Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

June 7, 2009

Woman Who Sued Doctor’s Insurer Awarded $3.8 M

When Debbie Daniels was scheduled to undergo a hysterectomy in 2003, her doctor suggested he do a “tummy tuck” as well.

But the obstetrician/gynecologist did not tell her that he had never been trained to perform the procedure that gets rid of excess skin and fat.

She also did not know he had been kicked off the staff of another hospital for doing tummy tucks without proper credentials — or that he did the procedure unlike any other doctor, according to court records.

Two days after Dr. David Lee Grimes cut Daniels open and stitched her back up, her wound burst, leaving a basketball-sized hole in her belly 7 to 8 inches deep, one of her lawyers said. She had to undergo emergency surgery — the first of many — and be placed in a medically induced coma for a month.

June 6, 2009

Lawsuit Filed in I-15 Wrongful Death of Stranded Honeymooners

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Two trucking companies and their drivers are being sued over a 2008 accident on I-15 in Las Vegas in which two honeymooners outside their stranded vehicle were struck and killed.

Attorneys for the parents of one of the victims, Lisa Lynn Prock-Hills, filed a negligence suit in Clark County District Court against truck driver Stanislaw Masalski of Clearwater, Fla., and his company, Stan Trucking Inc.

Also sued were driver Sam Montalvo Martinez and his employer at the time of the accident, J.B. Hunt Transport Inc. of Lowell, Ark.

The Nevada Highway Patrol said Kevin Edward Hills, 38, and Prock-Hills, 41, were killed on Interstate 15 just south of Silverado Ranch Boulevard on March 13, 2008.

June 5, 2009

Lawsuit Links Psychiatric Drugs to Florida Child’s Death

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A Florida mother sued Fort Lauderdale Hospital and a psychiatrist who worked there, saying they overmedicated her teenage son with a cocktail of mental health drugs — some of which have not been approved for the treatment of children.

The boy, Emilio Villamar, died of a sudden heart attack. He was 16.

Emilio, a swimmer and water polo player, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder by Dr. Sohail Punjwani in March 2002. Within the next year, the teen was given 16 different psychiatric drugs, six of which were still being administered when he died, said Michael S. Freedland, who is representing Emilio’s mother, Norma L. Tringali.

Punjwani had also been treating 7-year-old Gabriel Myers, a foster child who had been prescribed several psychiatric drugs before he hanged himself in April. In the wake of Gabriel’s death, the Department of Children & Families has launched a wide-ranging investigation into the agency’s dispensing of mental health drugs.

June 3, 2009

MI Jury Awards A Woman Nearly $3 M in Lawsuit Against Hospital

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A MI jury awarded a woman $2.9 million in a 9-year-old lawsuit against Owosso Memorial Hospital and Shiawassee Radiology Consultants.

An attorney for Sue Apsey, now 65, claimed a bowel leak she suffered during an ovarian cyst removal went undiscovered for 10 days despite imaging studies that were done.

The situation worsened when she was given barium during subsequent x-rays. “It acted like throwing gas on a bonfire,” said her attorney, Frank Mafrice.

June 3, 2009

Defective Product: Kugel® Mesh Hernia Patch Recall

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The Bard® Composix® Kugel® Mesh Hernia Patch has been linked to serious, life-threatening side effects and has been voluntarily recalled by its manufacturer and in association with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

On January 8, 2008, a Federal Court judge expanded the scope of current hernia patch lawsuits to include all Davol/Bard Marlex/Teflon patches, with or without “memory recoil rings.”
In August 2001, Davol began receiving reports of complications and failures of its hernia mesh patch. These reports advise of bowel obstructions, adhesions, constipation, and fistula resulting from implantation of Composix® Kugel® Mesh Patches. The reports also contain descriptions of problems other then memory recoil ring breakage including, “buckled mesh,” “patch shriveling” and “edges curled up,” as well as descriptions of the mesh as being “crumpled,” “wrinkled,” “rolled up,” “delaminated” and “folded.”

June 2, 2009

Texas Mesothelioma Lawyers, How to File an Asbestos Lawsuit in Texas

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Asbestos is a naturally occurring fiber that, when released into the air, can be inhaled or swallowed. Asbestos fibers are so small that they are not visible to the naked eye. Once they are inhaled, asbestos fibers stay in the body and, over the course of decades, lead to the development of asbestos-related diseases like mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is rare form of cancer caused by asbestos exposure. An estimated 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year, and because the disease takes decades to develop, the rate of new diagnoses is still climbing. The peak incidence of mesothelioma is predicted to occur around 2020.

June 2, 2009

PA Woman Gets $1.88 M in Medical Malpractice Case

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A Pennslyvania jury awarded a woman $1.88 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit filed on behalf of her husband, who died of cancer in 2008.

Christine Golden sued urologist Milan J. Smolko, pathologist Lillian Longendorfer and Wayne Memorial Hospital for failing to diagnose her husband’s bladder cancer despite several consultations and examinations between Sept. 18, 2002, and January 2004.

Before the verdict was returned last month, however, Dr. Longendorfer and the hospital reached a confidential settlement with Mrs. Golden.

Mrs. Golden’s lawyer, said Terrence Golden saw Dr. Smolko multiple times in those 16 months, each time complaining of urinary problems. Dr. Smolko said he had an inflamed and enlarged prostate, but did not investigate further until July 2003. Then, he did a bladder biopsy and sent the information to Dr. Longendorfer, who worked at Wayne Memorial Hospital.

June 1, 2009

Texas Malpractice Case Alleges Surgeon Left Needle Inside Body

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A Beaumont Texas man has filed a medical malpractice suit against a local doctor, alleging a needle negligently left inside his body during surgery perforated his bladder.

Ronald Williams claims he underwent surgery performed by Dr. Stuart Scott Kacy of Southeast Texas Surgical Associates on March 12, 2007.

Court papers say that during the procedure, one of the used needles popped off the needle holder into Williams’s body.

Ronald Williams and his wife, Erica, filed a medical malpractice suit against Dr. Kacy and Southeast Texas Surgical Associates on May 26 in Jefferson County District Court.

May 31, 2009

R.J. Reynolds Must Pay Widow $30 M

by Dr. Shezad Malik

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., the second-biggest U.S. cigarette maker, was told by a Florida jury to pay $30 million to a woman whose husband died of lung cancer after years of smoking, according to a lawyer.

A six-person jury today in state court in Pensacola, Florida, ordered R.J. Reynolds to pay Hilda Martin $25 million in punitive damages to punish the cigarette maker for the death of her husband, Benny Martin, according to the company’s lawyer, Mark Belasic. The jury awarded Martin $5 million in compensation. Belasic said he would appeal.

May 30, 2009

Witness Settles Lawsuit Over Jail Injuries

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Harrison County MS, has settled a civil rights lawsuit with a man whose kidneys failed in 2006 after he was left tightly strapped in a restraint chair for about eight hours at the Harrison County jail.

Kasey D. Alves testified against former Sheriff’s Sgt. Ryan Teel in August 2007, when Teel was convicted in a “color of law” case for the fatal beating of inmate Jessie Lee Williams Jr. and a conspiracy to abuse inmates and cover it up.

Alves’ testimony in the criminal case helped corroborate a pattern of abuse at the jail. Terms of the settlement in his suit are confidential.