Artificial hips offer a new lease on life to many thousands of people each year. They provide recipients the opportunity for independent living and mobility they might not otherwise have. Unfortunately, they also come with risks, one of the most prominent being metallosis. But there’s also another potential risk where…
Kratom (mitragyna speciosa) is a tropical leaf native to Southeast Asia. While the plant is indigenous to Asia, the use, and abuse, of the plant has become much more common in the United States over the last decade. Today, you can easily purchase products made from kratom leaf online as…
Artificial hips offer many patients the opportunity to live active and full lives, but sometimes they don’t always work as intended. Thankfully, these are relatively rare situations. Unfortunately, if it’s your artificial hip that fails, there’s not much comfort in knowing the artificial hips in most other patients work as…
I’ve written extensively about problems with some Philips CPAP and BiPAP machines, including alleged injuries, affected machines, recalls, and potential litigation. That litigation is ramping up, but a new concern has arisen over the FDA’s inadequate and delayed recall process. Specifically, governmental safeguards designed to protect the public from faulty…
During the course of surgery, a doctor may need to find a way to connect sections of organs or close wounds. One way to do this is through the use of sutures, a special type of thread. Another way is with the use of surgical staples. The Ethicon surgical stapler…
Many of us suffer from heartburn, and one of the most popular ways to treat it is by taking Zantac. Until recently, Zantac was considered a very safe medication and was available without a prescription. Given how well it worked, along with its affordable price and the perception of safety,…
Like many parents, vaping and e-cigarettes caught my wife and me by complete surprise. Two years ago we asked our oldest child how many kids he knew in his high school who were vaping. He said, “it will be much faster to list the kids who aren’t vaping.” We were…
I’ve been writing about dangerous medical devices on this site for four years. Over that time I’ve reached thousands and thousands of people injured by these harmful implanted medical products. John Oliver, host of Last Week Tonight, picked up the subject this week, and I am grateful to him and…
At some point in your life, a medical device will likely become a necessary part of your medical care. You may need external items such as hearing aids, blood glucose meters, insulin pumps, or feeding tubes. You may also need the help of surgically implanted medical devices like artificial hips,…
On November 27, 2018, Teva Pharmaceuticals announced a huge recall of all products containing the medication valsartan. The prescription medications containing valsartan may contain chemicals that are considered possible carcinogens. So What is Valsartan? Valsartan is a drug used to treat hypertension, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, and other conditions.…