Imagine being involved in a low-impact car crash and having your air bag, a device designed to protect your safety, explode causing shrapnel to spray throughout your vehicle. This is the type of situation that many drivers have faced over the last several months due to defective air bags manufactured by Japanese automotive supplier Takata.

What began as a regional recall, focused specifically in high-humidity states, has now become a nationwide safety concern affecting approximately 7.8 million vehicles from 10 different automakers, according to Consumer Reports.

The catastrophic events linked to Takata air bags have included explosive shrapnel as a result of air bags inflating too quickly after collisions such as rear-end car accidents. Over 100 personal injuries and at least five fatalities have been reported thus far, which has prompted the recall expansion. Honda was the first to take its recall nationwide as demanded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, but in recent weeks, Ford, Mazda, Chrysler, and BMW have also followed suit, as reported by The New York Times.

Takata’s president has stepped down as the company continues involvement in this worldwide safety issue linked to its air bags installed in vehicles from 2002 through 2008. There are still lingering questions about the cause of more recent air bag injuries and which cars specifically are at inherent risk.

Car manufacturers are responsible in alerting consumers of any defectiveness regarding their products in a timely manner. If they are negligent in doing so, injuries can occur for which they hold accountability. Takata air bags have been directly linked to tragic events putting millions of people in danger. A woman in South Carolina has been the most recent victim reporting chest injuries sustained as a result of excessive force of the Takata air bag installed in her 2001 Honda.

If you or someone you know have been seriously injured as a result of a defective car part in Connecticut, contact a qualified Westport personal injury today. You may be eligible for compensation, which could help pay for any medical expenses acquired as a result of your injuries. Call our office for a free case evaluation.

Imagine taking your toddler for a walk in a baby stroller. You open the stroller, securely fasten the safety belt, and then off the two of you go. However, your child suddenly begins screaming and you realize that your child’s finger has been caught in the stroller’s hinge and his or her fingertip has been chopped off. According to a recall notice issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), this is what happened to at least 11 different children.

Six children suffered full amputation of fingertips, four children suffered partial amputation of fingertips, and one child suffered a serious laceration. The product’s defect is in the hinge, which may not lock fully into place when opening up the stroller. Not only can a child’s fingers become caught in the open hinge, but the stroller may also begin to close with the baby still in it.

The recall involves 11 different models of strollers manufactured by Graco and Century. Moreover, the recall itself involves almost 5 million units sold in the United States, 202,000 sold in Canada, and 10,300 units sold in Mexico.

The strollers were manufactured between 2000 and 2014. All are single-occupant style and include the following models: Aspen, Breeze, Capri, Cirrus, Glider, Kite, LiteRider, Sierra, Solara, Sterling and TravelMate. Graco, however, is offering a hinge repair kit.

This is the second major recall that Graco has had to issue for baby products in less than a year. In February, the company was forced to recall over 4 million car seats after receiving numerous complaints of the safety buckles becoming locked up, and parents unable to remove their babies from the seats. Many parents were forced to actually cut the harnesses in order to get their child out of the seat, thus creating a very dangerous situation in the event of an accident in which a vehicle fire occurred.

If your child suffered a fingertip amputation caused by a Graco Stroller, contact an experienced Westport personal injury attorney to discuss your case and any legal recourse to which you may be entitled.

Knee replacements have long been one of the most common surgical implants. They are also one of the most common procedures in which patients experience subsequent problems because the device used was defective or not up to safety standards (though approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)).

According to a consumer report from SafePatientProject.org, 4.4 million Americans have knee implants, the vast majority of which were prescribed for osteoarthritis of the knee. Regardless of how many such procedures are undergone every year in the U.S., replacement surgeries continue to be a serious factor in the medical industry. Reported by the SafePatientProject, “an estimated 536,000 adults currently living with knee implants have undergone revision procedures to replace their implants.”

It is not as if the implants that needed to be replaced were manufactured by smaller or lesser-known companies. Biomet, DePuy, Smith & Nephew, Stryker, Wright, and Zimmer have all recalled knee implants that were used in patient surgery and that had previously been approved by the FDA. As of September 2103, DePuy had the most recalls, and Zimmer was a close second.

This July, however, Zimmer manufacturing “initiated another sweeping recall on one of its artificial knee implants,” according to DrugWatch.com. Noted by DrugWatch, the NexGen MIS Tibial Component is being recalled because of the tendency of the pieces to loosen or fail. There is no other explanation being offered other than shoddy manufacturing.

No matter the reason, more than 40,000 of these devices have been recalled, affecting thousands of patients nationwide. If a patient does not have the device removed, he or she may face side effects that include (but are not limited to):

• Bone loss;
• Early revision surgery;
• Infection; and
• Dislocation.

In the event of bone loss, infection, or dislocation, some patients could actually end up worse off than they were before the initial implant surgery.

If you or someone you know has had a Zimmer knee implant surgery performed in Connecticut, do not go through it alone. Contact Richard H. Raphael, Attorney at Law, an experienced Connecticut medical malpractice attorney, for a free initial consultation today.