South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers

A Russian passenger jet with at least 170 people aboard crashed in Ukraine on Tuesday after sending a distress signal, emergency officials said.

The Pulkovo airlines Tupolev 154, en route from the Russian Black Sea resort of Anapa to St. Petersburg, disappeared from radar screens over Ukraine about 2:30 p.m., officials said.

Minutes later, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said wreckage from the plane was found on the ground.

The Interfax news agency quoted Ukrainian Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Igor Krol as saying a fire broke out on the plane at 32,800 feet and that the crew decided to try to make an emergency landing. However, it also quoted Russian aviation official Alexander Neradko as saying that the plane might have run into strong turbulence.

Russian Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andriyanova said 30 bodies had been found. She said there were 171 people aboard: 160 passengers, including six children, and 11 crew members. Ukrainian officials said there were 160 passengers and 10 crew members on board. The discrepancy could not immediately be explained.

The plane disappeared from radar screens two minutes after the crew sent a distress signal, said Yulia Stadnikova, another Russian spokeswoman.

Rescuers were working at the site of the crash, found near the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, about 400 miles east of Kiev, Ukrainian officials said.

Pulkovo airlines, among Russia’s largest carriers, is based in St. Petersburg.

It was the third major plane crash in the region this year, and came less than two months after at least 124 people died when an Airbus A-310 of the Russian carrier S7 skidded off a runway and burst into flames on July 9 in the Siberian city of Irkutsk.

On May 3, an A-320 of the Armenian airline Armavia crashed into the Black Sea while trying to land in the Russian resort city of Sochi in rough weather, killing all 113 people aboard.

Russian-made Tu-154s are widely used by Russian airlines for many regional flights.

The results of a new study indicate that chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer patients under the age of 64 actually cause more harm than previously thought. According to the study, patients suffered three to four times the rate of side effects than was earlier predicted.

Additionally, researchers found that about one in six younger breast cancer patients visited the emergency room or were hospitalized for side effects such as dehydration, low blood count, infection, or nausea.

Prevalence of Chemotherapy Treatments

Every year in the U.S., some 35,000 younger breast cancer patients receive chemo drugs to help with their treatment. However, in many cases, radiation, surgery, and hormone treatments are enough.

While doctors don’t have a surefire way that indicates which patient would benefit most from chemotherapy, the deciding factor is usually based on age since those under 64 are thought to endure the treatment better than older patients.

“We don’t believe our study is saying that chemotherapy is not helpful,” said Dr. Michael Hassett of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and lead author of the study. But, “we’ve been struggling as a professional community to understand which women benefit from chemotherapy.”

The Chemotherapy Risks Study

The study, published in last week’s issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, was the first time the risks of chemotherapy for breast cancer patients under the age of 64 were evaluated.

Hassett and his colleagues gathered a huge database of insurance claims to evaluate how many times patients under 64 went to the hospital in the first year after breast cancer diagnosis, and how often chemotherapy side effects were the culprit of the visit.

The study found that 16 percent of patients who received chemotherapy were hospitalized for related side effects including infection and fever, which affected 8 percent of patients under 64—four times what previous research had predicted.

Furthermore, 61 percent of chemo recipients visited the ER or were hospitalized for some reason (not just chemo side effects) in comparison with 42 percent of breast cancer patients not receiving chemotherapy treatment.

“The study highlights the importance of studying how drugs affect people in everyday medical care” so they are able to “make informed decisions about the risks and benefits of their treatment options,” said Dr. Carolyn Clancy, director of the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which funded the study.

More information about the risks of chemo treatment is particularly important for patients who opt to take the drugs despite a good prognosis for their cancer, when it might raise their survival odds by less than five percent, according to Dr. Joseph Lau of the Tufts-New England Medical Center.

A jury has awarded $895,000 in damages to a woman whose doctor was accused of failing to diagnose her with breast cancer when the disease was at an early stage, forcing her to undergo surgery and chemotherapy.The Blair County civil court jury found Dr. Debra S. Pike of Roaring Spring negligent in treating 39-year-old Cynthia Storm of Hollidaysburg, who went to Pike in January 2002 after discovering a lump in her breast.

The doctor conducted mammogram and ultrasound tests, which did not detect a tumor. Storm continued to say she felt the lump during doctor visits in February and April 2002.

In October 2002, Pike said she felt a lump and sent Storm to a surgeon for a biopsy, which confirmed the mass was cancerous. It was determined the cancer had spread, prompting an operation and chemotherapy.

Medical experts testifying for Storm said she would not have needed the treatments if the cancer had been detected when she first visited Pike.

They said the delay in conducting a biopsy led to the radical surgery and chemotherapy, which dramatically affected Storm’s life. She was given drugs so strong they damaged her heart, they said. The experts indicated there was a 50-50 chance the cancer will return within a 10-year period.

Experts for the defense, however, said Pike followed proper medical procedure by not referring Storm to a surgeon when mammogram and ultrasound tests did not show a tumor.

They also argued that the lump found in October was not the problem that prompted Storm to visit the doctor in January 2002.

The jury of seven women and five men took about four hours Friday to find that Pike was negligent and had caused harm to Storm.

It awarded Storm $770,000, including $250,000 for pain and suffering; $150,000 for loss of life’s pleasures; $100,000 for disfigurement; $50,000 for embarrassment; $20,000 for unpaid medical expenses and $200,000 for loss of earnings.

Storm’s husband, Christopher, was awarded $125,000 for loss of consortium.

The award was the third-largest in Blair County’s civil court in the past two years.

SYOSSET, New York-One was a young tourist from Minnesota on her way to a concert. The other, a 67-year-old former Broadway dancer heading home. They both fell victim to a common hazard along the Long Island Rail Road commuter train service - the gap between the train and platform.The teenage tourist was killed this month after she slipped through a gap between a car and the platform and was struck by a train going the other way. The dancer broke her neck and was left paralyzed after suffering a similar fall two years ago.

The death of 18-year-old Natalie Smead has prompted advocates, politicians and others to call for North America’s largest commuter railroad to take steps to reduce the number of gap-related injuries. The railroad concedes injuries related to the gap happen about once a week.

Critics say the railroad, which placed yellow “Watch the Gap” stickers on all train door windows in the early 1990s, has either never fully addressed the problem or is content that the number of injuries is relatively small compared to the hundreds of thousands who travel safely each day.

“My own take on this is they feel it’s probably cheaper for them to defend lawsuits than to actually fix the problem,” said attorney Paul Weitz, who has filed a $50 million (€39 million) lawsuit on behalf of Shelly Rann - the former Broadway dancer. “They’ve made a heartless calculation that it’s flat out cheaper than to fix the problem.”

An LIRR spokeswoman said, “we don’t comment on pending lawsuits.”

Rann, 67, who was a Radio City Rockette at 16 and danced in Broadway musicals, was returning home from a ballet class in October 2004 when she fell through a gap between the train and platform at the Forest Hills station. She is a quadriplegic because of the accident.

Smead, an 18-year-old from Northfield, Minnesota, fell onto the tracks as she was getting off a westbound train at Woodside on Aug. 5 , headed for a Dave Matthews concert at Randall’s Island, in the East River between the city’s boroughs of Manhattan and Queens. She managed to cross under the platform and was trying to climb up the other side when she was struck by an eastbound train.

Railroad officials said it is the only known fatality attributed to someone falling through the gap, but they concede there have been nearly 130 injuries to commuters slipping through gaps since 2004 - an average of more than one a week at its 124 stations that stretch from Manhattan to Montauk.

It’s difficult to determine how that compares with other railroads; Steve Kulm of the Federal Railroad Administration said statistics are kept on passenger injuries, but not on specific incidents of people falling between the gap.

The Long Island Rail Road, a division of the state Metropolitan Transportation Authority, carries an average of 282,400 commuters each weekday on 728 trains, according to the MTA’s Web site, which calls it North America’s busiest commuter railroad. Although most stations are on relatively straight stretches, some built nearly a century ago are situated on severe curves, which create gaps as wide as 15 inches between the angled platform and the straight cars.

In response to Smead’s death, LIRR President James Dermody said officials would install a $1.5 million (€1.2 million) closed-circuit television system that will allow the conductor to view both ends of the platform at one particularly curvy station - Syosset. The platform at Woodside, where Smead died, is relatively straight and it is still not clear how the young woman fell.

Railroad officials also plan to survey the entire system for possible improvements, and said announcements warning passengers of potential gap hazards would be made.

“They warn you before you get on now about the gap, but you have to really take a leap, especially if you’re petite, and I’m petite,” said Pam Friedlander of Syosset.

She says she once had to pull her 12-year-old son from between the gap. “I was hysterical about it. His foot went between the gap and the train and it was really serious. You have to really watch yourself and be cognizant of what you’re doing when you step onto this train.”

Judy Jacobs, the leader of the Nassau County Legislature, said cameras are no solution and said the remedy is to install so-called “gap plates,” devices that electronically extend temporary plates from the platform to train doors. Such devices are used in several New York City subway stations.

“What’s the purpose of seeing somebody fall?” Jacobs asked. “I say isn’t it better to prevent the fall and not just catch it on camera?”

Michael A. Harris, a wheelchair-bound founder of the Disabled Riders Coalition, said the railroad needs to comply with the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act, which calls for no more than a 3-inch gap at any station.

“I do a lot of traveling and in most cities the trains line up,” he said. “This is really an issue of the Long Island Rail Road choosing to take the cheaper and less reliable alternative rather than actually remedying the large gaps.”

A federal judge says the nation’s top cigarette makers conspired for decades to mislead the public about the health hazards and addictive nature of smoking, but she says there’s not much she can do to make them pay.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler sided with the government Thursday in its seven-year-old civil racketeering case against the tobacco industry. However, she rejected a bid by the Justice Department to make tobacco companies pay billions of dollars in remedies.Kessler, who presided over a non-jury trial, said she was barred by an appeals court ruling from imposing the remedies sought. The appeals court ruled that remedies must be designed to prevent future wrongdoing and not to punish bad behavior.

Summer is quickly coming to an end and parents and children nationwide are preparing for another school year. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is reminding parents to take precautions to keep children safe when they head back to school.“As you prepare to send your child back to school, parents should arm themselves with important safety tips that can help keep your child in the classroom and out of a hospital emergency room,” said CPSC Acting Chairman Nancy Nord.

Drawstrings on Children’s Clothing

One hazard to watch for is drawstrings on children’s clothing. This hidden hazard can lead to deaths and injuries because drawstrings can catch on such items as playground equipment. Over the past 20 years, CPSC received reports of 23 deaths and 64 non-fatal incidents involving the entanglement of children’s clothing drawstrings.

CPSC recommends that parents or caregivers only buy upper outerwear without hood and neck drawstrings. If you find children’s clothing with drawstrings in your home, completely remove the hood and neck drawstrings from all children’s upper outerwear, including jackets and sweatshirts, size 2T through size 12.

Wear the Right Helmet

Rather than ride the bus, many children ride bikes, scooters and skateboards to school. To reduce the risk of serious head injury or death, children should wear a helmet - and it is important to wear the appropriate helmet for your sport.

About 800 people, approximately 180 children, died in bicycle-related incidents in a recent year. More than half of the 500,000 bicycle-related emergency room-treated injuries in 2005 involved children under the age of 15. Wearing a helmet can reduce the risk of a head injury by up to 85 percent.

• Look for a label inside the bicycle helmet indicating it meets the CPSC standard. Other sport helmets, including those for skateboarders and football players, have labeling certifying compliance with other standards.
• CPSC has a new publication entitled “Which Helmet for Which Activity.” This brochure is a useful guide to parents and includes helmet information on sports kids play at every age level.
• Be aware of local laws pertaining to the use of pocket bikes and scooters, and do not ride on streets or in driveways. Many cities and communities have specific areas where scooters are permissible. Other communities prohibit entirely the riding of pocket bikes or motorized scooters.

Here are additional tips from CPSC for Back-to-School Safety:

Playgrounds: Each year, more than 200,000 children are taken to hospital emergency rooms due to playground-related injuries. Most injuries occur when a child falls onto the playground surface.

• There should be a layer of safe, shock absorbing surface material, consisting of wood chips, mulch, sand, pea gravel, or mats made of safety-tested rubber or fiber material around playground equipment.
• Make sure there is no exposed hardware to catch clothing and no free-hanging ropes attached to the equipment, which could cause strangulation

The California Highway Patrol said Tuesday, July 4, that a man was arrested in a hit-and-run accident that left four people dead in a burning car.

According to police, Antonio Presiada, 26, was arrested late Monday for allegedly driving a stolen pickup truck that hit a car and pushed it into a guardrail. The car then caught fire.

The car’s driver was rescued but suffered serious burns. A man and three children died at the scene.

Kevin Hickman, California Highway Patrol Officer, said that Presiada called authorities claiming he was assaulted. But Officers noticed injuries consistent with a car accident and connected him to the crash.

Presiada was held on suspicion of four counts of murder, five counts of felony hit-and-run and auto theft, among other charges.

In April 7, 2005, plaintiff Alexis Sarti, 21, a full-time college student and full-time cashier at Albertson’s grocery store, ate dinner at the Salt Creek Grille in Dana Point, California. Her meal included an ahi tuna appetizer. The following day, she had an upset stomach and nausea. The day after that, she experienced diarrhea and stomach pain. These symptoms continued for days. She continued taking over the counter medication, Pepto Bismol. On April 19 she noticed blood in her stool, and her vision became blurry. When she awoke on April 20, she could not move her arms and legs. She was taken to the hospital via ambulance, where she was diagnosed with food poisoning. Specifically, a bacteria known as Campylobacter Jejuni had triggered a rare and debilitating disease, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, Miller-Fisher variant (”GBS”) in Sarti. GBS causes a person’s immune system to attack the nervous system, ultimately causing paralysis of the respiratory system as well as the lower and upper extremities.Sarti sued the Salt Creek Grille, alleging negligence, strict liability and breach of warranty. She claimed that the restaurant served her tuna which was cross-contaminated with Campylobacter Jejuni.The defendant denied acting negligently, claiming that it followed proper health code procedures in the handling of all its food. The defense further maintained that Sarti could not prove that food at the Salt Creek Grille was the source of the bacteria, asserting that Campylobacter Jejuni can come from raw chicken or a baby’s or cat’s feces. They noted that Sarti had a cat and her sister had a baby, and she could have been exposed to raw chicken at home or at another restaurant.Sarti’s counsel countered that there was no basis for attributing the bacteria to the cat or the baby, as neither showed any symptoms of infection. Also, Sarti denied having been exposed to raw chicken before becoming ill.

Sarti was admitted to the intensive care unit at the hospital on April 20, where she remained for ten days. After being moved out of intensive care, she stayed in the hospital for approximately 40 days. She remained partially paralyzed in her arms and legs during this period, and she underwent physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy. By the time she was discharged, she had regained some feeling in her arms and legs but still could not walk without a walker, and used a wheelchair much of the time. At the time of trial, she could walk unaided, but her gait was permanently affected. As she described it, her gait was akin to a “waddle,” with her feet pointing outwards. She claimed about $350,000 in medical specials.

Due to her illness, Sarti missed approximately 12 months of work at her cashier job, causing her to lose $12,000 in wages. She also claimed that her injuries would delay her graduation from college and her entry into the professional workforce in her chosen field of teaching. Additional future loss in the amount of $500,000 was requested by plaintiff’s counsel.

Sarti also sought damages for pain and suffering in the amount of $3 million.

The defense disputed plaintiff’s projection of lost earnings, arguing that she would lose no more than $60,000 in total past and future lost earnings.

The jury found Salt Creek Grille liable for negligence, but not strict liability or breach of warranty, and awarded Sarti$3,225,000.

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla.-A woman who was fatally mauled by her dog was trying to give it a bath when it attacked, police said.Shawna Willey, 30, died Friday. Her daughter apparently witnessed the attack by the 120-pound Presa Canario and alerted a neighbor who called authorities, Coral Springs Police spokesman Rich Nicorvo said.

It was not clear what made the dog attack, Nicorvo said.

When police arrived at the house, the officers saw the dog standing over the woman’s body in the backyard near the swimming pool.

The dog made aggressive movements toward officers when they entered the yard, so they shot and killed it.

A coroner will determine Willey’s exact cause of death.

Willey was cited in Hillsborough County several years ago for having dangerous dogs, according to court records.

In late 2003, plaintiff George Bullen, 57, the owner of a three-story commercial building that housed his Great Neck-based insurance business, learned that he was suffering peritoneal mesothelioma. Bullen claimed that the cancer was caused by asbestos-containing insulation that covered the building’s boiler and the boiler’s pipes.Bullen sued the boiler’s manufacturer, Michigan City, Ind.-based Weil-McLain, and 17 other companies. He presented a products-liability claim that alleged that the boiler was defectively designed and that Weil-McLain failed to issue warnings that explained asbestos’s associated dangers. The remaining defendants were discontinued before the trial began. Some had entered bankruptcy; others were granted summary judgment; others were voluntarily discontinued; and others agreed to settlements.Bullen noted that his insurance business was started by his grandfather and that the boiler was installed sometime thereafter, in 1919. He claimed that he often visited the building and that his cancer was caused by prolonged exposure to the insulation’s asbestos. His counsel argued that Weil-McLain’s boilers were supplied with asbestos and that the company required the use of asbestos-containing insulation. Plaintiff’s counsel further argued that the asbestos’s presence constituted a defect and that Weil-McLain should have issued warnings that explained asbestos’s associated dangers.

Weil-McLain contended that it never sold or installed asbestos-containing insulation and that it did not realize any profits that derived from insulation.

Bullen suffers peritoneal mesothelioma. He claimed that he has endured extensive, often-invasive treatment that included surgical removal of the lining of his abdomen, which housed tumors. He has also undergone experimental treatment and several courses of chemotherapy, which is ongoing. He contended that he suffers severe abdominal pain and chronic disorders of his digestive process, and he claimed that chemotherapy causes nausea that increases his discomfort. He also claimed that he will suffer a painful death.

Bullen sought recovery of a total of $20 million, which included his past and future medical expenses and damages for his past and future pain and suffering. His wife sought recovery of damages for her loss of consortium.

Defense counsel contended that Bullen’s mesothelioma was an idiopathic occurrence that was not a product of exposure to asbestos.

The jury rendered a defense verdict. It found that the boiler was not defective and that Weil-McLain did not fail to provide adequate warnings.

Plaintiffs’ counsel is reportedly considering an appeal.