Personal Injury Law Specialist in Phoenix, Arizona

Lipitor is one of the most common brand name medications on the market. According to several lawsuits filed in 2013, Pfizer, the manufacturer of Lipitor, knew or reasonably should have known in 1997 that there was a connection between Lipitor and diabetes before the drug was placed on the market; however, there was no warning placed on the label until 2012.

Phoenix Arizona accident injury attorney Stephen I. Leshner is handling claims for women, ages 45 to 65, who were prescribed brand name Lipitor (not a generic version), with a body mass index (BMI) of 32 or less, and were on Lipitor at least two months before first being diagnosed with diabetes.

If you are someone close to you is suffering from diabetes after being prescribed Lipitor, please contact Steve Leshner in Phoenix, Arizona for a free consultation.

Transvaginal mesh (TVM) cases are being litigated in a series of Multi-District Litigations (MDL) in the United States District Court, Southern District of West Virginia. An MDL consolidates all litigation, so that it can be efficiently litigated at the same time by all the parties in front of one Judge. For example, I filed a number of TVM cases in Arizona, which were transferred to the MDL in West Virginia. The Defendants in these cases are transvaginal mesh manufacturers C.R. Bard, Ethicon, Inc. (Johnson & Johnson), American Medical Systems, Inc., Coloplast Corporation and Boston Scientific Corporation. Over 1,000 cases to date have been consolidated in West Virginia.

The FDA has issued an updated safety notice warning doctors, health care providers and patients that the placement of surgical mesh through the vagina to treat pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence may present greater risk for the patient than other non-mesh procedures. Pelvic organ prolapse occurs when the muscles and ligaments supporting a woman’s pelvic organs weaken and a pelvic organ slips out of place, or prolapses. Prolapse can involve the bladder, uterus, vagina, or rectum.

If you are someone close to you is suffering from a defective TVM, please contact Steve Leshner in Phoenix, Arizona for a free consultation.

Stephen I. Leshner was recently selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America^© 2014 in the field of Plaintiffs’ Personal Injury Litigation (Copyright 2013 by Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, SC).

Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers^® has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Because Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey in which almost 50,000 leading attorneys cast nearly five million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their practice areas, and because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counselmagazine has called Best Lawyers”the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.”

Lipitor is the brand name of a popular prescription drug designed to treat high cholesterol.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Lipitor in 1996; it is prescribed in 10 mg to 80 mg tablets that are taken daily.

In early 2012, the FDA required Pfizer, the manufacturer of Lipitor, to update Lipitor’s label to include the increased risk of causing type 2 diabetes.A January, 2012 study found that women between the ages of 50 and 79 and who took Lipitor were 48 percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than women who did not.Medical studies investigating the link between Lipitor and type 2 diabetes were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, The Lancet, the Journal of American College of Cardiology and Atherosclerosis.

If you are currently taking Lipitor, you should discuss this information with your doctor, but never stop taking any medication until you have discussed the risks and benefits with your physician.

Individuals who were diagnosed with diabetes after taking Lipitor are filing lawsuits against Pfizer.If you or someone close to you has been diagnosed with diabetes after taking Lipitor, please call Phoenix, Arizona product liability attorney Stephen I. Leshner to discuss your options.Steve Leshner is currently investigating, and litigating claims that Lipitor is linked to an increased risk of diabetes.Please call Phoenix Arizona accident injury lawyer Steve Leshner today for a free case review and consultation.

Phoenix, Arizona personal injury and product liability attorney Stephen I. Leshner, along with Minneapolis attorneys Johnson Becker filed a lawsuit on July 18, 2011 in Arizona Federal District Court for a patient claiming damages for injuries caused by a failed Zimmer NexGen implant.

Zimmer NexGen CR-Flex Porous Femoral components and Zimmer NexGen LPS-Flex artificial knee replacements have had been associated with high incidences of significant pain and loosening of the replacement knee, leading to the failure of the knee replacement, revision knee surgery or other knee surgery complications. If you or someone close to you has had pain, loosening or a subsequent surgery caused by a defective Zimmer NexGen CR-Flex or LPS-Flex knee replacement component, please call Steve Leshner for a free review of your potential Zimmer knee replacement product liability claim.

A study published in the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Conference in March, 2010 documented the high failure rate of the high flex (CR Flex) total knee design, and studies as early as 2007 have discussed the high incidence of loosening of the NexGen LPS Flex knee replacement system.

If you or someone close to you has had a revision of a Zimmer NexGen CR Flex or LPS Flex knee replacement, or if you are currently experiencing pain or loosening of these knee replacement systems or components, please call Phoenix Arizona accident injury attorney Stephen I. Leshner for a free consultation and case review.

Stephen I. Leshner, P.C. and the content of this website is not affiliated with, endorsed by, associated with, or sponsored by Zimmer. Stephen I. Leshner, P.C.’s use of the trademarks, service marks, trade names, or design marks of NexGen or Zimmer are protected under the trademark doctrine of fair use, the Lanham Act, the anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, and the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy. This disclaimer is intended to provide visitors with notice of Stephen I. Leshner, P.C.’s good faith compliance with the nominative fair use doctrine under the trademark law of the United States.

Mothers prescribed the antidepressant prescription drug Zoloft early in their pregnancy (first trimester) are at risk for having babies with major birth defects, including:1.cardiac defects such as atrial or septal heart defects (holes in the heart), malformations, and obstructions;2.cleft lip;3.cleft palate;4.gastrointestinal malformations;5.genital malformations;6.omphalocele (an abdominal wall defect at the base of the umbilical cord which can result in the infant being born with a sac protruding through the defect that contains the small intestine, liver, and/or and large intestine);7.craniosyntosis (a defect that causes an abnormally shaped head);8.anal atresia (a defect that causes a malformed rectum); and9.spina bifida(adefect in which the backbone and spinal canal do not close before birth)

Mothers who took Zoloft in their third trimester are at risk delivering for babies who suffer from the potentially fatal condition of PPHN (primary pulmonary hypertension).

Both Zoloft and a generic version called Greenstone are manufactured by Pfizer.

If you or someone close to you has a child with birth defects after taking Zoloft or Greenstone during the first trimester of pregnancy, please call Phoenix Arizona accident injury attorney Steve Leshner for a free consultation.

Stephen I. Leshner, a Phoenix plaintiffs personal injury, accident and medical malpractice attorney has been named to the Arizona Super Lawyerslist as one of the top attorneys in Arizona for 2013. This is the sixth consecutive year Steve has been so honored. No more than 5 percent of the lawyers in Arizona are selected by Super Lawyers.

Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters business, is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The annual selections are made using a rigorous multi-phased process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, independent research evaluation of candidates, and peer reviews by practice areas.

The Super Lawyers lists are published nationwide in Super Lawyers magazines in leading city and regional magazines across the country. Super Lawyers magazines also feature editorial profiles of attorneys who embody excellence in the practice of law. For more information about Super Lawyers, go to superlawyers.com.

In March of this year, the New York Times published an article about the high early failure rate of DePuy’s ASR hip replacement. Since that article was published, many more reports of failures of ASR hip replacements have been received by both DePuy and the United States Food and Drug Administration. In its article, the New York Times quoted orthopedic experts critical of the design of the ASR hip replacement. Experts were also critical of DePuy’s failure to stop sales of the device sooner.

The evidence suggests thatthat the DePuy ASR hip replacement was defectively designed, and that DePuy knew that their ASR hip replacements were failing at a higher than expected rate, yet did not pass that information on to consumers or orthopaedic surgeons. As a result, a diagnosis that the ASR hip replacement implanted in patients failed were needlessly delayed astheir physicians were unaware of the prevelance of other failures. During patients’ surgeries to replacefailed hip replacements,orthopedic surgeons discovered that the cup portion of the ASR hip replacementwere extremely loose. The ASR hip replacementwas designed so that a patient’s bone grows into the back of the cup to secure it. However, loosening because of a lack of bone in-growth into the cup is the critical aspect of DePuy ASR hip replacement failures.

If you or someone you know suffered from a DePuy ASR hip replacement failure, please call Steve Leshner for a free case review and consultation. Several years ago, Steve Leshner successfully handled over 50 Sulzer Orthpaedic hip failure cases which were also caused by a manufacturing defect that prevented adequate lack of bone-ing growth, and the consequent loosening of the cup.

Malignant mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer that develops from the protective lining that covers many of the body’s internal organs, the mesothelium. Asbestos is the major cause of malignant mesothelioma and has been considered indisputably associated with the development of mesothelioma. The relationship between asbestos and mesothelioma is so strong that many consider mesothelioma a “signal” or “sentinel” tumor.Unlike lung cancer, there is no link between smoking and development of malignant mesothelioma.

Tragically, companies that produced asbestos-containing products during the 1940-1980sknew of the dangers of asbestos and chose not to inform those working with their products.Knowledge of the dangers of asbestos was evident even before asbestos was in widespread use. Internal documents found in corporate files reveal that not only did the companies have knowledge of the hazards of asbestos but also took extra steps to prevent publication or mention of asbestos related dangers. One such case is when Sumner Simpson, the president of Raybestos-Manhatten, wrote to Vandiver Brown, head of Johns-Manville’s legal department in 1935. He said, “I think the less said about asbestos the better off we are.” Brown replied, “I quite agree with you that our interests are best served by having asbestosis (an asbestos caused disease) receive the minimum of publicity.” In 1936, officials from asbestos manufacturing companies met in New York City to agree to secretly finance animal experiments at the Trudeau Foundation’s Saranac Laboratory in Saranac, NY.Their intent was to gather data that would support a defense to lawsuits that were beginning to be brought against the asbestos companies. Before the final publication, the Saranac report had made reference to the findings that animals exposed to asbestos developed cancer.In the final report, however, all mention of the cancer was erased.In addition, the revised report was silent in its criticism of the asbestos dust threshold limit value (TLV) and previously published studies that linked asbestos with cancer. Later in 1952, discussions from a Saranac symposium that included asbestosis and cancer caused by asbestos were never published.

This “sworn secrecy” in the asbestos industry is also shown elsewhere. In 1947, the Asbestos Textile Institute (ATI) sponsored a study of textile factories by the Industrial Hygiene Foundation. The study found that the workers had asbestosis, made recommendations about medical examinations, and recommended a re-evaluation of the industry’s threshold limit value for asbestos. However, these findings were never published outside of the ATI. In the 1950s, the Institute rejected funding for further cancer studies because “such an investigation would stir up a hornet’s nest and put the whole industry under suspicion.”

As more and more information about the dangers of asbestos became known to asbestos manufacturers, the industry feared that the dangers of asbestos would be publicized and would damage profits. Industry members opposed a health and safety booklet because “the booklet creates fear in the minds of buyers, users, and workers without justification. These fears would be damaging to the entire industry.” The asbestos companies knew that this was a problem that affected the entire asbestos industry and worked together to keep the dangers of asbestos from becoming well known to the public.

Because of the widespread use of asbestos, and the long period in which mesothelioma is latent, and undiagnosed, many people, in a variety of trades and industries, are now being diagnosed with mesothelioma, decades after they were first exposed.People who worked in powerhouses, residential and commercial construction, shipyards, steel mills, oil refineries, chemical plants and foundries from the 1940s thru the 1980s are at risk for developing mesothelioma, as are those who were employed during that time as carpenters, ironworkers, plumbers, pipefitters, laborers, machinists, boilermakers, insulators, mechanics, millwrights, plasterers, drywallers and painters, all because of the prevalence of asbestos in many industries and trades.Family members of those employed in these industries and trades are also at risk because of second hand exposure,

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, please call Steve Leshner for a free consultation.

A highly-popular statin used to help manage cholesterol levels is being hit with a warning label by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) due to the fact that it may damage muscles.

The drug simvastatin, which goes by the brand name Zocor in many cases, has been found to actually increase the risk of muscle damage in its users.

The FDA has stated that in two different trials, known as SEARCH and AtoZ, the drug shows that it increased the risk of skeletal muscle damage, known as myopathy.

It appears that the increased risk comes from the 80 milligram doses which are commonly taken daily by patients.

Doctors are being urged not to prescribe the 80-milligram dose of simvastatin to any new patients, as well as to watch for existing patients.

The 80-milligram dose should only continue for existing patients if they have been on the drug for over a year without any muscle issues.

If you are someone close to you has taken 80 mg. Simvastatin-Zocor, and suffered from rhabdomyolosis, myopathy, kidney failure or damage, liver failure or damage, or death, please call Phoenix Arizona Personal Injury Attorney Steve Leshner for a no-charge review and consultation regarding your potential case.