Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

August 7, 2009

Report: Texas Dental Board is Full of Errors According to Audit

A new report blasts the Texas agency that oversees dentists and hygienists, finding that its databases are replete with sloppy errors, that information reported to the public is flawed and that its new $118,000 enforcement system is “not fully functional or reliable.”

The Texas State Board of Dental Examiners plans to buy a new automated system for $644,000 to address some of the problems found in the audit released this week.

A skeptical-sounding report by the State Auditor’s Office noted that “Given the difficulties the agency has had in the past in designing, implementing, and maintaining automated systems, it will be imperative that the agency use a systematic process for installing, customizing, testing, and implementing the new system to ensure that the existing problems do not occur in the new system.”

August 6, 2009

Defective Drug: Yaz/Yasmin Side Effects Includes Pulmonary Embolism

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Yaz, is manufactured by Bayer Pharmaceuticals, and there are at least 32 federal court cases pending against Bayer regarding their contraceptive pill and the side effects.

There are serious side effects that include:

* Blood clots in the legs – Oral contraceptives have warned of the potential for blood clots for years, but it has been alleged that Yaz causes deep vein thrombosis (DVT), which can lead to a pulmonary embolism (PE).

* Pulmonary embolism (PE) – These are caused by the DVT leg blood clots breaking off and lodging in the lungs.

* Heart attack – These are probably caused by blood clots in the coronary arteries.

* Stroke – These are caused by the DVT leg blood clots breaking off and lodging in the brain.

* Liver damage – Liver damage has also been associated with Yaz.

August 6, 2009

Jury Awards $1.6 M in Pasco Florida School Bus Crash

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A Florida jury found the Pasco County school district negligent in a 2006 crash that severely injured a 16-year-old boy.

The jury awarded Marcus Button, now 19, and his parents, Robin and Mark Button, $1.625 M in damages, which his mother has said she will use to pay for his continuing medical care.

August 6, 2009

Parkinson Disease and Heart Disease linked to Agent Orange

by Dr. Shezad Malik

An expert panel reported that two more diseases may be linked to exposure to Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the American military during the Vietnam War.

People exposed to the chemical appear, at least tentatively, to be more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease and ischemic heart disease, according to the report. The report was written by a 14-member committee charged by the Institute of Medicine with determining whether certain medical conditions were caused by exposure to herbicides used to clear stretches of jungle.

The results, though not conclusive, are an important first step for veterans groups working to get the government to help pay for treatment of illnesses they believe have roots on the battlefield. Some other conditions linked to Agent Orange already qualify.

August 5, 2009

Yasmin / Yaz Defective Drug Lawsuit Consolidation

by Dr. Shezad Malik

It is common in defective drugs claims, when a large group of people file lawsuits against a drug maker to have similar allegations that an injury was caused by a side effect of a particular drug.

The plaintiffs are seeking to consolidate all Yasmin and Yaz birth control lawsuits in an MDL, or Multidistrict Litigation, where the individual cases would be assigned to one judge and handled in a manner similar to how a Yasmin / Yaz class action lawsuit would be managed during pretrial litigation.

The Yaz / Yasmin lawyers are reviewing potential lawsuits involving serious and life-threatening injuries caused by these popular birth control pills, and support the formation of an MDL, as it will benefit the women who have experienced Yasmin / Yaz problems.

The motion was filed in July with the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation asking that an MDL be formed for the Yasmin / Yaz litigation, and that all of the cases filed in different federal district courts throughout the United States be transferred to the Northern District of Ohio for coordinated handling.

August 5, 2009

Employer Must Pay $1.7 Million to Nurse Hurt in Hit-and-Run

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A district court jury in Hidalgo County has awarded $1,702,709 to a nurse who blamed her employer for the injuries she sustained in a hit-and-run collision.

On April 13, 2005, Andrea Davilla was driving on Chihuahua Road in Penitas on her way to a patient appointment when she was struck head-on by another vehicle, which fled from the scene.

Davilla fractured her pelvis and left leg, arm and ankle, and also needed hip replacement surgery. She hasn’t worked since the incident, and it’s unlikely she will ever be able to return to nursing.

Davilla sued her employer, Americare Nursing Services, and its owner, Martha Arango, alleging her work schedule was such that she had to drive a dangerous route frequented by drug and human traffickers to get to her appointments. She said Americare refused to change her schedule despite her requests.

August 5, 2009

$1.8 M Judgment in Wrong Diagnosis Medical Malpractice Claim

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A $1.8 million medical malpractice claim was paid last week following a jury’s verdict in late June that a doctor misdiagnosed a 25-year-old woman’s heart condition — causing her to need a heart transplant.

In a trial in Newport News Circuit Court, a jury awarded to Leslie Thorne a $4 million verdict against Dr. David Glick, who works for a group of emergency room doctors who once provided services at Mary Immaculate Hospital.

The judgment was later reduced to $1.8 million because of caps on medical damages in Virginia, said William E. Artz, Thorne’s Arlington attorney. An insurance firm paid the claim, he said.

Thorne initially sued three doctors — Glick, as well as William Hunter and Andrew B. Cole, both of Peninsula Emergency Physicians — claiming they were all negligent.

August 5, 2009

CBS News Investigation Finds 59 Deaths, Hundreds Of Injuries Linked To Yamaha’s Off-Road Vehicle

by Dr. Shezad Malik

In the swath of Kentucky called the Land Between The Lakes, the Turkey Bay Off-Highway Vehicle Area is a rugged expanse of hills and woodlands crisscrossed by 100 miles of trails. Test drivers came here in July, 2002, to try out the Yamaha Rhino, a new breed of off-road vehicle then in development, and had a mishap that would resonate years later.

Keisuke “Casey” Yoshida, president of a U.S. subsidiary of Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd., was behind the wheel of a Rhino prototype. Ike Miyachi, a company vice president in charge of Rhino development, rode beside him in the passenger seat. After descending a long hill to flat ground, the Rhino tipped over, giving Miyachi a foot injury.

At a meeting weeks later, Yoshida raised a question that now seems prophetic. “Casey wants update on instability of vehicle for future liability cases,” according to minutes obtained by CBS News.

August 5, 2009

Defective Drugs: Neurontin Lawsuits and Suicide

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Pfizer Inc.’s Warner-Lambert unit created a list of 13 ailments that its epilepsy medicine Neurontin could treat as part of its promotion of the drug for unapproved uses, a former employee testified.

“I was trained from day one” to market the drug illegally, David Franklin testified. Franklin, who worked as a medical liaison at the Parke-Davis division of Warner-Lambert, said he encouraged doctors to prescribe Neurontin for uses beyond those approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“My job was to promote Neurontin and motivate doctors to experiment” on patients, he said today in federal court in Boston. After being hired as a medical liaison, “I was selling drugs,” he said. The uses promoted were from the “snake-oil list” of 13 medical conditions, said Franklin, a microbiologist.

August 4, 2009

FDA: Arthritis Drugs Linked to Cancer Risk in children

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Federal regulators on Tuesday added stronger warnings to a group of best-selling drugs used to treat arthritis and other inflammatory diseases, saying they can increase the risk of cancer in children and adolescents.

After more than a year of review, Food and Drug Administration scientists said the drugs appear to increase the risk of cancer after they are used beyond 2 1/2 years. The agency studied several dozen reports of cancer in children taking the drugs, some of which were fatal. Half of the cases were lymphomas, a cancer that attacks the immune system.

The drugs are known as tumor necrosis factor blockers and work by neutralizing a protein that, when overproduced, causes inflammation and damage to bones, cartilage and other tissue. The drugs are prescribed to children with rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disorder and Crohn’s disease.