Posted on May 01,2018 in Slip and Fall

You can slip, fall, and suffer an injury anywhere. When a slip or fall occurs because of a property owner's negligence, such as a store owner who failed to promptly clean up a liquid spill, the property owner is liable for the victim's related damages. But not all slips and falls happen in public places; you can slip and fall in your own home. Below are a few common slip and fall hazards in American households. Take care to repair these hazards in your home to protect yourself and your loved ones from falling, especially if an elderly relative lives with you. Slips and falls, especially in the bathroom, are one of the top causes of injuries among elderly people.

Unsecured Wires

Sometimes, it is necessary to run a wire across a room to power an electronic device. When you have to do this, either run the wire along the wall to keep it out of any walking paths or if this is not possible, secure it to the floor with tape. Even a small wire can be a tripping hazard, especially in dimly lit rooms.

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 Posted on May 01,2018 in Personal Injury

A slip or fall can happen anywhere. When an individual is injured in a slip or fall on private property, the property's owner is liable for the victim's damages. This concept is known as premises liability. Premises liability covers all injuries caused by hazards the property owner knew about or should have known about. Failing to clean up a spill or take a similar action to mitigate a slip and fall hazard is an act of negligence on a property owner's part. Below are a few common causes of slips and falls in public places.

Wet Floors

A spill or puddle on a floor can be a dangerous slip and fall hazard, especially if the floor material beneath is slick tile. In certain retail settings, detergents and other liquid soaps can spill and cause an especially dangerous slip and fall hazard. A few public settings where wet floors can be prevalent are:

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 Posted on March 18,2018 in Defective Medical Product

On March 8, 2018, an Indianapolis federal court ruled that Johnson & Johnson and Ethicon, its medical device division, were negligent in the design and warnings about its Prolift pelvic mesh and therefore, liable for the damages the plaintiff, a 69-year-old woman who had the mesh implanted in 2009, suffered as a result of using the mesh. The court ordered the company to pay $35 million in compensation, $25 million of which were punitive damages.

This was not the first defective medical device lawsuit Johnson & Johnson faced related to the Prolift pelvic mesh. Courts in Pennsylvania and New Jersey have also ruled in favor of plaintiffs injured by the Prolift mesh in other lawsuits.

Complications of Pelvic Meshes

Pelvic meshes, also known as transvaginal meshes, are medical devices that are surgically implanted in the pelvis to control the effects of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and stress urinary incontinence (SUI). Although this device is meant to improve the patient's quality of life by providing support for weakened pelvic floor muscles, it can actually put the patient at risk of experiencing the following:

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 Posted on February 16,2018 in Defective Medical Product

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued a recall for the Philips HeartStart MRx defibrillator because it contains a faulty part that can put patients at risk of serious injury and death.

The defective medical device was recalled after it was determined that a glass tube inside the defibrillator has tiny cracks that allow gases to escape and cause the device to malfunction. These cracks also allow electrical surges to cross the defibrillator's resistors, potentially damaging them and causing the device to fail while it is in automated external defibrillator (AED) mode. When the device fails in this mode, it can still be operated manually. Healthcare providers who have the defibrillator are urged to have the defective glass tube repaired to prevent patient injuries and deaths. In their uncorrected state, these defibrillators can fail at any time.

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 Posted on December 09,2017 in Recall

When a drug on the market is determined to be dangerous in some way, it may be recalled. This can be because the drug was not advertised properly, because a specific batch or all of the drug available is contaminated or compromised, new side effects are discovered, or because the drug in the packages on the market is not the drug labeled on the packages. If a drug you currently take is recalled, stop taking it and contact your healthcare provider or local pharmacy for further instruction. Recalls exist to remove potentially harmful products from the market.

A defective drug claim is a type of personal injury claim. Through this type of claim, a victim can seek compensation for his or her medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering damages related to the use of a harmful drug. If you were given a drug after it was recalled or were harmed by taking a dangerous drug that should have been recalled, you could have grounds to file this type of claim.

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 Posted on December 03,2017 in Arlington Heights Defective Medical Device Attorney

When a patient suffers an injury because of a defective medical device, he or she can seek compensation for his or her related damages through a defective medical device claim. In order to file a successful claim, the patient must first determine which party is liable for his or her damages. This depends on the actual circumstances of the patient's case. If you were injured in an incident involving a faulty or defective medical device, discuss your case with an experienced personal injury lawyer to determine who is liable and how to pursue your claim.

The Device's Manufacturer

In many cases, a defective device's manufacturer is the party liable for the victim's damages. This can be because the device had a design defect, rendering it inherently unsafe, a manufacturing defect, which means the device was not manufactured according to its design and this lapse rendered the final product unsafe for users, or a marketing defect, which means the manufacturer did not disclose the device's potential hazards to physicians, patients, and healthcare providers who might purchase and use the device.

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 Posted on November 27,2017 in Defective Prescription Drugs

Nexium and Prilosec are two drugs produced by pharmaceutical manufacturer AstraZeneca that are used to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). They belong to a category of drugs known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and both are available to users without a prescription.

Another similarity between the drugs is that both have been named in defective drug lawsuits alleging that they are unreasonably dangerous and that their manufacturer was negligent by failing to properly test the drugs, failing to warn consumers about the risks associated with taking these drugs, and that it actively concealed the drugs' dangers to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and misrepresented the drugs in its marketing materials.

Side Effects Associated with these Drugs

Individuals who claim they were hurt by using these drugs allege that they experienced side effects they were not warned about. These side effects include:

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 Posted on November 17,2017 in Arlington Heights Defective Medical Device Attorney

During surgery, the patient's body needs to be kept at a safe, consistent temperature. When the patient's body temperature drops below 96.8 degrees Fahrenheit, he or she can suffer from perioperative hypothermia, a condition associated with blood loss, an increased risk of infection, and an increased mortality rate.

Various machines exist to regulate patients' body temperatures during surgery, one of which is the 3M Bair Hugger. Recently, a group of patients who suffered infections after knee and joint replacement surgeries filed a class action defective medical device lawsuit against 3M, alleging that the warming system circulated contaminants through their bodies that caused them to suffer infections. The plaintiffs allege that the Bair Hugger system is unreasonably dangerous because 3M was negligent in its manufacture. According to the claim, 3M failed to properly test the device and did not warn healthcare providers or patients of the risks associated with its use.

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 Posted on November 04,2017 in Drugs

Drug manufacturers have the responsibility to disclose all potential side effects of their products. They must be disclosed to doctors who may prescribe the products to patients and to patients who may take the drugs. By providing this information, drug companies make it possible for doctors to weigh the benefits and potential risks of a particular medication before prescribing it to a patient and patients can consider whether the benefits outweigh the risks before deciding whether or not to take the medication. Without disclosures of potential side effects, doctors and patients cannot make fully informed decisions about their drug use.

When doctors and patients choose not to take a drug because of its risks, drug sales plummet. Thus, it can be quite lucrative for drug manufacturers to downplay or even fail to advertise their products' potential risks despite this being a dishonest act and a violation of their product liability. Drug manufacturers are liable for the damages victims suffer from using their products, which can be sought through defective drug claims.

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 Posted on October 22,2017 in Defective Prescription Drugs

Numerous claims have been filed against Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturers of diabetes medication Invokana. These claims allege that the manufacturers did not adequately warn doctors and their patients of the drug's potential side effects, which include an increased risk of kidney failure, foot and leg amputations, and ketoacidosis.

Like manufacturers of other consumer products, drug manufacturers have the responsibility to ensure that their products are safe for consumers to use before releasing them to the market. When a product cannot be released without some potential for side effects, manufacturers must clearly warn patients and the physicians who prescribe their products about these side effects so they can make informed decisions about using the drugs. A patient who is harmed because of a manufacturer's failure to disclose a drug's side effects can seek compensation for his or her related damages through a defective drug claim.

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