A jury awarded a Pennsylvania family $5 million in a defective stomach stapler lawsuit after the death of their loved one who underwent gastric bypass surgery and allegedly died as a result of a defective stomach stapler.

According to the jury’s May 2007 finding, the deceased plaintiff died as a direct result of the Ethicon stapler, which allegedly failed to properly close the surgical area, which then allowed her stomach contents to spill into her intestinal cavity, as alleged by the stomach stapler lawsuit.

Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc., a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, argued that the woman’s death was not a result of a failure or design defect with the Ethicon stapler, but rather the surgeon’s error. The company maintains that the surgeon chose a staple that was improperly sized for the operation.

However, the jury disagreed with Ethicon’s argument, pointing out that the surgeons do not have a way to accurately determine stomach tissue thickness to guide their decision when choosing a staple cartridge size. Therefore, the jury found that the patient’s wrongful death fell on a stomach stapler design defect, making Ethicon liable.

According to Alan Perer, the family’s attorney for this defective stomach stapler lawsuit, Ethicon has not been transparent about the stomach stapler product defect and refuses to take responsibility for the injuries incurred.

“The public should know about the risks that come with operations that involve these devices. The problem is that the staple failure may not happen immediately,” he explained.

“If there is a delayed leakage, as there was in this case, the patient faces a serious risk of death. Anyone who has this procedure should be aware of the risks associated with stapler failure,” he added.

This Pennsylvania woman is not the only individual to allegedly die from a defective Ethicon stomach stapler. Many victims’ families have filed Ethicon defective stomach stapler lawsuits or have joined a stomach stapler wrongful death class action lawsuit.

Ethicon Echelon Gastric Bypass Stomach Stapler

The Ethicon Echelon 60mm Black Reload is a gastric bypass medical product, which has allegedly been the cause of many wrongful deaths due to stomach stapler complications.

The Echelon 60mm and the Echelon Flex manufactured by Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc., were recalled in May 2013 due to the high volume of adverse incident reports filed by consumers and surgeons. Based on these adverse events reports submitted to the FDA, the Echelon stomach stapler devices are allegedly prone to breaking or misfiring with the potential to seriously harm a complicate a gastric bypass surgery.

If a stomach staple does not fully close or fails to fully puncture the stomach tissue, stomach fluid and blood will leak from the surgical site and into the abdominal cavity, which will create further complications.

Stomach Stapler Complications

There are several gastric bypass complications that could occur should a stomach stapler misfire or if the staples do not fully close the sutures. These stomach staple side effects include:

• Sepsis
• Infection
• Dehiscence (separation of areas that are stitched or stapled together)
• Anastomotic leakage (leakage from tubular structures, such as blood vessels and intestines)
• Hemorrhage
• Leaks from staple lines
• Reoperation
• Death

Because of the thousands of reported wrongful death cases caused by stomach staplers, many families of stomach stapler victims have filed a stomach stapler lawsuit or joined a stomach stapler class action lawsuit.