South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers

A new study gives the strongest evidence yet that obesity surgery can cure diabetes.Patients who had surgery to reduce the size of their stomachs were five times more likely to see their diabetes disappear over the next two years than were patients who had standard diabetes care, according to Australian researchers.

Most of the surgery patients were able to stop taking diabetes drugs and achieve normal blood tests.

“It’s the best therapy for diabetes that we have today, and it’s very low risk,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. John Dixon of Monash University Medical School in Melbourne, Australia.

The patients had stomach band surgery, a procedure more common in Australia than in the United States, where gastric bypass surgery, or stomach stapling, predominates.

Gastric bypass is even more effective against diabetes, achieving remission in a matter of days or a month, said Dr. David Cummings, who wrote an accompanying editorial in the journal but was not involved in the study.

“We have traditionally considered diabetes to be a chronic, progressive disease,” said Cummings of the University of Washington in Seattle. “But these operations really do represent a realistic hope for curing most patients.”

Diabetes experts who read the study said surgery should be considered for some obese patients, but more research is needed to see how long results last and which patients benefit most. Surgery risks should be weighed against diabetes drug side effects and the long-term risks of diabetes itself, they said.

The diabetes benefits of weight-loss surgery were known, but the Australian study in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association is the first of its kind to compare diabetes in patients randomly assigned to surgery or standard care. Scientists consider randomized studies to yield the highest-quality evidence.

The study involved 55 patients, so experts will be looking for results of larger experiments under way.

“Few studies really qualify as being a landmark study. This one is,” said Dr. Philip Schauer, who was not involved in the Australian research but leads a Cleveland Clinic study that is recruiting 150 obese people with diabetes to compare two types of surgery and standard medical care.

“This opens an entirely new way of thinking about diabetes.”

Obesity is a major risk factor for diabetes, and researchers are furiously pursuing reasons for the link as rates for both climb. What’s known is that excess fat can cause the body’s normal response to insulin to go haywire. Researchers are investigating insulin-regulating hormones released by fat and the role of fatty acids in the blood.

In the Australian study, all the patients were obese and had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes during the past two years. Their average age was 47. Half the patients underwent a type of surgery called laparoscopic gastric banding, where an adjustable silicone cuff is installed around the upper stomach, limiting how much a person can eat.

Both groups lost weight over two years; the surgery patients lost 46 pounds on average, while the standard-care patients lost an average of 3 pounds.

Blood tests showed diabetes remission in 22 of the 29 surgery patients after two years. In the standard-care group, only four of the 26 patients achieved that goal. The patients who lost the most weight were the most likely to eliminate their diabetes.

Both patient groups learned about low-fat, high-fiber diets and were encouraged to exercise. Both groups could meet with a health professional every six weeks for two years.

The death rate for stomach band surgery, which can cost $17,000 to $20,000, is about 1 in 1,000. There were only minor complications in the study. Stomach stapling has a 2 percent death rate and costs $20,000 to $30,000.

In the United States, surgeons perform more than 100,000 obesity surgeries each year.

The American Diabetes Association is interested in the findings. The group revises its recommendations each fall, taking new research into account.

“There is a growing body of evidence that bariatric surgery is an effective tool for managing diabetes,” said Dr. John Buse of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, the association’s president for medicine and science.

“It’s just a question of how effective is it, for what spectrum of patients, over what period of time and at what cost? Not all those questions have been answered yet.”

Medical devices used in the study were provided by the manufacturers, but the companies had no say over the study’s design or its findings, Dixon said.

A man using a propane torch to thaw a frozen water pipe inadvertently set fire to his house Monday, authorities said. John Miller Sr. was working with the propane torch in a crawl space when a wall caught fire, filling the house with smoke, said Shawnee Township Fire Chief Tim Mosher.Miller, who managed to flee the home before firefighters arrived, said the flame of the propane torch had been on the water pipe for only a few minutes.

“I’ve done it a hundred times and never had a problem,” Miller said.

Mosher said damage to the house was about several thousand dollars.

“You have a hard enough time and then something like this happens,” Miller said.

Lima is about 70 miles southwest of Toledo.

Dozens of victims of last summer’s bridge collapse in Minneapolis - from surviving spouses to the parents of children riding on a yellow school bus - have filed preliminary paperwork to sue the state.The documents, obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request, provide a glimpse into a brewing legal battle over the Aug. 1 disaster, in which the Interstate 35W bridge plummeted 60 feet into the Mississippi River, killing 13 and injuring 145.

The first legal deadline - requiring those injured to notify the state within 180 days - is coming up Sunday. Lawyers described the notices as a formality that may not even be necessary to sue later, but the number of notices indicate that many victims are contemplating their options in court.

“This is the predecessor to the lawsuits,” said Chris Messerly, an attorney for a pro bono coalition of law firms representing more than 60 bridge victims.

As of Friday, Attorney General Lori Swanson’s office had received notice of potential legal claims from 73 injured bridge victims and their family members. Families of six of those killed also had outlined plans to sue the state for compensation. So did three insurance companies and the owner of the school bus.

Several notices offer a detailed look at the financial burdens felt by the victims and their families.

One such letter outlines the ordeal of Tina Hickman, who was eight months pregnant and on her way to a book club meeting when the bridge fell. She was found unconscious. Doctors delivered her baby by Caesarean section - a boy who was apparently not hurt in the collapse - and put Hickman into a medically induced coma for a month. Her lawyer, James R. Fink, estimated her medical expenses at more than $250,000.

Fink also outlined a plan to seek $250,000 for Hickman’s “pain, disability, disfigurement, embarrassment and emotional distress,” for a claim totaling $535,085 plus another $30,000 claim from her husband.

Families of those killed in the bridge collapse have up to a year to notify the state of potential legal action.

At least 22 of the notices were on behalf of children, many of them passengers on the bus. Many are still traumatized, according to attorney Wil Fluegel, who represents 10 of the bus riders.

“Many of the children, their parents tell me, still insist on sleeping with mom or dad at night,” Fluegel said Monday. “One of the little girls routinely still wakes up in the middle of the night screaming, `I don’t want to die.’”

Bridge victims don’t stand to get much from the state because of a law limiting the government’s liability to $1 million per incident. But lawmakers are considering a compensation fund that would offer more to those who gave up the right to sue the state. A joint House-Senate panel takes up the proposal on Tuesday.

The state set up a $1 million emergency relief fund in November, but so far only 11 bridge victims have claimed a total of $57,862 in lost wages, according to the Minnesota Department of Administration.

Once that fund is drained, bridge victims won’t have any legal claims left against the state, attorney James Schwebel said. Many haven’t asked for the aid because they fear it might close off other legal avenues, said Rep. Ryan Winkler, who is pushing legislation for a victim compensation fund.

Lawyers for the victims are frustrated by their lack of access to the investigation, which is holding up lawsuits. Final findings from the National Transportation Safety Board are expected this fall. Most claims outlined in the notices accuse the state of negligence in its maintenance of the bridge. Others point to the potential liability of a consultant that inspected the bridge, and the contractor that was resurfacing the span when it fell.

The Food and Drug Administration approved a labeling change for the Ortho Evra birth control patch based on a new study linking the contraceptive to a greater risk of potentially fatal blood clots than the pill.

Ortho Evra is a transdermal patch that releases estrogen and progestin directly through the skin and into the bloodstream, exposing women to about 60 percent more hormone than oral contraceptives.

Greater hormone levels are associated with increased risks of side effects, including the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE)—a condition that can lead to fatal pulmonary embolism.

In September 2006, the label of Ortho Evra was updated to reflect this increased risk after a study showed that the patch nearly doubled a woman’s risk of VTE. The new study, which was conducted on women between the ages of 15 and 44, supports the earlier findings.

Two people are dead after a crash that closed Interstate 95 southbound completely between Hollywood and Hallandale Beach boulevards during the busy Wednesday rush hour. The Florida Highway Patrol said the crash, which occurred south of Hollywood Boulevard near Hallandale Beach Boulevard around 6 a.m., involved five vehicles, including a tractor-trailer. The highway remained closed for more than four hours Wednesday.According to Miami-Dade fire-rescue, seven people were treated for injuries. Two others who were trapped in their vehicle were pronounced dead at the scene.

Miami-Dade firefighters could be seen from Sky 10 forming a circle around the scene. A spokesman from Miami-Dade fire rescue told Local 10 that this was done to shield the bodies from the view of cameras.

An investigation into the crash continues.

A 68-year old man from Bonnie Lake, Washington is being charged in an alcohol-related crash early Thursday morning after he was driving the wrong way on Interstate 84 near Mosier and collided head-on with a commercial truck.
 
On January 17, 2008 at approximately 2:15 a.m. a 1989 Cadillac Eldorado driven by NORMAN KEENAN, age 68, from Bonnie Lake, Washington, was driving eastbound on Interstate 84 in the westbound lanes of travel near milepost 71. A 2007 Volvo commercial truck towing two trailers, operated by DAVID SCHNIEDER, age 46, from St. Helens, Oregon, was westbound in the inside lane of travel passing another vehicle when it met the Cadillac traveling the wrong way. Both vehicles hit head-on and came to a rest blocking the freeway.
 
KEENAN received non-life threatening injuries in the crash and was transported to Hood River Providence Hospital for treatment.  SCHNIEDER was not injured. Interstate 84 westbound was closed for approximately 2 hours while the crash was investigated and the roadway cleared.
 
Oregon State Police troopers from The Dalles Area Command office investigating the crash believe alcohol was a factor. Due to his treatment for injuries, KEENAN was cited to appear for Driving Under the Influence of Intoxicants (DUII). He was also cited to appear in Linn County on an outstanding warrant charging Failure to Appear on a previous DUII charge.

A Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy was airlifted to a hospital Tuesday morning after his patrol car collided with a pickup truck.

It happened at the intersection of Weston Road and State Road 84.

A fire rescue crew extricated the deputy from his car. He was airlifted to Broward General Medical Center. His condition has not been released.

Officials said the driver of the pickup truck was OK and refused treatment.

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Two private planes flying about a mile from an airport collided Sunday, killing five people and raining debris down on car dealerships below, authorities said.Two people were killed from each plane, and the fifth was inside a Chevy dealership that was hit by wreckage, said Wayne Pollack of the National Transportation Safety Board.

The small Cessnas collided at 3:35 p.m. near the small Corona Municipal airport and a freeway in Riverside County, about 45 miles southeast of Los Angeles, FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer said.

Kenitzer did not immediately know where either plane was headed or whether there were any distress calls.

The Corona airport does not have a staffed control tower, he said.

Television images showed that the smashed fuselage of one of the planes landed atop a parked car.

“The smaller aircraft … just disintegrated into pieces, maybe fifty pieces coming down,” eyewitness Jeff Hardin told KABC-TV. “The other aircraft pretty much stayed intact and started spiraling down.”

Eyewitness Hector Hernandez said he saw bodies falling from the sky.

“One of them crashed into the top of a Ford Mustang, and another one fell not too far behind that one on the parking lot,” Hernandez told KCBS-TV.

A family is considering legal action after a hospital admitted it gave their loved one the wrong blood type during a transfusion and killed him. Blake Oliver died unexpectedly one week before his 68th birthday.”He came from New Mexico to visit for the Christmas holiday and didn’t get to leave,” said Oliver’s sister, Patti Canakaris. “I’m the last person left in my family. Everybody else is gone but me, and that’s a pretty lonely place to be.”

Canakaris told WJXT-TV that her only brother, Oliver, was admitted into the Bert Fish Medical Center in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., because of sharp stomach pains.

According to Canakaris, a few days later her brother went into surgery and died. However, Oliver’s death was not from the surgery, but because of a hospital-admitted mistake.

“It was just the most awful, ridiculous scenario, in that it could have been 100 percent prevented if people had just followed the rules that were already in place,” Canakaris said.

She said the hospital told her that an employee accidentally tested Oliver’s roommate for his blood type and then used the mismatched blood in Oliver’s surgery.

“Blake’s blood type is O positive. The roommate’s blood was A positive. The roommate’s blood being A positive was labeled Blake Oliver and given to him transfused,” said Canakaris.

She said she was in shock when the hospital broke the news.

“In a way, I felt sorry for them to have to sit across the table and tell a family that they had in essence killed your family,” Canakaris said.

Hospital spokesman Garry Mac said they are also devastated and determined to prevent such grave mistakes in the future.

“We immediately did a review of policy and procedures and even went so far as to add yet another layer of checks and balances over the policies and procedures involved,” Mac said.

In the meantime, Oliver’s family said it is taking it one day at a time and considering legal actions against the hospital.

“I just want to make sure that another family doesn’t have to deal with something like this because it’s just unconscionable,” Canakaris said.

The Bert Fish Medical Center said it has turned over its information to a state agency for investigation. Pending the outcome of the investigation, one of the hospital employees could face termination.

A Kanawha County woman has filed a suit against the manufacturers of a recalled product that was used during her hernia operation.

Frances Landers of Sissonville with her husband Kenneth D. Landers, filed the suit Dec. 21 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Davol Inc. and Thomas Memorial Hospital.

Landers claims she has suffered more than $250,000 in medical expenses due to the complications from a Kugel Mesh that was used during her hernia operation.

According to the suit, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recalled Kugel Mesh, manufactured by Davol, Inc., on Dec. 22, 2005, due to disastrous life and health threatening results.

Landers had an operation May 5, 2005, at Thomas Memorial Hospital. She claims she suffered a severe infection from the use of the Kugel Mesh, which required several operations and other related injuries. She claims she has incurred $250,000 in medical, hospital and doctor bills.

Kenneth Landers claims he suffered a loss of consortium from his wife, and has become obligated for the payment of her medical bills.

The Landers seek compensatory damages for their losses.

Attorney George A. Daugherty is representing the Landers. The case has been assigned to Judge Charles King.