South Carolina Injury Lawyer Blog

If you look back to Wednesday's posts you will find an entry discussing a recent lawsuit filed by the South Carolina Attorney General against a major drug manufacturer because of the risk of serious injuries and death by way of heart attacks that a diabetes drug poses to South Carolinians. Today, your Charleston workers' compensation lawyers read that there is a bill making its way through the North Carolina state legislature that aims at making it harder to sue drug producers, among other provisions.

The Tort Reform for Citizens and Businesses Bill is a Republican led initiative to restrict product liability lawsuits against drug makers. The bill is a vital piece of legislation on the Republication agenda this session and follows a medical malpractice bill that has made its way to a conference committee of State Representative and Senate members. Ultimately, the bills want to reduce insurance and health care costs, while improving North Carolina's business environment.

Although Republicans are pushing the Tort Reform Bill, some of the state's 52 House Democrats are in support of the bill, helping it clear the House yesterday. Now, it moves on to the State Senate.

Continue reading "Lawsuit Restrictions Concerning Drug Manufacturers Clears State House of Representatives" »

Your Charleston drug and medication injury attorneys recently learned of a major lawsuit involving South Carolina and the diabetes drug Avandia. Our State's Attorney General's Office is suing GlaxoSmithKline PLC, the maker of Avandia, alleging a widespread pattern of fraudulent behavior. According to the lawsuit, filed in Spartanburg County on May 17, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) used false and illegal marketing, exaggerated the drug's effectiveness, and has hid Avandia's risks since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) initially approved the drug in 1999. The suit seeks damages and penalties in addition to recouping millions of dollars in State Funding spent on prescription for Medicaid patients and state employees, as well as moneys spent treating the drug's harmful side effects.

In regards to the false and illegal marketing, the suit claims GSK has continued to heavily market Avandia without warning of the potential cardiovascular risks the drug poses to consumers, despite the largely known association of between the drugs use and heart attacks. Since a 2007 study conducted by the Cleveland Clinic showed the drug increased the risk of heart attack in type 2 diabetes patients by about 40 percent, Avandia has come under extreme scrutiny, especially considering further studies have come to similar conclusions.

In May the FDA issued restrictions on the drug's use because such dangerous links to cardiovascular risks and heart attack. Now, under the FDA's new program, only certain patients will be allowed to use the drug.

Continue reading "South Carolina Attorney General Sues Major Pharmaceutical Manufacturer" »

Realizing it had been a while since our Charleston medical malpractice lawyers actually discussed medical malpractice, it was timely to come across an article covering a recent court decision in which a woman was awarded $10.5 million for the permanent injuries she suffered from improperly administered anesthesia during surgery.

The 44-year-old woman, and mother of two, brought the medical malpractice case against the Anesthesia Associates of New London, Connecticut for treatment she received back in 2006. According to the online news article and lawsuit, which was filed in 2008, "as a result of the 'carelessness and negligence' of Anesthesia Associates in its pre-operative assessments, use of anesthesia equipment and patient monitoring, [said woman] suffered 'serious, severe, painful and permanent injuries' that caused her to be permanently deprived of her fully ability to carry on and enjoy life's activities.'"

Court documents also showed that the mother of two spent 26 days in a coma, 29 days in the hospitals intensive care unit (ICU), and 45 days doing verbal and orthopedic rehabilitation.

Furthermore, she suffered nerve damage, memory loss, was forced to use a feeding tube and catheter, had a tracheotomy, suffers physiological pain in her feet and elsewhere, as well as psychological and neurological side effects from the procedure gone awry.

Continue reading "South Carolina Personal Injury Lawyers Look North and Find Medical Malpractice Case" »

Our Charleston drug recall lawyers have noticed numerous advertisements on television asking viewers if they have been harmed by a variety of defective consumer products, primarily including asbestos exposure and pharmaceutical drugs. The aim of these ads is to reach out to the American Public, find individuals who have been injured from a product, and form a class action lawsuit against the producers of a product that has caused serious injuries and wrongful deaths. A class action, or a representative action, is a law suit in which a group of people collectively bring a claim against a defendant. The idea being there is strength in numbers when challenging major manufacturers of consumer products, think back to the tobacco litigation of the early and mid 1990s.

Just as an aside, there is a fantastic book that details the development of the class action suit against big tobacco entitled Civil Warriors, and authored by Dan Zegart. It does a superb job of showing the effectiveness of representative action as a means to provide injunctive relief. In the case of the tobacco industry, an example would be the requirement for cigarette makers to eliminate advertisements that attract kids to smoking, like the cartoon character, Joe Camel.

Currently there are a couple of pharmaceutical drugs that have gained national attention because of their harmful side effects to consumers, Topamax and Accutane.

Continue reading "South Carolina Personal Injury Lawyers Talk Major Medications and Class Actions" »

South Carolina wrongful death lawyers find the settlement in this tobacco case particularly interesting because it is the first wrongful death suit of its kind. In recent memory lawsuits have been filed against big tobacco for their production of cigarettes, but this suit was filed against makers of smokeless, chewable tobacco products. In past lawyers focused primarily on cigarette producers because of stronger evidence to back their claims that cigarettes were directly correlated with causes of death.

The makers of Skoal and Copenhagen, the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, have settled with the family of a Canton, North Carolina man for $5 million. The man began chewing tobacco when he became a teenager and died from mouth cancer in 2003 at the age of 42. With such lucrative results in this case it is believed that similar, subsequent lawsuits will be filed against Altria, the firm that acquired U.S. Smokeless Tobacco last year, and other smokeless tobacco producers. This proves that plaintiffs, who have suffered wrongful death and serious injury, can target makers of Skoal, Copenhagen, and the like, and be successful.

The case was initially filed by the Canton man's wife in 2005 a couple of years after he died from cancer of the tongue. Leading up to his death he had had multiple surgeries to remove his tongue. It is highly common for mouth cancer patients to lose parts of their mouth, either from surgical procedures to remove cancerous regions or the tissue in the mouth simply wastes away.

Continue reading "News for Charleston Tobacco Chewers and Families" »

South Carolina Drug Injury Lawyers ask: do you take Tylenol PM to help you sleep, do you give your child Children’s Motrin to reduce fever or pain, or have you taken Tylenol arthritis lately? Examine your medicine bottles now because Johnson and Johnson has now expanded their over the counter South Carolina medication recall, due to the medications moldy smell, which has made some users sick.

The recall now includes the following popular medications: regular and extra-strength Tylenol, Children’s Tylenol, eight-hour Tylenol, Tylenol arthritis, Tylenol PM, Motrin IB, Children’s Motrin, Rolaids, Benadryl, Simply Sleep, and St. Joseph’s aspirin.

This extended recall covers all forms of pills that were sold in the United States, United Arab Emirates, and Fiji. Reported side effects from the smell of the medication include nausea, stomach pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. For complete recall list visit mcneilproductrecall.com.

Federal regulators at the Food and Drug Administration are not pleased with how Johnson and Johnson’s McNeil Consumer Heathcare Products have handled this situation, claiming that the manufacturer should have made the recall in a more timely manner. Deborah Autor, the director of the FDA’s Office, expressed her concern with the company’s lack of immediate response and also stated that “when something smells bad, literally or figuratively, companies must aggressively investigate and take all necessary action to solve the problem.”

Medication recalls are common but are not to be taken lightly. You and your loved ones should not suffer from undisclosed side effects. If you think you have taken a prescription or over the counter medication that has been recalled and have experienced any bizarre side effects please call a drug injury lawyer.

Source: The Post and Courier- “Johnson & Johnson Expands Medication Recall.”January 16, 2010