Philadelphia Injury Lawyer Blog

In New York City, a woman had to have both hands and both feet amputated after an egregious medical mistake left her with blocked blood flow to the limbs. Tabitha Mullings, 32, went to Brooklyn Hospital Center where she was admitted two months ago for a kidney stone. She was given painkillers and sent home but an infection went untreated and blocked blood flow to the hands and feet. She lapsed into a coma for two weeks. When she awoke, she was told by doctors that they had to amputate both hands and both feet. The mother of three is also blind in one eye now.

Mullings is suing the hospital for $100 million and claims she was never even given a blood test to check for the infection that led to her having her hands and feet amputated.

She faces a very long, difficult rehabilitation process.

If you have suffered due to medical malpractice in Philadelphia, please contact Pomerantz, Perlberger & Lewis, LLP today to schedule your confidential, no-cost consultation.

The once-popular diabetes drug Avandia (generic rosiglitazone), in addition to causing serious heart risks, may also increase bone thinning, a discovery that could help explain why diabetics can have an increased risk of fractures.

New research raises the possibility that long-term use of this drug could lead to osteoporosis. Researchers have found that in mice, the drug increased the activity of cells that degrade bones, according to information published in this week’s online issue of Nature Medicine.

Avandia was recently in the news again when it was labeled with a second black box warning for its risk of heart failure in some patients. GlaxoSmithKline, manufacturer of Avandia, has already acknowledged that a study found a higher risk of fractures among women who take the drug.

If you or a loved one has been harmed by a defective drug or some other defective product in Philadelphia, please contact the product liability attorneys at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis today to schedule your initial consultation.

Philadelphia users of Accutane will have interest in this product liability verdict. Have you heard that three Florida plaintiffs were awarded almost $13 million dollars by a jury in Atlantic City, New Jersey because they developed inflammatory bowel disease from taking Accutane when they were teenagers. The 8 person jury found that that pharmaceutical maker Hoffman-La Roche failed to provide an adequate warning. The jury award of $12.89 million is to be apportioned among the three victims, now aged in their mid-to-late 20s. It has been reported that Roche faces as many as 600 Accutane cases around the country.

I have found as a Philadelphia product liability and medical injury lawyer for 30 years that the only way to stop drug manufacturers from continuing to harm innocent victims is by the power of the lawsuit; especially the threat of a large jury verdict. If you have taken Accutane and now have bowel disease you should contact our office immediately. Get general information from the Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis Philadelphia product liability lawyers.

These plaintiffs had taken Accutane almost ten years ago, while in their teens to relieve adolescent acne. All three developed various forms of IBD, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, while taking Accutane or shortly thereafter. One is expected to shortly undergo surgical removal of his colon. As a result of their disease, all suffer from a dramatic increased risk of colon cancer.

Continue reading " New Jersey Accutane Product Liability Verdict Provides Justice " »

Some of you may remember Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker Justin Strzelczyk who was killed in a fiery automobile crash in 2004 at the age of 36. Autopsy reports showed that the former football star had a condition similar to that generally found only in boxers with dementia or people in their 80s.

Strzelczyk was found to have brain damage in post mortem studies due likely to the persistent head trauma he suffered playing football. Since Strzelczyk's findings were released, at least five other former NFL players have been found to have similar brain damage. These findings add to the growing evidence that longtime football players, particularly lineman, are enduring hidden brain trauma and permanent brain damage.

The condition that has been found in the NFL players (and has been found in many boxers) is called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a condition evidenced by neurofibrillary tangles in the brain's cortex, which caused memory loss, depression and eventually Alzheimer's disease-like dementia.

Unfortunately, the tests that show someone has CTE cannot be performed on a living person other than through an intrusive tissue biopsy. For now, NFL players, even those who have never had a concussion like Strzelczyk, will not being able to find out if they have suffered brain damage until it is too late.

According to Florida law, adult children over 25 years of age cannot file lawsuits for the wrongful death of their parent caused by medical malpractice. Only spouses and adult children under 25 can seek damages caused by medical malpractice. Even Florida trial attorneys are outraged by this law and have sought to fight it for years but to no avail.

In 2000, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision; however, Justice Barbara Pariente claimed that the age restriction was unjustified and likened the decision to limiting the rights of survivors with blue eyes over brown. Pariente asked the legislature to reconsider the decision, but her request was ignored.

Trial attorneys have found one possible way to get around the law, but it’s not easy. In order to pursue a medical malpractice claim on behalf of adult children older than 25, the attorneys must first prove the conduct of the healthcare professional was so outrageous that “it goes beyond all bounds of decency.” There is only one case on record where the outrageous conduct argument was used successfully. That case involved siblings suing after their mother died during routine eye surgery and was eventually settled out of court.

How can the value of someone’s life be measured by the age of her children? How can a court tell a 26-year-old man that his father’s death due to medical malpractice is not legally worth fighting for?

If you or a loved one has suffered or died due to medical malpractice in Pennsylvania, please contact a Philadelphia medical malpractice attorney at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis today to schedule your initial consultation.

Males are much more likely to suffer a traumatic brain injury than women, a new report by The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows. One in 45 people have an acquired brain injury, and more than two-thirds of those people are male, and males are more than twice as likely as females to be hospitalized for a TBI (traumatic brain injury).

The report found that incidents such as accidents and blows to the head were common causes for brain injuries in younger males and that more than half of the brain injuries in people under 65 were caused by vehicle accidents.

If you or a loved has suffered a traumatic brain injury in Philadelphia or anywhere in Pennsylvania, please contact the traumatic brain injury attorneys at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis today to schedule your initial consultation.

A woman claiming her breast implants were damaged in an on-the-job car accident is only getting compensation enough to replace one of the two implants, according to a state appellate judge’s ruling recently.

The North Carolina Court of Appeals issued the decision in a workers’ compensation claim filed by Penny Rumple Richardson who claims the 2001 accident caused rippling and a decrease in the size of her breast implants. Not surprisingly, this case was the first of its kind heard by the judges.

Greensboro plastic surgeon Dr. David Bowers testified that the woman’s right implant had ruptured and the left implant showed signs of rippling, so he replaced both of her implants. But he later testified that the left implant most likely had rippling because it was under-filled.

Judges ruled that Richardson would be compensated for the one ruptured implant and that it be covered under workers’ compensation because they are a “prosthetic device that functions as part of the body.”

If you have been injured on the job and feel you may be entitled to Workers’ Compensation benefits, please contact the experienced Workers’ Compensation lawyers at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania today to schedule your initial consultation.

Kimberly Kallestad, a former cheerleader, was recently awarded almost $15 million by a Spokane County, Washington court after she was left disabled and disfigured following a series of surgeries performed by Dr. Patrick C. Collins, an oral surgeon. Collins’ and his lawyers are planning an appeal.

Kallestead, now 29, claims she is permanently disabled and suffers chronic pain; she cannot work and is now being cared for by her parents. She initially went to Dr. Collins after injuring her jaw while sledding. Collins claimed he had a “near-perfect” success rate with the surgery technique he would employ and that he’d be her “hero” after “fixing” her jaw.

At trial, many other patients testified that Collins had made similar promises to them and that they suffered with chronic pain now, too. Collins’ lawyer, John C. Versnell III said he intends to appeal because other patients were allowed to testify and jurors heard a reference to a previous lawsuit against Collins.

If you or a loved one has suffered due to medical malpractice in Philadelphia or anywhere in Pennsylvania, please contact the experienced medical malpractice attorneys at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis, LLP today.