Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog

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.

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Kids are taking herbal supplements in a sign of how mainstream alternative medicine has become. More than one in nine children and teens try these remedies and other nontraditional options. It could be dangerous for children because lack of rigorous testing could be harmful for kids.

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A recent Newsweek article addressed that 42.8 percent of American women use some sort of complementary or alternative medicine. Women should be wary of these medicines and claims for medical cures. The FDA regulates herbal and dietary supplements as food rather than as drugs, so they do not have to meet the same stringent standards as pharmaceuticals.

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Doctors prescribe statin drugs to help lower cholesterol, but carry serious side effects such as muscle pain, neurological disorders, rashes and liver problems. In the latest study, eye disorders may also be attributed to this drug.

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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.

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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 Chicago surgeon is being sued after implanting a device which he invented in a patient, allegedly without consent. The device, a Myxo ETlogix annuloplasty ring, was implanted in the patient in April 2006 by Dr. Patrick McCarthy at Northwestern Memorial Hospital to fix the patient’s leaky heart valve. Dr. McCarthy developed the heart device and receives royalties for its sale, which are donated to a charity. In July, a research paper by Dr. McCarthy was published in a medical journal. The article was based on a study that included the patient and focused on the initial experience with the device. Dr. McCarthy stated that the patient had consented to participate in the study. The patient said that she would not have consented to the use of an experimental device. The doctor denies that the device was experimental but failed to inform the patient that he had invented the ring before proceeding with the implantation. According to medical ethics experts, a patient should be informed if a surgeon will receive royalties on a device that he or she may use in surgery and a patient must agree to take part in medical research, by signing an informed consent form his or her to their involvement in the study.

The patient experienced inflammation following the implantation, was required to undergo a second surgery to remove the device, and is now confronted with the possibility of needing a heart transplant. She filed a lawsuit in Cook County this April against McCarthy, Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Edwards Lifesciences, the device’s manufacturer.

The FDA has received 10 reports on adverse events related to the Myxo ETlogix ring and an investigation is currently underway to determine whether the agency received proper notice about the device.

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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.

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.

Pfizer and Boehringer-Ingelheim have been called before a federal court following a class action lawsuit for the negligent manufacture and distribution of Mirapex, a drug recently given to patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease and Restless Leg Syndrome. The lawsuit arose after two studies, one in 2003 by the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Research Center at Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona and the second by the Mayo Clinic in 2005, found that patients treated with Mirapex developed compulsive behavior, including compulsive gambling and sexual behavior.

The lawsuit alleges that Pfizer and Boehringer-Ingelheim may have been aware of these side effects before releasing the drug but failed to list them in their report to the FDA. However, following the release of the studies, Pfizer and Boehringer began listing compulsive behaviors among possible side effects. The case has been designated for multidistrict litigation, meaning that all cases against Pfizer and Boehringer related to Mirapex will be brought before the Federal District Court in the Northern District of Minnesota. That court will be in charge of general discovery and preliminary matters related to Mirapex litigation. Cases that are filed in state court or another district will be transferred to the Northern District of Minnesota either through a motion by counsel or by the court’s own volition.

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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.

A product recall has been issued for Total Body Formula and Total Body Mega Formula products. The products which are suppose to help with overall fitness have instead lead to serious personal injuries to the users of the recalled product. The nutrition supplement recall follows after the products were determined to contain toxic levels of some chemicals. Product liability lawsuits have already been filed by users of the recalled product who have suffered personal injuries from hair loss to pain in their legs. Product manufacturer lawsuits and lawsuits against the distributor of the recalled pharmaceutical and health product may be forthcoming. To read the full article click 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.

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.

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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.

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.

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Actor, Dennis Quaid recently suited Baxter Healthcare Corporation in a products liability lawsuit. The complaint alleges negligent packaging of different doses of a production in similar vials with blue backgrounds. The drug, a blood thinner called Heparin, was given to Mr. Quaid’s new born twins and they were inadvertently given massive doses at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on November 18. The lawsuit was filed in the Illinois courts as Baxter Healthcare is based in Deerfield, IL.

In February of this year, Baxter had issued a letter to all health care workers cautioning them about the possible mix-up. According to Dennis and his wife, Kimberly, this was not enough.

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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.

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