The case never went to trial. They decide to take on a case involving Vicky Rogers, a local ER nurse, who was pricked by a contaminated needle on the job and contracted AIDS. Puncture is a 99-minute drama based on the true story of a drug-addict lawyer who believed in a case when nobody else did. Indeed, the film showcases how the needles provided to nurses and other healthcare professionals are not just less than optimal; they are downright unsafe. Mike digs deeper into the case, and discovers no one is willing to buy the needle because of a healthcare/pharmaceutical conspiracy and bribery racket. Mike Weiss, the junkie attorney played by Chris Evans ( Captain America ), is introduced to Vicky Rogers (Vinessa Shaw), a nurse who gets … Mike, Paul, and Dancort gain the support of Senator O'Reilly, not before she gives Mike an ultimatum: get clean. "Puncture tells a suspenseful story responsibly, creating food for thought and leaving the audience both enlightened and entertained." [4] "As a result, thousands of hospitals throughout the United States now use safety needles. RTI’s stellar law firm would have turned down the case. Shaw’s efforts to get his safety needle into to hospitals met with heavy resistance, even though Congress had passed the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act in 2000 requiring the safest needles available to be used in the U.S. After years of stonewalling by the group purchasing organizations that buy needles in bulk for hospitals, RTI alleges and charges that BD broke civil and criminal laws as it led efforts that kept RTI’s offerings from entering the marketplace. The director dedicated the film to the real life attorney Michael David Weiss who died in 1999 of a drug overdose at age 32. Tell them to stop the group purchasing kickbacks. Mike meets a former employee of Thompson Needle Manufacturers and a friend of Vicky's, who implores him to continue the case on behalf of the lives affected by used needles, which spread AIDS and Hepatitis worldwide. "Puncture tells a suspenseful story responsibly, creating food for thought and leaving the audience both enlightened and entertained." Nurses & other health care professionals still get infected and die as a result of preventable accidental needle-stick injuries. of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulates industrial tools—a category that includes medical needles. “I don’t want you to show this product to my nurses…’cause they’ll want it, and they can’t have it.”—Hospital Administrator in Puncture. [12], Roger Ebert rated it 3/4 stars and wrote that Evans' performance upstages the issues raised in the film. Dozens get HIV each year, and many thousands have contracted hepatitis and a score of other life-threatening diseases through the use of these tools. The reason, Weiss and Danziger discovered, was a corrupt arrangement between monolithic hospital purchasing cartels and a big needle maker, in which the industry giant was able to pay millions in kickbacks to the cartels to make sure its unsafe products — and only its products— were used in hospitals. The film is based on the true story of Michael David "Mike" Weiss and Paul Danziger. Hollywood’s portrayal of the corporate underworld—where the thirst for profits all too often outweighs the welfare of the innocent—has finally broached medicine’s dirty little secret: the design of medical needles presents a very real hazard to your health. In the early 1990's, the inventor had developed the syringe to prevent healthcare workers from accidentally getting stuck with contaminated needles, which can transmit HIV/AIDs, hepatitis and other potentially fatal diseases. The background of the lawsuit(s) centers around a small mechanism RTI built into the vacuum based needle or injection syringe that retracts after injection or blood collection, so the needle cannot cause a needlestick accident resulting in contamination. Mike Weiss, a young Houston lawyer and drug addict, and Paul Danziger, his longtime friend and straitlaced law partner, are the personal injury lawyers behind the law firm Danziger & Weiss. The prime focus of the movie “Puncture” is underlining issues, and a show of a relation of corruption with healthcare. The poor design of the butterfly-style blood drawing device creates situations where the sharp must be released in order to insert the sample tube, which could result in a needlestick to the heathcare worker. A movie like this is a reminder that box-office success can be unfair and limiting to gifted young actors. BD led the pack using its highly lucrative BD Vacutainer® System as a sharp battering ram bringing the company to expand a wide arena of medical care products. Why We Think It's Important. My story began in, of all places, shul. As a result the Act was unanimously passed by both Houses and signed into law by President Clinton. This is not the official site for the puncture movie, rather an unofficial site about the movie, the real people behind the characters, the legal case that is the subject of the movie and the important underlying issues that the movie touches on.The website is divided into the following. GPOs, still driven by supplier kickbacks, continue to control the purchasing of medical supplies in the U. S., endangering the health and safety of patients, and nurses and the financial health of our nation. Vicky shows Mike and Paul a safety needle, invented by her family friend, Jeffrey Dancort, which defends against accidental needlesticks by only being used once, and RTI sued BD several years ago, and the giant settled on the eve of trial for $150 million cash. This manufacturer's video shows the sharp being released several times during a butterfly device draw. "[6] IMDb lists 93 credited and uncredited actors in this film. The website is divided into the following. Chris Evans acting was brilliant and the film was also engaging. According to the film Puncture, which is based on a true story, Big Med is led by a few giant corporations that control the lucrative manufacture and marketing of needles in America and around the world, and the leaders of these powerful monopolies will stop at nothing to keep the profits rolling in regardless of who is harmed in the process. Court trials waged by healthcare workers hurt by BD needles generally do not make it to trial. His personal struggles impede on his professional ambitions, as he misses many of the meetings and investment events, driving a wedge between him and Paul. "[14] Ronnie Scheib of Variety wrote, "Though conceptually intriguing, the mix of downward drug spiral with uphill struggle for good never really coalesces. There are safer needles being used through most of the world, but due to a combination of poor OSHA oversight, GPO kickbacks and a "profits over people" attitute, they are NOT being made available to nurses in the United States, and a huge number of healthcare workers and patients are paying the price. The tragic story portrayed in Puncture provides insight into the nefarious relationship between giant medical manufacturing firms and those who run OSHA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other agencies whose job it is to protect the American people. While some progress was made when the Needle Safety and Prevention Act was signed, it didn't resolve the underlying problems. – San Francisco Chronicle, If you'd like to help us end the corruption and kickbacks depicted in PUNCTURE, Contact Congress NOW. However, the next day, Paul finds Mike dead from an overdose. This is not the official site for the puncture movie, rather an unofficial site about the movie, the real people behind the characters, the legal case that is the subject of the movie and the important underlying issues that the movie touches on. Filming began on February 10, 2010 in Texas. The momentum of the case seems to come to a standstill: Senator O'Reilly pulls out after United Medical Health Supplies lobbies for her re-election campaign and Paul, with a new baby at home, is not interested in pursuing the case over his family. Find Your Senators, 20 million Hepatitis C infections in Africa and India. "[13], Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "The film is chock-a-block with extraordinary performances and no one will fault the filmmaking either. Mike's heavy withdrawal leaves him hospitalized, only adding to the financial burdens of the firm. Blood collection requires an experienced hand because sterile procedures must be maintained while the blood draw is completed and in a timely manner to avoid coagulation when the blood comes in contact with air. "[15] Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times wrote, "Notable at least in part for its fumbled potential, this health-care-industry melodrama possesses all the right ingredients: an idealistic young lawyer, a corrupt corporate villain and a sympathetic victim. My story (the story behind the story that is) began in, of all places, shul. The Dept. In 1998, the San Francisco Chronicle first reported on the problem of unsafe needles in an award-winning journalistic investigative series, “Epidemic Ravages Caregivers”. Factually, hospitals and GPO’s are aware of the technological issues, but together with the manufactures they continue to insure the dangerous devices are in use in America today. This spurned Congress to become concerned that powerful medical device companies were providing defective products, so Senator Ted Kennedy sponsored legislation called the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act 2000. The total domestic gross was $68,945. The film follows Evans as he investigates the death of the nurse and the system that contributed to her accident. This was to be the new miracle product that, he hoped, would eliminate the millions of potentially-deadly needle-stick injuries that occur every year from needle reuse throughout the world. [7], After the film premiered at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, Millennium Films acquired the distribution rights. "[16], "Syringe Manufacturer Settles Claim of Market Manipulation", "Millennium Lands U.S. Rights for 'Puncture, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Puncture_(film)&oldid=969194168, Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Erinn Allison as Kim Danziger - Paul's pregnant wife, This page was last edited on 23 July 2020, at 22:58. Puncture was co-written by Paul Danziger, a partner in the deceased lawyer’s law firm. Puncture stars Chris Evans of Captain America fame as an attorney representing a nurse named Vicky (played by Vinessa Shaw) who died from HIV contracted through a needlestick accident. The movie's postscript tells the audience that in 2004, Attorney Lanier settled a lawsuit against one of the nation's largest medical supply manufacturer for over $150 million. The Horrific Truths Behind the Film "Puncture", Pt. Future installments on this subject will explore dangers in the vacuum tube-based needles system that is used on virtually all routine blood collection procedure; the impact on those who use these devices; and, the OSHA regulations that allow the least safe devices to continue to be used. Out of their league and out of money, the mounting pressure of the case pushes the two underdog lawyers and their business to the breaking point.[3]. It is estimated 1-3 million accidents occur annually in the U.S. alone. Advances in healthcare prompted even more demand for blood tests, and those covered by healthcare insurance grew at an unprecedented rate, and huge profits have been made. Indeed, with absolutely no “Hollywood” experience, I just executive produced a movie called Puncture starring Chris Evans (Captain America) which will be in select theatres shortly.
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