A Florida mother sued Fort Lauderdale Hospital and a psychiatrist who worked there, saying they overmedicated her teenage son with a cocktail of mental health drugs — some of which have not been approved for the treatment of children. The boy, Emilio Villamar, died of a sudden heart attack. He…
Asbestos is a naturally occurring fiber that, when released into the air, can be inhaled or swallowed. Asbestos fibers are so small that they are not visible to the naked eye. Once they are inhaled, asbestos fibers stay in the body and, over the course of decades, lead to the…
Nearly three of 10 teenage Florida foster children have been prescribed a mental-health drug, and 73 foster kids younger than 6 are taking mind-altering drugs, according to a recent study released in response to the death of a Broward foster child who was taking such medications. In all, 2,669 children…
Two class action lawsuits have been filed in the wake of the recall of Hydroxycut, a popular weight-loss supplement that has been linked to liver damage and other life-threatening side effects. The suits, filed in Canada and Tennessee, accuse Iovate Health Sciences, which manufactures Hydroxycut, of failing to warn of…
GlaxoSmithKline, maker of Avandia, faces more lawsuits alleging that patients suffered from serious Avandia side effects. Among the more severe side effects is the reported link between Avandia and heart attacks. Some critics say the risk of a heart problem is too high, while patients file lawsuits alleging they were…
Federal drug regulators warned consumers to stop using the popular Hydroxycut line of weight-loss products, citing reports of a death due to liver failure and other instances of serious health problems. In all, the Food and Drug Administration said it had received 23 reports of significant adverse health effects in…
After three days of deliberation, a McLean County jury awarded the family of a deceased Bloomington woman more than $2 million related to her exposure to asbestos. Juanita Rodarmel contracted mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos when she laundered the clothing of her first husband, Leslie Corry, a worker at…
A Maricopa County Superior Court jury has awarded $3.3 M to a Scottsdale woman who was sickened and permanently disabled by a mold infestation in her apartment building. Robin Minium was a project manager for American Express and worked out of her upscale apartment near Scottsdale and Bell roads. She…
Just two months after the U.S. Supreme Court decided patients can sue drugmakers over injuries from medicines approved by the government, long-stalled lawsuits against GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. are again moving toward trials. The March 4 decision in a case on Wyeth’s nausea treatment Phenergan broke a logjam…
The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for a suit by a New Jersey woman who claims to have suffered mercury poisoning from Chicken of the Sea canned tuna. The denial of certiorari sets the stage for a federal court trial in Newark, N.J., in a putative class action suit,…