Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

December 12, 2009

Daughter Awarded $3 M After Death of Mom Who Had Do-Not-Resuscitate Order

Janie Vinson was apparently so ill with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that the 79-year-old woman’s family told the medical staff at Albany, Ga.’s Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital not to try to cure her, but to simply keep her comfortable until she died.

A Dougherty County jury awarded her daughter $3 million for medical malpractice claims resulting from Vinson’s death in March 2002 after she was given what a plaintiff’s expert said was too much morphine too quickly.

Vinson had been in the hospital for more than a week when she suffered respiratory arrest on March 18, 2002. Vinson had stopped breathing by the time a nurse arrived to her room. The nurse called a “code” and the emergency pulmonary team, led by Dr. Thomas Ungarino, responded, but by the time they arrived, Vinson was breathing again.

December 11, 2009

Miami Woman who Sued Employer Over Jury Duty is Awarded $150,K

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A Miami-Dade jury, sworn to exercise its civic duty, awarded security guard Jackalyn Strachan $150,000 in damages — for exercising her same civic duty.

The six-person jury found that Miami security firm Hall Investigation Service wrongfully denied wages and fired Strachan for serving as a juror in a murder trial in April 2007.

December 10, 2009

Florida Man Paralyzed in Motor Veicle Accident Awarded $44.9 M

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A Lee County jury awarded $44.9 million to a Cape Coral man who was paralyzed in a 2006 motor vehicle accident.

The verdict, one of the largest in the county’s history, was awarded to Gerald Aloia. Aloia was riding on his motorcycle on Oct. 22, 2006, when he was struck by a Chevrolet Corvette driven by Deborah Veilleux. Veilleux, 45 at the time, died in 2007.

December 9, 2009

Bayer Must Pay Farmers for Contaminated Rice Crop

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Bayer CropScience LP must pay about $2 million for losses sustained by two Missouri farmers when an experimental variety of rice the company was testing cross-bred with their crops, a federal jury ruled.

The verdict in St. Louis came in the first trial in what is intended to be a series of test cases against the unit of Leverkusen, Germany-based Bayer AG. The jury of four men and five women began deliberating on Dec. 2, about a month after it began hearing claims brought by Kenneth Bell and Johnny Hunter.

December 8, 2009

Man Hurt by Falling Tree Limb in NY Central Park

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A 33-year-old man who suffered brain and spinal injuries in July when a heavy limb fell from a tree in Central Park and struck him has sued the city and the Central Park Conservancy for negligence.

The man, Mr. Goldensohn, a computer scientist who works for Google, remains hospitalized from his injuries and has undergone several operations, said his lawyer, Nicholas Papain.

December 7, 2009

Fort Worth Texas Yaz Yasmin Birth Control Lawsuit Update

by Dr. Shezad Malik

After 13 hours of intensifying pain, two trips to the emergency room and two CT scans, doctors finally found what was ailing Lottie Green.

In her left lung, the pulmonologist told her, was the largest blood clot they had ever seen and there were others in her right lung as well, she said.

Soon after the 41-year-old Bethesda, Md., resident was released from a hospital last month, Ms. Green joined hundreds of other women in lawsuits against Germany’s Bayer AG, the maker of the popular oral contraceptive Yaz.

December 6, 2009

FDA Review Says MRI Imaging Drugs That Contain Gadolinium Riskier for Kidney Patients

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration is weighing further regulation of three drugs used to create high-contrast images on MRI scans, based on a new analysis that suggests they carry a higher risk of causing a rare, but potentially fatal disease.

The issue, marks a setback for GE Healthcare (GE), which contends that its product is no riskier than competing imaging drugs. FDA reviewers said GE’s drug, Omniscan, had a disproportionately high number of reports of the disease compared with its peers.

December 5, 2009

Public Citizen Asks FDA to Ban Weight Loss Pill

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A consumer advocacy group is petitioning the government to ban the weight loss pill Meridia because a recent study suggests it increases risk of heart attack, stroke and death.

A letter Thursday from Public Citizen calls on the Food and Drug Administration to pull Abbott Laboratories’ drug from the U.S. market, where it is used by roughly a quarter million people.

Preliminary results from a 10,000-patient study — known as the SCOUT study — showed a slightly higher risk of heart-related problems in patients taking Meridia, also called sibutramine, compared with a dummy pill. Patients in the study were older than 55, overweight with a history of heart disease or diabetes.

December 4, 2009

Guard Commander Said KBR Carcinogen Caused his Cancer

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A funeral is set for a retired Indiana National Guard commander who testified in October that exposure to a lethal carcinogen in Iraq caused his cancer.

Lt. Col. James C. Gentry, 52, Williams, Ind., died of lung cancer. His death is a marker in a pending federal lawsuit; his life inspired a federal bill working its way through Congress.

December 4, 2009

Asbestos Mesothelioma Payout System is Being Questioned

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Once upon a time, asbestos was practically everywhere. Because the material causes devastating forms of cancer and lung disease, huge product-liability litigation sprung up. That led to huge settlements, which led to the establishment of huge trusts, created to assure payment to millions of current and future claimants.

Some $20 billion now resides in these 40 or so trusts, set up by Johns Manville Corp., Owens Corning and other former makers and sellers of asbestos. But who’s overseeing the trusts? Is the money getting spent properly? In short, are the trusts working as designed?