A California state court judge ruled in favor of a California resident represented by Wisner Baum, allowing her lawsuit against Medtronic to move forward. This is good news for patients across the country who received the Medtronic INFUSE® Bone Graft medical device procedure in an off-label manner, not approved by the FDA.
Lawyers Investigate Hospitals Where Spine Surgeries Caused Patients Severe Pain, Excessive Bone Growth and Other Complications
Wisner Baum’s first Infuse case involves back surgery patient, April Cabana, who originally sued Medtronic, in addition to Stryker Biotech, her doctor, and Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, on July 13, 2011 after two different medical devices implanted during two different back surgeries resulted in debilitating and permanent injuries to her spine.
The FDA approved Infuse Bone Graft Device in 2002 for a limited type of spinal fusion surgery to alleviate severe back pain. Infuse Bone Graft Device is a liquid substance produced by a genetically engineered Chinese hamster ovary cell line. It is a recombinant bone morphogenetic protein (“BMP”) that is supposed to stimulate controlled bone growth and fuse the vertebrae.
October 31, 2012
The U.S. Senate Finance Committee issued a lengthy report showing that medical device maker Medtronic, Inc. paid doctors hundreds of millions of dollars to manipulate studies and write favorable articles on the company’s popular bone graft product, InFUSE. Read More
Medtronic has been under scrutiny for years now concerning allegations of illegal off-label promotion and use of Infuse Bone Graft Device, financial conflicts of interest by researchers, under-reporting of complications and overblown reports of superior clinical results. About 85% of Infuse use is off-label according to MedPage Today.
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"Wisner Baum gave exceptional attention to all aspects of the case, detailed inquiry, and tenacious overview of all the information submitted. The paralegals are efficient and diligent. I was completely surprised to find an empathic personal message to take care of my own health during the challenging time of being a full-time caretaker.*"
In May of 2019, the jury in the case of Pilliod et al. v, Monsanto Company ordered the agrochemical giant to pay $2.055 billion in damages to the plaintiffs, Alva and Alberta Pilliod, a Bay Area couple in their 70s. R. Brent Wisner served as co-lead trial attorney for the Pilliods, delivering the opening and closing statements and cross-examining several of Monsanto’s experts. Wisner Baum managing shareholder, Michael Baum and attorney Pedram Esfandiary also served on the trial team in the Pilliod case.
The judge later reduced their award to $87M. Monsanto appealed the Pilliod’s verdict which the California Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District denied on August 9, 2021. Monsanto then requested the California Supreme Court review the appeal’s court decision, which the court denied on Nov. 17, 2021. Monsanto (Bayer) then submitted a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court which SCOTUS denied on June 27, 2022, allowing the final judgment of $87M to remain intact.
$289.2 million jury verdict in Monsanto Roundup trial
Wisner Baum co-represented Dewayne “Lee” Johnson in the first Roundup cancer lawsuit to proceed to trial. On Aug. 10, 2018, a San Francisco jury ordered Monsanto to pay $39.25 million in compensatory damages and $250 million in punitive damages to Mr. Johnson, a former groundskeeper who alleged exposure to Monsanto’s herbicides caused him to develop terminal non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Months after the jury verdict, the judge overseeing the trial reduced the punitive damages to $39.25 million. Mr. Johnson decided to accept the remittitur, bringing the adjusted amount awarded to Mr. Johnson $78.5 million.
Monsanto (Bayer) appealed the verdict and Johnson cross appealed. On July 20, 2020, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict against Monsanto but reduced Mr. Johnson’s award to $20.5 million. The company chose not to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, ending the litigation.
In 2016, Wisner Baum attorney Timothy A. Loranger and six other attorneys in the Plaintiffs’ Management Committee were able to secure a $265 million settlement for victims of the 2015 Amtrak 188 derailment in Philadelphia, one of the largest in the U.S. for 2016.
