The controversial antibiotic medication Levaquin has caused many patients to suffer from serious side effects, including tendon ruptures and rotator cuff tears. These side effects have forced some patients to file lawsuits against the makers of Levaquin; so many, in fact, that there are currently over 3,600 plaintiffs currently awaiting trials.
Dating from November 2011, there were 1,678 Levaquin lawsuits filed as a part of an MDL in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. Another 1,975 cases were filed in the New Jersey Superior Court of Atlantic County as part of a mass tort. All of these lawsuits were filed after patients taking Levaquin started suffering from rotator cuff tears and tendon ruptures. While the chances of patients suffering from these side effects increases with people aged 65 and older, a patient as young as 26 recently filed a lawsuit after a rotator cuff tear was blamed on Levaquin.
The chances of patients suffering from adverse side effects also increase in patients using corticosteroids. All of the lawsuits filed against Levaquin manufacturers claim that these side effects were not properly made public. Levaquin is generally used as a treatment for patients with various bacterial infections, including sinusitis.
Even though there have been thousands of Levaquin lawsuits filed, not all of them have reached a courtroom yet. At least one case resulted in an award for the plaintiff. John Schedin was awarded almost $2 million after he claimed that the makers of Levaquin failed to properly warn him of tendon rupture side effects linked to the drugs. The jury agreed, and his award was upheld on appeal.
If you have taken Levaquin and suffered from a tendon rupture or rotator cuff tear, there is still time to file a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson and Ortho-McNeil, the makers of the drug.
