The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced the largest fine in its history of $87 million in penalties against the oil giant BP for failing to correct safety problems identified after a 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers at its Texas City, Tex. refinery. The fine is more than four…
After 12 hours of deliberation, a jury sided with the parents of baseball pitcher Brandon Patch in a civil suit over the player’s death during a 2003 game in Helena. Aluminum bat maker Hillerich & Bradsby Co. failed to provide adequate warning as to the dangers of the bat used…
Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Eli Lilly & Co. said safety warnings were strengthened for their diabetes drug Byetta relating to the risks of pancreatitis and the medicine’s use by patients with severe kidney disease. Patients with “severe kidney problems” shouldn’t take Byetta and the treatment should be “used with caution”…
A drug designed to fight anemia appears to double the risk of stroke in patients with diabetes and kidney disease without substantially improving their quality of life, a new study finds. Darbepoetin alfa, marketed as Aranesp and known as an erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA), is often prescribed for diabetic patients with…
The widow of a LA firefighter who was killed last year while on duty has sued the fire department and the city for allegedly causing his death by refusing to replace outdated equipment. Ralph Arabie, a 30-year veteran of the David Crockett Steam Fire Company No. 1, was killed in…
The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said that it had reached a $520 million agreement to settle two federal investigations and two whistle-blower lawsuits over the sale and marketing of its blockbuster psychiatric drug Seroquel. One of the investigations related to “selected physicians who participated in clinical trials involving Seroquel,” AstraZeneca disclosed…
More than 200 patients exposed to high levels of radiation at Cedars-Sinai hospital filed suit, and attorneys say more plaintiffs could be added as word of the lawsuit spreads. The president of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center – where patients were recently exposed to eight times the recommended radiation after undergoing brain…
The 3rd District Court of Appeal reversed a $24.2 million verdict Wednesday, striking a Miami-Dade jury award to a Weston, Fla., surgeon who claimed asbestos exposure caused his terminal cancer. In a unanimous unsigned opinion, the three-judge panel remanded the products liability lawsuit by Dr. Stephen Guilder against Honeywell International…
Trial is set to begin in Michigan in a lawsuit that claims a company is liable for three deaths caused by a company employee who was driving drunk. Thomas Wellinger, who had been sent from his office at UGS Corp. to seek medical attention, drove his vehicle at 70 mph…
Three federal agencies — the Food and Drug Administration, the Defense Department and the National Eye Institute — announced last week that they are launching a three-year effort to gauge how many, and which, patients suffer troubling symptoms after undergoing the vision correction procedure called Lasik. At the same time,…