Surgical staplers are medical devices frequently used to seal wounds during surgery, either internally or externally. But surgical staplers made by Ethicon Inc were recalled because they can cause substantial injury or death. In May 2019, the FDA announced its most serious level recall for Ethicon’s Circular Staplers after allegations that the devices caused significant damage or death to patients. 

Many people have been unnecessarily wounded by surgical staplers. Patients who experienced internal bleeding, organ damage, death, and other life-threatening complications after having heart surgery, gastric bypass, and other medical procedures employing faulty surgical staplers have filed many surgical stapler lawsuits against medical device makers. You can be entitled to a big cash payment in a product liability case if you were hurt during surgery with staplers.

Staplers for surgery have a distinct potential to cause injury to people. Staples may lodge in tissues or organs. Bacteria and other foreign materials can infiltrate a cut if a staple fails to shut or fully seal it, causing sepsis or infection. Internal organs and organ systems can suffer from hemorrhage, internal bleeding, and organ damage. Stapler malfunctions can take days to detect, and some of the consequences are permanent. Repeated procedures are frequently necessary to correct the complications created by a stapler malfunction. Fistulas and anastomoses can arise as a result of medical stapler failures.

While the producers of surgical staplers were aware of the issues with their equipment and the number of malfunctions that were happening, the physicians and hospitals who used them were kept in the dark. The fault complaints received by surgical stapler makers were held in an obscure non-public database. So when a doctor or hospital looked up details on the safety of these devices, they only saw a few defect complaints, rather than the 109,997 that were turned in. In 2016, for example, just 84 stapler injuries or malfunctions were reported officially, whereas the concealed registry had approximately 10,000 incidents.

Personal Injury Attorney For Surgical Stapler Complications 

Our surgical stapler attorneys want to hear from you if you or a loved one has been hurt or killed by the use of a surgical stapler. We recognize that the precise instrument used during your medical treatment may be unfamiliar to you. Our injury lawyers have the means to research your circumstances to see if you are entitled to pursue a surgical stapler lawsuit. To learn more about how you could be entitled to money, contact us now for a free, no-obligation analysis of your situation. David P. Willis is board certified as a personal injury trial law specialist. We are located in Houston, but we earn remarkable results for victims in medical device litigation across America. Call us at 713-654-4040 or 1-800-883-9858 to talk about your potential claim.