Roche notified the U.S. Food and Drug Administration today that it was withdrawing Accutane after a “reevaluation” of its product lines showed it faced serious challenges from generic competitors, company officials said in a statement.
“In addition, Roche has been faced with high costs from personal-injury lawsuits that the company continues to defend vigorously,” according to the statement.
About 13 million people have taken Accutane since it went on the market in 1982. The medication was Roche’s second-biggest selling drug before the patent expired in 2002 and rivals started selling generic versions. Roche’s prescription market share of the drug is now below 5 percent, the company said.
]]> The company faces as many as 5,000 personal-injury claims over Accutane, said Michael Hook, a Pensacola, Florida-based attorney. He won a $10.5 million verdict against the drugmaker over the medicine in April 2008. He noted that Roche has lost six cases that have gone to trial over the drug.“We’ve been winning the cases with the drug still on the market, but this move certainly isn’t going to hurt us going forward,” Hook said.
Some Accutane users allege the drugmaker failed to properly warn them the medicine could cause inflammatory bowel disease. The drug also has been linked to birth defects and depression.
Lawyers for John Mullarkey, a 20-year-old Monroeville, Pennsylvania, man facing murder charges over the death of his 16-year-old cheerleader girlfriend, said he was suffering from an Accutane-fueled depression when the killing occurred, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper.
The drug also has been pulled off the market in 11 other countries including France, Denmark, Austria, Germany, Portugal, Norway and Spain.
In November, a state-court jury in New Jersey found company officials didn’t properly warn doctors about Accutane’s health risks and awarded three men a total of $12.9 million in damages.
If you or a family member has been injured because of the fault of someone else; by negligence, personal injury, slip and fall, car accident, medical malpractice, trucking accident, drunk driving, bad product, toxic injury etc then please contact the Fort Worth Texas Product Liability Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.
U.S. District Judge Ron Clark said Lufkin Industries Inc. must pay the workers $3.1 million as well as 5 percent interest to compensate them for acts of discrimination dating to 1994.
A bench trial in 2005 found that the company unlawfully made initial assignment and promotion decisions that discriminated against black workers.
"Lufkin Industries has been profiting for years from its policy of unlawful discrimination," wrote Clark, who succeeded Cobb on the bench in the Eastern District of Texas. "At the same time, as Judge Cobb found, Lufkin's CEO was indulged with a corporate jet and pilot and in 2002 a paycheck three times that of the president of the United States."
]]> The publicly traded company sells and services oil field pumping units, foundry castings and power transmission products. In April, it announced that its profit had declined 43 percent in the first quarter and that it would eliminate about 10 percent of its work force. At the end of 2008, it had about 3,000 employees.The class action suit, which lists 13 named plaintiffs, was filed in 1997. Clark's order, followed a directive from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals asking that the district court craft a more specific remedial order.
Tim Garrigan, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the amount of pay due the workers should, with interest, come to about $5 million. But because it only addresses the pay differentials in certain documented cases, "the problem is really much bigger," he said.
Cobb's final judgment in 2005 noted that the company's managers and supervisors gave whites preferential treatment and that "the pattern of African American shortfalls in promotions is consistent across the years."
If you or a family member has been subjected to wrongful termination or employment discrimination, then please contact the Fort Worth Texas Racial Discrimination Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.
Alonzo McGlone worked as a greeter at the Kmart store in Norfolk in September 2004, according to the commission, which filed its lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Norfolk. It charged that Kmart discriminated against McGlone and violated the federal Americans with Disabilities Act by refusing to let him use a cane and denying him work because of his disability, a debilitating back impairment known as spinal stenosis.
]]> The suit seeks an unspecified amount for McGlone in back pay, compensation for Kmart's "unlawful employment practices" and punitive damages. It also asks the court to stop Kmart from continuing discrimination and to order the company to develop policies that provide equal opportunities for employees with disabilities.The EEOC said McGlone had no trouble working as a greeter. He "could perform the essential functions of the greeter position with or without a reasonable accommodation," the suit said. "Despite his qualifications, Mr. McGlone was terminated."
More than 30 days before the lawsuit was filed, McGlone filed a discrimination complaint with the commission under the Disabilities Act, according to the suit. The EEOC said it tried to reach a voluntary settlement with Kmart before filing the suit.
In its statement, the EEOC said the number of disability discrimination complaint filings nationwide reached 19,453 in the 2008 fiscal year - a 10 percent increase from the prior year and the highest number in 14 years.
If you or a family member has been subjected to wrongful termination or employment discrimination, then please contact the Fort Worth Texas Wrongful Termination Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.
Ten of those suits, filed by an Atlanta attorney on behalf of Home Depot customers who were hospitalized after using Tile Perfect Stand 'N Seal Spray-On Grout Cleaner, are among approximately 50 suits that have settled, according to a Home Depot attorney. The settlements are confidential, said Frank A. Ilardi of Houck, Ilardi & Regas, who shared lead counsel duties with Texas attorney William J. Maiberger Jr. until Ilardi negotiated the settlements.
]]> Ilardi was the only Georgia attorney in the multidistrict litigation, which was consolidated in U.S. District Court in Atlanta after his client, Gwinnett County resident James Flynn, was among the first to file suit in 2007 against Home Depot and five companies tied to the manufacture and distribution of Stand 'N Seal. The product was produced exclusively for Home Depot, according to court filings in the case.The manufacturer of the grout sealer had been fielding complaints for more than a month about the potentially devastating health problems associated with its use when Flynn bought a spray can from his neighborhood Home Depot in July 2005.
Two people died and dozens were hospitalized after breathing vapors from the aerosol chemical spray, according to plaintiffs' court pleadings in the case. As a result of those injuries, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall of 300,000 cans of the product.
Flynn was hospitalized and left with permanent lung damage after inhaling Stand N' Seal's fumes, which, according to the plaintiffs, contained Flexipel, a chemical that should not have been produced in aerosol form, according to a material data safety sheet included in the court files that was made available by its supplier.
The plaintiffs originally had accused Home Depot and one of its co-defendants -- distributor Roanoke Cos. Group, doing business as Tile Perfect -- of delaying notification to the product safety commission of the growing health complaints associated with Stand 'N Seal's use, in violation of federal product safety regulations, and then withholding critical information that delayed a mandatory recall.
Home Depot attorney John P. MacNaughton of Morris, Manning & Martin said that more than 100 suits remain active, although attorneys representing all parties remain engaged in settlement negotiations.
Nearly 50 suits have resulted in monetary settlements, MacNaughton said. But, he explained, those settlements have not always included all of the named defendants.
Shortly after Flynn sued in 2007, MacNaughton said that in late 2005, Tile Perfect notified Home Depot that it was voluntarily recalling "certain batches" of Stand 'N Seal. Tile Perfect employees subsequently removed those problem batches from Home Depot stores, MacNaughton said, and replaced them with another Stand 'N Seal product, assuring Home Depot it was safe.
As a result, Home Depot continued to sell Stand 'N Seal until March 2007 when, according to MacNaughton, the company learned there were more batches of Stand 'N Seal that were "problematical." At that point, he said, Home Depot removed Stand 'N Seal from all its stores.
In a June 9 summary judgment order, Thrash ruled that the Stand 'N Seal plaintiffs may not seek damages for alleged violations of the federal Consumer Product Safety Act or commission rules governing product safety standards.
"[T]there is no express private right of action for violations of the Consumer Product Safety Act," Thrash determined. The language of the law "does not provide for that right of action. And the express provision of civil and criminal penalties suggests that Congress intended to preclude other types of remedies."
In his order, Thrash distinguished between the letter of the law and product safety commission rules that were formulated later.
Plaintiffs attorneys argued, and Thrash noted, that Congress allowed any person who sustained injury as a result of "any knowing (including willful) violation of a consumer product safety rule or any other rule or order issued by the commission" to sue for damages.
But despite that language in the authorizing legislation, Thrash still determined that the plaintiffs had no legal standing to sue over alleged violations of product safety rules.
Such rules are "interpretive; they merely interpret the reporting requirements of the Consumer Product Safety Act ... and whether there is a private cause of action for violations of interpretive rules issued by the commission is a difficult question that courts have disagreed about," Thrash wrote. "The majority of courts have held that there is no private cause of action for violations of these interpretive rules."
Thrash rested his ruling largely on a 1986 opinion by the 8th Circuit in a product liability case in which the court concluded, "We believe that neither the structure of the Act, its relationship to well-settled principles of administrative law, its legislative history, nor its practical consequences, demonstrates that Congress intended a private cause of action to arise based on an injury resulting from noncompliance with the product hazard reporting rules issued by the Commission."
Based primarily on that ruling, Thrash concluded that the Stand 'N Seal defendants were entitled to summary judgment in their favor regarding all consumer product safety claims. The case will go forward on general negligence claims, Ilardi said.
The case is In re Stand 'N Seal Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 1:07-md-1804.
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Instead, he is penniless - and in need of medical treatment he can't afford.
On Dec. 23, 2004, Anderson was driving home when a tire caught on a six-inch lip on the roadside and he lost control of his car. The car crashed into a guardrail, which impaled the vehicle, severing Anderson's left leg and nearly severing his left arm. He was 18.
He sued Camden County, and last year a jury awarded him $31 million, finding that the county-maintained road was dangerous because of the drop in elevation between the road and shoulder, and because of the guardrail's design.
"I'm in pain every day," Anderson said.
]]> As Anderson struggles with health and financial problems, lawyers continue to maneuver in state and federal courts.Just days after the verdict, the county's insurance carrier sued the county. State National Insurance Co. says it should not have to pay because the county's attorney did not properly prepare for trial or adequately update State National, according to the federal lawsuit.
One of the county's attorneys, William M. Tambussi, said that the county's trial attorney handled the case properly and that State National decided to speak up only after the jury returned such a large verdict. The county has cross-sued State National.
Superior Court Judge John Fratto adjusted the verdict to $19.3 million this year.
Anderson's attorney, John M. Dodig, pointed out that while State National and the county try to avoid payment, they are running costs higher with interest compounded daily.
"The insurance company is wrongfully and in bad faith refusing to live up to its obligation to pay the verdict," Dodig said. "And I fully expect that they will be found to have acted in bad faith."
The accident happened just before midnight, after Anderson had given his best friend a ride home.
Anderson was about a mile from his home when an oncoming car crossed the center line and he swerved. The tires on his 2004 Subaru Impreza got caught on the asphalt's edge. The car went into a skid and crashed into the metal guardrail.
The road has since been fixed and a new guardrail installed. At the time, there was a shorter guardrail that could not absorb the impact. Instead, the sharp end of the rail sliced through Anderson's vehicle.
"I remember yelling for help. I reached down and felt that my leg wasn't there. I felt blood and dirt," he said. He remembers paramedics, and waking up in the hospital, where he saw his best friend.
"It wasn't until I woke up at the hospital that I realized the gravity of the situation," said Anderson, who enjoyed skiing and other sports. "I just started to cry, and then my friend started to cry, because life was never going to be the same."
Recovery has included 34 surgeries and intensive physical therapy. His left leg was fitted with a prosthetic device. He had nine fractures in his right leg, which remains in pain.
Anderson, now 23, regained minimal use of his left arm. He has an artificial elbow, and the arm remains prone to infection and might have to be amputated, he said.
Many of Anderson's expenses were covered through an insurance policy held by his grandparents, who helped raise him. Eventually, changes in insurance ended coverage for specialists he once saw at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland. Therapy to build strength in his arm and legs also ended.
"At this point, my grandparents are running out of money," he said.
Anderson said he tried to return to his job at an office-supply store, but could not tolerate the pain. He tried taking online classes with Camden County College, with hope of becoming a medical business administrator, but had to withdraw from three of four because of his surgeries.
"Essentially," he said, "I'm broke."
His lawyer, he said, had told him the suit would take time, including appeals. But Dodig, of Feldman, Shepherd, Wohlgelernter, Tanner, Weinstock, & Dodig in Philadelphia, said he has been surprised by the insurance company's response.
State National provides excessive-liability insurance for Camden County. The county is responsible for $300,000 before the insurance plan must pay.
According to State National's lawsuit, Camden County failed to promptly notify it about Anderson's lawsuit and did not provide adequate updates until after the deadline for defense expert reports, after discovery was complete and a trial had been scheduled.
"As State National began to receive information about the case, it was clear that serious errors plagued Camden's defense of the case," the suit says.
Camden County also did not provide enough information for the insurance company to assess a settlement offer, the suit says. The lawsuit quotes a county attorney who it says advised the insurance firm, "Frankly, any jury will most likely see this case for what it is - a young man who was either speeding or simply lost control of the car on a turn and was severely injured."
The trial of Anderson's lawsuit began Oct. 8, 2008. Four days later, the county's attorney advised that "evaluation of this case has changed substantially," according to the lawsuit.
"The jury returned an unprecedented verdict of $31 million against Camden," the suit said. "If county counsel and/or Camden had properly investigated the Anderson claim and adequately defended the Anderson lawsuit, all parties' potential liability exposure could have been minimized."
Tambussi said the insurance company was simply trying to get out of paying the verdict. The insurance company had lawyers involved before trial and who monitored the trial. At no time did the company ask for a postponement or offer settlement, he said.
If you or a family member has been injured because of the fault of someone else; by negligence, personal injury, slip and fall, car accident, medical malpractice, trucking accident, drunk driving, bad product, toxic injury etc then please contact the Fort Worth Texas Car Accident Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.
]]>Victor Washington, who is African-American and worked for Starbucks from September 2006 until May 2008, alleges in the July 2008 lawsuit that a white co-worker made racist comments to him such as repeatedly telling him to "fetch" the co-worker's umbrella and tie his shoes for him. In the lawsuit, Washington says he complained to his supervisor and to Starbucks' human resources department, and that they took no action, although the supervisor increased his workload and gave him undesirable assignments.
]]> The company wrote Washington a check for $120,000, which it says in a court filing was "compensation for emotional distress and attorneys' fees."Starbucks said that, "Our thorough investigation proved Mr. Washington's allegations to be completely unsubstantiated and without merit. We strongly believe we would have prevailed had this case gone further. However, we made a fiscally sound business decision to avoid further costs of litigation. Our hope is that this issue will be resolved soon so we, and Mr. Washington, can move on."
It is unusual for terms of a legal settlement between an employer and a former employee to be publicly available, because both sides typically agree not to discuss terms of settlement and ask that the court seal any documents with settlement details.
In 2006, Starbucks made a five-year, $2.5 million commitment of cash and donations to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
If you or a family member has been subjected to wrongful termination or employment discrimination, then please contact the Fort Worth Texas Wrongful Termination Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.
Derry Brown Jr. of Pahokee was hauling a load of sugar in an 18-wheeler when a driver ran a stop sign, cutting him off on May 31, 2007. Brown, 64, swerved out of the way, and his truck overturned on State Road 80, just east of Lion Country Safari in Palm Beach County.
The accident cost Brown the use of his arms and legs and left him with mounting medical bills. If Brown had not swerved, the other driver would have died, Brown's attorney, Robert Kelley, told the court.
]]> According to Kelley, Brown's insurer, National Casualty Co., denied coverage. So Brown sued for uninsured-motorist benefits.Jurors decided the amount of the award.
Kelley said Brown is undergoing rehabilitation at the Florida Institute for Neurological Rehabilitation in Wachula. Because of his condition, Kelley said, Brown had to be airlifted to the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, along with a medical team, in order to testify at the trial.
If you or a family member has been injured because of the fault of someone else; by negligence, personal injury, slip and fall, car accident, medical malpractice, trucking accident, drunk driving, bad product, toxic injury etc then please contact the Fort Worth Texas Trucking Accident Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.
But as he stuffed branches from a Chinese elm tree into a wood chipper, his right hand became entangled in the branches and Jimenez found himself being jerked toward the steel knives.
The machine, which devours a 20-inch branch in a second, consumed nearly his entire body.
His wife and four children filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging that the manufacturer of the machine, Michigan-based Morbark, knew for years that its safety features were insufficient and had done nothing to prevent injuries and deaths like Jimenez's.
]]> The family's attorney, Edward Steinbrecher, said Morbark -- one of the largest manufacturers of wood chippers -- has taken the position in previous lawsuits that the operators have been at fault for any injuries.The Morbark wood chipper has pull cords inside its chute designed to stop the machine in case of an emergency, but Steinbrecher says the cords are inadequate because they cannot be accessed by someone being pulled down the chute.
According to a 2005 report by the American Medical Assn., wood chippers were responsible for 31 deaths and 2,042 injuries from 1992 to 2002.
A motorist spotted Jimenez being pulled into the machine and honked his horn to alert the partner, but Jimenez disappeared into the machine before he or the driver could do anything.
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health conducted an investigation into Jimenez's death and issued three citations against Inglewood in October, including a serious violation for failing to develop a written emergency procedure to stop the machine. The city was ordered to pay a fine of more than $22,000, but has appealed the citation.
His 19-year-old son, Rafael Jimenez Jr., said his father arrived in the U.S. as a 17-year-old and worked his way up from a groundskeeper picking up trash to a senior tree trimmer supervising crews on the job.
If you or a family member has been injured because of the fault of someone else; by negligence, personal injury, slip and fall, car accident, medical malpractice, trucking accident, drunk driving, bad product, toxic injury etc then please contact the Fort Worth Texas Product Liability Personal Injury Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.
Chapter 162, Supervision of Medical School Students, with amendments to §162.1 Supervision of Medical Students, which clarifies the intent of the amendment previously adopted, which became effective on March 9, 2009. The Board determined that the revised language was necessary based on questions received regarding interpretation.
Chapter 165, Medical Records, with amendments to §165.3, Patient Access to Diagnostic Imaging Studies in Physician’s Office, which expands the rule to include non-static diagnostic imaging studies and imaging studies that are maintained in electronic format. The Board determined that the rule change was necessary to clarify the definition of diagnostic imaging studies for the purpose of releasing such records to requestors for medical records.
Chapter 173, Physician Profiles, with amendments to §173.1, Profile Contents, which requires that the profile of each licensed physician shall contain the physician's full name as the physician is licensed. The Board determined that the change was necessary to allow the Board to appropriately track all physicians licensed by the Board rather than allowing physicians to identify themselves under multiple names when submitting documents to the Board.
]]> Chapter 190, Disciplinary Guidelines, with amendments to §190.8, Violation Guidelines, which adds an exception to the requirement in paragraph (1)(L) that a physician may only prescribe drugs to a person with whom a proper professional relationship has been established, for the prescription of drugs for a partner of a patient who may have a sexually transmitted disease. The Board has determined that the amendment to the rule addresses a serious public health issue and is intended to allow physicians to treat persons with sexually transmitted diseases as early as possible or prevent such persons from contracting sexually transmitted diseases from their partners.If you have been subjected to a TMB Inquiry Letter or TMB Disciplinary Process, then please contact the Fort Worth Texas Medical License Defense Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.
]]>Among those suing Scottsdale-based Matrixx Initiatives Inc. include one dozen Phoenix-area residents as well as the chef of an upscale Las Vegas-area restaurant who no longer can smell or taste food.
Matrixx officials said they had not seen the lawsuit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, but a spokesman said the company believes that its nasal products are safe and do not cause loss of smell.
]]> Company officials are bracing for additional lawsuits after the Food and Drug Administration last week issued a warning letter linking Zicam nasal gel and swabs to loss of smell. The company responded by voluntarily recalling its Zicam Cold Remedy nasal gels and swabs from retailers nationwide. The company has more than a dozen oral Zicam products that were not targeted by the FDA and remain in stores nationwide.William Hemelt, Matrixx's acting president and chief operating officer, last week said the FDA's warning letter and following publicity "undoubtedly" leaves the company vulnerable to additional lawsuits.
Legal battles are nothing new for Matrixx. The company has already faced more than 400 lawsuits over the past decade from people who claimed that Zicam's Cold Remedy gel has caused anosmia, or loss of smell. In 2006, the company settled a batch of lawsuits with 340 plaintiffs for $12 million to avoid the legal cost of defending each individual lawsuit.
Among the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Monday include Richard Kennedy, 62, of Glendale. The retired Arizona Supreme Court research analyst said he used the Zicam gel about three to five times earlier this decade. He later noticed that be could not smell odors that his friends and family could. He was diagnosed with anosmia by an ear, nose and throat specialist.
"If I knew (loss of smell) was a potential side effect, I never would have taken it," Kennedy said.
If you or a family member has been injured because of the fault of someone else; by negligence, personal injury, slip and fall, car accident, medical malpractice, trucking accident, drunk driving, bad product, toxic injury etc then please contact the Fort Worth Texas Product Liability Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.
Most of the seeds, 40 in all, landed in the patient’s healthy bladder, not the prostate.
It was a serious mistake, and under federal rules, regulators investigated. But Dr. Kao, with their consent, made his mistake all but disappear.
He simply rewrote his surgical plan to match the number of seeds in the prostate, investigators said.
]]> The revision may have made Dr. Kao look better, but it did nothing for the patient, who had to undergo a second implant. It failed, too, resulting in an unintended dose to the rectum. Regulators knew nothing of this second mistake because no one reported it.Two years later, in 2005, Dr. Kao rewrote another surgical plan after putting half the seeds in the wrong organ. Once again, regulators did not object.
Had the government responded more aggressively, it might have uncovered a rogue cancer unit at the hospital, one that operated with virtually no outside scrutiny and botched 92 of 116 cancer treatments over a span of more than six years — and then kept quiet about it, according to interviews with investigators, government officials and public records.
The team continued implants for a year even though the equipment that measured whether patients received the proper radiation dose was broken. The radiation safety committee at the Veterans Affairs hospital knew of this problem but took no action, records show.
One patient was the Rev. Ricardo Flippin, a 21-year veteran of the Air Force. “I couldn’t walk and I couldn’t stand,” he said, citing rectal pain so severe that he had to remain in bed for six months, losing his church job and his income.
Pastor Flippin first learned of what his doctors called a radiation injury not from the V.A., but from an Ohio hospital where he underwent rectal surgery in 2006 to treat the damage.
The 92 implant errors resulted from a systemwide failure in which none of the safeguards that were supposed to protect veterans from poor medical care worked.
Peer review, a staple of every good hospital, in which colleagues examine one another’s work, did not exist in the unit. The V.A.’s radiation safety program; the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which regulates the use of all nuclear materials; and the Joint Commission, a group that accredited the hospital, all failed to intervene; either their inspections had been limited or they had not acted decisively upon finding problems.
Over all, the implant program lacked a “safety culture,” the nuclear commission found. Dr. Kao and other members of his team, the commission said, were not properly supervised or trained in what constitutes a substandard implant and the need to report it.
Virtually none of the substandard implants in Philadelphia were reported to the nuclear commission, meaning errors went uninvestigated for weeks, months and sometimes years. During that time, many patients did not know that their cancer treatments were flawed.
Federal investigators are continuing to look into the flawed implants as well as those at other V.A. hospitals. The Philadelphia prostate unit was closed after problems began to surface in mid-2008, and it has yet to reopen. The V.A. has also suspended the implants, known as brachytherapy, at hospitals in Jackson, Miss., and Cincinnati, though neither had problems on a scale of Philadelphia’s.
The V.A. has yet to fully account for how these substandard implants affected veterans, though no one is believed to have died from them. No patient names have been made public. The officials acknowledged that they had failed to supervise the unit.
A nuclear commission consultant, Dr. Ronald E. Goans, reviewed about a quarter of the substandard implants and reported that “erratic seed placement caused a number of cases to have elevated doses to the rectum, bladder or perineum.” After learning of the problems, the V.A. flew seven patients treated in Philadelphia to its most experienced brachytherapy program in Seattle for additional implants.
The brachytherapy program at the Philadelphia V.A. hospital began in early 2002, giving veterans an option for treating prostate cancer without major surgery. In this procedure, metal seeds the size of a grain of rice are permanently inserted into the prostate through needles.
“The idea is to create a radioactive cloud that conforms to and treats the prostate,” said Dr. Louis Potters, department chairman of radiation medicine at North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System.
By using ultrasound in the operating room, Dr. Potters can assess how well radiation is being distributed. “So at the completion of the case,” he said, “I can go out and tell that patient’s wife or significant other that we did a very good implant.”
And good implants were what the Philadelphia V.A. expected when it staffed the new unit with outside contractors from an Ivy League institution, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
One contractor was Dr. Kao. In addition to his work as a cancer researcher, he had a medical degree from Johns Hopkins and a Ph.D. from Penn. He is also on a team from Penn that won a contract this year from a NASA-financed consortium to study radiation in space.
Although Dr. Kao was board certified in radiation oncology, he had limited experience in brachytherapy, according to the nuclear commission. Even so, the unit had no peer review.
“In every facility that I’ve ever practiced and seen, there is some form of peer review going on,” said Dr. James Welsh, a radiation oncologist and member of the nuclear commission’s advisory board.
It was not long before problems began to surface. In the first year, nine implants were substandard, including two on the same day, records show.
In early 2003, the V.A. and the nuclear commission got their first solid clue that all was not right in the cancer unit.
On Feb. 3, Dr. Kao mistakenly implanted more than half the seeds in a patient’s bladder. With the patient still under anesthesia, a urologist had to thread a small tube through the man’s penis to retrieve the 40 errant seeds. Because they were bloody and contaminated with urine, the seeds could not be reused, and no more were available.
As a carcinogen that can burn healthy tissue as well as kill cancerous cells, radiation is supposed to be closely monitored. The hospital’s radiation safety committee handles regulatory issues. The V.A.’s National Health Physics Program oversees radiation use in all veteran facilities.
But the chief regulator is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Serious accidents involving radioactive materials must be reported to that agency, which has the power to investigate and levy fines. Congress receives an annual list of those accidents.
After learning of Dr. Kao’s error, V.A. officials thought that because he had revised his surgical plan while still in the operating room, the mistake did not exist. The nuclear commission agreed, on the ground that doctors needed freedom to revise their surgical plan depending on what they found during surgery.
Yet this case did not involve a new diagnostic interpretation: it was an implant mistake, causing the patient to return for another procedure.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission lacked the authority to challenge Dr. Kao’s revisions, said Steven A. Reynolds, director of nuclear materials safety for the commission. “The N.R.C. isn’t in the business of practicing medicine,” Mr. Reynolds said.
The substandard implants might never have been discovered were it not for a clerical error.
In the spring of 2008, a radiation safety official at the V.A. mistakenly ordered seeds of lower strength, and they were implanted.
After the error was discovered, according to the nuclear commission, the V.A.’s national radiation safety unit asked the hospital to examine 10 to 20 more cases to see if the problem had occurred before.
It had not. But investigators found something more troubling: four instances where seeds were implanted in the wrong places. As more cases were examined, more mistakes were found.
“Every once in a while you’re going to have a medical event because the seed will migrate, but when you see more than one or two at one place, we’re like: ‘What’s going on? Is this a pervasive problem?’ ” said Mr. Reynolds, the nuclear commission official.
The hospital suspended the brachytherapy program on June 11 last year. By then, 45 substandard implants had been found.
Two days later, the Joint Commission, which helps set standards in the hospital industry, surveyed the Philadelphia V.A. and on the next day accredited the hospital. “This organization is in full compliance with applicable standards,” the Joint Commission said.
The commission said that it had no indications of the problems in the brachytherapy program when it arrived at the hospital and that its surveys are not detailed enough to have uncovered the flawed implants.
Soon after, the N.R.C. sent its own inspectors to Philadelphia. And the more the inspectors looked, the more they found. All told, 57 of the implants delivered too little radiation to the prostate, either because the seeds missed the prostate or were not distributed properly inside the prostate. Thirty-five other cases involved overdoses to other parts of the body. An unspecified number of patients were both underdosed in the prostate and overdosed elsewhere.
From December 2006 to November 2007, the nuclear commission found, 16 patients received seed implants in Philadelphia even though computer interface problems prevented medical personnel from determining whether those treatments had been successful. The V.A.’s radiation officials knew of the problem but took no action, the nuclear commission charges.
If you or a family member has been injured because of the fault of someone else; by negligence, personal injury, slip and fall, car accident, medical malpractice, trucking accident, drunk driving, bad product, toxic injury etc then please contact the Fort Worth Texas Medical Malpractice Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.
The jury deliberated about seven hours before reaching a verdict.
Jennifer McInerney, 37, of Centennial lost her job as a United ramp-services supervisor in March 2006 after 12 years with the company. She has a disabled 3-year-old son.
McInerney asked for alternative jobs in May 2005 because she anticipated complications with her pregnancy. She said the request was denied and her son was born 11 weeks premature.
]]> McInerney took family medical leave, vacation time and sick leave until she had used up all her time off. She then asked for unpaid leave, but didn't get it.She was instructed to return to work in March 2006. When she didn't, she was fired.
McInerney alleged in her lawsuit that United often approved requests for unpaid leave from male ramp supervisors.
United maintained it had a shortage of ramp supervisors and couldn't continue to hold open McInerney's job when she requested more time off.
Jurors decided McInerney was retaliated against for her complaints about gender discrimination, but they didn't find that she was discriminated against because she is a woman.
"I wanted to send a huge message to United to never ever do this again," she said.
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]]>The suit, filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of anyone who consumed the now-banned supplements, claims the company failed to warn users of the risks of injury.
The Hydroxycut products were recalled May 1 after being linked to dozens of cases of liver damage, jaundice, and other related injuries. In one case, a 19-year-old Hydroxycut user died in 2007 after developing liver failure, but the death was not reported to the Food and Drug Administration until last March, according to the complaint.
]]> Hydroxycut was marketed as a weight-loss aid, an energy-enhancer and fat burner, as a diet supplement for low carbohydrate diets, and for promoting fluid loss, the suit states.Among the lawsuit's allegations are "violations of various states' deceptive trade practices acts, misrepresentation, fraudulent, false and misleading advertisements, and unjust enrichment" by distributing a product about which unsubstantiated claims of safety and effectiveness were made.
"We believe defendants have known for a long time that their products were unsafe, yet they continued to mass market them for profit," plaintiff's attorney Ilyas Akbari said.
Los Angeles resident Marvin Thomas, the lead plaintiff in the case, is seeking compensatory, equitable, declaratory and injunctive relief for himself and everyone in the Hydroxycut class.
Similar class action lawsuits have been filed in Tennessee and Canada, where Hydroxycut's maker, Iovate Health Sciences, is based.
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]]>Filed by Gloria Grate on behalf of her daughter, Marquetta Grate, the lawsuit names as defendants the city of Pittsburgh, Levin Furniture, Christopher Caudill and Penske Trucking.
According to attorney Michael Rosenzweig, who filed the complaint, Marquetta Grate was waiting for a bus on May 15 after dropping off her 3-year-old daughter at an East Liberty pre-school.
The wrongful death lawsuit alleges negligence on the part of the driver for failing to properly control his truck, and on the part of the city for failing to properly secure the light pole or to move it to a safer location.
Gloria Grate alleges that Levin and Penske -- which leased the truck to the company -- are liable for Mr. Caudill's actions.
"This tragedy could have been prevented if the city of Pittsburgh had engaged in a routine analysis or inspection of the location of the pole in question," Mr. Rosenzweig said. "It is well known that this is a dangerous site because of the configuration of the streets -- trucks and buses repeatedly damage the pole by running over the surrounding sidewalk and curb as they attempt to round the curve at this location."
He contends that the city had received previous complaints about the location but never took any action.
If you or a family member has been injured because of the fault of someone else; by negligence, personal injury, slip and fall, car accident, medical malpractice, trucking accident, drunk driving, bad product, toxic injury etc then please contact the Fort Worth Texas Personal Injury Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.
Russell Menicucci suffered back and neck injuries in the Dec. 2, 2003, accident, said his lawyer, Andrew John Calcagno. Those injuries have prevented him from returning to work, the attorney said.
]]> Menicucci, now 45, was employed by Universal Electric Corp., a White Plains, N.Y.-based electrical subcontractor at the site.He was working around 1 p.m., when he stepped through a "gaping" 16-inch opening in a grated section of the pier, court papers said. The hole, which was covered with "a flimsy and easily penetrable material," was to be filled with concrete.
Menicucci was knocked unconscious by the fall and nearly plunged into the frigid water below, said court papers. However, the life jacket he was wearing caught onto metal grating in the hole and held him up. Menicucci suffered herniated discs in his neck and back.
Two months earlier, on Oct. 15, 2003, in an unrelated incident, 11 people perished and scores were injured when the ferryboat Andrew J. Barberi slammed into a concrete maintenance pier at the terminal. It was one of the worst mass-transit accidents in city history.
Menicucci sued the city and several city agencies, along with Spearin, Preston & Burrows, Inc. and Skanska USA Building, Inc., the general contractors. He alleged they were negligent by allowing a dangerous condition to exist and failing to warn others of it.
Menicucci alleged his injuries caused him excruciating pain and precluded his carrying heavy items. Bending is very painful, he contended.
The insurance carrier for Spearin and Skanska paid the settlement, said Calcagno. The city was indemnified for liability under the general contractors' insurance policies, he said.
If you or a family member has been injured because of the fault of someone else; by negligence, personal injury, slip and fall, car accident, medical malpractice, trucking accident, drunk driving, bad product, toxic injury etc then please contact the Fort Worth Texas Personal Injury Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.