- Client ReviewsGreg Monforton and Partners provides the latest news on the un-screened and potentially tainted tissue scandal at Hotel Dieu Grace Hospital and other hospitals throughout Canada and the United States.
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Monforton Launches Action in Human Tissue Case
Law Times April 3, 2006
A Windsor-based lawyer has filed a class action suit over modern-day body snatching that, he claims, has left hundreds of Canadians vulnerable to HIV, hepatitis, and venereal diseases.
Greg Monforton, of Greg Monforton and Partners LLP and president-elect of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association, announced the suit March 22. The class action asks for $210 million in damages against companies that sold illegally harvested and un-screened human tissue and bone used in transplant surgery.
Tissue Recipients Launch Lawsuit
Globe and Mail March 23, 2006
A Canadian retiree is “scared as hell” and is suing for damages after learning he may have received human tissue from alleged body-snatchers in the United States.
Mr. Renaud and the other nine Windsor-area patients are being represented by Greg Monforton.
Lawsuit Filed by Ontario Man Who Allegedly Got Stolen Human Tissue in Surgery
Canada.com March 22, 2006
A class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Canadian patients who allegedly received bone and tissue stolen from corpses.
At the core of the $210 million suit is a 68-year-old retiree in Windsor, Ontario. Clarence Renaud has been told by Health Canada and hospital officials that he got illegally harvested bone and tissue as part of a routine back surgery.
Renaud’s lawyer (Greg Monforton) says his client is “fearful” about what diseases could have been in the un-screened material.
Illegal Tissue Recipient Files Lawsuit
CNews March 23, 2006
A man who received illegally harvested bone and tissue during a routine back procedure three years ago has launched a class-action lawsuit against a U.S. company accused of stealing and selling body parts for transplants.
Clarence Renaud, 68, lead plaintiff in the $210-million class action, recently learned from Health Canada that he got un-screened material during an operation on his back at Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital in Windsor in April 2003.
He fears that the material could be infectious, said Renaud’s lawyer, Greg Monforton, who estimates the number of Canadian patients who received illegal tissue during surgical procedures could run into the thousands.
Greg Monforton Files Class Action on Behalf of Transplant Patients Who Allegedly Received Illegally Harvested Tissue and Bone
Greg Monforton and Partners March 22, 2006
Greg Monforton, President-Elect of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association today announced that his firm has filed a 210 million dollar class action lawsuit in connection with illegally harvested and un-screened human tissue and bone used in transplant surgery.
4 Accused of Trafficking in Stolen Body Parts
CNN February 24, 2006
The owner of a biomedical supply house and three others were charged with selling body parts for use in transplants in a scheme a district Lawyer called “something out of a cheap horror movie.”
Prosecutors said Thursday the defendants made millions of dollars obtaining bodies from funeral parlors in three states.
They allegedly forged death certificates and organ donor consent forms to make it look as if the bones, skin, tendons, heart valves and other tissue were legally removed.
Mom Frets Over Future
Windsor Star January 27, 2006
A windsor woman has retained legal advice after learning she received possibly contaminated bone fragments during back surgery in late 2004.
Maureen Arsenault, 37, said she wants compensation if she tests positive or any of several life-threatening infections linked to improperly screened bone originating in New Jersey. But she said she also wants to make sure nothing like that happens again.
Windsor lawyer Greg Monforton, representing Arsenault, said his investigation could take months, and the case may end up in U.S. courts. He said potential defendants include Biomedical Tissue Services, Health Canada, supplier firms, medical personnel and cited “possible responsibility on the part of Hotel-Dieu.”
Tainted Tissue Scare Hits 125
Windsor Star January 27, 2006
Health Canada confirmed Thursday that 125 people in the country were exposed to potentially contaminated bone and tissue products from a U.S. supplier, including 21 patients at Windsor’s Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital.
Risk of Infection Low in Tissue Transplant Scare, Hospital Says
CBC News January 26, 2006
Former patients of a hospital in Windsor, Ontario, will be tested for HIV and other infectious diseases because tissues they received in surgeries weren’t screened properly.
Windsor resident Maureen Arsenault said she was stunned when told she needs to be tested. “You start thinking about the scenarios and what could be, you know, it makes you fearful.”
Arsenault’s lawyer, Greg Monforton, said they’ll decide who to sue and for how much once her tests come back. Monforton said his firm has heard from at least one other patient in the border city.
Tissue Recall in the United States
Health Canada October 26, 2005
Health Canada is advising Canadians of a voluntary recall in the United States of tissue products used in implants and grafts that were imported into Canada. These tissues were recovered by Biomedical Tissue Services Limited in the United States from tissue donors who may not have met Health Canada donor eligibility requirements and who may not have been properly screened for certain infectious diseases. At this time, tissues that have been implicated include processed human bone, skin and tendons. The implicated products represent a small percentage of the tissue supply in Canada.