Boston Medical Center has reached a settlement of $900,000 with the family of an 86-year-old woman who died after falling in an operating room following hip surgery. The family's lawyer alleged in a lawsuit that the hospital staff did not take the appropriate precautions when the woman was put in her hospital bed. One driving force for settlement: a Massachusetts state inspection found that deficiencies in procedure contributed to the death.
The family of a New Hampshire woman crushed by another car at a Massachusetts car wash has agreed to a settlement of their accident lawsuit. The woman died in 2007 after being struck by a car driven by defendant, who still faces criminal charges. The victim's 12 year-old daughter thankfully survived the collusion.
The Boston Herald has the story.
The family of a CVS pharmacy clerk who was stabbed to death by a shoplifter cannot pursue wrongful death claim against CVS because a provision of the Massachusetts workers’ compensation law prohibits employees from seeking damages for work-related injuries, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court found this week.
Very sad case but not a surprising outcome as workers compensation law is fairly well settled on this issue in most jurisdictions.
My two volume treatise Insurance Settlements is now available from James Publishing. The book discusses how to position a lawyer's car accident, truck accident, medical malpractice or product liability case to the best possible settlement at every step along the way (until the state's high court affirms the judgment).
Click on the James Publishing link. If you have any comments on the book, please email me at ronmiller@millerandzois.com under the subject "Insurance Settlements Comments."
Our lawyers are reviewing Byetta claims after the FDA announced this week that the diabetes drug has been linked to severe pancreatic problems in dozens of patients. On Monday, the FDA warned patients taking Byetta to discontinue use if they develop symptoms of the disorder. Further the FDA said that doctor prescribing Byetta should consider other prescription options for patients with a history of pancreas problems.
Since Byetta was introduced into the United States in 2005, more than 700,000 patients have used the Byetta.
Our lawyers are now exploring potential Byetta lawsuits. If you would like to discuss your case with a Byetta lawyer, call 800-553-8082 or click here for a free consulation/case evaluation (or even to answer any question you may have). For more information on Byetta and the concerns with Byetta, click here.
Last week, Digitek manufacturer Actavis Totowa recalled over 65 different drugs made at their New Jersey manufacturing plant. The list of recalled drugs (in some form or another) includes such generic drugs as Bellamine, Buspirone, Carisoprodol, Oxycodone Meperidine, and Rifampin. This strengthens the conclusion that the New Jersey plant that made these drugs may be the cause of irregularities in Actavis medications.
In April 2008, Actavis recalled Digitek, a drug prescribed to treat heart failure and irregular heartbeat because it was discovered that Digitek tablets appeared to have double the thickness – and likely double the active ingredient – listed on the label. When Digitek is given in abnormally high doses it can lead to digitalis toxicity which, paradoxically, worsens the problems Digitek is intended to treat, causing nausea or lower blood pressure and other side effects from the Digitek overdose that can lead to the increased risk of stroke or a heart attack.
If you would like to speak to a Digitek recall lawyer about a potential Digitek lawsuit, call 1-800-553-8000. For more information on the Digitek overdose recall or a free consultation on your potential Digitek case, click here.
Zimmer's Durom Cup hip implants are likely to be the subject of a good number of lawsuits from patients with the Zimmer implants. But they will not be the only ones. Apparently, Zimmer’s own shareholders may agree that Zimmer left its hip implant on the market way too long. Last week, shareholders of Zimmer stock filed a class action in Indiana. Interestingly, the lawsuit seeks damages for shareholders who purchased stock between January 28, 2008 and July 21, 2008. This tells our Zimmer hip implant recall lawyers that these shareholders believe that Zimmer knew or should have known and issued a recall on or before January 28, 2008.
If your Zimmer Durom hip resurfacing cup was defective, call our Zimmer hip implant lawyers at 1-800-553-8082 or click here for a free consultation.
More information on the Zimmer Hip Implant Recall
History of the Zimmer Durom Cup Hip Implant Recall
More information on the Zimmer hip implant recall lawsuits
Jury Verdict Research(r) study reports that
rotator cuff injuries reached a 7-year high in 2006 with a compensatory award median of $72,667. This is almost 50% higher than previous reported settlements and verdicts in rotator cuff injury cases.
Our lawyers have never understood while the national data in these cases was so low. Washington D.C. rotator cuff injuries have averaged well over $100,000 for rotator cuff settlements and verdicts so we have never understood why the national average was as low as it has been. In any event, for whatever reason, rotator cuff verdicts are on the rise.
Our lawyers handle rotator cuff injury cases throughout the United States. Our lawyers have handled scores of rotator cuff injuries in car and truck accidents, typically in side collision or "T-bone" accidents. Our lawyers believe that insurance companies do not give fair value in most rotator cuff injury cases and our lawyers will fight to get you the financial compensation you deserve. Call a rotator cuff lawyer to protect you at 800-553-8082 or click here for a free consultation and case evaulation.
Related Posts
What Is the Value of Your Personal Injury Claim? (how the value of rotator cuff and other person injury settlements are calculated)
Sample Demand Letter (sample letter demanding settlement in a personal injury case)
Handling Your Claim Without a Lawyer (tips and pratfalls)
The Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog reports that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court - Massachusetts' highest court - ruled last week that doctors can be held liable for medical malpractice that reduces a patient's chance of survival even if the patient's chances of recovery were already below 50 percent.
Huge ruling for malpractice victims that recognizes that people are making great sacrifices just to add a few percentage points to their chances of living and living well (working out, eating right, taking medications, etc.) and the law should recognized that a 49% increased chance of dying is a harm by any measure.
Lawyers representing Digitek overdose victims have filed nine lawsuits in New Jersey against Actavis Totowa LLL and its parent company Actavis Group, alleging a manufacturing defect in Digitek, namely that some Digitek tablets have contained twice the active ingredient of the drug. Digitek recall lawsuits have also been filed in West Virginia and California.
Our Digitek recall lawyers are reviewing these Digitek overdose cases in all 50 states expecting that a consolidated class action lawsuit will be appropriate (as opposed to this scatting of individual cases). If you want to discuss your case with one of our Digitek lawyers call us at 800-553-8082 for a free consultation or click here for a free Internet consultation.
The Georgia Injury Lawyer Blog has a post on how some people are still not wearing seat belts, citing fatality statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that found that more than two-thirds of young people killed in nighttime car crashes were not wearing a seat belt.
The good news is that seat belt use is still rising; total belt use rose 1% to 82% in 2007. Still, three states - Arkansas, Massachusetts and New Hampshire - have less than 70% of vehicle occupants wearing seat belts. As we mentioned in a post last week, New Hampshire still does not require motorcycle occupants to wear a helmet. New Hampshire needs to heed its motto: "Life safe or die." (Or something like that.)
On Friday, there was an article in the Boston Globe on the Baxter heparin cases discussing the issue that heparin is manufactured in China. Miller & Zois attorney Ron Miller, who is handling heparin cases, is interviewed for the article.
The family of Chelmsford woman who died a day after thyroid surgery at Brockton Hospital was awarded $14.5 million by Middlesex County, Massachusetts jury in a medical malpractice case this week after five hours of deliberation. Pursuant to favorable provision of Massachusetts law, the award included more than $5 million in interest.
Plaintiff’s decedent was a 30 year-old woman who went to the doctor because of a lump on her thyroid gland. Her surgeons did a biopsy on the benign lump but in recovery someone noticed that her abdomen was swollen and her stomach and legs had turned blue. She apparently developed abdominal compartment syndrome from air that had gotten into her stomach.
The doctors did what they should have done initially. The operated again and released the air. Unfortunately, the surgeons immediately closed the wound immediately without letter all of the air escape. She was flown to Boston Medical Center for surgery but died later that day.
I cannot imagine how this case went to trial. Often the doctor’s medical malpractice lawyers defend these cases on the basis of the difficulty of diagnosis of abdominal compartment because it often occurs in patients with other causes of circulatory or respiratory failure. So the plaintiff’s medical malpractice claim is usually defended on the basis that the doctor did not diagnose abdominal compartment syndrome because the patient’s symptomology was consistent with other problems and the patient died or suffered severe injury before the condition was uncovered. In this Boston medical malpractice case, diagnosis was not the problem. Instead, it was the conduct after of the doctors after they knew of the condition that led to the medical malpractice.
One more comment about the case: when the woman was in trouble, they transported her by helicopter to another Boston hosptial. If I'm getting elective surgery, I much rather do it at the hosptial where they are going to be sending me if a problem does occur.
You can find the Boston Globe story on this case here.
Welcome to our blog covering injury law and policy throughout the United States.
