHART helicopter, New Hampshire Fish and Game, 75 searchers, all-terrain vehicles and K-9 units. After hours of searching, he was found sleeping at the bottom of a tree. He sustained only scratches and some poison ivy blisters in the incident and is now reunited with his family.
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The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and the state’s Medicaid agency have consented to pay $1.7 million to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to settle possible violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 Security Rule. The state’s DHSS has also agreed to take steps to better safeguard the health information of Alaska Medicaid beneficiaries.

The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) started its probe after receiving a privacy breach report by Alaska DHSS. The report noted that a UBS hard drive that possibly contained electronic protected health information was stolen from a DHSS employee’s vehicle.

During the probe, OCR discovered evidence that DHSS had not implemented the adequate procedures and policies to guard this information. Also, it did not appear as if DHSS had completed risk analysis, put into place enough risk management measures, finished security training for workforce members, implemented device and media controls, or taken care of device and media encryption, per HIPAA Security Rule requirements.