Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

November 3, 2008

Florida Supreme Court OKs Anthrax Law Suit

The Florida Supreme Court issued a ruling will help the widow of an anthrax victim claim that the government was ultimately responsible for her husband’s death.

The widow’s husband was a photo editor who was exposed to anthrax when it was mailed to the Boca Raton office of American Media Inc., in 2001. He was the first of five people who died and 17 others got sick in a series of similar attacks.

The Court ruled that the defendants had a duty under Florida law to protect the public against the unauthorized release of lethal materials. The law suit also alleges the government and Battelle Memorial Institute, a private laboratory in Columbus, Ohio, were the source of the anthrax.

The ruling on the defendants’ duty under Florida law was requested by a federal appeals court considering a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

November 2, 2008

Exxon Sued For Groundwater Contamination

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The world’s largest company Exxon Corp promised the residents of a Baltimore County neighborhood that the company would “pay money damages to the people who were harmed” by a 26,000-gallon gasoline leak that contaminated the groundwater beneath their homes two years ago.

This is a trial in which 309 plaintiffs claimed that the oil giant was careless in looking after its facilities and the responsible party There are real damages in this case. Some plaintiffs have suffered emotional distress and some plaintiffs have suffered loss in property values.

November 2, 2008

Amputee Awaits Supreme Court Decision

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Diana Levine has a big fight coming up. In a drawing made by her daughter, based on Greek mythology there is an illustration of Diana the Huntress, her bow string drawn taut, an arrow ready to fly.

But the arm pulling at the bowstring was amputated below the elbow — just like Levine’s — and the target was labeled the “Wyeth monster.”

Levine blames Wyeth for a botched injection of the Wyeth-made drug Phenergan that led doctors to amputate her right arm in 2000.

Levine was awaiting a hearing Monday before the U.S. Supreme Court, where Wyeth is appealing a $6.7 million verdict in her favor.

The outcome of Levine’s case could have huge ramifications for drug makers and consumers. The court is expected to decide whether people can sue under state law — or are pre-empted from doing so — for harm caused by a drug approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Levine said the drug makers “are using my case … to get through this doctrine that will say that if it is FDA-approved, then we are not accountable, because FDA said it’s OK. … Mr. Pharmaceutical Company is not responsible and is not liable and doesn’t have to help the person who just lost her arm, or her life.”

Read the earlier post

November 1, 2008

Default Judgment: Fraternity Must Pay $16.2 million in Hazing Death

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A default judgment was granted to the parents of a freshman pledge who fell to his death two years ago after authorities said he was subjected to hazing. A state district judge has ordered the national and University of Texas chapters of a fraternity to pay $16.2 million.

The Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity must pay each of the parents $2.5 million for mental anguish and nearly $81,000 for funeral expenses, as well as additional damages, according to the default judgment.

The order was issued after the national and local SAE chapters failed to respond to a lawsuit filed in September. State law allows the chapters to seek a new trial, which could be granted if the representatives explain why they did not respond to the suit and can defend allegations against them.

October 31, 2008

Fen-Phen $3M NJ Verdict

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Wyeth, which set aside more than $21 billion to resolve lawsuits over the fen-phen diet combination, must pay $3 million to a woman who contracted a lung-destroying disease from the drugs.

The New Jersey jurors deliberated about two hours before finding that Wyeth’s Pondimin drug was a cause of the woman’s primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH). The trial loss was Wyeth’s first in four years in a case involving the often-fatal illness.

The ruling comes as the New Jersey-based Wyeth seeks to wrap up more than a decade of litigation over fen-phen, which combined the company’s Pondimin and Redux with the generic phentermine. This medication combination was taken by patients as a weight reduction method to suppress their appetites.

October 30, 2008

Medical Malpractice Judgment Upheld

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A $4 million award to the family of a woman misdiagnosed with cancer and then given a lethal dose of painkillers was upheld by the Mississippi Supreme Court.

The patient’s daughter brought a wrongful death suit against Hospice Ministries and Dr. William Causey. The hospice settled during the trial for the maximum $1 million in insurance coverage.

The daughter said a simple lab test could have prevented the entire thing. The 66 year old patient was diagnosed in 2001 with pancreatic cancer at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and sent to Hospice Ministries in Ridgeland in June 2001. She died about a month later.

October 29, 2008

Texas Medical Board Suspends License of a Dallas Doctor

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A panel of the Texas Medical Board suspended the license of Harold Clay Henderson, M.D., of Dallas, license number G3937, after determining that Dr. Henderson’s continuation in the practice of medicine presents a continuing threat to the public welfare.

The temporary suspension hearing took place Monday, October 27, under the Board’s authority, granted by S.B. 104 of the 78th Legislature, to suspend or restrict a physician’s license without notice when it determines the physician’s continuation in practice would constitute a continuing threat to the public welfare. The suspension is effective immediately.

The action was based on the panel’s finding of Dr. Henderson’s inability to safely practice medicine due to intemperate use of drugs or alcohol, or mental or physical disability. The panel also found that Dr. Henderson had aided and abetted the unlicensed practice of medicine by employing a physician in his office whose licensed was suspended.

October 29, 2008

BPA In Dental Sealants

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Parents are worried about a chemical substance found in the popular sealants that are painted on children’s molars to prevent decay.

The chemical is bisphenol-A, or BPA, which is widely used in the making of the hard, clear plastic called polycarbonate, and is also found in the linings of food and soft-drink cans. Most human exposure to the chemical clearly comes from the food supply. But traces have also been found in dental sealants.

Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reassured consumers that the chemical appears to be safe, it has received increasing scrutiny in recent months from health officials in the United States and Canada. See earlier post

October 28, 2008

Nevada and Narcotic Painkillers

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A Nevada doctor has been accused of causing the deaths of three patients and has numerous examples of alleged prescription drug malpractice.

Investigations of the doctor are on going, but the Nevada State Medical Examiners Board has not suspended his license or taken any steps to force him to curtail his prescribing of large quantities of narcotic painkillers.

The medical board has the authority to summarily suspend the license of a doctor who is putting patients in imminent harm.

October 27, 2008

Study Shows Problems with Medronic’s Heart Stent

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A new medical study out recently shows that Medtronic‘s new drug-coated stent was associated with more heart attacks and blood clots than a rival stent made by Johnson & Johnson.

Results from the cardiology study named Sort Out III, which included more than 2,000 patients, showed that heart patients who received the Medtronic device, called Endeavor, had more heart attacks and blood clots and needed repeat procedures more often than those treated with the J&J stent, known as Cypher.