Attorney Daily - Your source for the most important legal news

Each year the number of injuries that are attributed to defective medical devices increases in the United States. On February 8, 2010, Becton Dickinson & Co. announced a voluntarily recall of millions of its intravenous infusion therapy devices distributed worldwide because the products could cause a potentially dangerous air embolism or fluid leakage, according to a recent Reuters report.

Becton said it recalled certain lots of its BD Q-Syte Luer Access Devices and BD Nexiva Closed IV Catheter Systems after determining their use could cause an air embolism or leakage of blood or IV therapy that could result in serious injury or death. The company is investigating reports of one death and one serious injury.

The recall was initiated on October 28, 2009 after the company received complaints of problems due to air entry through a part of the device. Becton said it notified its customers of the recall by letter and is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and worldwide health agencies to coordinate recall activities.

Becton said it determined the cause of the problem to be a manufacturing deviation and said it has corrected the problem.

The approximately 2.8 million BD Q-Syte and 2.9 million BD Nexiva units containing 5 million BD Q-Syte devices that were recalled were distributed in the United States, Asia, Canada, Europe, Mexico, the Middle East, South Africa and South America.

Product failures occurred on units distributed from November 2008 through November 2009.

On February 7, 2010, a consumer advocate who is scheduled to testify in a congressional probe of safety issues at Toyota Motor Corp said the automaker has evaded a full investigation of unintended acceleration in its vehicles and faces a risk of growing recalls according to a recent Reuters news report.

“I suspect that we are going to see a series of recalls appear over a period of time here, certainly over the next year, and they are going to address varying issues and varying vehicles,” said Sean Kane, founder of the Safety Research & Strategies Inc, a consumer safety group. A 180-page report the group published on its website found that Toyota had yet to fully identify the causes of unintended acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles that have led to its largest ever recall.

The report found Toyota had limited the scope of earlier probes into unintended acceleration, blamed media attention for driving up the number of complaints and then resorted to the least expensive remedy by recalling floor mats.

Some 2,260 consumer complaints for sudden acceleration span many years and a wider range of models than have been covered by Toyota’s recalls in recent months, the report found. The consumer data also suggests the problem cannot be resolved by Toyota’s recommended remedy -replacing a sticky pedal or floor mat the report found.

To date, Toyota has recalled nearly 8 million vehicles worldwide, including its best-selling Camry and Corolla sedans for the repair of sticky accelerator pedals or adjustments to prevent floor mats from entrapping the pedal.

While pedal entrapment by the floor mat may be a cause of unintended acceleration, it does not cover all the reported incidents and there is a need to examine Toyota’s electronic system for a potential cause, the report said.

Toyota has so far ruled out its electronic “drive-by-wire” throttle system as a cause of the unintended acceleration complaints filed by consumers, and instead identified mechanical issues as the answer to the problems. Toyota introduced the electronic throttle control to some models in 1998 and widened its use with the 2002 model year.

Since 1999, at least 2,262 Toyota and Lexus owners have reported uncontrolled acceleration problems resulting in 815 crashes, 341 injuries and 19 deaths, the report found.

During the morning of February 7, 2010 an explosion took place at a Middletown, Connecticut power plant. Witnesses and emergency response authorities said as many as 100 people were injured and an undetermined number may have died when a massive explosion, which homeowners felt more than 10 miles away and mistook for an earth quake, according to a Hartford Courant news report.

Medical rescue personnel said at least 100 were injured, four critically, and two were dead. “There are bodies everywhere,” a witness said. Another witness said many victims may be buried in rubble. An hour after the explosion emergency rescue personnel were continuing to arrive by vehicle and helicopter. Helicopters were airlifting victims to area hospitals.

Neighbors of the plant said as many as 100 employees may have been working there when the explosion took place. Confirmed information about damage and injuries from authorities was difficult to obtain.

A resident of East Hampton almost directly across the river from the plant said he heard a load booming explosion at about 11 a.m. immediately afterward his house was hit with a concussion that caused him to believe someone had driven an automobile into his home. The concussion interrupted services at a nearby East Hampton church, causing parishioners to speculate that the area had just experienced an earthquake.

A witness looking at the destruction from across the river in Portland said the main plant building seemed to have been substantially leveled.