Human Tissue Litigaiton Update
Posted by
Jack LandskronerJanuary 17, 2007 1:15 AMThere are many individuals who have received transplanted human cadaver tissue during surgical procedures that should remain informed as to the status of the Human Tissue Litigation being prosecuted in a multi-district litigation forum centralized in the Federal District Court in Newark, NJ. My clients and others regularly contact my office to get an update on the status of these lawsuits.
At present, the court has permitted the defendants, Regeneration Technologies, Inc. (RTI), Medtronic, Spinal Graft Technologies, Inc. and other defendants to file a motion requesting that the court determine as a matter of law, based on RTI's representations about its product, that no one could acquire disease from the improperly harvested and screened human tissue processed and sold by these defendants if the tissue was treated by RTI's cleansing process.
The Plaintiffs believe that such a motion is without merit as there are many individuals who have received human tissue in allograft implant procedures and have since developed Hepatitis B and C as well as other dangerous and potentially deadly infectious disease processes. These are individuals with no prior risk factors which would expose them to these infectious diseases. Medical experts and even medical literature suggest that claims made about the safety of RTI's process are not accurate and that disease most certainly can be transmitted by implant when tissue is not properly screened even if treated by defendants so called sterilization process. For example, Prion Mediated Diseases are neurologic conditions which can be transmitted via surgical instruments and on human tissue, despite sterilization.
The court will evaluate the merits of the defendants arguments in light of plaintiffs opposition to the motion and make its determination. According to the court's order, after making its determination, the case will move forward regardless in order to assess whether RTI followed its own protocols in processing the tissue.