The birth control method of “transcervical sterilization,” marketed as Essure, may be causing serious, painful and dangerous side effects in the women who use it, according to some health officials. Essure, which has been on the market since 2002, is an internal form of birth control. The device is a pair of small lengths of coil…
In the midst of thousands of lawsuits over allegedly defective hip implants, Johnson and Johnson is facing another recall announced by the FDA. This recall is for their LPS Diaphyseal Sleeve. Designed to supposedly give the patient more comfort, this product is used during knee replacement surgery in conjunction with the actual replacement joint. Unfortunately,…
What happened: When buying toys for children, most people pay extra special attention to the age recommendations, carefully picking a toy that won’t present a choking hazard for small children, or have sharp edges or broken pieces and any of the other dangers that could harm a small child. But many people don’t realize that…
After declaring prescription painkiller addiction a public health crisis in late 2016, the Virginia Board of Medicine and Gov. Terry McAuliffe in February 2017 issued new strict regulations for prescribing and dispensing opioid medications. Opioids, which are chemically similar to the opium that gets processed into heroin, come in numerous branded and generic forms. Some…
The amount of legal fentanyl prescribed in Virginia rose only 10 percent from 2007 to 2014. But the annual death toll in Virginia — thanks in large part to the illegally produced version of the drug — nearly tripled in that time frame, from 48 to 134. And last year, fentanyl was linked to an…