Fort Lauderdale Injury Lawyer Blawg

Fort Lauderdale drivers need to pay extra attention when driving during the Holiday Season so as to avoid causing heartbreak at this time of year. With the Holiday Season of joy, unfortunately come the higher risks of all of us letting down our guard and possibly being the cause of serious accidents. This is a time of year when we are rushing to complete last minute chores for the Holidays, celebrating with business, family or friends, finishing last minute commitments for the year, and the last thing we need is to be involved in a serious accident that could be avoided.

There are precautions that each of us can do to try to make this Holiday Season more enjoyable, while being safer for each other. Needless to say, we need to be aware of our limitations when we choose to get behind the wheel of a vehicle. Whether it is enjoying a beer with friends, eggnog with family, or toasting at Holiday events, we all need to be aware of how much alcohol we are consuming. With that relaxed feeling that comes with enjoying the holiday cheer we can easily lower our guard and be more susceptible to taking risks, such as operating under the influence. Whenever the opportunity presents itself - err on the side of caution and surrender the driving to another who has not participated in drinking alcohol. Always have an alternative plan, such as a designated driver or enough cab fare to get home.

Furthermore, we need to know that while we can try to control our own sensibilities we cannot be in control of everyone else who is out on the roads who may choose not to be as thoughtful. Therefore, consider limiting your traveling to times in the day when it is less likely that others could be intoxicated. When possible, avoid traveling past midnight. Choose to stay over someone else's home (or at a hotel) in lieu of traveling late at night; that imposition may turn out to be life saving.

Above all, choose to mix safety with your holiday cheer.

Continue reading "Fort Lauderdale Holiday Accident Risks - Need For Vigilant Care" »

The products liability attorneys are alleging that DePuy should have known of the high percentage of failure in many of the patients who have received these implants. Common symptoms associated with many of the patients complaining of these failures have been: symptoms associated with sever pain, inflammation, necrotic tissue and bone, partial or complete loss of range of motion or mobility and the need for revision to excise and replace the implant, causing more significant issues for longer recoveries, and of course, the associated risks of all the known and predictable complications arising from such surgery, including death.

Products liability attorneys are alleging that DePuy and Johnson & Johnson have received hundreds of complaints made to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2007 through 2008, but didn't issue a recall until late August of 2010. The suits also allege that DePuy has offered doctors $50.00 for obtaining their implant recipient's consent to receive their medical records; and are requesting doctors to return the implants that have been removed.

Continue reading "Claims for Faulty DePuy Hip Prosthesis - Fort Lauderdale Products Liability Lawsuits Part II" »

Recent reports have begun emerged regarding the products liability suits that will be brought with regards to DePuy's Hip Replacements. DePuy is a unit of Johnson & Johnson, a company; no stranger to this Fort Lauderdale Injury Attorney and as has been mentioned in many of our blog discussions; as well as through our years of representing prior product injury clients.

Apparently, there are many recipients of the Articular Surface Replacement, the Hip Replacement Device or Implant from DePuy, who are claiming to develop unusual pain. Even possibly more disturbing is the fact that their surgeons, who are replacing the DePuy Orthopaedics and implants, have discovered mysterious masses of dead or necrotic tissue near the patient's thighs. A number of the patients have been alleged to have had high levels of cobalt ions in their blood, causing concern over poisoning risks. Due to the many lawsuits that are being filed, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation has consolidated the suits into the Northern District of Ohio.

Continue reading "Fort Lauderdale Florida Hip Replacements - Patients at Risk With DePuy Hip Prosthesis - Products Liability Lawsuits Part I" »

Continuing with the previous discussion by the Fort Lauderdale Products Liability lawyer's concern over John & Johnson's safety concerns over their products is the report about TBP. TBP is a pesticide and flame retardant employed for the treatment of transportation pallets. The discovery of this contamination which occurred in both 2008 and 2009 caused the recall of several lots of Tylenol Arthritis Relief Caplets. The FDA advised the president of McNeil Consumer Healthcare that the company did not conduct a timely, comprehensive investigation, and that they were unjustifiably delayed and terminated prematurely.

There was also discussion of complaints of uncharacteristic odor received in August of 2009 and that the pharmaceutical manufacturer knew of these but failed to share the information with the FDA. The Food and Drug Administration specifically admonished Johnson and Johnson for not having taken appropriate actions to address these issues. Johnson and Johnson issued a recall in April of about 136 million bottles of liquid children's Tylenol and in January recalled millions of bottles of Tylenol, Motrin and other products.

A United States Congressional Committee and the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigation are both individually investigating these recalls. Interestingly, As recently as November the company has recalled 9 million bottles of liquid Tylenol Cold Multi Symptom in addition to 71,000 packages of Rolaids Soft chews as well as 4 million packages of Benadryl and 850,000 bottles of Motrin. McNeil has responded that these were wholesale and retail recalls and were no undertaken because of potential health risks.

Continue reading "Fort Lauderdale Injury Lawyer's Concerns over Rolaids - Part II" »

Once again, the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson is in the news for a potential product liability. The Weston Personal Injury Attorneys have recently been made aware that Johnson & Johnson is recalling several of its Rolaids products because of reports of foreign objects within the over the counter medicine. Claims have reported findings of metal and wood particles inside of the Rolaids products. Several of the products they manufacture have been identified as being potentially dangerous; including Rolaids extra strength soft chews; Rolaids extra strength plus gas soft chews; and Rolaids multi-symptom plus anti-gas soft chews.

Yet it appears as though Johnson & Johnson is apparently denying responsibility. They are alleging that foreign matter in their drugs may have been potentially introduced into the products by an outside manufacturer. Nevertheless, Johnson & Johnson has allegedly suspended production of the questionable products.

Johnson & Johnson is no stranger to product liability failure cases. Furthermore, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a division of Johnson and Johnson has had to recall literally millions of its bottles of the popular over the counter drug Tylenol due to alleged manufacturing flaws. The Food and Drug Administration issued a report citing a myriad of issues with regards to quality failures, failure to identify product defects during testing, failure to discern improper expiration dates on labels, inappropriate investigations and below adequate training of lab staff as well as for failure to obey laboratory controls. The FDA had issued a warning letter to the manufacturer earlier this year on January 15, 2010 by certified mail, discussing specific violations that were observed during the inspections, including the manufacturer's failure to investigate or control discrepancies in violation of 21 CFR Section 211.192. There were concerns of "uncharacteristic odor" complaints, possibly associated with gastrointestinal distress and that allegedly several of the pharmaceutical manufacturer's over the counter drug products may have had contamination in the product or the bottles. A contaminant referred to as degradant of 2,4,6 Tribromophenol (TBP).

Continue reading "A Fort Lauderdale Injury Attorney's Concern over Dangerous Products" »

A recent research article published in The New York Times reflected that the latest information on tracking the hospital industry's efforts to make their facilities safer for patients are falling short. A study performed from 2002-2007 found that harm to patients occurs commonly; and that the number of incidents did not decrease over time.

The most typical were complications from procedures, or drug and hospital acquired infections. A previous study found that medical errors cause as many as 98,000 deaths and greater than one million injuries a year in the United States. A report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies was the forefront for a national movement to address the issues of hazards to patient's health while in the hospital. Some of the issues which were addressed were: severe bleeding during operative procedures, respiratory distress caused by incorrectly performing procedures, a fall that causes hip dislocation and nerve injury and even vaginal cuts caused by the vacuum device employed through child birthing.

This Fort Lauderdale medical malpractice injury attorney has learned of many such incidents and has in fact represented many victims and the families of victims who have suffered such injuries. Most recently, a 90 year old woman who was brought to a local Fort Lauderdale Hospital, with a history at her nursing facility of having fallen without explanation, was left unattended in the emergency room changing area after an examination. The unattended elderly patient fell, injuring her hip - which led to her early demise within weeks from complications thereof.

The problem continues to rise in our hospitals. Figures indicating some 18% of patients were harmed by medical care and that 63% of the injuries were judged to have been preventable. While governmental agency watchdogs can only do so much, it is this Weston personal injury attorney's opinion that more good comes from the efforts of the victim's personal injury claims against the Hospital and the fear of large jury awards against these hospitals than any letters of scorn from a governmental agency, or reports in news media.

Continue reading "A Fort Lauderdale Injury Attorney's Reflection on Safety in Hospitals" »

Mind you, almost every aspect of our society is influenced in this manner by corporate America. You only need to look at the real estate debacle and how the banking industry had not only manipulated people who should have never committed themselves to sometimes uncontrollable debt to agree to mortgages that they could never possibly repay; and how it has caused the world's economy to spiral into the worst economic disaster since the 1929 Depression.

Our country is now at least questioning some of the irrational decisions that we make. This is recently evidenced by the unmistakable popularity of the Tea Party movement. Americans are crying out that we can't take it anymore and demand change. But in this writer's opinion it is still a disorganized movement without a true mission; and therefore powerful changing commitments cannot be formulated. It is this writer's opinion that our society must turn to the true sources of our well being for guidance. And I wholeheartedly submit to you all that unless we identify our true spheres of influence, our righteous leaders and those who should truly support right and wrong, there will be no change.

So I submit to you then rather than being a society that is manipulated and led like sheep to slaughter, we reaffirm our commitments to making educated choices; and therefore going back to a society that relies upon and trusts those who have no other motive than to teach and make positive change. I submit to you that our true spheres of influence should be the academic world and our religious leaders - whose commitments are not driven by corporate profit and greed, but are well seated in goodness and the exploration of true problem solving.

I also submit to you that corporate America needs to be divorced from those areas of trust where we truly need to have the most decent sense of goodness administered. These areas of course would have to be health care, all forms of insurance, education and the legal industry. Mind you, I am not advocating socialism. I strongly support the notion of a fair compensation for ones' services. There is no doubt that our teachers are well underpaid, that so much of our health costs don't go to our doctors, but go to their corporate partners who parasitically receive the majority of our health costs and to insurance companies in the way of trillions of dollars of profits that never go toward satisfying righteous claims.

So the next step is clear. If we identify the problem we as a society must recommit ourselves to right and wrong.

Let's face it, are we not all at the influence of others? Are we not readily influenced by what advertising sells us, what our mass media informs us and by frankly the intentional manipulations of how corporate influencer's direct our belief systems?

A perfect example of how corporate America controls our decision making process is found in our voting system. When is the last time a political candidate was elected without any mass media campaign and without significant sums of money behind them to finance how we perceive a candidate's worth? The simple truth is that we are a society that is easily led by our media. And now, this brings me to my point that the public's perception of the righteousness of most personal injury victim's claims is in large part governed by how corporate America, and particularly the insurance industry has influenced our perceptions having intentionally painted the picture that victims are somehow bad people if they bring a personal injury lawsuit and that the defendant who caused the accident and injury is somehow deserving of our pity. To be continued

Continue reading "Fort Lauderdale Injury Victims: Do We Care?" »