Patients understandably trust their physicians to recommend treatment plans
which will ultimately work to improve their medical conditions as opposed
to negatively impact them. Unfortunately, some dangerous treatments remain
on the market even after patients and physicians alike have reported that
these treatments can be far more hazardous than beneficial.
For example, a number of women is currently attempting to persuade the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration to take a permanent birth control method
called Essure off the market. The women have used social media to educate
the public about potential hazards associated with this medical device
and they were ultimately allowed to voice their concerns directly to the FDA.
This device can allegedly cause women devastating complications. In addition,
concerns remain that problems with the testing phase of this device’s
approval process should have rendered it unsafe to market.
The story of the Essure device is not unique. Many prescription medications,
medical devices, tests and treatments ultimately harm numerous patients
before the safety hazards associated with them are properly evaluated.
As a result, it is up to patients to remain as informed as possible about
the various treatments that are recommended to them. It is also up to
physicians to remain educated in order to better ensure that they are
not recommending defective or unreasonably dangerous drugs, devices and
treatments for their patients.
If physicians either know or strongly suspect that a given treatment may
unreasonably harm a patient and recommends this course of treatment anyway
without educating the patient about the risks involved, the patient may
choose to sue that physician if harm results from the recommended treatment.
Source: WJLA, “Women share concerns about permanent birth control device with FDA,” Joce Sterman, April 2, 2015
