The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the company that manufactures Tylenol, Motrin, and several other popular over-the-counter medications, has agreed to plead guilty to one federal criminal charge in the case the government filed against the company for selling medications contaminated by pieces of metal. The company, which is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, has also agreed to pay a $25 million fine.

According to the DOJ, in 2009, complaints were made by consumers who found “black specks” floating in bottles of liquid Infants’ Tylenol they had purchased. Testing revealed those particles to be nickel, iron and chromium. The contaminated products had all been manufactured at a plant in Pennsylvania.

An investigation by the company found that those particles had been introduced into the medication at some point during manufacturing. However, not only did the company not take the necessary steps to fix the issue at the plant, they continued to sell the contaminated products for another year before finally issuing a recall in 2010. To compound the problem of contaminated medication, when announcing the recall, McNeil also announced that the products may have contained more of an active drug ingredient than what was put on the packaging labels.

The company claims that no child was injured from the tainted products. One family did file a lawsuit against the company after their 4-year-old son died; however, the lawsuit was dismissed by a court because the boy’s death had occurred after the recall.

In addition to the contaminated medication, the company has come under federal scrutiny several times over the past few years for other dangerous faulty manufacturing issues. These issues included incorrect direction labeling on medications as well as products which had moldy odors. These problems have resulted in millions of bottles of medicines having to be recalled.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a dangerous or defective product, contact an experienced Westport personal injury attorney to find out what your legal options may be against the product’s manufacturer. Attorney Richard H. Raphael has extensive experience representing clients in product liability cases. Call 203-226-6168 for a free consultation.

Tonsillectomies are one of most common children’s surgeries. The procedure is often combined with the removal of the adenoids. A common cause for the surgery is sleep apnea or chronic infections of the tonsils.

Every year there are approximately 530,000 tonsillectomies performed in the U.S. on children who are under the age of 15-years-old. Compared to the number of procedures performed three decades ago, when the average annual number of procedures hit 1.5 million, this number has dropped substantially.

Today, other methods are now employed, and tonsil removal is done as a last resort. In fact, 80 percent of tonsillectomies are for treatment of sleep apnea in children.

However, a new study reveals that the standard medical aftercare these children receive may be dangerous, and under certain cases, fatal. Ninety-one children, between one and 10-years-old, participated in the study.

The study was conducted by researchers from McMaster University who worked with a group of children who suffered from sleep apnea and were having tonsillectomies performed as a way to cure the condition. Sleep apnea occurs when there is an obstruction blocking a person’s airway. This can happen for a number of reasons, including swollen tonsils and/or adenoids.

The research team divided the children into two groups. The first group was given the standard painkiller combination that most doctors prescribed to children upon discharge after this surgery—oral morphine and acetaminophen medication taken every four hours. The second group was given oral ibuprofen every six hours and acetaminophen every four hours. Doses for medication in both groups were based on each child’s weight.

In measuring children’s pain, the team discovered that pain control was the same in both groups. The ibuprofen was just as effective as the morphine in controlling children’s pain. Yet, the oxygen levels in each group were significantly different.

On the first night after the surgery, 68 percent of the children in the second group had improvement in their oxygen levels compared to only 14 percent in the first group. However, what was most concerning to the study team was the number of “oxygen desaturation events” which occurred. These events happen when there is a drop in the oxygen concentration of the blood. The first group had over a dozen more of these events every hour than the second group did. This alarmed the research team so much that they immediately halted the study.

In a press release, one of the study’s authors, Dr. Gideon Koren, said, “The evidence here clearly suggests children with obstructive sleep apnea should not be given morphine for postoperative pain.”

If you or someone in your family has become injured or ill from incorrect or improperly prescribed medication, please contact an experienced Westport medical malpractice attorney to find out what legal recourse you may have against the physician and/or medical facility.