Chicago Injury Lawyer Blog

As a Chicago lawyer with auto accident and products liability experience, I am appalled that rental car agencies failed to fix recalled vehicles in a timely manner. I am hopeful that this will never happen again, and the rental car companies will be held responsible for their carelessness.

Citing troubling reports of injuries and deaths in rental cars, “the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has begun investigating whether millions of rental cars are being fixed when they are recalled for safety problems.” (C. Jensen, 11/23, NY Times blog Wheels).

The agency opened the investigation to audit the recall remedy chosen by rental car companies. Some have accused the rental car agencies of waiting too late, until it was convenient for them, to issue the necessary recalls. The NTSHA has asked Chrysler, Ford and General Motors to aid them in the investigation. This follows a tragedy this year where Enterprise “admitted in a California court that its failure to fix a Chrysler PT Cruiser was responsible for the deaths of two California women when it caught fire and crashed.”

Parents of toddlers beware! The holiday season is a time of great joy, but can also be a time of great tragedy if proper precautions are not instituted. Authorities in Ohio say “a toddler fell into a septic tank and was critically injured while being watched by a woman putting up outdoor Christmas lights.” (Waterford Ohio AP, 11/24).

Fortunately the toddler survived, although he was not breathing when he was rescued. However, Christmas lights can pose many hazards to toddlers – distractions to parents, and, if within their reach, another object to put in their mouths.

As a personal injury lawyer in Chicago, I urge all parents of young children to take certain precautions when decorating for the holidays. Keep small objects (like ornaments) and lights out of toddler’s reach. Additionally, menorah candles pose another risk if within the reach of children, and children must always be supervised adequately.

Health care giant Johnson & Johnson is announcing “another product recall, this one involving Children's Benadryl Allergy Fastmelt Tablets, Junior Strength Motrin Caplets, and Extra Strength Rolaids softchews. ” (AP Medical, 11/23). This recall is at both the wholesale and retail lever. Interestingly, Johnson & Johnson said the medicines still work and that “no action is required by consumers or providers.”

Johnson & Johnson reviewed its manufacturing process after a several recalls last year. In doing so, it found some issues with the Benadryl and Motrin products. For example, “the Rolaids soft chews were recalled because some consumers complained the Rolaids had an unusual texture that J&J traced to crystallized sugar.”

As a products liability attorney in Chicago, I am hopeful that Johnson & Johnson is sure that the defects are not threatening to consumers. Although the recalls do not require action by consumers or providers, and the medicines apparently still work, I would consider purchasing new bottles manufactured after the recall.

Help may be on the horizon as an experimental drug study indicates that it may offer a new way to fight heart disease. (M. Marchione, AP Medical, 11/17). The drug, anacetrapib, “dramatically dropped bad cholesterol while boosting so-called good cholesterol to record levels.” So far, no red flags or safety issues have been recorded in tests of 1”,600 people at high risk of heart disease.”

The drug's maker, Merck & Co., says “it will launch a much larger study to see if these changes in cholesterol lead to fewer heart attacks and strokes.” Doctors discussed these promising results at the American Heart Association conference in Chicago.

As a medical malpractice and products liability attorney in Chicago, I am intrigued by these promising results, but am, as always, hopeful that the necessary tests are complete to ensure the safety of new drugs.

The government says “tougher safeguards for toys mean better choices for families this holiday season.” (D. Melendy, AP Washington, 11/18).

The Consumer Product Safety Commission have issued less recalls this year than in years past, in party, they say, due to tough U.S. standards on lead content in toys. The agency also says, “it received 12 reports last year of toy-related deaths involving kids younger than 15. That's just half as many as in each of the two prior years.”

As a personal injury lawyer in Chicago, I am glad to see toy related deaths on the decline, but am hopeful that any all toys that need to be recalled will be. As always, it is especially important to bear in mind safety considerations during holiday shopping, because buying age appropriate toys is one way parents can ensure the safety of their children.

A federal judge in California “will consider a motion by Toyota Motor Corp. to dismiss lawsuits that claim there are sudden acceleration defects in its cars.” (AP Santa Anna, California, 11/19). This hearing is in the wake of a fatal crash in Utah, likely due to a faulty Toyota Camry.

Toyota seeks to have hundreds of class action lawsuits dismissed arguing “the plaintiffs have been unable to prove that a design defect, namely its electronic throttle control system, is responsible for sudden acceleration problems.”

As a personal injury and products liability attorney in Chicago with experience in auto accidents, I am hopeful that the federal judge will allow the suit to continue and allow the plaintiffs to prove the design defect. A motion to dismiss is appropriate only where the plaintiff has plead no facts upon which relief can be granted.

As a medical malpractice attorney in Chicago, I join Medicare’s new chief in his plan to increase the quality and safety of medical care. Medicare's new chief “called for more steps to improve patient safety Tuesday, in the wake of a government report that said one in seven hospitalized Medicare patients is harmed during their stay.” (Washington AP, 11/16).

The new HHS report “analyzed the records of 780 Medicare patients hospitalized in October 2008 to examine mistakes and unavoidable consequences of treatment, such as previously unknown drug allergies or medication side effects.” During that month alone, over 130,000 Medicare patients suffered an adverse effect while in the hospital. Nearly half of these were preventable.

Additionally, about 1,500 patients per month suffered complications from treatment that contributed to their deaths. In response, a new Medicare "innovation center" was opened recently that is “designed to develop and test ways to improve quality of care and lower health care costs for everyone, not just Medicare recipients. The program is one of several established by the new health care law to help Medicare spur improvements in patient safety.”

Initial projects target coordination across multiple health providers so that new providers know what tests have been performed elsewhere. Other goals include increasing primary care quality to reduce the chances that patients end up hospitalized.

A New York senator says “federal regulators are expected to move to ban caffeinated alcoholic drinks as soon as this week.” (Washington AP, 11/16).

After much recent publicity, the Food and Drug Administration is expected “to find that caffeine is an unsafe food additive to alcoholic drinks.” If this in fact happens, then the Federal Trade Commission will issue warning letters to manufacturers warning that marketing caffeinated alcoholic beverages could be illegal.

Recently, caffeinated alcoholic beverages have been banned in four states in the wake of several hospitalizations of college students. As a Chicago personal injury lawyer, I am hopeful that any unsafe drinks will be banned from the market.

Federal safety officials “want states to require all motorcycle riders to wear helmets, citing a surge in deaths since the late 1990s.” (J.Lowy, Washington AP, 11/16). The National Transportation Safety Board says that while overall traffic fatalities have decline, motorcycle deaths have increased over the last decade. According to the NTSB, there were “4,400 motorcycle deaths in the U.S. last year, more than in all aviation, rail, marine and pipeline accidents combined.”

Considering that head injuries are the leading cause of death in motorcycle crashes, the NTSB wants all states to require helmet use. Currently, 20 states require all motorcycle riders to wear helmets, and the majority of states have limited helmet requirements. However, Iowa, Illinois and Vermont have no helmet requirement.

As a Chicago car and truck accident lawyer, I strongly urge all motorcycle users to wear helmets to safeguard against head injuries, and join the NTSB in wanting all states to require motorcycle riders to wear helmets.

This wee, a “1-foot-by-2-foot hole was found in the fuselage of a commercial airliner that suddenly lost cabin pressure shortly after taking off from Miami.” (AP Miami, 10/29). As a personal injury attorney in Chicago, I am hopeful that this situation will be studied quickly to avoid possible future incidents of greater magnitude. Thankfully, the National Transportation Board has already begun an investigation.

American Airlines Flight 1640, a Boeing 757 carrying 154 passengers and 6 crew members, was headed to Boston from Miami when the cabin suddenly lost pressure, sending passengers into hysterics. Passengers said the plane began descending quickly and loudly, lights were flashing, and oxygen masks were deployed.

An inspection of the plane” revealed a hole in the upper part of the fuselage near a cabin door toward the front of the plane.” American Airlines applauds the crew for acting quickly to declare an emergency and making a safe return to Miami. Although there were no injuries in this case, it was, needless to say, an extremely close call.

Duro Extend Capsules for Men were recalled this week. The drug is manufactured by Intelli Health Products of Miami. The capsules were recalled “because they contain an unapproved new drug analog that may interact with nitrates found in some prescription drugs, such as nitroglycerin, and may lower blood pressure to dangerous levels.” (AP, 11/2). As a products liability attorney, I urge all consumers to cease taking the drug immediately.

This recall is serious, as the recall urges “consumers who have Duro Extend Capsules [to] stop using them immediately and return them to the place they were purchased or contact Intelli Health Products at 1-800-861-6022.” Additionally, any Consumers who are experiencing adverse or odd side effects should contact a physician immediately. Consumers who experience an adverse effects that should report it to the Food and Drug Administration's Med Watch Program at http://www.fda.gov/safety/medwatch.

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As a Chicago area attorney with extensive nursing home experience, I too am discouraged by the latest disappointment in Alzheimer’s research. Although omega-3 fatty acid pills were thought to promote memory, researchers are reporting the disappointing news that the pills did not “slow mental and physical decline in older patients with mild or moderate Alzheimer’s disease. (L. Tanner, Chicago AP, 11/2).

Those results are the result of a “multimillion-dollar government-funded study released Tuesday in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.” Laurie Ryan, the president of Alzheimer’s studies at the National Institute on Aging calls the results discouraging, but notes that “the institute is spending millions of dollars on research into other possible treatments. Those include lifestyle changes, drugs and biomarkers that might lead to more targeted drug treatment.”

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