- Brenda Fulmer | December 31, 2007 6:05 PM |
Category:
Defective & Dangerous ProductsOn December 6, 2007, Judge David Katz, the federal judge who oversees the Ortho Evra multi-district litigation proceedings in Cleveland issued a scheduling order for the first trials to be conducted in the federal system. Judge Katz oversees more than 1,400 lawsuits pending against Johnson & Johnson (http://www.jnj.com/home.htm) and its subsidiaries relating to the controversial Ortho Evra...
- Brenda Fulmer | December 31, 2007 4:15 PM |
Category:
Defective & Dangerous ProductsA study from Turin, Italy published recently in Endocrine Related Cancer noted that former users of hormone replacement therapy drugs who are diagnosed with lobular breast cancers may require specialized treatment based upon the unique characteristics of their tumors. The researchers noted a "growing body of evidence" to "support the association between the use of hormone replacement therapy...
- Brenda Fulmer | December 31, 2007 3:37 PM |
Category:
Defective & Dangerous ProductsGreat strides were made in 2007 to educate the courts and juries about the great deception over the past few decades that led many to ingest combination hormone therapy products such as Prempro and Premarin in combination with Provera. Conventional wisdom about these hormones is finally shifting, especially in light of an unprecedented drop in national cancer registries that dovetails with the...
- Brenda Fulmer | December 31, 2007 3:32 PM |
Category:
Medical MalpracticeA study published on October 30, 2007, in the Journal of Clinical Oncology again noted that the use of certain chemotherapy drugs in breast cancer patients can increase the risk of developing congestive heart failure. This potential was first noted more than thirty years ago, but has become more of a problem in the past fifteen years as more early-stage breast cancer patients are receiving...
- Brenda Fulmer | December 31, 2007 3:06 PM |
Category:
FDA & Prescription Drugs"Reductions in postmenopausal breast cancer incidence observed in the US were strongest in White women, intermediate in Asian/Pacific Islander and Hispanic women, and absent in African-American women. In all groups, declines were most evident for hormone receptor-positive, lobular, and small cancers. While this and other ecologic analyses cannot definitively speak to the influence of...
- Shannon Weidemann | December 30, 2007 8:00 PM |
Category:
Motorcycle AccidentsA motorcycle accident in St. Petersburg on Thursday injured a 41-year-old man. The bike flipped over while he was driving it from a parking lot into the connecting street. The accident happened on 46th Avenue North around 5:15 p.m. The victim of St. Petersburg was thrown from the 2002 Harley-Davidson Softail, the Highway Patrol said. He was taken to Bayfront Medical Center with serious...
- Shannon Weidemann | December 26, 2007 11:31 PM |
Category:
Property Owner's Liability (Slip & Fall)A 17-year-old boy was attacked and killed by a tiger at the San Francisco Zoo on Christmas Day. Somehow the 350-pound Siberian Tiger was able to escape from it's enclosure. The tiger attack happened shortly after the zoo closed. Although some zoo officials speculate the threesome may have teased the tiger, San Francisco police Lt. Leroy Lindo said police currently have no reason to believe...
- Joe Saunders | December 22, 2007 1:09 PM |
Category:
FDA & Prescription DrugsThe FDA has issued another warning about the Fentanyl skin patch used to administer powerful pain medication to patients. The problems with the skin patch have occurred due to misprescribing the drug or improper use of the patch resulting in serious injury and death. The skin patch was approved for use by the FDA in 1990 but has resulted in serious health concerns for users of the patch. ...
- Shannon Weidemann | December 20, 2007 10:45 PM |
Category:
FDA & Prescription DrugsIt was announced last week that 1.2 Million doses of the HIB vaccine were recalled. The recalled vaccine was manufactured in a Pennsylvania plant that was found to be contaminated. The CDC is concerned of a vaccine shortage and urged doctors to delay the third and final booster shot in the series. The vaccine is given to infants to help prevent pneumonia and meningitis. Normally, the...
- Joe Saunders | December 20, 2007 9:31 AM |
Category:
Defective & Dangerous ProductsA Los Angeles based company, Top Line Specialty Products is recalling its Green Paradise label fresh Italian basil because it is potentially contaminated with salmonella. The product is distributed in a one pound box. Salmonella poisoning can be fatal for those with weakened immune systems, the young, or the elderly. For those with healthy immune systems the symptoms for salmonella poisoning...
- Jenny Albano | December 19, 2007 7:31 PM |
Category:
Wrongful DeathOn Tuesday, December 19 a man died after riding a roller coaster at the Walt Disney World Resort.Jeffery Reed, 44, was unconscious at the end of the Expedition Everest ride at the Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom.Disney personnel provided medical assistance to Reed, and he was transported to Celebration Hospital where he was pronounced dead, Orange County Sheriff's officials said. Inspectors...
- Courtney Mills | December 19, 2007 3:56 PM |
Category:
MiscellaneousThe Faye Road chemical plant in Jacksonville exploded this afternoon around 2:30 and burst into flames. The exact reason for the conflagration at the Jacksonville chemical facility was not immediately clear, but one witness described the explosion as an immense 'black mushroom cloud rising up very quickly.'Buildings near the chemical plant had their windows completely blown out, and people...
- Joe Saunders | December 16, 2007 11:08 AM |
Category:
FDA & Prescription DrugsIn today's St. Petersburg Times, there is a front page story about Eli Lilly's apparently successful efforts at marketing the drug Zyprexa to children. The FDA is about to approve the drug's use for children in spite of the dangerous side effects which include diabetes. Children are even more susceptible to these side effects. In the article, I am quoted as saying that Eli LIlly isn't fazed...
- Joe Saunders | December 13, 2007 11:27 AM |
Category:
FDA & Prescription DrugsThe Food and Drug Administration has strengthened already tough warnings on certain epilepsy drugs that are also used to treat bipolar disorder and nerve pain. In addition, the FDA singled out those of Asian ancestry to undergo genetic testing prior to beginning any regimen with the drug carbamazepine which is distributed as Carbatrol by Shire PLC, Tegretol by Novartis AG and Equetro by Validus...
- Shannon Weidemann | December 12, 2007 3:55 PM |
Category:
Automobile AccidentsA man was killed in a car accident in Tampa on Sunday. A man was working on his van while it was parked in a driveway of a residence. He placed the car in reverse and it hit the car that was parked behind the van, which then struck the victim. The victim was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital, authorities said. The death appears to be accidental, deputies said.The two men both lived in...
- Jenny Albano | December 08, 2007 4:22 PM |
Category:
Automobile AccidentsA nine-year old boy was killed after he was run over by a float in the Plant City Christmas parade on Friday night, December 7. Apparently, the float accident occurred near the end of the parade route. The boy, who has not been identified to the press, was walking on the parade route handing out candy for the Greater Heights Worship Center float. He went back to the float to grab more candy...
- Shannon Weidemann | December 08, 2007 3:27 PM |
Category:
Workplace InjuriesFourteen people were injured and one man was killed when a parking garage that was under construction in Jacksonville collapsed on Thursday. The body of the victim was discovered in the wreckage today. It is unknown why the construction accident occured. They were in the process of pouring fresh concrete at the time of the collapse. Bulin said she expected the body to be retrieved by the...
- Joe Saunders | December 04, 2007 10:37 AM |
Category:
Defective & Dangerous ProductsA Kentucky woman who died after being admitted to Central Baptist Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky for symptoms of E. coli poisoning, may have been infected by the ground beef recently recalled by American Foods Group. Kentucky health officials are trying to determine the nature and source of her E. coli infection. The American Foods ground beef was recalled on November 24, 2007 and the health...
- Joe Saunders | December 03, 2007 9:23 AM |
Category:
FDA & Prescription DrugsChina's scandal ridden pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a massive clean up effort by China's version of the FDA. China has been plagued by health scares due to bad drugs, false advertising, and unlicensed drug manufacturers. One Chinese health official, Zheng Xiaoyu, was sentenced to death last May for taking bribes. In one case of bad drugs, dozens of people in Panama died as a result...
- Joe Saunders | December 02, 2007 10:47 AM |
Category:
FDA & Prescription DrugsThe FDA is working on a plan to allow pharmaceutical companies to distribute information to doctors about a drug's off label usage. The information would be stricly monitored and would include articles from scholarly medical journals. However, if the findings from the medical journal are disputed, the contrary evidence would have to be included in the dissemination to doctors. Off label...
- Joe Saunders | December 01, 2007 3:12 PM |
Category:
FDA & Prescription DrugsThe FDA and drug manufacturer Novartis have issued an alert to healthcare professionals about its drug Myfortic. The drug is used to treat patients with kidney transplants but it has been positively linked to pregnancy loss and congenital malformations. The FDA has stated that Myfortic should not be used in female patients who plan on becoming pregnant due to the increased risk of fetal injury...