Surgical Staples Class Action Lawsuit Overview:
- Who: Manufacturers of surgical staples are facing class action lawsuits from surgery patients.
- Why: The plaintiffs are suing after surgical staples caused serious complications after their various surgeries.
- Where: Similar class action lawsuits have been filed around the country.
Post-op patients are filing class action lawsuits against companies that manufacture surgical staples after patients experienced complications resulting from the use of the staples.
One class action plaintiff is Angelo Paolozzi, who ended up with a life-threatening infection when surgical staples used in a surgery fell out. Paolozzi’s class action lawsuit alleges that the device used in his operation was not “ejected or closed properly.” He also alleges that the manufacturer, Covidien, failed to properly notify doctors or consumers of the risk. Paolozzi is seeking $500,000 in special damages for each person who has had surgery using the company’s staples.
Lois Ruscheinski has filed her own class action lawsuit in British Columbia after her surgical staples failed to keep her intestines closed after a surgery and resulted in immense internal bleeding.
Defective Staples Threatened Patients’ Lives, Class Actions Claim
After Paolozzi received surgery for diverticulitis (inflammation of pouches found on the colon or large intestine), which involved surgical staples, he experienced a fever and distended belly. He says it took a year before he ended up in emergency surgery and figured out that the staples had fallen out.
Paolozzi says his doctors warned about the risk of touching his intestine during the surgery, but there was no warning about the staples.
Medtronic, which owns Covidien, said in an email to CTV News that it will “defend the lawsuit in court.” The company maintained that the safety of its internal surgical staples have been proven safe “through decades of use and real-world studies” and that complications are rare and often related to the “underlying surgery.”
Ruscheinski had received hernia repair surgery in 2017 in which surgical staples from Ethicon Endo-Surgery, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, were used. After the surgery, Ruscheinski’s blood pressure and blood count plummeted. Like Paolozzi, Ruscheinski had to undergo emergency surgery.
Ethicon said in a statement that it will “vigorously defend this case.” It maintains that the company “adheres to high quality and safety standards in the development of surgical staplers,” and that surgical staplers are “safe and effective when used according to their instructions.”
Surgical Staple Malfunctions Trigger Reports, Recalls
Health Canada has received more than 1,100 reports of internal surgical staple malfunctions, TittlePress reports. These malfunctions have led to injuries, bleeding, additional surgery and even death.
Several companies have also issued their own recalls of surgical clips in Canada.
Dr. David Urbach, chief surgeon and medical director of perioperative services at Women’s College Hospital, shared with CTV News that “tens of thousands of people” face no complications from surgical staples, but that there are always going to be risks with any type of surgery and surgery devices.
Have you experienced complications from surgical staples? Tell us about it in the comments section below!
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2 thoughts onPatients Sue After Surgical Staples Fall Out, Lead to Life-Threatening Complications
I have had 4 different surgeries for bladder stone removal and staples have been found in every stone. I had bowel and bladder surgery in 2016.
My best friend just went through this.
He is still in the hospital facing several complications after his staples failed.