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Eli Lilly to post doctor payments. Finally.

Beginning next year, as reported by the New York Times, drug maker Eli Lilly says it will start posting all payments to outside doctors to a public online database. News of the increased disclosure comes as lawmakers, regulators and medical groups seek to limit the influence of the drug industry in medical research and private practice. According to Lilly, information in the database will include identifying information about the physician and the reason for payment.

About time, after news recently broke (again) about Medtronic paying doctors for “think tank” sessions that involved strippers, booze and other forms of entertainment. Read about that HERE.

We are committed to stopping such abusive practice by the pharmaceutical companies.For more information on our pharamceutical litigation practice, click HERE.

If you believe you have been injured from taking a prescription drug, please contact Ed Wallis today at (901) 527-2125, or send Ed an e-mail by clicking HERE.

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Study Finds Few Pain Doctors Face Criminal Prosecutions

The New York Times reports that few physicians are criminally prosecuted or sanctioned by medical boards for illegally or improperly prescribing narcotics, a study published this month has found. According to the study, published in the Journal Pain Medicine, the results largely dispel the notion that doctors are hesitant to prescribe narcotics because of fear of legal scrutiny. Critics of the findings said they believed the study to be seriously flawed.

You can read more HERE.

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Upcoming Wyeth v. Levine Case to Affect Pharmaceutical Litigation

The Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in Wyeth v. Levine is expected to have widely felt consequences for those seeking to recover damages from pharmaceutical companies. The drug industry argues that the federal regulation should pre-empt lawsuits claiming that pharmaceutical companies sold defective or unsafe drugs. Consumer advocates and others, including the New England Journal of Medicine, contend that such pre-emption would drastically reduce the safety of prescription drugs.

If this case is a victory for the drug companies, it will severely limit the consumer’s and patient’s right to hold drug companies accountable for wrongdoing, incluidng rushing dangerous drugs to the market without gathering the necessary facts to warn patients of hazards and risks of taking the drug.

I will keep this blog updated with information on Wyeth.

For more information on our pharamceutical litigation, click HERE.

If you believe you have been injured from taking a prescription drug, including Chantix, Digitek, Byetta or Trasylol, please contact Ed Wallis today at (901) 527-2125, or send Ed an e-mail by clicking HERE.

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Medical Malpractice Suit settles in South Carolina

A South Carolina medical center and doctor have agreed to pay more than $1.2 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a woman who died after she failed to receive a physician-ordered blood test. According to the lawsuit, Piedmont Medical Center, Dr. Otis Speight and others failed to properly monitor and treat the woman’s declining condition. The suit had been scheduled for trial later this month.

For more information, read from the Rock Hill Herald HERE.

If you believe you have been injured as a result of medical malpractice, please visit HERE for more information or call our team of medical malpractice lawyers at 1-800-632-1404.

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Laser Eye Surgery Injury and Complication Lawsuit Information

LASER EYE SURGERY INJURY OR COMPLICATION?

LASIK: Injuries from the Procedure

Each year there are over 700,000 LASIK surgeries across the country. Of those, statistics show 5% of procedures result in complications. That’s 35,000 possible injuries every year in the United States alone. Common problems post-LASIK are:

  • Blurry vision
  • Warping or scarring of the cornea
  • Dry or painful eyes
  • Halo or starburst effects that interfere with clear vision or safe driving
  • Sensitivity to light
  • Loss of visual acuity, even with the best possible correction with eyeglasses

LASIK injuries can occur because of improper screening/testing, improper surgical techniques, lack of adequate equipment, improper use of equipment, inadequate post-surgery treatment and general negligence. Naturally, LASIK injuries can be quite devastating, resulting in blindness in some cases.

These problems can result from numerous causes. During a surgery, a physician may cut the cornea too shallow or too deep or may improperly use medical equipment and devices. Some injuries may result because of the failure of the physician to follow the “standard of care.” The standard of care differs by state, as for example in Tennessee, the “standard of care” is what a reasonable physician would have done in the same or a similar community.

LASIK problems, however, can also occur because the surgery should have never occurred in the first place. For example, some persons are not proper candidates. For example, some candidates have corneas that are too think to support the LASIK cutting. Others possess a feature known as keratoconus, which means a person has a cornea improperly shaped that will not support LASIK procedures.

LASIK: Unfair and Deceptive Advertising

Unlike some other forms of health care, LASIK is a cash business, meaning that those choosing to undergo LASIK have agreed to pay 100% of the cost to the provider. This has, in a sense, lead to the creation of large corporate LASIK providers, including the Laser Vision Institute (LVI) and The Laser Center (TLC). These, and other, corporations spare no expense at advertising to lure consumers into their clinics and to their surgeons. In a sense, this has resulted in the FDA imposing fines against some LASIK providers for false and deceptive advertising.

Despite fines and warnings, mass-LASIK advertising continues today, in print, on the Internet and on the radio around the globe.

LASIK: Damages

Some damages you may be entitled to include:

  • Past medical and pharmacy bills
  • Future medical and pharmacy bills
  • Mental distress
  • Permanent injury
  • Loss of enjoyment of life
  • Pain and suffering
  • Mental distress
  • Loss of consortium
  • Punitive damages in some instances

LASIK: Do I have a case?

If you have suffered complications following LASIK, you may be entitled to pursue a cause of action against physicians and/or the LASIK provider. Whether or not you are a candidate to pursue an action depends on whether there was a violation of the standard of care by the surgeon and/or the clinic. It may also depend on whether you relied upon false or deceptive advertising before going forward with your treatment.

For More Information

Call Us Now: (800) 632-1404
E-Mail: CLICK HERE

The authors practice in the Mid South and Metropolitan Memphis area, an area encompassing Western Tennessee, Eastern Arkansas and Northern Mississippi. Some cities covered in our wide range of practice include Memphis (TN), Cordova (TN), Bartlett (TN), Collerville (TN), Millington (TN), Covington (TN), Somerville (TN), Ripley (TN), Dyersburg (TN), Tiptonville (TN), Union City (TN), Dresden (TN), Humboldt (TN), Milan (TN), Trenton (TN), Alamo (TN), Brownsville (TN), Jackson (TN), Bolivar (TN), Henderson (TN), Lexington (TN), Selmer (TN), Savannah (TN), Parsons (TN), McKenzie (TN), Huntingdon (TN), Paris (TN), West Memphis (AR), Marion (AR), Southhaven (MS), Olive Branch (MS), Hernando (MS), Horn Lake (MS), and Senatobia (MS). This also includes the following counties: SHelby (TN), Tipton (TN), Lauderdale (TN), Dyer (TN_, Lake (TN), Obion (TN), Gibson (TN) Crockett (TN), Haywood (TN), Fayette (TN), Hardeman (TN), Madison (TN) Henderson (TN), Carroll (TN), HHenry (TN), Benton (TN), Chester (TN), Decatur (TN), McNairy (TN), Hardin (TN) Perry (TN), Tunica (MS), Desoto (MS), Tate (MS), Marshall (MS), Lafayette (MS), Crittendon (AR), Mississippi (AR), Poinsett (AR), Craighead (AR), Cross (AR), St. Francis (AR), Lee (AR), Phillips (AR). Even if you are outside of these areas, we may still be able to help, so please contact us today, as our attorneys are licensed in numerous state courts and federal courts, and can still assist in finding you an attorney to help you with your needs.

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“Never Events” for Medical Malpractice

As a resource, the following are deemed as “Never Events” per the U.S. Government. In other words, these acts should never, never, never happen when you are receiving medical care.

  1. Surgery on the wrong body part.
  2. Surgery on the wrong patient.
  3. Wrong surgical procedure performed on a patient.
  4. Object left in patient after surgery.
  5. Death of patient who had been generally healthy during or immediately after surgery for a localized problem.
  6. Patient death or serious disability associated with the use of contaminated drugs, devices or biologics.
  7. Patient death or serious disability associated with the misuse or malfunction of a device.
  8. Patient death or serious disability associated with intravascular air embolism.
  9. Infant discharged to wrong person.
  10. Patient death or serious disability associated with patient disappearing for more than four hours.
  11. Patient suicide or attempted suicide resulting in serious disability.
  12. Patient death or serious disability associated with a medication error.
  13. Patient death or serious disability associated with transfusion of blood or blood product of the wrong type.
  14. Maternal death or serious disability associated with labor or delivery in a low-risk pregnancy.
  15. Patient death or serious disability associated with the onset of hypoglycemia, a drop in blood sugar.
  16. Death or serious disability associated with failure to identify and treat hyperbilirubinemia, a blood abnormality, in newborns.
  17. Severe pressure ulcers acquired in the hospital.
  18. Patient death or serious disability due to spinal manipulative therapy.
  19. Patient death or serious disability associated with an electric shock.
  20. Any incident in which a line designated for oxygen or other gas to be delivered to a patient contains the wrong gas or is contaminated by toxic substances.
  21. Patient death or serious disability associated with a burn in the hospital.
  22. Patient death associated with a fall suffered in the hospital.
  23. Patient death or serious disability associated with the use of restraints or bedrails.
  24. Any instance of care ordered by or provided by someone impersonating a physician, nurse, pharmacist or other licensed healthcare provider.
  25. Abduction of a patient.
  26. Sexual assault on a patient.
  27. Death or significant injury of a patient or staff member resulting from a physical assault in the hospital.
  28. Artificial insemination with the wrong donor sperm or donor egg

You can read more from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicade Services HERE.

If you believe you have been the victim of medical malpractice, please call 1-800-632-1404.

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Class Actions begin to add up.

The number of subprime-related class-action lawsuits filed during the first half of 2008 has surpassed those filed in all other areas combined, a recently released report says. Cornerstone Research and Stanford Law’s Securities Class Action Clearinghouse found that the vast majority of financial class actions filed during the first half of the year stemmed from subprime issues. The report also notes that the median loss leading to these class actions was $243 million and that losses haven’t been so high since the flurry of class actions between 2000 and 2002.

For more information, see HERE.

You can read the report HERE.

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Jury Declines Monetary Damages to Punish Hospital

A Pennsylvania jury has ordered a Pittsburgh hospital to pay $2.5 million in Wrongful Death Act damages after finding the facility was negligent in the death of a patient. However, the jury awarded no Survival Act damages, saying that no monetary award would adequately punish the hospital. Attorneys for the plaintiff say they will seek a new trial limited to damages under the Survival Act. The case is Rettger v. UPMC Shadyside.

For more information, read the Law.com article HERE. For more information on the facts, …

Continue reading “Jury Declines Monetary Damages to Punish Hospital”

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Article references possible 35,000 LASIK complications each year

While LASIK providers and physicians tout “safe, easy, affordable” solutions for eye trouble via LASIK procedures across the country, one news article cites nearly 5% of yearly operations are not trouble-free.

David Morill, with contributions by the AP, wrote at insidebayarea.com that:

Each year about 700,000 laser vision correction surgeries are performed, with the majority of them being the Lasik method. With Lasik, doctors peel back a flap in the cornea’s surface and zap the underlying layer to reshape the cornea and ease either nearsightedness or farsightedness.

While most of the patients procedures go well, about 5 percent of them have unsatisfactory results. And about 1 percent or less have serious consequences such as loss of vision. More common risks include dry eye and a halo effect.

…

Loyd Hunnell of Walnut Creek had one of the worst experiences.

In 2005, Hunnell was having trouble with his eyes and decided to get Lasik surgery performed. What started out as an attempt to try and correct a mono-vision issue turned out to be a “living nightmare”, he said. The procedure didn’t go as planned and over the course of several years the pain was unbearable. At one point he says that it felt like acid being poured directly onto his eyes.

Today, his issue is not nearly as bad as it once was, but it’s still not ideal.

“From minutes after I awaken until I close my eyes at night, I have stinging, burning, throbbing and ache, and sometimes foreign body sensations in my eyes,” he said. “I have amassed a huge box of medication bottles relating to the surgery I had and its disastrous aftermath.”

Hunnell, as well as credible eye doctors, advise the importance of doing thorough research and talking to several doctors before doing any kind of eye procedures.

Some worry that patients who don’t really need the corrections are being steered in a direction they don’t need to go.

“It’s critical that patients listen and understand what they’re being told, and that the doctor takes the time to explain issues that may come up properly,” Abbott said. “If people think about the possibility of it being a miracle, they might not listen to the idea that not every patient is ideal for this procedure.”

5% of an estimated 700,000 procedures is 35,000 expected complications each year from LASIK. If you have had negative results from LASIK, you may have been the victim of negligent and fraudulent care by doctors or LASIK providers. While some injuries occur naturally, others occur because of poor screening and mis-use of equipment. Send the authors an E-MAIL TODAY to discuss your specific situation.