Wrongful Death

July 2, 2008

Defective Drugs: Digitek Lawsuits

Two months after a Digitek recall was issued due to manufacturing problems that allowed double strength tablets to be commercially released, at least three lawsuits have been filed. A number of additional cases are expected to be filed in the coming weeks, as hundreds of potential cases are currently being investigated throughout the country by individuals who are trying to determine if they may be entitled to compensation through a Digitek lawsuit.

Many people have described problems that surfaced during the months around the recall, but some have reported problems consistent with a Digitek overdose as early as 2006. Since the manufacturer has released very little information about the extent of the Digitek problems, all cases are being reviewed to determine if injuries could have caused by the manufacturing problems.

May 30, 2008

Texas A&M officials can be sued in Bonfire case

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The 10th Court of Appeals in Waco affirmed a district court ruling that allows for the case to go to trial in Brazos County court.

The Court ruled that Texas A&M administrators, acting in the course and scope of their jobs, can be sued individually for the events leading up to the 1999 collapse of the 59-foot-tall bonfire stack that killed 12 people and injured 27 others.

April 18, 2008

Dallas VA Closes Psychiatric Wing After Suicides

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The Dallas VA Medical Center has effectively closed its psychiatric wing after a fourth mentally ill patient this year committed suicide.

On April 4, a man fastened a bed sheet to the bottom corner of a door frame, draped a noose over the top, and hanged himself. Before that, a veteran hanged himself on a frame attached to his wheelchair. And in January, two men who met in the psychiatric ward committed suicide in Collin County days after being released.

April 15, 2008

Nightmare Conditions in Dallas VA Medical Center’s Psych Ward

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The voices in Jack Edenburn’s head began soon after he returned from Vietnam. They told him to end it all.

He ignored them for almost 40 years, until the day he stood at the railroad tracks near his Lancaster home, fantasizing about stepping in front of a train. That’s the day he went to Dallas VA Medical Center. And some days, he says, he regrets that decision.

“Imagine hell,” he said of his five days in the psychiatric unit, “then think worse.”

Patients soiled with feces and soaked in urine wandered aimlessly, screaming, rolling delirious on the floor. One woman, he said, removed ceiling tiles and crawled into the space above the day room.

February 18, 2008

Dallas VA Hospital Blamed for the Suicides of Two Veterans

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Pat Ahrens knew something was wrong. The night before, he had dropped his friend Chris Demopoulos off at a Plano motel, promising to return in the morning, but Ahrens wasn’t sure he had done the right thing.

The two had met at the Dallas veterans’ hospital and had bonded over their wartime experiences, the depression that followed and the troubling thoughts of suicide they could not seem to shake. Ahrens was discharged on January 22; Demopoulos checked out the next day, he then gave Demopoulos money for dinner and put him up for the night in a La Quinta Inn at 1820 N. Central Expressway in Plano.

August 11, 2007

Defective Drugs: Fentanyl Lawsuits

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The Duragesic and generic fentanyl pain patches have been linked to hundreds of cases of overdose and death. Poor design, manufacturing defects, inadequate warnings and poor quality controls could result in excessive amounts of fentanyl entering the body.

Lawsuits have been filed throughout the United States for users who have died or entered a permanent coma from a fentanyl overdose.

Johnson & Johnson was the main manufacturer as well as a variety of generic fentanyl patch manufacturers.