Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
County Blamed in Death of Woman on E.R. Floor - Friday, December 5, 2008
A woman who died last May while writhing in pain on the floor of L.A.'s Martin Luther King-Harbor Hospital could have been saved if given proper treatment, according to a Los Angeles County report. The report detailing 43-year-old Edith Rodriquez's death was first reported by the Los Angeles Times when it was accidentally made public for a short period of time in a court filing.
Prepared by an outside firm hired to look into the county's liability, it stated that Rodriguez may have been saved had treatment been given to her early on. Rodriguez died due to a perforated bowel after she had been arrested on an outstanding warrant. The firm's report goes on to state, "This is a case of medical negligence as to the medical treatment provided by medical staff at the facility."
This entire story was made very public in the late spring when it was revealed that security cameras at the hospital showed a janitor mopping around Rodriquez as she lay on the floor in pain. Her death helped to bring about the closure of the hospital's emergency room and inpatient care, due to a complete lack of a minimum standard of care.
Rodriguez's boyfriend had accompanied her to the hospital and called 911 from a payphone, but no one would help them. He was offered $250,000 in a settlement from the county.
Rodriguez's children are asking for $45 million from the county. This is one million for each minute Rodriguez was denied treatment.
Accutane Maker to Pay Millions to Three Made Ill by Drug - Thursday, December 4, 2008
Three Florida residents were awarded $12.9 million by a New Jersey jury due to developing inflammatory bowel disease after taking the acne medication Accutane nearly a decade ago. The three patients, now in their mid- to late-20s, developed the disease shortly after they began taking the drug.
The eight-person jury found that Hoffman La Roche, the pharmaceutical maker of Accutane, failed to provide adequate warning that development of IBD was a possibility. This is the latest plaintiff victory over Roche and Accutane. These wins have come in several states and have shown Accutane to be the cause of severe bowel problems, even after the plaintiffs had stopped taking the medication.
The three plaintiffs in this case all developed various illnesses, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, either while taking Accutane, or shortly after they stopped. One of the three will undergo surgery soon to remove his colon. The other two will require medication to manage their illnesses. And all three now have an increased risk of developing colon cancer.
The illnesses of these three, and many other Accutane patients, could have been avoided since Roche first advised physicians about a link between the drug and IBD in 1984. However, Roche did little over the years of evidence that Accutane was in fact the cause of these illnesses to strengthen warnings to doctors and patients. The jury saw studies Roche never published that showed the by-products of Accutane damaged the gastrointestinal tract and played a part in eroding and degenerating the intestinal lining. These things are triggers for IBD. These studies also showed that literally hundreds of IBD sufferers were connected by Accutane use. The studies found that symptoms of IBD appeared with the use of the drug, began to subside when the patient stopped taking the drug, and then flared up again if the patient began taking Accutane again.
There are still nearly 600 Accutane cases around the country that Roche must deal with. However, they have not taken any steps to change the warning on their label.
If you or a loved one has developed IBD as a result of taking Accutane, please contact Personal Injury.com to find an experienced pharmaceutical injury attorney in your area.
Black Friday Stampede Victim's Family Sues Wal-Mart - Wednesday, December 3, 2008
The family of Jdimytai Damour, the 34-year-old temporary worker trampled at a New York Wal-Mart last Friday, has filed a wrongful death suit against the retailer and the shopping center where the incident occurred. Besides Wal-Mart and Green Acres Mall, Vornado Realty Trust and Securitas Security Services USA is named in the suit. Damour's three sisters and brother are also contemplating action against the police and county of Nassau.
The suit alleges Damour's death is the result of "the carelessness, recklessness negligence, wanton disregard for public safety and gross negligence of the defendants...in the staging, conducting and advertising for sales events."
The six-foot-five 270-pound Damour was asphyxiated as he tried to shield a pregnant shopper from a crowd of bargain hunting shoppers on what is known as Black Friday. Nassau police are scouring surveillance video to see if they can identify individual shoppers who were part of the early morning chaos. It may be difficult to decide who is exactly responsible since those at the front of the line could have been shoved forward by those behind them.
According to the family's lawyer, the retailer should have been prepared for the crowds since it offered products at such extreme discounts. He says, "I don't think that it takes anyone with special training to understand that this is going to happen." He goes on to cite the example of when the iPhone went on sale and how hundreds of retailers were prepared for it. Those retailers distributed cards and had people stand in a single file line. Wal-Mart, he says, did none of these things.
Wal-Mart Inc. issued a statement calling this a "tragic incident." It claimed it had tried to prepare by adding barricades, staffers and security workers, as well as consulting with the police.
If you have been injured or lost a loved one due to the negligence of a retailer or other business, please contact an experienced premises liability attorney or wrongful death attorney near you, or find one through Personal Injury.com.
Food Safety Campaign Detailed by FDA - Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Outbreaks of food-borne illnesses and imports that have been contaminated in some way, shape or form, have had the Food and Drug Administration on the defense for the last several years. As a result, the FDA has outlined a new plan to keep the public safe from these unsafe products with a complete overhaul of the plan currently in place. This plan has been called ambitious by the agency's officials. However, the changes outlined in the new plan, released yesterday, were first outlined in an FDA report in November 2007. In June 2008, the FDA was criticized by the Government Accountability Office for not providing enough specifics or costs on this new plan. The FDA has acknowledged that funding may be a problem.
However, the agency has said that some of the plan will entail hiring 130 more employees to collect samples and conduct inspections, has approved irradiation of iceberg lettuce and spinach to reduce the risks from E. coli and salmonella, and is opening offices in other countries to improve its monitoring of food imported to the US. One office opened in Beijing in November and others are planned for India, Latin America, the Middle East, and Europe. To help implement the new plan, the FDA is moving toward a "more risk-based approach" to sift through data to find those risks and "deploy resources accordingly." The new offices will attempt to work closely with their counterparts in foreign countries.
The FDA oversees nearly 80 percent of the country's food supply, including looking into thousands of manufacturers in the US and abroad, as well as regulates medical devices and drugs. The FDA recently came under fire for saying this fall that any amount of the chemical melamine in infant formula was unacceptable because of the harm it might cause, and then revising that statement to allowing trace amounts are acceptable.
Indiana Boy Electrocuted on Thanksgiving - Monday, December 1, 2008
A five-year-old boy crawled into an electrical transformer sitting between two apartment complexes and was electrocuted on Thanksgiving in Mishawaka, Indiana. Police say it's obvious that the boy touched something that was charged, but it isn't clear on how he got inside the transformer.
Family members and residents of the apartment complex also wonder how the boy crawled into the transformer since it is supposed to be locked. Firefighters say the box was unlocked and police are still investigating.
Power went out at the apartment complexes around 5:10 for a short period of time. It was then shut off to the entire grid as police investigated the incident.
Because of the nature of electricity, injuries can run the gamut. There are those who may be only slightly shocked and walk away with a slight tingle in the place they came in contact with the electricity, or the victim can be killed. Injuries may be physical and cause burns, they may be neurological in nature, or cause the heart to fibrillate. It is estimated that around 500 people a year are killed in electric shock accidents.
If you or a loved one has been injured in an electrical accident, please contact Personal Injury.com to find an experienced electrical shock injury attorney in your area.
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