Florida Injury Attorney Blog

Although Johnson & Johnson and DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. have not recalled the DePuy Pinnacle Acetabular Cup System, the US Food and Drug Administration says that it has received reports indicating similar problems as those involving the DePuy ASR hip implants, which were recalled last year. As with the DePuy’s ASR XL Acetabular Hip Replacement and Hip Resurfacing Systems, complaints made about the DePuy Pinancle systems involve hip implant failure, dislocation, metal poisoning, and physical pain. Some patients also have had to undergo hip revision surgery. Other patients say they’ve sustained permanent injuries.

Throughout South Florida, our Fort Lauderdale hip implant lawyers represent clients who suffered injuries, health complications, and/or had to undergo yet another surgery because this medical device has failed. Undergoing hip replacement surgery can be challenging enough—especially if the patient is an older senior who may have other health complications. To have to undergo a second one so soon after is not only painful, but also it can be physically and emotionally taxing. Any time a patient undergoes surgery there is always the chance of additional health complications. Already, a number of people have filed DePuy hip implant awsuits over their injuries and health complications.

DePuy Hip Replacement Recall
Last year’s recall was announced after the National Joint Registry (NJR) of England and Wales discovered that within five years of the original implant procedure, one out of every eight patients ended up having revision surgery. Some 93,000 people reportedly had been fitted with the recalled product. This month, the National Hip Recall Registry put out a new alert to DePuy ASR users warning that the hip replacement rate may be even four times greater than originally thought.

Symptoms indicating your hip implant device may be defective or failing:
• You have a hard time walking
• Walking is painful
• The implant has become dislocated
• Blood test results show that there are microscopic metal particles in your system
• Swelling

For your free consultation, contact our Miami hip implant law firm today.

Related Web Resources:
National Joint Registry

Depuy ASR™ Hip Recall Guide

National Hip Recall Registry Issues New DePuy Hip Replacement Alert, March 24, 2011

A jury has ordered Lee Memorial Health System (LMHS) to pay the family of Kiarra Smith $19.2 million in Florida medical malpractice damages. Smith, who is blind and suffers from cerebral palsy, developed her health complications as an infant in 2007 when at 15 days old she was accidentally given an overdose of nutrients while at HealthPark Medical Center. According to her family’s Florida injuries to a minor complaint, the dose that the hospital administered was 100 times greater than what her doctor had prescribed.

Smith is now wheelchair bound. She will need care for the rest of her life.

Medication Mistakes
Medication errors can lead to serious health complications. In some cases, they can even prove fatal. It is the responsibility of doctors, nurses, and nursing assistants to make sure that the correct medication in the proper does is given to the right patient.

Common cause of medication mistakes at hospitals:
• Medication mix-up
• Misreading a patient's chart or prescription order, which may have been written in poor handwriting
• Incomplete (or lack of knowledge about a) patient medical history
• Dosage error.
• Confusing drug labeling
• Health professionals that are multitasking, distracted, or inadequately trained

Hospitals should have procedures in place to prevent medication mistakes from happening.

Other common hospital mistakes include, surgical mistakes, failure to monitor a patient, lab mistakes, inadequate medical care, failure to provide postoperative care, birthing malpractice, anesthesia errors, and nursing negligence.

Lee family awarded $19.2M in malpractice suit, NBC-2, February 7, 2011

Common Issues Cause Hospital Rx Errors, MedPageToday, February 6, 2011

Related Web Resources:
What to Look Out For to Avoid Hospital Mistakes, HARP

Hospital Errors Put More Patients at Risk, ABC News, April 4, 2007

Causes of Cerebral Palsy, About Cerebral Palsy

Continue reading " $19.2M Florida Medical Malpractice Verdict Awarded to Family of Girl with Cerebral Palsy " »

Losing someone you love in any kind of Florida injury accident is devastating—especially when the death may have been caused by another party’s negligence. While suing someone for Palm Beach wrongful death won’t bring your loved one back, it can allow you to hold the person that you believe was responsible liable. Just last week, the three adult children of Ann Prushansky were able to do that when a jury awarded them $3 million for their mother’s Boynton Beach car accident death. Since they found the 70-year-old woman 25% at fault for the deadly collision, the award against the other driver, Tara Patrice Fradley, was lowered to $2.25 million.

Prushansky died in June 2008 when the vehicle she was in was rear-ended by the car driven by Fradley, 17. At the time, the teen driver was charged with a number of offenses, including DUI manslaughter. However, prosecutors ended up dropping the criminal charges after a judge found that the blood tests were taken illegally.

Jury members in the Boynton Beach wrongful death case weren’t told about the criminal charges or blood test issues. They were, however, notified that Fradley had admitted to taking Xanax and drinking alcohol on the day of the Palm Beach auto accident.

Drunk Driving
Drunken driving fatalities are deaths that could have been prevented—if only a motorist hadn’t been driving while under the influence. People know that driving while drunk is dangerous—yet there are many out there who continue to drive while intoxicated. Granted, some of these motorists may suffer from the disease of alcoholism. That said, it doesn’t matter why someone was driving while drunk—especially if it results in serious injuries or deaths.

Protect Yourself from Drunk Drivers
If you see another motorist doing the following on the road, he/she may be driving under the influence:

• Making very wide turns
• Driving over the lane marker
• Weaving the vehicle from side to side
• Wrong-way driving
• Driving extremely fast or at an unreasonably slow speed
• Narrowly missing another vehicle
• Following another auto too closely
• Stopping in the middle of the road or freeway for no reason

Stay away! If possible, report to police. Always use a seat belt.

Children awarded $2.25 million in crash that killed mother in Boynton Beach, Sun-Sentinel/The Palm Beach Post, March 15, 2011

Related Web Resources:
Drunk Driving Penalties in Florida, DMV Florida

Drinking & Driving, Alcohol

More Blog Posts:
Retired Major League Baseball Player Jim Leyritz Settles Fort Lauderdale Wrongful Death Lawsuit with Family of Woman Killed in Broward County Car Accident, Florida Injury Attorney Blog, May 26, 2010

Drunk Driving May Have Been a Factor in Fatal Palm Beach County Car Accident Involving International Polo Club Owner and University of Central Florida Graduate, Florida Injury Attorney Blog, February 16, 2010

Mother Awarded $330 Million Florida Car Accident Verdict Over Daughter’s Wrongful Death, Florida Injury Attorney Blog, November 10, 2009

A man and a woman suffered serious injuries after they were thrown from their auto in a Fort Lauderdale traffic accident on Interstate 95 near Sunrise on Monday. According to police, Donald Williams, 21, lost control of the Ford Explorer, resulting in the vehicle striking a guardrail and crossing the north bound lanes as Williams and Jessica Lynn Welch, 20, were ejected from the SUV. The driverless vehicle then struck a Hyundai Electra, driven by Hollywood, Florida resident Steven A. Pico, who did not sustain any injuries. Meantime, a Ford Crown Victoria hit Welch, who ended up pinned under the auto.

Police are investigating the Fort Lauderdale car accident.

Ejections from Motor Vehicles
Getting thrown from a car can result in serious injuries, such as severed limbs, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, internal organ damage, disfigurement, broken bones, crush injuries, and death. A vehicle occupant who has been ejected from a car can get hurt not just upon landing—whether on the road, into a guardrail, against a concrete barrier, or onto another vehicle—but he/she is also at risk of getting struck by oncoming traffic.

In some cases, the party responsible for the ejection is the manufacturer of an unsafe vehicle or a seat belt that malfunctioned. In many cases, driver negligence plays a significant role. The negligent driver may be the one operating the vehicle the victim was riding in or another motorist. Sometimes, a vehicle ejection can happen because a road was poorly designed or a traffic light malfunctioned.

Although Florida’s Personal Injury Protection provides some coverage, this may not be enough to cover medical costs, recovery bills, funeral/cremation expenses, lost wages, and other damages.

Couple ejected from car on I-95 in serious condition, WSVN, March 8, 2011

Woman pinned under car after SUV crash on I-95 near Sunrise, Sun-Sentinel, March 7, 2011

Related Web Resources:
What is "Personal Injury Protection" (PIP) insurance?, Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles

Car Accidents, Nolo

Final rule aimed at reducing partial and complete vehicle ejections, NHTSA, January 13, 2011

More Blog Posts:
Woman Struck by Van Dies in Lauderhill Pedestrian Accident, Florida Injury Attorney Blog, August 11, 2010

Family of Naples Woman Files Collier County Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against School Teacher Over Fatal Florida Truck Accident, Florida Injury Attorney Blog, June 17, 2010

Retired Major League Baseball Player Jim Leyritz Settles Fort Lauderdale Wrongful Death Lawsuit with Family of Woman Killed in Broward County Car Accident, Florida Injury Attorney Blog, May 26, 2010

Continue reading " Ft. Lauderdale Car Crash on I-95 Leaves Couple that was Ejected from Vehicle in Serious Condition " »

Once again, a jury is ordering RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Philip Morris USA to pay Florida wrongful death damages to a cigarette smoker. The amount this time is $3.375 million—$1.5 million in punitive damages from each tobacco company and $750,000 in compensatory damages.

The victim, John Huish, was 64 when he died of lung cancer in 1993. He started smoking cigarettes in the 1940’s—about 20 years before cigarette packs came with warning labels. Huish’s cigarettes of choice included Camels, Lucky Strikes, and Marlboro Reds and Lights.

In her Florida tobacco litigation case, Huish’s widow, Anna Louise Huish, contended that her husband smoked not because he enjoyed it but because he was addicted to the nicotine in the cigarettes. He continued to smoke even after he developed a tumor in his lung. Her Florida wrongful death lawyer says that the RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris knew that their cigarettes contained carcinogens that cause cancer but that they covered this information up for years so that people would continue to smoke.

Both Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds say they will appeal the verdict.

Florida Tobacco Litigation
In Engle v. Liggett Group, the Florida Supreme Court decertified a class-action complaint filed by Howard Engle and let each class member file his/her case. Edward Sweda, Jr., who is a senior lawyer for Northwestern University School of Law’s Tobacco Products Liability Project, says that 24 of the 35 Engle civil lawsuits that have gone to a jury since February 2009 have resulted in victories for plaintiffs. Huish’s tobacco lawsuit is an “Engle” progeny case.

Briefcase: Jury awards damages in 'Engle' progeny case, Winston-Salem Journal, February 25, 2011

Jury awards $3M to widow in tobacco suit, Gainesville.com, February 24, 2011

Related Web Resources:
Engle v. Liggett Group

Tobacco Products Liability Project

More Blog Posts:
Palm Beach Tobacco Litigation: Smokers’s Widow Gets $2.2M Award and $270K in Punitive Damages from Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds, Florida Injury Attorney Blog, September 1, 2010

Florida Tobacco Litigation: Jury Awards $26.6 Million Ft Lauderdale Wrongful Death Verdict to Widow of Smoker who Died from Lung Cancer, Florida Injury Attorney Blog, April 1, 2010