2008 June Archive

We hear it all the time. People come into our office and say they are not the type of person who files a lawsuit.  We tell them, it’s okay, you are an American and the courts are set up for citizens to find a remedy when they’ve truly been injured.    It’s an American right. 

It was an American right for the widow of Charles Riegel. The New York man died after a balloon catheter made by Medtronic burst in his chest after it was inserted during an angioplasty.  She sued, but in February, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Medtronic.

The reason is enough to scare everyone in this country.  Since the medical device was approved by the FDA, the court decided that the states (in this case New York where the suit was filed) don’t have the right impose liability over a faulty product.  In other words- the FDA is the final word on medical devices.  

Now another issue is going before the Supreme Court and the business community will be watching this case hoping to use federal preemption, as it’s called, to short circuit product and drug liability.  

A Vermont musician won $6.8 million during a jury trial against Wyeth after her arm was amputated because a Wyeth anti-nausea drug was injected.  Wyeth wants to overturn the case so will ask for blanket immunity before the Supreme Court. The drug was approved by the FDA, after all.  

All this is happening at a time when we are beginning to understand just how overwhelmed and underfunded the FDA is to do an adequate job to ensure safety.  

The business community will be waiting, hoping to use that reasoning to short circuit hundreds of product liability and wrongful death claims filed against drug companies and medical device manufacturers.

The outcome of the Wyeth case may seal the fate for hundreds of other lawsuits, filed by people who are hurt.  

Legislation is pending called the Medical Device Safety Act of 2008, that would overrule the Riegel decision, restoring the right for the injured to seek compensation from medical device manufacturers.

If you ever contact your Congressman or woman, this would be the issue that merits a call. It’s called HR 8381 and is sponsored by Rep. Henry Waxman and Frank Pallone.

It basically says that traditional state common-law remedies that the injured have always turned to should be restored, and that right doesn’t undermine the FDA’s powers to protect consumers.

Product liability lawsuits are intended to compensate people -  the kind of people who are truly injured, the kind of people who tell us, “I’m not the sort of person who sues.” #

Those who plan to obtain a licence to drive a motorcycle have until next Tuesday, July 1, 2008 to do so without further training. 

Effective  Tuesday, a new Florida law will require all motorcyclists to take a basic rider course through the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.  The course must be taken before a rider can have the motorcycle endorsement added to their driver’s license. The test will apply to everyone, no matter their age.

Read the rest »

Sometimes it takes a tragic death to bring to light a situation that needs to change.

A 26-year old man is dead after entering a  vodka drinking contest in a Seffner, Florida bar. Eric Morris was going shot-to-shot with another patron at the Angels Nightclub.

Finally the other guy quit, but Morris kept going and the bartender kept serving. Witnesses estimate he drank 23 to 25 shots of vodka within 30 minutes.

The bartender finally cut him off. Morris reportedly pounded the bar and got up to leave, fell over, and never got up. He was rushed to Brandon Regional Medical Center but was pronounced dead.  The death is under investigation.

The law says that in Florida, bars can serve patrons as long as the patron wants to drink, and pay. But 25 shots? 

Guidelines are in place through the sheriff’s office and classes are available on how to safely serve and when to quit.

After an incident like this, it is certainly time to revisit those “guidelines”.   There are no easy answers in a situation like this all the way around.  Our sympathy to the families involved.

The emergency room at the University of Florida at Shands has seen a hike of more than 37 percent in motorcycle accidents so far this spring, says Dr. Richard Crass , an ER physician. 

That’s at least partially due to the fact that so many can’t afford the $70-$80 it takes to fill up a tank.   And more motorcycles hit the road in April and May generally, but Dr. Crass says he’s never seen such an increase. 

Of course, the riders in more serious wrecks never make it to an emergency room.

While helmets save lives, Florida does not require helmets if adults on a motorcycle and moped riders have at least $10,000 of medical insurance. After that was passed in 2000, a published report noted that there was a 49 percent jump in motorcyclist deaths the next year.

Helmets are likely to decrease the severity of head injuries in a motorcycle crash.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates helmets reduce the likelihood of death in a motorcycle accident by more than one third. 

So while you save money at the gas pump, don’t remember to save your life.

A Florida man admits he is guilty of defrauding a mortgage company.

Robert Guest, 44, of Orlando pled guilty in Alabama to one felony count of conspiracy in the scheme that involved the purchase and reselling of more than 200 homes, many in Florida.

Altogether the fraud cost  Countrywide Loans about $2 million.

Here is how it would work.

Guest would buy a home in Alabama, Florida, or Tennessee. Generally they were homes with low value, but he would arrange to sell to an investor at an inflated price.  The investor gets a loan for 80 percent. 

Then Guest pays him back his 20 percent.  In this case the lender, Countrywide, was then providing a 100 percent loan.  In Florida, Guest purchased homes in Orange and Seminole counties. 

Guest could face five years in prison. He also has to pay restitution and a fine of a a quarter of a million dollars. 

If you look at the states listed on the FDA’s website as the ones from which you can safely buy tomatoes  free from salmonella contamination,  Florida remains the only state broken up by counties.

That’s because the suspected site of the nationwide contamination - that has so far sickened 552 people in 32 states- is centered in central or south Florida.

Florida was in the middle of harvesting tomatoes when the salmonella outbreak was first identified in Mid-April.

This weekend, FDA inspectors are heading to Florida farms looking for the source of the rare Saintpaul strain of salmonella in tainted tomatoes. A packing house is where many tomatoes from various farms come in and the contamination could be spread.

Florida tomato growers are feeling the pinch. In Mulberry, Florida, East Coast Brokers & Packers have hundreds of boxes of tomatoes just being help in a warehouse. The industry will cost the state hundreds of millions in revenue.

Salmonella sickness includes nausea, vomiting and cramps and diarrhea. The elderly and very young, anyone immune compromised can become serious ill or salmonella can even become fatal if it gets into the blood stream.

Check FDA’s Web site for an update on how our state is faring. 

It was just last month when we reported on the high school football hero from Clay County, Florida who was hit and killed by a CSX train while he was fishing off the trestle.

Now another area person has been hit and killed by a train.

It happened just before 11 a.m. Friday.  The man or woman was driving just off of Phillips Highway. A witness says the person tried to drive around the railroad crossing arm that is intended to keep you out of harm’s way!

The driver was killed instantly.

Railroad or train accidents are considered common carrier accidents and often the carrier is held responsible if there is any negligence.

But when a person tries to drive around a clearly visible rail road crossing arm that is blocking the vehicle, the negligence standard may not apply.

Read the rest »

Last December 19^th, a chemical plant on the Northside of Jacksonville exploded killing four people inside and leveling the facility. 

The ground shook and that brought out every area haz-mat team in response to the “hellish inferno” which sent pieces of the plant as far as a quarter mile away. Smoke and flames could be seen for miles.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration or OSHA, has issued its findings on the T2 Laboratory inferno and also announced the federal violations, citations and penalties that will be issued.  

Read the rest »

A report released this week by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Medical Examiner’s Commission concludes that prescription drugs killed more Floridians in 2007 than illegal drugs.

In fact, the rate of death is reported to be over three times as high as deaths caused by all illegal drugs combined.

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These are the sorts of stories we hear far too many of in the summer.

This weekend a six-year-old girl drowned at a pool party in the Arlington section of Jacksonville. About a half dozen children were in the pool, which the sheriff’s office reports was “cloudy”.

The girl went under the surface and none of the adults at the home saw her. When they finally did, one person tried to resuscitate the girl but she was pronounced dead after being taken to Wolfson Children’s Hospital.

Unfortunately, Florida leads the nation in young children who drown in swimming pools. Most of the time it happens in the back yard. Most of the children are under the age of five.

Read the rest »