Morcellator Lawyers Tracey & Fox Report: Lawsuit Filed After Diagnosis Of Stage 4 Cancer

June 23, 2015 – – On January 26, 2015, Denise Whitfield filed one of the most recent complaints to claim that a power morcellator caused the significant worsening of an undiagnosed uterine cancer. Whitfield, a woman from Detroit, Michigan, brought her claim against Karl Storz, a manufacturer of medical devices with US operations based in California. Whitfield alleges that the use of Storz’s power morcellator spread an undetected uterine cancer throughout her body.

She filed her claim in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan under case number 2:15-cv-10352-TGB-APP. Court documents can be found at Tracey & Fox, a law firm that has followed the morcellator litigation closely.

In her lawsuit, plaintiff writes that she underwent a supracervical hysterectomy on June 14, 2011. The procedure, often performed using the non-invasive power morcellator medical device, was intended to remove fibroid and uterine tissue. She claims that Karl Storz’s Rotocut G1 power morcellator was used during her operation. The device employs a spinning blade to “morcellate” fibroid tissue, breaking the benign growths into small pieces for easier removal. But citing a recent safety announcement from the US Food & Drug Administration, Whitfield notes that morcellation comes with a substantial risk: the devices can also split up undiagnosed cancerous tumours, spreading the disease further.

Unfortunately, there is currently no reliable method of distinguishing between a benign fibroid and a cancerous uterine sarcoma. And while many morcellator manufacturers have downplayed these risks over the decades, the FDA has found that as many as 1 out of every 350 women who undergo a morcellation procedure may have a cancer that could be spread by a power morcellator. For many patients and public safety advocates, this risk is simply too high for morcellators to be considered safe medical devices.

Two years after her hysterectomy, Whitfield claims that she “underwent a mammogram examination […] that did not show any signs of cancer.” But on July 17, 2014, she rushed to the emergency room and was admitted for spinal surgery. It was during examinations that Whitfield would be diagnosed with cancer. According to court documents, she was told that tumors had metastasized to her bones and breasts. She is now battling Stage 4 cancer, and claims that her current prognosis is the result of an undiagnosed uterine sarcoma spread by Karl Storz’s power morcellator three years prior to her diagnosis.

Plaintiff claims that she has been forced to undergo “extensive and intensive therapies for the treatment and management of her advanced-stage cancer.” Her treatment currently includes “daily hormone medications, regular injections of medications by her physicians and multiple ten-week rounds of radiation therapy,” she writes.

Whitfield claims that Karl Storz possessed evidence of its power morcellator’s potential dangers, but “failed to disclose and warn of the [device’s] health hazards and risks.” In fact, she accuses the company of actively deceiving the health community and public by marketing the Rotocut G1 power morcellator as a safe and effective medical device.

In filing her complaint, Whitfield joins more than 20 other plaintiffs who accuse power morcellator manufacturers of producing and promoting medical devices that they allegedly knew were unreasonably dangerous to patients. As these women and widowed survivors add their voices to the morcellator litigation, many large health insurers have chosen to reduce or end their coverage of fibroid removal procedures that employ power morcellators. At least one manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson, has pulled its devices from the market completely. But while these measures may be enough to protect future patients, women who were already diagnosed with “upstaged” uterine cancer after morcellator procedures have chosen legal action in their search for justice.

The power morcellator attorneys at Tracey & Fox report that many women may be eligible to file their own claims. The firm’s lawyers are currently providing free consultations to any patient who believes that a morcellator procedure may have led to the spread or worsening of a previously undetected uterine cancer. For more information, and a case eligibility evaluation, call 713-495-2333.

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Contact Tracey & Fox:

Sean Tracey
888-427-0543
440 Louisiana Street , Suite 1901
Houston, TX 77002

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