"State of Misery" After Using Shoulder Pain Pump

Dearborn Heights, MIWhen John L. went in for surgery to repair a torn tendon in his shoulder, he did not realize that the shoulder pain pump could potentially cause him even more problems. However, 2 years after his surgery, he still has problems with his shoulder and he believes the use of the pain pump has resulted in his lasting shoulder injury. John now faces an additional shoulder surgery to repair the damage that has been done.

"The pump alleviated a lot of pain while it was in there," John says. "But, after it was taken out, my arm has never held properly. I think there was a loss of the cartilage in there. I've had a lot of problems with it. It was swollen for quite a while—my arm puffed up to almost twice its normal size.

"I don't know a lot about the pump, but I knew there was something that wasn't right with my shoulder. I had the surgery a couple of years ago and immediately after I knew something was wrong. The surgery was rough and it was painful—so was the recovery process—but even the doctor said I should be getting the full range of motion back and said my shoulder shouldn't have been doing what it was doing.

"My range of motion is approximately 50 to 60 percent of what it was. Sometimes I have a ripping, sharp pain—it feels like something inside the shoulder isn't right. There is also clicking and popping. I have problems sleeping because of putting pressure on that side.

"Because I have been favoring that arm [the surgery was on John's right shoulder and he is right handed], I have now torn the other one, so I have to have surgery on that one now. It's a state of misery here. Even if I lie on my back, it's painful.

"It has really affected my day-to-day life and really affected my ability to work. I live on painkillers now. I've been researching these pain pumps and I have to ask what kind of stuff this is that they've put us through. They probably should have done more testing on the pumps.

"It's a tough go—it really is. For them to use these pumps with the compounded problems, it's not fair on the patients. Now, I likely need shoulder surgery on the same shoulder again to fix what's wrong with it. I wish everyone good luck who has to go through this. I said I would die before going through another one of those [shoulder] surgeries, but I will have to do it again.

"They need to stop using these pumps."

John, like many patients who used the shoulder pain pump following shoulder surgery, not only faces an additional surgery on the injured shoulder, he also faces shoulder surgery on his other shoulder, because his extra use of that shoulder has caused problems. John says that he hopes a class action lawsuit has been filed against the makers of the pain pump because he feels it should not have been used on patients without further testing.