Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog

A jury recently awarded $2 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit to the family of a woman who died after being given medication following the delivery of her baby. The jury determined that the doctor was negligent in giving medication to the new mother.

For the full article.

A young woman who decided to wear the Ortho Evra patch to control her migraines ended up in the emergency room with a 8 inch cerebral venous thrombosis. This thrombosis was in the crown of her head and went all the way down and wrapped around the right side of the jugular vein. Her doctor believed that since she had no clotting factors the only cause of her blood clot could be the Ortho Evra patch. Six months after the blood clot was discovered it was still in the young woman and she was on two kinds of blood thinners. After this medical malpractice incident the woman found other woman who had similar problems with the patch. There were two people who had died, one woman in the ICU and one woman who had a stroke. This medical malpractice case is a grave example of how a medical product can cause horrible problems. To read the full story, click here.

After the heparin contamination last year, the FDA is now forming a pilot program to study 100 applicants in their hopes to promote safety in foreign pharmaceutical ingredients. The heparin contamination was produced by foreign companies where numerous deaths were the result of adverse drug reactions to the substance. The FDA focuses on those companies that pose the highest risk in importing products that disobey FDA’s standards.

For the full story, click here.

Two year old Emily Jerry died from a pharmacy medication error. She was given a fatal dosage of chemotherapy. Prior to her death, the little girl suffered a coma from the large overdose of medication. Emily’s Law was created to regulate pharmacy technicians like the one who overdosed Emily. The law requires pharmacy technicians to be at least 18, registered with the State board of Pharmacy, and pass a Board-approved competency exam.

For the full story, click here.

Researchers received $3.7 million to find ways to reduce medical error in various hospital and pharmacy departments. Researchers will try to develop safe ways in handling patient test results because receiving results are more difficult in larger hospital institutions. Also, the researchers will try and find safer ambulatory sedations. Another goal is to reduce medication error from high-risk medications.

For the full story, click here.

The instructions on the cancer drugs Erbitux and Vecitibix should include specific information on a gene mutation that affects whether the medicines will work. Recent studies found that a mutation in the KRAS gene renders the drugs ineffective in colon cancer patients. Overall, the drugs reduced by 30 percent the risk of a patient’s colon cancer worsening. A more detailed analyses showed that patients with the specific KRAS mutation fared much worse than those with a normal KRAS gene. The FDA advisory panel said new types of analyses may be required to better screen people for gene mutations, and they also suggested larger clinical trials may be necessary to determine other biochemical influences on drug performance. The FDA is currently working to identify genes that interact with medications although they already require patients to undergo genetic testing before they’re prescribed certain drugs. To read the full story, click here.

Medical examiner Jan Garavaglia, M.D., offers tips on how to stay alive in her new book. First, she claims there are “1.7 million health care induced infections each year” that can be avoided. Second, she remembers her most memorable autopsy of a young boy who was given the wrong medicine due to pharmacy error and specifies ways on avoiding this deadly error.

For the full story, click here.

In order to avoid harmful drug interactions, it is a good idea to keep an updated list of medicines that you are taking in your wallet and next to the phone. Give a copy to a family member or caregiver. Be sure to describe your medications at your medical appointments. Include any herbal treatments and dietary supplements. Before you add any new drugs to your regimen, consult a physician. Do NOT take any medications that have been prescribed to someone else. Make a new year’s resolution to do your best to avoid harmful drug interactions.

For the full article.

Heparin manufactured by Baxter, an Illinois based company, contained a contaminant which produced adverse effects such as hypotension, nausea, and shortness of breath. After this detection, APP Pharmaceuticals, also from Illinois, became the major supplier of Heparin in the United States. APP hopes to lead a safety initiative that will essentially reduce medical errors in the future.

For the full story click here.

Hospira, a global medication delivery company, is voluntarily recalling a plastic product used to administer injections. A small number of products may be incorrectly labeled. Adverse effects from error may result in electrolyte imbalance, cardiac dysfunction, gastrointestinal disturbances, paresthesia and mental confusion.

For the full story click here.

At least 17 babies were given excessive amounts of blood thinner heparin at a hospital, possibly leading to two deaths. After investigation, the hospital concluded the error occurred in their pharmacy. The hospital contends there were no adverse effects due to the overdose. One family with twins subjected to the overdose is considering filing a lawsuit.

For the full article click here.

An elderly woman had been taking the Digitek heart drug in belief that it would protect her against future heart attacks. She then died while taking the drug just 5 days before the drug maker, Actavis Totowa, issued a Class I Digitek recall. The elderly woman’s caretaker noticed that after she started taking the medication she was becoming weak, having breathing problems and shortness of breath. The woman would go to the emergency room and stay overnight, but nobody ever told them what the problem was. The elderly woman would complain of nausea and began to suffer incontinence. She was also retaining fluid and getting weaker and weaker. The woman died of a heart attack on April 20th, 2008 and Actavis Totowa issued their recall on April 25, 2008. The company issued a nationwide recall for oral use because some tablets were double their normal strength, a manufacturing error, and a potentially life-threatening one. Now the woman’s family is looking into her medical records because they feel certain that Digitek had something to do with her untimely death. To read the full story, click here.

A study published last week in the British Medical Journal finds that half of US doctors prescribe placebos to their patients, instead of drugs necessary for their treatment. These placebos, the survey explains, are sometimes vitamins or drugs that will not help the patients’ conditions. Moreover, the survey finds that many of the physicians are engaging in these practices without the knowledge of their patients, contravening American Medical Association recommendations, which advocate that patients be given full knowledge of treatments that they are given, and potentially constituting medical malpractice.

Patients have the right to determine what they want they want done to their bodies. Before administering treatment or performing a medical procedure, a physician is required to provide his or her patient with adequate information about the treatment or procedure and the risks and benefits associated with it in order for the patient to give his or her informed consent. Failing to provide this information results in a lack of informed consent. If this failure causes the patient to suffer a personal injury or death, the doctor can be found liable for medical malpractice.

For the full story, click here.

A top government health official rejected pediatricians’ calls for an immediate ban on over-the-counter cough and cold medicines for young children, saying it might cause unintended harm. The pediatricians said they were uncomfortable with the lack of solid scientific data to support continued use of OTC remedies with youngsters, particularly from ages 2-6. The FDA believes a ban might only drive parents to give adult medicines to their youngsters. Pediatricians are urging the government to demand a recall of over-the-counter cough and cold medicines for children younger than 6. They claim the effectiveness of the medicines in children was never proven, and problems with the drugs send thousands of kids to the emergency room every year. The pediatricians say that over the counter products are ineffective for treating coughs and colds in children under 6, and should not be given because of the risk of serious side effects. Everyone agrees that these medications should not be given to anyone under the age of 2. To read the full story, click here.

Federal health officials said that they were reviewing a higher rate of deaths among patients treated with a Johnson & Johnson anemia drug in a study of stroke patients. Sixteen percent of patients who were treated with the drug, Eprex, had died three months after the study began, compared with 9 percent who were given a placebo, the FDA said in a statement. The study was testing whether Eprex could improve brain function in stoke patients which is an unapproved use of the drug. Expex is known generically as epoetin alfa, which is also known as Procrit. The drugs are part of a class called ESAs which are approved for treating patients with kidney disease and cancer. The safety of ESAs came under scrutiny after studies found tumor growth or shorter survival for some patients given high doses. The higher death rate in the study “suggests the need to closely monitor patients enrolled in other ongoing trials for adverse outcomes and to evaluate whether the potential benefits for enrolled patients outweigh the risks in these trials. To read the full story, click here.

In November, the Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether a woman whose arm was amputated may keep more than $6 million from a jury award. The award was against a pharmaceutical company who failed to warn her adequately about the risks of one of its drugs. The woman went to a clinic suffering from a migraine and was given the drug Phenergan for nausea. When Phenergan is exposed to arterial blood it causes swift gangrene, which caused the woman to lose her arm. The Supreme Court will decide whether the doctrine of “pre-emption” can be applied which would bar injured consumers from suing in state court when the products that hurt them had met federal standards. Business groups have vigorously pursued pre-emption arguments in a hope to build a barrier against many kinds of injury suits. By leaving the case to the state, the jury is allowed to view the safety of the drug through the lens of a single patient who has already been catastrophically injured. To read the full story, click here.

Earlier this year, the US Supreme Court decided that there was a federal law barring suits against makers of government-approved medical devises such as pacemakers. Now, the Court will consider whether to extend the shield against lawsuits to the makers of prescription medicines and over-the-counter drugs. The current case before the court concerns a 62-year-old musician whose right arm was amputated after an anti-nausea drug was improperly injected into an artery and caused gangrene. She was successful in her medical malpractice suit and was awarded $6.7 million. The pharmaceutical company is appealing the medical malpractice suit saying that it should be thrown out. They claim that the FDA should decide whether a drug is safe or dangerous, not a jury. This would be changing the historical right to a civil jury trial as a protection for consumers. Consumer rights advocates state that companies should not have immunity from liability that ordinary citizens don’t have. To read the full story, click here.

The FDA ordered stronger warnings on four medications widely used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other serious illnesses, saying they can raise the risk of possibly fatal fungal infections. The four drugs, Enbrel, Remicade, Humira and Cimzia, work by suppressing the immune system to keep it from attacking the body. The drug works to relieve swollen and painful joints, but it also lowers the body’s defenses to infections. The FDA became concerned after discovering that doctors seemed to be overlooking a kind of fungal infection called histoplasmosis. Of 240 cases reported to the agency in which patients taking one of the four drugs developed this infection, 45 (20 percent) died. Patients are advised to call their doctors if they develop persistent fever, cough, shortness of breath or fatigue, which can be signs of the fungal infection. To read the full story, click here.

A federal judge decided to unseal confidential materials about the top-selling drug Zyprexa, citing “the health of hundreds of thousands of people” and “fundamental questions” about the way drugs are approved for new uses. Class-action suits claim that the pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly, hid the side effects of the drug and marketed in for unapproved uses. Patients claim to Zyprexa caused excessive weight gain and diabeties. The judge stated that Lilly’s legitimate interest in confidentiality does not outweigh the public interest in disclosure at this stage. Drug and Pharmacy Errors are of great public concern and pharmaceutical companies are required to inform consumers of all possible side effects. To read the full story, click here.

A class action lawsuit has been launched for personal injuries and wrongful deaths sustained by many families against the makers of Tylenol 3, a product which contains codeine. Mothers who are breast feeding their children and taking the drug codeine may be at a previously unknown risk for placing their infants at harm. The product liability lawsuit claims that the pharmaceutical drug can cause personal injuries to infants including infant deaths because when taken by some woman the drug is naturally converted from codeine to morphine that is passed along to their infant via breast milk. Many doctors who recommend the drug after hearing these risks may be liable to their patients for medical malpractice. To read the full story click here.

A wrongful death suit has been filed against a doctor and hospital claiming negligent administration of pain medication. The victim of the alleged medical malpractice went to the hospital to undergo an elective ankle surgery procedure. During the course of the surgery the patient died. The million dollar medical malpractice lawsuit is alleging that pain medication was given in incorrect doses causing the patient to die. To read the full story click here.

Tammy Rothwell thought that her new prescription drug Mirapex was a miracle for easing the symptoms of her Parkinson’s disease, but a new issue arose as her muscle tremors diminished. Rothwell had never gambled in her life and was careful with money until she began taking Mirapex and started compulsively spending $200 a day on lottery tickets and irrationally buying things like 100 tubes of lipstick. In two years, she spent more than $70,000. Rothwell reports feeling as though she was another person while on Mirapex, she had lost control over her actions.

Rothwell is not alone, however, a study was recently conducted that revealed more than 13 percent of patients taking a class of drug called dopamine agonists, which are sold under names like Mirapex and Requip, suffer from at least one of four behavioral addictions. Among the addictions are gambling problems, heightened sexual interest, compulsive spending, and compulsive eating. This news may change the way that doctors treat Parkinson’s patients. Read more here.

Medical malpractice lawsuits are sure to arise after a Texas hospital is responsible for overdosing babies with the blood thinner heparin. The heparin overdoses lead to at least 17 babies suffering injuries. The medication dosing error caused one of the babies to die. The other babies have sustained severe personal injuries due to the hospital’s negligence. This tragic story is reminiscent of the tragedy that occurred to Dennis Quaid’s twins who were also given improper heparin doses. To read more about the hospital’s pharmaceutical dosing error click here.

Six people are dead and three injured after a medical helicopter crashed into another medical helicopter. The medical helicopter crashes came after the planes were transporting injured patients to the hospital. Medical errors are thought to be grounded in hospitals such as medical malpractice physician errors, pharmaceutical errors or medical device liability claims. This plane accident sheds light on a growing problem of medical helicopter crashes which raises questions about liability for the patient’s health and for the health of hospital and medical employees. To read about the most recent crash click here.

A new tort reform bill proposed in the House of Representatives may bring justice to those who face medical device defects and have pharmaceutical liability claims. The bill, titled the Medical Device Safety Act would allow those to bring product liability suits even on products approved by the FDA. This bill would allow those who suffered personal injuries from medical device defects and defective drugs to have a cause of action against the makers of such products. To read more about this tort reform that allows this nation to head in a positive direction click here.

Following revelations that GlaxoSmithKline misrepresented the suicide risk associated with Paxil, an antidepressant, a recent study has concluded that the drug may also double the risk of congenital malformations in newborns. This study follows the release of information that taking Paxil may lead to an 8 times greater risk of suicide. The company had previously artificially reduced the risk of suicide by improperly counting patients who took placebos.

Similarly, women who took Paxil while pregnant and gave birth to babies with severe birth defects are outraged believing that GlaxoSmithKline may once again have misrepresented the dangers of their drug. Many of these women argue that if they had been properly informed about the risk of birth defects, they likely would not have taken Paxil during their first trimester.

For more information, click here:

In 1999 a survey was conducted by the Institute of Medicine that reported between 48,000 and 98,000 Americans dying yearly as a result of preventable medical errors. Specifically, medication errors and neglect were to blame for the deaths. Shockingly, this makes hospital errors the eighth highest cause of death in the United States, above car crashes. The most mistakes occurred in hospitals run by the Veterans Health Administration. Apparently almost ten years has made little difference in VA hospitals, as lawsuits and complaints against them are numerous. A possible explanation for the high rate of errors is that VA doctors do not have to pay their own malpractice insurance since the government pays out for any harm caused by a doctor’s negligence. Further, the caliber of VA doctors may be lower than the general population; take, for example; Dr. Veizaga-Mendez, who was hired by the VA even though he had a history of medical malpractice lawsuits and claims against him. Hopefully the onslaught of medical malpractice lawsuits and allegations will instigate a change in VA hospitals.

Read more here.

A pharmaceutical lawsuit has been filed against Baxter after an individual received tainted heparin. The tainted product given to the 38 year old man lead him to suffer from serious personal injuries, pain and suffering and emotional trauma. There is likely a medical malpractice suit to be alleged against the dialysis clinic where the individual received the tainted medication from. To see the full story click here.

A new study shows a link between certain medications and increased risk of death or hospitalization. Antipsychotic drugs may lead to increased risk of hospitalization and death, a new study reports. The study analyzed a group of elderly patients that were prescribed antipsychotic medications like Haldol (haloperidol), Risperdal (risperidone) and Zyprexa (olanzapine). The patients were 3.2 times more likely to die or be hospitalized for antipsychotic medication injuries than those who did not receive any antipsychotic medication. This study raises concerns about the need to prescribe medication to older patients when nonmedication therapies could suffice.

Read more about the antipsychotic medication injuries here.

Army Hospitals have a growing problem with drug overdoses and patient deaths due to drug overdoses and interactions. Since June of last year, there has been an increase in the number of incidents of accidental drug overdoses to patients in Army hospitals. Additionally, some patients have died from drug interactions. In one recent patient death from drug interactions, the Sergeant actually told his doctors he was feeling disoriented as a result of the medication and that he could not function. The doctors did not alter the medication or determine if there was an interaction and the Sergeant later died. Patients and their families can help to alert doctors to side effects and possible drug interactions and should be certain to follow up with their doctor immediately. Patients of government-run, Army, and Veterans' Administration hospitals may have recourse under the Federal Tort Claims Act if they are injured.

Read more here.

As many medical schools don’t have conflict of interest policies that are as strong as hospitals’, drug companies often market directly to young doctors and students to gain an advantage. Many drug companies spend billions in marketing to doctors and students which is more than they spend on research or marketing. The Association of American Medical Colleges hopes that by limiting drug companies’ access to students to help cure conflicts of interest, bias, and curb the reciprocal benefit exchange between doctors and drug companies. Hopefully, medical schools following this program might help to curb medical malpractice and conflicts of interest in the future.

Read the full article here.

The case of Heparin contaminated with unknown toxins and imported from China continues to claim lives. To date, more than 81 deaths are linked to contaminated Heparin in the US and more may be discovered soon. The FDA says that the deaths from contaminated Heparin are a direct result of an allergic reaction to the toxin in some patients. The Chinese government denies that the contamination caused any deaths, though they do acknowledge that large batches of Heparin were contaminated. The Double lesson here is not just that drugs can be easily contaminated from foreign sources, but that two congressional hearings have highlighted just how under-funded and under-prepared the FDA is currently.

Read more on this story here.

The FDA has received 62 reports of deaths over the past 15 months of patients who were treated with heparin, made by Chicago-area Baxter International. In Cook county, Dennis Quaid, a popular actor, has filed suit against Baxter for the wrongful death of his twin daughters after they received excessive doses of heparin. Baxter recalled most of its heparin products in February.

For the full story please click here.

According to a recent industry newsletter, jurors often misconceive the role of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in approving new drugs and how pharmaceutical manufacturers create their prescription drug labels. Jurors often believe that the FDA is responsible for pharmaceutical research. In fact it is just the opposite: private drug companies produce their own studies for FDA approval. Additionally, many jurors believe that the pharmaceutical companies have sole control of warning label contents. Though the FDA has some oversight of label contents, a recent article shows that drug companies can hide information from the FDA to prevent certain risks and side effects from appearing on warning labels. Questions and misconceptions about the FDA’s role will continue with increased litigation on the FDA liability shield issue currently pending before the Supreme Court.

To read the full newsletter, please click here.

The Supreme Court will hear a case next term that could decide whether drug companies may escape liability for harm caused by their products and hide behind FDA approval. The issue in the case involves Johnson & Johnson’s prescription birth control patch, Ortho Evra, which delivered much more estrogen than the company originally disclosed. The Ortho Evra patch was a popular form of birth control as an alternative to the birth control pill. For women, medication dosing errors of estrogen may cause an increased risk of blood clots and strokes and has been linked to one death.

Read the full text of the original article here.

Continue reading "Supreme Court Will Decide if Drug Companies Can Hide Behind FDA" »

A new study published in the journal Pediatrics shows that about 1 in 15 children are harmed each year by medication dosing errors at hospitals. The study revealed that children are harmed by dosing errors and incorrect medication substantially more often than previously thought. The study also revealed that some of these dosing errors and patient injuries could be prevented easily.

Medication dosing errors in children are the central issue in popular actor Dennis Quaid’s lawsuit in Chicago against Deerfield, Illinois-based Baxter Healthcare. Quaid is suing Baxter, a large pharmaceutical manufacturer, after Quaid’s baby twins received a Heparin overdose. The medical malpractice lawsuit is pending before Judge Quinn in the Circuit Court of Cook County.

The full text of the Pediatrics study is available here.

A woman who suffered a seizure as a result of negligent manufacturing of a drug and medical malpractice is seeking compensation for her preventable medical expenses but has repeatedly been denied. After having worn a pain patch containing a Fentanyl gel for several years, it unexpectedly leaked, exposing the woman directly to Fentanyl, a powerful opiate 80 times stronger than morphine. After overdosing on Fentanyl, the woman went to the emergency room where she was mistakenly administered twice the recommended dosage of a drug used to counter overdoses, leading to a seizure. She sought compensation from the hospital for her unnecessary medical bills, but her requests continue to be denied. The patch has been recalled from the market.

For the full article, click here:

The FDA announced it will begin examining a potential link between a popular allergy drug and suicide. The review was prompted by three-to-four reports the FDA received about patients using the drug committing suicide. The drugs listed side effects already include tremors, anxiousness, depression and suicidal thinking and behavior. In response to the announcement, the company has stated it will list reports of suicide on the drug’s label. If a link is found by the FDA, consumers must once again wonder how truthful drug companies are in reporting clinical research relating to the side effects of mass-market drugs.

For the full article, click here:

In a recent medical malpractice lawsuit, a birth injury that was allegedly caused by a nurse-doctor communication breakdown yielded a $1.2 million settlement. Nurses were concerned that the birth was taking too long, but were hesitant to consult the doctor about these fears due to his reputation of angry responses to perceived criticism. The infant developed cerebral palsy.

Physicians too commonly react harshly to instances where they feel bothered by the nursing staff, such as late-night clarification requests, difficulties with procedures, changes in patient condition and more. The negative consequences of verbal abuse or disruption in hospitals are significant; reduced communication, team collaboration, information transfer and concentration are all reported as responses to disruptive behavior. Patient safety is compromised in many ways by these reported breakdowns. Medical errors increase in disruptive or abusive situations and the quality of care decreases. Patient mortality increases with these outbursts. Medication errors have also been caused by verbally abusive hospital staff relations.

Click here for the full article

Continue reading "Hospital conduct leads to reduced patient safety and medical malpractice lawsuits" »

If physicians do not warn patients of the risks medications have on driving ability, they now can be held liable in an automobile accident lawsuit. In a recent suit, a boy was killed in a car accident by a man prescribed eight different medications by his doctor and was not warned of their side effects. The doctor now faces a wrongful death lawsuit based on his medical negligence. According to the mother of the victim's attorney, the doctor should have warned his patient that the medications he was prescribed are known to have certain side effects such as drowsiness, dizziness and fainting. The doctor should also have warned his patient not to drive. The doctor claimed that this medical mistake was too far removed from the car accident tragedy, but the court ruled that a possible consequence of that negligence could be harm to others.

Over 628 patients were notified by state officials that they should be tested for HIV and Hepatitis. They were all patients of the same doctor who, between 2000 and 2005, used unsafe practices in the administration of drugs by injection. Although the doctor was correctly used a different needle each time, the doctor should also have been using a different syringe for each drug administered. By using only one syringe per patient, this created the potential for the spread of blood-borne illnesses. The doctor’s actions were not discovered until two of his patients recently contracted Hepatitis C.

Click here for the full article

Foreign drug company Bayer AG, has pulled Trasylol from U.S. shelves. Trasylol has been used to reduce blood loss for patients undergoing by-pass surgery and avoid transfusions. The drug was pulled amid concerns that it may be linked to a higher risk of death than other drugs. So far, no major lawsuits have been filed.

The FDA announced it would review Trasylol last month after a clinical experiment was halted when the drug appeared to be linked to a higher risk of death. There was also a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in January of last year which advised against continued use of the drug because of the risk of kidney failure, and increased risk of heart attacks, heart failure and strokes.

Click here for the full article

A recent study reviewed almost nine hundred medical malpractice claims to find that 27% of those cases involved errors by residents, interns, or fellows. The result of these errors frequently resulted in substantial personal injuries or death, despite the fact that many of the errors occurred in the outpatient setting.

Researchers also looked at how these errors by residents, interns, or fellows could have been prevented. They noted that errors in their judgment resulted in 72% of the medical malpractice claims. More than half of these medical trainees errors were due to a lack of supervision. The study concluded that there is a relationship between poor teamwork to preventable errors and quality of care.

Click here for the full article.

The wife of an Illinois man who bled to death after routine surgery at Downstate VA Hospital in southern Illinois recently began filing a lawsuit against the US Department of Veteran Affairs. A surgeon, who was barred from practicing in another state, was the doctor caring for that Illinois patient. The doctor had been accused of causing life-threatening complications and deaths by providing "grossly substandard care" and making repeated medical mistakes. Downstate VA Hospital in southern Illinois suspended inpatient surgeries shortly after the man bled to death in response to an increasing amount of post-surgical deaths. The hospital serves veterans in southern Illinois and other nearby areas in other states. The surgeon who spurred the chain of events had been linked to deaths all over the country. A surgical error caused a death after the doctor caused a blood infection and respiratory failure by allowing a stitch to dislodge in a man's esophagus. On another occasion he mistakenly put stitches in a patient's bladder during a hernia repair causing years of pain. He made misdiagnoses, delayed diagnoses, and used improper surgical methods, all leading to unnecessary surgeries, pain, and hospitalizations. The list does not stop there. The State of Illinois continued his license after learning it was revoked in another state. It was not difficult to find his record status even if the state hadn't been alerted. The Illinois VA hospital was responsible for a mortality rate over four times the normal amount. The barred surgeon was involved in all of them.

Click here for the full article

A transplant surgeon was recently charged with purposely advancing the death of a patient in order to recover his organs. A medical malpractice and wrongful death lawsuit was filed. The transplant community is extremely worried that this allegation could steer people away from offering their organs for donation. When people are deciding whether or not to donate their organs, one of the biggest fears and deterrents is that doctors will hasten their death. The transplant community has been working hard to reverse this mentality and this recent charge is a serious setback. There are about 97,000 people nationally are currently awaiting a transplant.

Click here for the full article.

The mother of a 26-year-old man has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the doctor and others she alleges prescribed overdoses of medication to speed up his death. The claim alleges that the doctor prescribed overdoses of morphine and Ativan and injected a topical antiseptic into the man's stomach. As a result of the alleged medical malpractice, the man had suffered irreversible brain damage and was put on a respirator. When his mother gave approval to donate his organs, the California Transplant Donor Network sent a surgical team to handle the transplant. In California, however, it is illegal for transplant doctors to treat potential organ donors before they are declared dead. The doctor is charged with felony counts of dependent adult abuse, administering a harmful substance and unlawful prescription of a controlled substance.

Click here for the full article

Today, a federal scientist announced that diabetes drug Avandia should be pulled from the market. Avandia drug maker Glaxo Smith Kline of course disputes these recommendations.

The expert maintains that Avandia should be pulled from the market because of heart risks associated with consuming the drug and the drug’s lack of any unique short-term benefits in maintaining blood-sugar levels for diabetics.

The FDA is currently meeting to determine whether Avandia should be restricted or completely pulled from the market. The FDA was alerted to the dangers of Avandia by a New England Journal of Medicine study that showed a 43% higher risk of heart attack by those taking Avandia compared with patients taking alternative diabetes medication.

Patients who have endured heart attacks or heart problems and who have taken Avandia may be entitled to compensation for these injuries.

Click here for the full article

The families of three elderly women have ordered medical records from University of Chicago Hospitals, commonly the first step taken in filing a medical malpractice lawsuit. The two women who died and the woman that remains in a coma were all being cared for in the same wing. Their deaths and the coma may all be caused by insulin overdoses. One of the women, who entered the hospital with a urinary tract infection, showed that her insulin level was hundreds of times higher than normal at the time of death, while hospital records revealed that the woman was never officially given insulin. Another woman, who was suffering from pressure ulcers and wound infections, died after being admitted to the hospital. Police continue to investigate her case. The third woman was admitted for a brain aneurysm and now suffers from a brain injury and remains in a coma after displaying unusually high levels of insulin as well. Chicago police continue to investigate and the families move closer to filing suit.

Click here for the full article

The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) have issued an alert regarding Propofol, and anesthetic commonly known as Diprivan. Several clusters of patients have reported experiencing chills, fever and body aches after being administered the drug. If you or someone you know has received Propofol for sedation of general anesthesia and subsequently experienced fever, chills, and body aches or other symptoms please make a report to the MedWatch program. Those patients should also be evaluated for bacterial sepsis. At this point, no product liability lawsuits have been filed.

Click here to view the FDA alert

A personal injury lawsuit has been filed against an Illinois pharmacy because it gave a concentrated dose of phenobarbital to a child. The child's prescription called for 16.2mg tablets, but she was instead given 60mg tablets. When she arrived at St. Louis Children's Hospital less than two weeks later, the child's injuries included phenobarbital overdose, hypercapnia, acidosis, altered mental state and right lung collapse.

Click here for the full article.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation suspended both the physician and surgeon license of Gerald Saul Kane, M.D., of Chicago suburb Highland Park. Three patients treated by Dr. Kane received a surplus of multiple prescriptions in a short period of time. This included more than 20,000 doses of OxyContin and other pain killers and controlled substances. Two patients died of drug overdoses shortly after receiving their last prescriptions from Dr. Kane. The department alleges that the doctor did not appropriately treat these patients by failing to prescribe medically appropriate amounts of controlled substances and failed to monitor the patients for signs of dependence on these drugs, leading to the wrongful death of the two patients. The department issued his summary claiming that allowing Dr. Kane to continue to practice medicine after this medical malpractice would put the safety of the public in danger. His license has been suspended and his license to prescribe controlled substances has been revoked.

A personal injury suit between a Chicago area dentist and a man who died while in the dentist's care was settled for $1,135,000. The wrongful death action alleged that the dentist administered intravenous sedation but failed to properly monitor the Chicago, Illinois man. When the dentist realized that the man had stopped breathing, he then administered the wrong drug in an attempt to resuscitate him. Paramedics were called, but they were unable to revive the man.

The Chicago area resident went to the dentist to have a tooth pulled.

Click here for the full article.

A recent study by two hospitals said that overcrowded hospitals are pushing too hard to streamline and cut costs. These goals are putting their patients at risk of medical malpractice such as medication errors, nerve injuries, infections, and other easily preventable mistakes. The study found that hospital goals of cutting costs and improving patient safety are working against each other.

For the full article.

In March 2004 when Sanofi-Aventis SA reported data on their "miracle" obesity drug, it attracted instant attention. To date, however, the drug has not hit the U.S. market. The FDA has asked for more research and has delayed approval for the drug as an obesity treatment and rejected it for smoking cessation. The side effects associated with the drug Acomplia include depression and anxiety and are giving the FDA cause for concern. The FDA has a meeting scheduled for June 13 to review Acomplia, which could be a precursor to a final decision.

For the full article.

Vioxx's maker, Merck & Co., is asking the Food and Drug Administration to approve a successor to the pulled drug Vioxx that was found to increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. This week, an FDA advisory committee will hold a public meeting on the new drug Arcoxia, a Cox-2 inhibitor. The FDA is expected to rule before May on whether to the Vioxx successor.

For the full article.

A Congressional committee recently began an inquiry into the marketing and regulation of widely used anemia drugs that have raised safety concerns. The anemia drugs may cause patients to suffer complications and die earlier. The House has sent letters to the drugs’ marketers, requesting information about what they knew of the possible risks and their promotional methods. The letters also request the pharmaceutical companies to suspend any consumer advertising or incentive programs for doctors until the FDA has time to determine whether further safety precautions are necessary.

For the full article.

Recent studies are raising concerns about whether drugs that have been used by millions of cancer patients might actually be harming them. The popularly used drugs, sold by Amgen, Roche, and Johnson & Johnson, are used to treat anemia caused by chemotherapy and meant to reduce the need for blood transfusions in addition to giving patients more energy. The new studies, however, suggest that the drugs may make the cancer itself worse. The FDA is planning an advisory committee meeting to review the products.

For the full article.

One common form of medical malpractice is preventable drug-related injuries. At least 1.5 million occurred in 2006. Of those, 98,000 deaths occurred both because of mistakes in administering drugs and because of infections contracted in hospitals. A recent article offered a potential solution in new technologies. The technology discussed continually verifies that when the medication is drawn at the nursing station, it is checked against the patient record, confirming the time and dose. If implemented successfully in hospitals nationwide, the overwhelming number of preventable drug-related injuries could be avoided.

For the full article.

A jury recently awarded a couple who suffered from pharmaceutical company Wyeth’s hormone-replacement drug $1.5 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit. The 60 year-old woman developed breast cancer after taking the drug to relieve symptoms of menopause. She has undergone two surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation and is currently cancer-free. The jury also found that Wyeth acted with malice or reckless disregard because Wyeth knew of research indicating a link between the drug and cancer. At its peak, Wyeth sold $2 billion a year in hormone-replacement drugs. There are about 4500 lawsuits against Wyeth over its hormone-replacement drugs pending.

For the full article.

In 2002, the National Quality Forum created a list of adverse medical malpractice issues and in 2006, they updated it. This list contains serious medical malpractice events that are easily preventable and have dire consequences.

1. Switching donor eggs or sperm, resulting in paternity mixups.
2. Leaving of sponges or instruments inside a surgery patient.
3. Disappearance of a patient from a facility.
4. Medication errors (wrong drug, wrong patient, wrong dose, etc.)
5. Giving wrong blood type.
6. Electric shock to a patient.
7. Fall of a patient.
8. Surgery on wrong body part of body.
9. Surgery performed on wrong patient.
10. Wrong surgery performed on patient.
11. Death during or after surgery on a healthy patient under anesthesia.
12. Contaminated drugs or medical devices.
13. Medical device malfunction or improper use.
14. Air embolisms.
15. Babies discharged to wrong parents.
16. Patient suicide.
17. Death or injury of a mother during low-risk pregnancy.
18. A patient developing hypoglycemia.
19. Failing to identify high bilirubin in infants, leading to death.
20. Advanced pressure sores.
21. Death or injury in spine manipulative therapy.
22. Oxygen or other gas lines being switched or contaminated.
23. Burn of a patient.
24. Injury or death from restraints or bed rails.
25. Impersonation of a health care working
26. Kidnapping of a patient.
27. Sexual assault of a patient.
28. Assault or battery between staffers.

For more information about the list.

A jury recently awarded a woman almost $8 million after she lost the use of her only kidney when a local drugstore gave her five times the amount of medication that she was supposed to receive. The pharmacy malpractice occurred when there was a miscommunication between two drug stores resulted in the woman being told to take 1250 milligrams of an anti-rejection drug for her kidney transplant instead of 250 milligrams. The pharmacy computer system flagged the prescription, but a worker filled it using a manual override.

For the full article.

FDA recently proposed new warning labels for over-the-counter painkillers, such as Tylenol or Advil. The FDA last week called for new labeling to warn patients about the risk of liver damage when taken in high doses or with alcohol. Experts state that consumers should not shy from the drugs; rather, they should only use the painkillers in the lowest doses necessary.

For the full article.

Recently, the FDA proposed stronger warning labels to several commonly used over the counter painkillers. However, experts state that this should not scare consumers into avoiding the products completely. Rather, experts say that this proposal should act as a reminder to users to take the lowest dose needed for the shortest possible time. Users should also be cognizant of all of the ingredients in any medication they intake.

For the full article.

Executives from two dozen drug companies met last month to assess what appears to them to be a harsh new political climate. In hopes of preventing Congress from letting the government negotiate lower drug prices for older Americans on Medicare, the pharmaceutical companies have been actively recruiting more Democratic lobbyists, lining up allies in the Bush administration and Congress, and renewing ties with organizations of patients who depend on brand-name drugs.

In its campaign contributions, pharmaceutical companies overwhelmingly favored Republicans over Democrats. Drug companies worked closely with Republicans to create the Medicare drug benefit, excluding Democrats. Democrats now plan to return the favor. Democrats want to investigate drug pricing and profits, drug advertising aimed at consumers, and the marketing of drugs to doctors for purposes not approved by the FDA . The interaction between drug companies, who have enjoyed prosperous years under the Republican-controlled Congress, and the new political climate will be interesting.

For the full article.

In addition to “playing down” the health risks associated with its Zyprexa drug, Eli Lilly also promoted unapproved use of the drug to physicians. Lilly’s files showed that sales representatives encouraged physicians to use Zyprexa for patients who had neither schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, the conditions that it primarily treats. The “Viva Zyprexa” marketing campaign had sales reps suggest that physicians prescribe the drug to elder patients with dementia. Because adverse drug reactions are a leading cause of death for individuals 65 and older, this drug company must be held accountable.

For the full article.

Two pharmaceutical manufacturing companies recently warned doctors of two deaths among patients receiving Rituxan as a treatment for lupus. Usually used to treat patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and rheumatoid arthritis, the drug is not currently approved as a therapy for lupus.

The patients who had received the drug developed a rare brain infection called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. The FDA posted a public health advisory on its Web site after the two deaths.

For the full article.

According to hundreds of internal Eli Lilly documents and e-mail messages, the drug maker disguised the health risks of Zyprexa, its best-selling medication for schizophrenia, for a decade. Lilly executives hid evidence from doctors about Zyprexa’s links to obesity and its tendency to raise blood sugar.

The drug company’s published data showed that 30% of patients taking the drug gain 22 or more pounds after only a year on the drug. Some patients reported gaining 100 pounds or more. Sales representatives were told to play down the side effects in published data in their conversations with doctors. The drug has become Eli Lilly’s best selling product, with more than $4.2 billion in sales last year.

For the full article.

Before digging in one’s pocket and paying a great deal on pharmaceuticals, consumers must research about the drugs they are prescribed because they could be ineffective. Or, they may be prescribed only because the prescribing physician made a deal with the pharmaceutical company. Here are some shocking statistics about the nature of the pharmaceutical industry:

1. Drug companies spend more than twice as much money on marketing than they do on research!
2. From 1998 to 2003, 487 new drugs came into the market, but only one-third of them contained new ingredients!
3. In 2001, drug companies paid for 60 percent of doctors’ continuing education costs.

Last week, a Chicago jury awarded $31 million to the estate of a man who died as a result of receiving the wrong prescription from a Walgreen’s pharmacy. The award consisted of $25 million in punitive damages. The Cook County jury ruled that Walgreens showed "utter indifference" to people's safety by not keeping accurate track of its medications, thereby allowing a pharmacist to illegally steal and take drugs for eight years before incorrectly filling a Schaumburg man's prescription, leading to his death.

The 77-year-old man took a gout medication called Allopurinol, which he phoned into the Shaumburg Walgreens in January of 2001. The pharmacist James Wilmes, filled the prescription with Glipizide, a diabetes medication. After the man took the pills for two days, he went into a diabetic coma, subsequent kidney failure and eventually died.
It was also revealed that Wilmes had signed a statement when he was fired admitting to taking uppers and other drugs - at a total theft of 86,000 pills over eight years.

Levin & Perconti is currently prosecuting a case involving a prescription mis-filling at a Walgreens pharmacy in Puerto Rico. A 59-year-old man underwent surgery for a liver transplant at the University of Chicago. Doctors prescribed an anti-organ rejection medication called Prograf, which the patient was to take 5mg doses twice daily. The pharmacy mistakenly filled the prescription for 0.5mg, or one-tenth of the prescribed amount. The pharmacy made the same mistake a month later when the patient refilled his prescription, again giving him just one-tenth of the amount prescribed.

The Plaintiff was hospitalized at the University of Chicago Hospital and was told he rejected his liver as a result of being mis-medicated and would need a second liver transplant in order to survive. The transplant for the second liver was successfully completed, however the man required multiple hospitalizations.

After less than a day of deliberations, a New Orleans federal jury awarded a 62-year-old retired FBI agent $50 million in compensatory damages, and an additional $1 million in punitive damages. The man suffered a mild heart attack after taking Vioxx for almost three years.

For the full article.

A doctor is the subject of a medical malpractice lawsuit in the death of a woman for whom the doctor illegally prescribed a hydrogen-peroxide solution to treat her multiple sclerosis.

The same doctor is being sued in a second medical malpractice case by the widow of a man who died of prostate cancer in 2004. The man sought treatment form the doctor who gave him intravenous hydrogen-peroxide treatments and falsely diagnosed him as having Lyme disease. The doctor next prescribed testosterone, which caused the man’s prostate cancer to rapidly advance and resulted in his death about six weeks later.

For the full article.