The Nebraska Injury Law Report

Bloomberg news reports:

A New Jersey judge upheld a $13.5 million verdict against drugmaker Merck & Co., won by a couple who sued over injuries the man sustained after he took the company’s Vioxx painkiller.

The Aug. 7 ruling by Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee denied Merck’s request for a new trial or a reduction in the damages, which included the jury’s punitive award of $9 million. Higbee also awarded the couple $2 million in attorney fees and costs plus $2,552 per day in interest.

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John and Irma McDarby sued Whitehouse Station, New Jersey- based Merck in 2005 after John McDarby, who used Vioxx for four years, suffered a heart attack. Their suit is one of more than 10,000 filed against the company.

Merck withdrew Vioxx from the market in 2004 after a study showed it doubled the risk of a heart attack in patients after 18 months of use.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a dangerous product, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.

The Denver Post reports on this nearly unbelievable story of a death caused by a sports cream:
A medical examiner blamed a 17-year-old track star’s death on the use of too much anti- inflammatory muscle cream, the kind used to soothe aching legs after exercise.

Arielle Newman, a cross-country runner at Notre Dame Academy on Staten Island, died after her body absorbed high levels of methyl salicylate, an anti-inflammatory found in sports creams such as Bengay and Icy Hot, the New York City medical examiner said Friday.

The medical examiner’s spokeswoman, Ellen Borakove, said the teen used “topical medication to excess.” She said it was the first time that her office had reported a death from using a sports cream.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to the negligence of another, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.

From The New York Times:

A federal jury on Tuesday awarded $5.5 million to the father of a man who died while wearing a drug patch made by two Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries.

The jury in Federal District Court in West Palm Beach found that Janssen Pharmaceutica Products and the Alza Corporation, both based in New Jersey, were liable in the death of Adam Hendelson, 28, who died in 2003 while wearing the companies’ Duragesic patch.

The patch delivers controlled doses of the powerful painkiller fentanyl.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to medical negligence, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.

Even Thomas the Tank Engine’s buddy James is having his problems.

The New York Times reports: “The toy maker RC2 Corporation pulled a number of its Thomas & Friends trains and accessory parts off the shelves yesterday after learning that the red and yellow paint used to decorate more than 1.5 million of the toys contained lead. The James Engine is . . . being recalled because the red and yellow paint used to decorate them contains lead. Lead, if ingested by children, can cause long-term neurological problems that affect learning and behavior.”

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a defective product, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.

Law.com reports:

In the first of 400 suits to be tried over the acne drug Accutane’s propensity to cause inflammatory bowel disease, an Atlantic County, N.J., jury has assessed $2.62 million in damages against Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. and its Swiss parent company. However, the jury of six women and four men did not award punitive damages under New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act because they found insufficient evidence the manufacturer intentionally failed to warn the drug can cause IBD.

Read more here.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a dangerous product, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.

MSNBC reports:

WASHINGTON - The government warned consumers on Friday to avoid using toothpaste made in China because it may contain a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze.

Out of caution, the Food and Drug Administration said, people should throw away toothpaste with labeling that says it was made in China. The FDA is concerned that these products may contain diethylene glycol.

For more details go the FDA website here.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a dangerous product, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is alerting health care professionals and their patients who wear soft contact lenses about a voluntary recall of Complete MoisturePlus Multi Purpose Solution manufactured by Advanced Medical Optics of Santa Ana, Ca.

The drops may be a defective product and the company is taking this action as a precaution because of reports of a rare, but serious, eye infection, Acanthamoeba keratitis, caused by a parasite. The link between the solution and the infection was identified as a result of an investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Consumers who wear soft contact lenses should stop using the solution, discard all partially-used or unopened bottles and replace their lenses and storage container.

For more on the recall go to the FDA website here.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a dangerous product, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.

The Washington Post reports that:

The companies that grew, processed and marketed contaminated spinach that led to a nationwide E. coli outbreak last year have settled lawsuits in the deaths of three women.

The lawyer for the families of Ruby Trautz, 81, of Bellevue, Neb.; Betty Howard, 83, of Richland, Wash.; and June Dunning, 86, of Hagerstown, said the women died after eating fresh spinach bagged under the Dole label.

“They just didn’t die immediately after eating it, but they got sick,” said Bill Marler. “But there’s no question that it came from Dole baby spinach, or else there wouldn’t have been a settlement.”

Federal officials announced a recall of bagged fresh spinach last September, as nearly 200 people were sickened after eating the leafy greens processed by Natural Selections LLC under a number of labels, including Dole.

Inspectors eventually traced the E. coli strain to cattle or wild pig feces found in the San Benito County spinach fields of Mission Organics, which grew the spinach.

Terms of the settlements were not disclosed.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a dangerous product, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.