Personal Injury

October 1, 2009

Texas Cases to Test Time Limits on Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Surgical sponges left inside two Texas women — but undiscovered for years — will test state laws that place fairly strict time limits on suing doctors and hospitals for malpractice.

One woman’s lawsuit was thrown out because the sponge, so grown over with fibrous tissue that it could not immediately be identified, wasn’t found for nine years, long after the two-year statute of limitations had expired.

The second woman’s lawsuit survived, however, despite an 11-year gap between her hysterectomy and the sponge’s discovery during exploratory surgery in 2006.

Both cases are before the Texas Supreme Court, which will decide whether their legal challenges should continue.

September 30, 2009

Report Cites Lack of Precautions in 2008 Sugar Plant Fire

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A huge fire last year at a sugar refinery near Savannah, Ga., that killed 14 workers and injured 36 more was “entirely preventable,” a federal official said Thursday as the results of an investigation into the fire’s causes were released.

The owner of the plant, the Imperial Sugar Company, and the plant’s managers knew for decades about the hazards of sugar dust but failed to take the necessary precautions, according to the report, issued by the Chemical Safety Board, which investigates industrial chemical accidents.

September 30, 2009

Jury Decides Wyeth’s Prempro Caused Woman’s Cancer

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Wyeth’s hormone-replacement therapy drug Prempro caused an Illinois woman’s invasive breast cancer and she deserves $3.7 million, a jury decided in Philadelphia, without yet deciding whether the company was at fault and should pay her.

Jurors deliberated about two hours and 15 minutes before concluding that Wyeth’s drug was a proximate cause of Connie Barton’s breast cancer. Barton, 64, was diagnosed with cancer in 2002, five years after she began taking Prempro to treat menopausal symptoms.

September 29, 2009

Court Approves $24 M Wrongful Death Settlement Involving Chrysler Pickup

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The bankruptcy court judge overseeing certain Chrysler assets has approved a $24 million settlement in the death of a California longshoreman run over by a Dodge pickup.

The settlement comes more than two years after a Los Angeles Superior Court jury awarded damages of more than $55 million to the family of Richard Mraz. The family argued the automaker had failed to fix and adequately warn consumers about a transmission defect that made it appear trucks were in park position, when they actually were between gears.

September 28, 2009

Yaz Yasmin Users Can Develop Serious Gallbladder Disease

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Women taking Yaz as a form of birth control or to treat other conditions have suffered devastating gallbladder disease, in addition to increased risks of heart attacks, stroke, and blood clots.

In some cases, Yaz users have been forced to undergo painful surgeries to remove their gallbladder due to the formation of gallstones and other complications.

September 28, 2009

Birth Control Pill YAZ Is Subject Of Ongoing Safety Study

by Dr. Shezad Malik

YAZ (3 mg drospirenone/20 mcg ethinyl estradiol) is an oral contraceptive (OC) which is the first pill to combine 20 mcg of ethinyl estradiol (EE) with the so-called “fourth generation” progestin drospirenone (DRSP). YAZ was approved by the FDA in March 2006.

A study called the International Active Surveillance Study of Women Taking Oral Contraceptives (INAS-OC), which was started in August 2005 and continues to date, is intended to evaluate the risk of those cardiovascular side effects for women who use DRSP/EE birth control pills like YAZ.

The study was funded with an unrestricted grant from Bayer Schering Pharma AG. Dr. Dinger has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

September 28, 2009

Dutch Study Reports Yaz DSRP Ingredient Increases Blood Clot Risk

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A new study has found that the type of progestin used in the Yaz birth control pill is associated with more blood clots than other forms of the hormone. The study is published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

Lawsuits have been filed around the U.S. by women who say they suffered serious side effects from Yaz.. The women involved in these lawsuits claim they experienced serious blood clots, including deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, as well as strokes. Yaz has also allegedly been associated with heart attacks and deaths in young women

September 28, 2009

Prozac and Antidepressants in Pregnancy Increases Heart Defect Risk

by Dr. Shezad Malik

If you take antidepressants such as fluoxetine (marketed as Prozac) early in your pregnancy, you may be doubling the risk that your newborn will be born with a heart defect, according to a new study.

However, the vast majority of children born to women who take such antidepressants – known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) – do not have such defects, the researchers are quick to note.

September 28, 2009

FDA Seeks Outside Review of Medical Device Approvals

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The Institute of Medicine will study a U.S. Food and Drug administration program that gives fast-track approval to certain medical devices.

Consumer watchdog groups, lawmakers and others have criticized the FDA for using the accelerated approval process for more products than Congress originally intended, leading to problems with devices after they are sold.

Expedited reviews of devices shown to be similar to existing products allow companies to get products to market more quickly and with less expense.

The study of the program by the institute, part of the National Academies, was required by a 2007 law, but the FDA said on Wednesday that the results would not come until March of 2011.

September 27, 2009

California Jury Awards $49 M to Car Accident Victim

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A Santa Clara County jury this week awarded a former college student more than $49 million in damages, finding that two truckers and state transportation officials were to blame for a 2007 accident on Highway 152 that left him permanently brain damaged.

In one of the county’s largest personal injury verdicts in years, the jury sided with plaintiff Drew Bianchi, a 23-year-old Bakersfield man whose attorney presented evidence during a five-week trial that reckless driving by truckers on the perilous Pacheco Pass cost him a chance to go to medical school and left him needing round-the-clock medical care for the rest of his life.

Before the trial, the California Department of Transportation also agreed to pay Bianchi $10 million to settle claims against the state that were based on allegations that steps were not taken for years to correct safety issues on Highway 152.

One trucking company settled with Bianchi for $2 million, bringing total damages in the case to more than $60 million.