Author: Ring of Fire Staff

The president of DePuy Orthopaedics said in a testimony last week that the company’s faulty ASR XL device was recalled because it wasn’t meeting “clinical expectations.” The statement came during the Chicago trial of Carol Strum, who is suing DePuy for damages from her defective ASR device. “The revision rate was not acceptable,” Ekdahl said. However, the evidence shows that DePuy understood the device was defective long before they withdrew it from the market. Ekdahl was questioned about a DePuy document that was signed by company executives days before the recall. The document listed three possible reasons for the recall, including...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is evaluating unpublished new findings from a group of academic researchers that suggest an increased risk of pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas) and pre-cancerous cellular changes in patients with type 2 diabetes treated with a class of drugs called “incretin mimetics.” Many in the medical community are also wary of this new connection. For instance, earlier this month the JAMA Internal Medicine medical journal also wrote a column that urges more research and investigation into the link between this drug class and pancreatic cancer. Specifically of concern are the drugs Januvia or Byetta....

In 2012, Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA, warned conservatives that an Obama second term could be detrimental to their hold on the Court. “If Obama wins reelection, he will likely appoint one – and perhaps three – more Supreme Court Justices,” he said. “It’ll be the end of our freedom forever.” Fortunately for conservatives, the Obama administration has been inactive concerning the judiciary. The amount of judicial vacancies has increased, especially over the last few years. The number of judicial vacancies at the circuit and district court levels has reached near-record heights due to the slow-coming judicial nominations...

Chickens raised for food spend their lives in dirty sheds with tens of thousands of other poultry. The intense crowding often leads to outbreaks of disease and unsanitary conditions. The chickens are pumped with hormones to grow so large that their legs and organs can’t keep up, making heart attacks, organ failure, and growth deformities common. Disturbingly, state legislators around the country are bowing to corporate pressure and considering laws that will keep consumers in the dark about these abusive conditions by punishing undercover documentation by investigators at slaughterhouses and farms. The corporate-friendly American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)—also infamously...

Outpatient Surgery magazine reports that the FDA has obtained more reports in the past six months of death and injuries related to the Neptune fluid waste management systems.  Although the precise cause of the problems is not yet identified, investigators speculate that incorrect application of the high-flow, high-suction vacuum system and improper user training are the primary issues.  The FDA has recommended that all healthcare providers stop using the Neptune 1 Silver and Neptune 2 Ultra systems.  To continue using the systems under a Certificate of Medical Necessity, all users must be adequately trained and utilize a pre-use checklist....