Shoulder Pain Pump Plaintiffs Settle with Stryker

Salt Lake City, UTThe shoulder pain pump continues to be a scourge for many plaintiffs who willingly accepted a doctor's recommendation to feed pain medication directly to the shoulder joint without understanding the potential for serious ramifications. Shoulder pain pump manufacturers were never granted FDA approval to use the device directly to the shoulder joint (just the surrounding soft tissue), and doctors claim pain pump manufacturer representatives failed to apprise them of the risk.

Many a plaintiff has launched a shoulder pain pump lawsuit after pain medication fed directly to the shoulder joint decimated irreplaceable shoulder cartilage, over time causing severe pain and mobility issues, and eventually rendering the shoulder useless.

Earlier this year, six plaintiffs who launched an action against Stryker Corp. settled their claims against Stryker 18 days before a shoulder pain pump lawsuit was set to begin. Stryker had moved for summary judgment, but a federal judge in Salt Lake City, Utah, denied their motion.

The plaintiffs in the shoulder injury lawsuit alleged that Stryker was negligent in marketing its pain pumps for continuous post-operative dispensation of pain medication directly to the shoulder joint, and agreed in principle to settle their claims. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

In another shoulder pain pump lawsuit, plaintiff Paul Burke had sought punitive damages and other claims under the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act for injuries alleged to have been caused by the use of a shoulder pain pump to deliver pain medication to his right shoulder following arthroscopic surgery to treat a shoulder injury.

Defendants in the case included DJO LLC, McKinley Medical LLC, Moog Inc., Curlin Medical Inc., Broe Cos. Inc. and Pat Broe. According to Health Law Week (2/24/12), the plaintiff's motion was denied based on the fact that defendants, as a group, were incorporated in Delaware, Colorado and New York with principle places of business in New York, Colorado and California.

In its ruling, the US District Court for the District of Minnesota ruled that Burke was not entitled to amend his complaint.

Pain pumps were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in the soft tissue surrounding the shoulder, but not directly to the shoulder joint itself. In spite of the immediate relief pain medication brought to the shoulder joint when administered directly in such fashion, the medication's impact on irreplaceable cartilage proved to have horrific consequences for many patients, some in their late teens or early twenties. Many of these patients, as the result of shoulder surgery and the incorrect use of a shoulder pain pump through no fault of their own, were made to face expensive shoulder repair surgery—and in some cases a complete replacement of the shoulder and a lifetime of complications.