In the wake of a Tucson man's death in February of last year, his widow received a recall notice from Edgepark Medical Supplies of Ohio stating that the product her husband had been using was subject to a recall that had occurred two months earlier. No explanation was provided for the delayed notification.

That product was an alleged defective lubricating jelly that the widow says her husband used for self-catheterizations until the day he died. In a wrongful death lawsuit filed earlier this month in Pima County, the widow contends that the defective product was the direct cause of her husband's death.

The jelly is a product of the Triad Group medical device maker and its parent company, H& P Industries. It is manufactured by and supplied from the Ohio plant. All three parties are named as defendants in the suit.

Triad is no stranger to wrongful death suits. The instant litigation is the fourth wrongful death case filed against the company, and federal regulators cite reports of at least 11 deaths that have resulted from use off Triad's products.

The Arizona man began using the Triad jelly in May 2010 and suffered through multiple urinary tract infections following its use. His widow's lawsuit claims that the jelly was advertised as sterile, but was in fact ineffective for both cleaning and lubricating prior to catheterizations.

Triad rejects that claim, citing an absence of any nexus between its products and users' illnesses or deaths.

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "New suit blames Triad in death" Rick Barrett, Jan. 18, 2012