Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

May 27, 2009

Iowa State Pays Woman Who Blinded Herself in Prison

Iowa authorities have reached a legal settlement with Shayne Eggen, a mentally ill woman who used her finger to blind herself while she was in prison.

The state paid $141,533 last month to Eggen. The money settles allegations that instead of giving Eggen proper treatment, prison authorities repeatedly locked her in solitary confinement for behaviors caused by schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Advocates for the mentally ill say Eggen’s case illustrates how the United States misuses prisons to warehouse people who need psychiatric care. Her family says that when she blinded herself in 2002, she was confined alone at the state women’s prison in Mitchellville.

May 26, 2009

More Florida Foster Kids Are Given Mental-Health Drugs

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Nearly three of 10 teenage Florida foster children have been prescribed a mental-health drug, and 73 foster kids younger than 6 are taking mind-altering drugs, according to a recent study released in response to the death of a Broward foster child who was taking such medications.

In all, 2,669 children — or 13 percent of Florida foster children — are being given powerful psychiatric drugs, said the study, commissioned last month by Department of Children & Families Secretary George Sheldon. The largest group, almost 60 percent, are teens ages 13 to 17.

The 2,669 children represent about one-third more kids than a DCF database had reported as taking mental-health drugs — meaning electronic state records had significantly underestimated the use of mind-altering drugs.

Child-welfare administrators are investigating the use of mental-health drugs by children in state care in the wake of the April 16 death of Gabriel Myers, a troubled 7-year-old boy who hanged himself in the shower of his Margate foster home.

May 25, 2009

Disney and Tram-Injured Woman Reach Settlement

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A Chinese woman who fell out of a moving Disneyland tram and suffered injuries that left her needing 24-hour medical supervision for the rest of her life has reached a settlement in a lawsuit she filed against the Walt Disney Co.

Lawyers for Qi Zhao and Disney reached the agreement, bringing a two-week trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court to an abrupt end.

Details of the accord were not released.

Zhao, 48, filed her suit in 2007, alleging the tram driver was going too fast. She was riding the tram with two sisters and a niece. According to the complaint, one of the sisters fell from the King tram as it moved toward a parking lot.

Reacting to the fall, the other two sisters also fell out. One suffered minor injuries and Zhao hit her head on the pavement, suffering severe traumatic brain injuries and skull fractures and was in a coma for three weeks.

May 24, 2009

New York City to Pay $2 M in Death After Hospital Wait

by Dr. Shezad Malik

New York City has agreed to pay $2 million to the family of a woman who died last year on the floor of the psychiatric emergency room at Kings County Hospital Center after waiting more than 24 hours to be treated.

A video showed the woman on the floor for more than an hour while workers at the city-run hospital did nothing to help her.

The city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation accepted full responsibility for the death of the woman, Esmin Elizabeth Green, 49, and said it had taken steps to relieve crowding and increase the size of the staff to provide mental health services at the hospital.

May 24, 2009

Dangerous Drugs: Hydroxycut Class Actions Filed

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Two class action lawsuits have been filed in the wake of the recall of Hydroxycut, a popular weight-loss supplement that has been linked to liver damage and other life-threatening side effects.

The suits, filed in Canada and Tennessee, accuse Iovate Health Sciences, which manufactures Hydroxycut, of failing to warn of the drug’s dangers or take proper precautions to protect its users.

May 23, 2009

Land Rover Maker Ordered to Pay $21.1 M in Rollover Case

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A Los Angeles judge has ordered automaker Jaguar Land Rover to pay $21.1 million to a Simi Valley man who was paralyzed in 2003 when his Land Rover Discovery sport utility vehicle rolled over several times after a collision on the 118 Freeway.

L.A. County Superior Court Judge Robert H. O’Brien cited two key reasons for his decision: The vehicle’s high center of gravity made it susceptible to rolling over, and its roof collapsed too easily, causing Sukhsagar Pannu to suffer a debilitating spinal cord injury.

May 22, 2009

Woman Sues Go Daddy, Claims Harassment And Wrongful Termination

by Dr. Shezad Malik

An Arizona woman has filed suit against GoDaddy.com Inc., alleging the Scottsdale company failed to stop a co-worker from sexually harassing her and that it fired her when she complained.

Rachel R. Pearson filed the suit in U.S. District Court for Arizona. She seeks an unspecified amount for back pay, compensation for emotional pain and other losses, and punitive damages.

Go Daddy general counsel Christine Jones denied that Pearson was subjected to sexual harassment or retaliation and said the company intends to vigorously defend itself.

“Go Daddy takes all complaints of employee misconduct seriously. We thoroughly investigated Ms. Pearson’s allegations and could not substantiate them,” Jones said.

May 21, 2009

Conroe Texas Company Pays $175,000 to Former Employee

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A Texas tubing company agreed to pay $175,000 to a former employee it fired less than a month after he complained of racially offensive comments.

The recent agreement settles a lawsuit that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed against Maverick Tube Corp. in 2007 for retaliation, according to the consent decree.

Maverick Tube, which is a supplier of tubes to the energy industry, denies the allegations but entered into the settlement to avoid protracted litigation, according to the agreement.

Karen Gillen Allen, said the allegations were made by a former employee who was dismissed.

May 20, 2009

Ex-deputy Fights Harris County, Texas in Discrimination Case

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The late Harris County Constable Glen Cheek regularly referred to women in derogatory and obscene terms, made female employees do his personal shopping, did not properly promote them and fired a female deputy constable for something he would have forgiven a man.

But jurors in the federal sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit filed by Kimberly Owen also heard Harris County attorney Lina Garcia say Owen was fired solely because she was charged with drunken driving. Garcia said Owen raised the gender allegations later because she won’t take responsibility for her own actions.

Opening statements were made in the case before U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore Monday afternoon. Scott Newar, Owen’s lawyer, said this lawsuit against Harris County is about the way woman are treated in law enforcement throughout the county.

May 19, 2009

Providence man Awarded $4 M in Medical Malpractice Case

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A Superior Court jury awarded a former truck driver $4 M, concluding that negligence by his orthopedic surgeon caused him mental and physical suffering.

Robert T. Baird Jr., of Providence, filed a medical malpractice suit against Dr. Kenneth J. Morrissey in 2002, alleging the Cranston doctor’s negligence. Morrissey denied the complaints.

The jury awarded Baird $1.5 million for physical pain, $1.5 million for mental suffering, $500,000 for disfigurement and $500,000 for lost wages, according to David Morowitz, Baird’s lawyer.

Baird worked as a truck driver for The Providence Journal from 1981 until he began experiencing extreme pain in his right arm in 1999. He went to Morrissey, who operated to improve his movement and in the process removed a benign tumor.