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A lawsuit recently filed in the U.S. District Court District of New Jersey alleges that someone received stomach cancer because of taking proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) Prilosec, Nexium, and the variations of both drugs.

PPIs are used to treat many stomach conditions but can create even worse problems in the stomach as well. Before informing yourself about these lawsuits, you must first inform yourself on PPIs, specifically Nexium and Prilosec. You must also inform yourself about their potential side effects.

What are proton pump inhibitors?

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are medications that reduce the amount of stomach accident found in the stomach lining. They help relieve symptoms of acid reflux, a condition in which food or liquid goes back up to the esophagus. PPIs can also help treat stomach ulcers.

Also, they can treat lower esophagus damage resulting from acid reflux. PPIs can be used to treat heartburn as well. They come in various brand names such as Prilosec, Nexium, Prevacid, AcipHex, Protonix, Dexilant, or Zegerid.

What are PPI side effects?

Commonly found side effects may include a headache, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, and itching. Serious long-term side effects may include infections and bone fractures.

PPIs can also be very bad for your kidneys as well. According to an April 2016 study published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, PPIs are linked to serious kidney complications. It showed that patients who took PPIs were about 96% more likely to get kidney failure than those who did not. PPIs users were also 28% more likely to develop chronic kidney disease after five years of taking PPIs.

According to a 2017 study published in Gut, there may be a link between PPIs and gastric cancer. This study was documented by Hong Kong-based researchers. They looked at 63,000 adults in Hong Kong over a nine-year span that ranged from 2003 to 2012.

They discovered that those who took PPIs such as Nexium and Prilosec doubled their risk of gastric cancer. This contrasts with other heartburn drugs, which did not increase any risk. The study is very relevant to the current lawsuit involving Nexium and Prilosec that is being filed in the New Jersey court.

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On July 13, 2018, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recalled Valsartan because they contain the contaminant N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). The FDA noted that valsartan products pose an unnecessary risk to patients. There are seven things you should know about this recent recall.

  1. What is NDMA?

NDMA is a contaminant. According to the EPA, it is a semivolatile organic chemical. It can be either naturally occurring or synthetically made. It is not currently produced in the United States. NDMA can be unintentionally produced through chemical reactions, especially those that involve alkylamines. It is also an intended by-product of chlorination of wastewater through the use of chloramines. These chloramines are used to disinfect the water. There is a risk that NDMA is a possible drinking contaminant.

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Researchers from Louisiana State University’s Health Science Center and Seattle Children’s Hospital were given a five-year federal grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study whether muscle power training exercises can improve the walking abilities of children with cerebral palsy (CP).

Is this exciting? It really is.  Anything that can advance the ball for people with cerebral palsy is wildly exciting.

How will this study be conducted?

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This page is about the Bair Hugger lawsuits that were filed claiming the product caused infections. But these suits did not go very far and I don’t know of any lawyers filing warning blanket lawsuits in 2021. Not all mass tort lawsuits work out and these Bair Hugger lawsuits certainly did not.

Let’s back up first to the start of this litigation.  I’m backfilling this first the original post…

As of September 2018, there are over 1,500 Bair Hugger warming blanket lawsuits pending in the MDL in Minnesota.

In one typical case, a New York couple claims that a surgical warming blanket used after the husband’s hip replacement operation caused severe infections, resulting in four additional surgeries. A man and his wife filed a lawsuit in New York on Nov. 25, 2015, against 3M, the manufacturer of the Bair Hugger forced-air warming system. Medical facilities commonly use this blanket during knee and hip replacement operations. In addition to 3M, the lawsuit lists Arizant Healthcare, Inc. and its subsidiaries as Defendants.

The value of surgical blanket lawsuits is still being determined

The value of surgical blanket lawsuits is still being determined, but many of these infection cases involve serious injury and death.

During the surgery on Oct. 24, 2012, medical personnel used a Bair Hugger on the man’s left hip, supposedly to help regulate body temperature. However, the warming blanket might have introduced bacteria into the surgical site, resulting in infection. Plaintiff received five surgeries within 16 months, including the original surgery, and he now struggles with mobility and needs crutches to walk.

Per the lawsuit: “Due to the infection, Plaintiff needed four additional surgical procedures to remove the implant and clean the infected area within sixteen months from the original implant surgery, and he continues to suffer limited mobility, requiring crutches to ambulate.”

According to diverse news reports, this Plaintiff is far from alone; many consumers across the nation have taken legal action after illnesses they’ve acquired after using the Bair Hugger, following hip and knee surgeries.

The Plaintiffs noted that 3M sent a letter to the FDA way back in June 1997, which warned of possible contamination issues with this product.

 

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Sprue-like enteropathy is an intestinal condition involving chronic diarrhea, nausea, stomach severe stomach discomfort, and rapid weight loss.

Sprue-like enteropathy is very similar to celiac disease, which causes adverse reactions to the consumption of gluten.  Much like celiac disease, sprue-like enteropathy can damage and erode the intestinal villi (tiny finger-like fibers on the inside of the intestines that help absorbs nutrients from food).

This type of damage or erosion of the intestinal villi is referred to as villous atrophy.  When villous atrophy is caused by an adverse reaction to gluten, the condition is classified as celiac disease.

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Donald Trump’s hair reportedly turned orange by a Just for Men hair product.  This is probably a serious thing to Trump, but less so to the rest of us.

But there a real concern about these Just for Men products.  An increasing number of men are reporting severe allergic reactions to “Just For Men” hair and beard products. The reactions include burning, difficulty breathing, dizziness, faintness, hives, rash, redness, scarring, and swelling.

The reactions are being reported not just by new users, but also by long-time users who had previously never experienced any problems. The hair products reactions are so severe that some users had to go to the emergency room, or even be hospitalized. Many users needed antibiotics and steroids to treat the reactions.

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Xarelto is a new-generation blood thinner that was initially approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in October 2011.  Xarelto is intended to reduce the risk of stroke and systemic embolism in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation, to treat deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). The drug is also to reduce the risk of recurrence of DVT or PE, and for prophylaxis of DVT for patients undergoing hip and knee replacement surgery.

This drug has made Bayer and Johnson & Johnson a fortune.  It has also left them as the defendants in 21,400 Xarelto bleeding lawsuits from patients or surviving families allege they have suffered gastrointestinal and cerebral hemorrhages, hemorrhagic strokes, and other types of bleeding issues that have caused injury or death.   Xarelto carries a significant risk of severe, and sometimes even fatal, internal bleeding – and there is no reversal agent available if serious bleeding occurs with Xarelto use.

Xarelto Lawsuit Allegations

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womanNexium, or esomeprazole, is a drug that is used to treat heartburn and excessive amounts of acid in the stomach. Specifically, it is used to treat duodenal and gastric ulcers, esophagitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. Nexium is a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) that decreases the amount of acid produced in the stomach. Other drugs that are in the same class as Nexium include Prevacid and Prilosec. Approximately 15 million Americans use PPIs that are sold both as prescription and over-the-counter.  Nexium sales exceed $3 billion a year.

  • 2019 Update: These drugs have had a troubled history.  Zantac, which was long considered a great and safe drug, has now been associated with cancer.

Nexium is a controversial drug.  At one point, bone fracture lawsuits were all the rage because there was data suggesting Nexium, particularly the long-term use of Nexium, would cause bone fractures and breaks.  We believed many of these cases were meritorious.  But the litigation did not get very far.

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The FDA has recently expressed concern about a certain group of medications called SGLT2 Inhibitors. This category of drugs includes popular prescription medications such as Invokana and Farxiga. Although these drugs have been, by all accounts, fairly successful when treating Type 2 diabetes. But they have produced their fair share of side-effects. Specifically, users of drugs such as Invokana are now reporting high levels of blood acid, the effects of which have landed some users in the ER.  While no deaths have been reported, there is no question that if these reports are accurate, these levels of blood acid could cause serious injury and death.  Accordingly, plaintiffs’ lawyers are investigating whether there is a connection between these drugs and these high acid levels and, if so, whether these drug makers knew about these risks and simply failed to inform patients and doctors.   If these dots are connected – and there is reason to think they might be – there are likely to be both serious injuries and lawsuits seeking compensation for those injuries.

The preceding paragraph was written some time ago.  In May 2017, there are 230 lawsuits pending in a federal MDL in New Jersey.

SGLT2 Inhibitors

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pills2New data suggests an association between melanoma skin cancer and Viagra. This has led many patients suffering from erectile dysfunction to question whether the benefits of this drug justify the risk of death that may accompany it.

If you or someone you love has developed melanoma while taking Viagra, you may have an injury or wrongful death lawsuit against Pfizer, who has never adequately warned patients and their doctors of this risk. If you believe you have a claim, call our lawyers for free at 800-553-8082 or get a free Internet consultation. We can discuss your options with you.

The Association Between Viagra and Melanoma

The understanding of the potential risks of melanoma with Viagra took flight in 2014 for the general public when Harvard Medical School released a new study showing that Viagra users were 84% more likely to develop melanoma skin cancer.

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