Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

August 27, 2009

Camp Lejeune Residents Blame Breast Cancer on the Water

For three decades, dry-cleaning chemicals and industrial solvents laced the water used by local Marines and their families. Mike Partain and at least 19 others developed male breast cancer.

One night in April 2007, as Mike Partain hugged his wife before going to bed, she felt a small lump above his right nipple. A mammogram led to a diagnosis of male breast cancer. Six days later, the 41-year-old insurance adjuster had a mastectomy.

Over the last two years, Partain has compiled a list of 19 others diagnosed with male breast cancer who once lived on the base.

August 26, 2009

Poligrip and Fixodent Denture Cream Use Leads to Zinc Poisoning

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Denture Cream Lawsuit – Zinc Poisoning Symptoms
It has increasingly been reported that the denture cream ingredient zinc is associated with neurological symptoms including neuropathy in denture wearers. The recommended daily allowance of zinc is 8 mg for women and 11 mg for men. According to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies the largest daily tolerable zinc intake is 40 mg.

Fixodent denture adhesive and alleged Fixodent zinc poisoning is complicated by the fact zinc, as a trace element, is part of a healthy diet. Denture cream zinc poisoning happens when too much zinc is used.

According to the official Fixodent web site, “the amount of zinc an average denture adhesive user would ingest from daily usage of Fixodent” is less than the amount of zinc contained in most daily multivitamins, or fewer than 6 oysters.

August 26, 2009

Judge Awards $18 M to Man Hurt in St. Louis County Pileup

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A man severely injured in a pileup that killed three people on Highway 40 (Interstate 64) last year is entitled to more than $13.8 million from a truck driver and his company, a federal magistrate judge has ruled.

The man’s wife has been awarded $4.2 million more.

The crash left Mark Tiburzi, 53, under constant care in a nursing home, unable to walk or talk, according to his lawyer and court filings.

Trial is pending on involuntary manslaughter charges in St. Louis County against the truck driver, Jeffrey D. Knight, who was blamed for the wreck. Officials claim he was distracted by reaching for a cell phone when his tractor-trailer rig piled into vehicles near Interstate 270 on July 15, 2008, causing the three fatalities and 14 injuries.

August 25, 2009

Yaz Pulmonary Embolism Lawsuit Filed in Illinois State Court

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A new product liability lawsuit has been filed in St. Clair County, Ill. over the birth control pill Yaz, by a woman who says the drug caused her to suffer a blood clot in her lung, known as a pulmonary embolism.

The Yaz blood clot lawsuit was filed by Kerry Sims on August 18, according to a report in the St. Clair Record. Read the St. Clair Record report here. It is one of many similar lawsuits over Yaz and Yasmin, which are nearly identical oral contraceptives.

Read the full package insert, indications and risk profile for Yaz.

August 25, 2009

Yaz Yasmin Birth Control Side Effects

by Dr. Shezad Malik

About 11% of the U.S. market for oral contraceptives is now accounted for by Yasmin, a combination pill containing the novel progestin, drospirenone, in combination with ethinyl estradiol (EE).

Yaz lawsuits are personal injury cases in which women injured after taking Yaz birth control seek compensation for their injuries and losses.

Both Yaz and Yasmin birth control pills are known to potentially cause life-threatening side effects including blood clots, heart attacks, stroke, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and liver damage.

Yasmin was introduced earlier (approved in 2001 by the FDA), and has a slightly higher EE level:

* Yasmin—3 mg drospirenone and 30 mcg EE per tablet
* Yaz—3 mg drospirenone and 20 mcg EE per tablet

August 25, 2009

Motor scooter rider sustained head injury in collision

by Dr. Shezad Malik

On May 15, 2007, plaintiff Jonny Osler, a 57-year-old language instructor, was riding a motor scooter on Collins Road in Sunny Isles when Nasir Jamal allegedly changed lanes in his Mercedes and hit him. Osler was wearing a helmet, but he was rendered unconscious by the impact. Having no recollection of the accident, Osler was ticketed at the scene. Osler sustained a subdural hematoma and fractured collar bone.

Osler sued Jamal for vehicular negligence, alleging that Jamal was talking on his cell phone at the time of the accident. Although subpoenaed records supported that theory, Jamal denied at trial that he was on the phone when the collision occurred. There were no witnesses to the accident.

Osler’s accident reconstruction expert testified that Jamal’s testimony was incredible. He opined that the way the scooter was laying on the ground after the accident according to the police report was inconsistent with Jamal’s claim. Jamal paid cash to have his car repaired shortly after the accident. According to counsel for Osler, questions arose as to whether Jamal had repaired his vehicle and if so what had been repaired.

August 25, 2009

Rampant Sex Harassment Costs Lowe’s $1.7 M in Settlement of EEOC Lawsuit

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced a major settlement of a discrimination lawsuit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act against Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse, Inc. for $1.72 million and significant remedial relief on behalf of three employees in their twenties who were subjected to a pervasive sexually hostile work environment and retaliated against for complaining about it.

The former employees, two young men and one woman, were subjected to widespread and repeated sexual harassment by male and female managers and coworkers at a Lowe’s store in Longview, Wash. The sexually hostile workplace, which endured for more than six months, included physical and verbal abuse which culminated in one instance of sexual assault.

August 24, 2009

Denton Texas Jury says Doctor Failed to Diagnose Woman’s Cancer

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A Denton County jury has awarded the family of a Denton woman who died of misdiagnosed cancer $3.5 million, one of the largest awards in Denton since the tort law reform of 2003.

Civil suit law, however, will cut that amount to $1.5 million to be shared by her husband, her two young children and her father after attorney fees.

Melissa Hendricks was 33 when she noticed a marble-sized bump on the right crown of her head, according to court documents.

Hendricks waited about a month, then visited Highland Family Medical Center in Highland Village on Oct. 14, 2002. She saw Dr. Stephen Glaser, who told her it was a sebaceous cyst, which is a nonmalignant lesion, according to the documents.

August 24, 2009

Yaz Yasmin Birth Control Information and Lawsuits

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Side effects of Yaz birth control could increase the risk of life-threatening injuries. Yaz lawsuits are being reviewed nationwide.

Yaz, which is nearly identical to Yasmin birth control, is a newer type of oral contraceptive sold by Bayer. It has been aggressively marketed without adequate warnings about potentially life-threatening side effects.

This site provides Yasmin lawsuit information and the latest news regarding Yasmin side effects and problems. This relatively new birth control has been marketed heavily to women in the United States and is one of the first contraceptives considered a “fourth generation” birth control pill.

It is manufactured by Bayer which also markets Yaz birth control. Generic Yasmin is marketed as “Ocella” and is manufactured by Teva. Yasmin is a combination hormonal contraceptive. It contains the hormones ethinyl estradiol (estrogen) and drospirenone which is a synthetic form of progestin.

August 24, 2009

Undetected Cervical Cancer led to Bowel Obstructions

by Dr. Shezad Malik

In November 2005, plaintiff Lee Arnette Zapel, 56, president of a medical supplies company, was diagnosed with cervical cancer during a hysterectomy. The exploratory surgery was due to abdominal pain that she experienced for months leading up to the surgery, which resulted in numerous tests and hospitalizations, including a change in her OB-GYN the previous month.

Zapel, who received annual Pap tests, alleged that PCA Southeast, a Columbia [Tenn]-based pathology lab, failed to detect cervical abnormalities in her slides in 2003 and 2004.

Zapel sued the lab for medical malpractice. The defendant stipulated to negligence for misrepresenting the 2004 Pap test, but contested the 2003 test. The cervical abnormalities that the defendant failed to detect in Zapel’s 2003 and 2004 Pap test slides were high-grade lesions, which were an early form of Stage 1 cancer, according to plaintiffs’ counsel.

Had the defendant detected the lesions, a cervical biopsy would have been ordered to reveal the cancer and a hysterectomy would have been performed, it was alleged. The hysterectomy would have rendered a 100 percent cure that would have precluded any need for chemo-radiation treatment that Zapel eventually underwent, opined the plaintiffs’ gynecological oncologist.