South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers

Truckers and drivers of commercial vehicles should not be given Chantix, said the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) last week. The agency is responsible for overseeing the interstate trucking industry.

Anti-Smoking Drug

Chantix is the popular anti-smoking drug made by Pfizer, Inc. Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration began looking into reports of psychiatric side effects of the drug and its label was updated to include warnings about depression and suicidal thinking.

Study Links Chantix to Accidents

However, a new study conducted by the non-profit watchdog group The Institute for Safe Medication Practices found a potential link between Chantix and dizziness, seizures, diabetes and heart irregularities. The study also linked use of the drug to over 100 accidents.

Hours after seeing the study, the Federal Aviation Administration banned pilots and air traffic controllers from using Chantix. Other Department of Transportation agencies were also alerted to the study.

Many popular chain restaurants lighten up their menus with some “low-fat, low-calorie” options targeted at health-conscious eaters. But are those meals really as guilt-free as they’re made out to be? Not always, according to a new study.

Eight Scripps TV stations took a sampling of diet menu items from popular chains such as Applebee’s, Macaroni Grill, Chili’s, Taco Bell and Cheesecake Factory. Lab technicians tested a total of 23 items, finding that 78 percent had higher fat content than listed on the menu and almost 69 percent exceeded the calorie count listed, ABC News reported.

The big shocker was Macaroni Grill’s “Skinny Chicken.” The dish is supposed to be just 500 calories, but if you eat the bread that comes with it, it registers at 1,022 calories, at least at one location. The fat grams per serving are listed at six but actually are 49, the study found.

Brinker International, which owns Macaroni Grill, Chili’s and On the Border Mexican Grill, apologized to their customers in a statement, saying they strive to make their nutritional information accurate.

Doctors may want to give stroke victims antidepressants right away instead of waiting until they develop depression, a common complication, new research suggests.

The findings may lead to an expanded use for antidepressants. Someday high-risk people like stroke patients might take the drugs before suffering depression - just as people now take cholesterol drugs to prevent heart attacks, the lead author said.

The researchers gave low doses of the antidepressant Lexapro to stroke patients. The patients on the drug were 4.5 times less likely to develop depression than patients taking a dummy pill.

More than 700,000 Americans suffer strokes each year and more than one-third will develop depression in the next two years. Stroke patients with depression recover more slowly and are more likely to die, according to previous research.

“We showed you could in fact prevent the development of depression after stroke,” said Dr. Robert Robinson of the University of Iowa who led the study. “I hope I don’t have a stroke, but if I do, I would certainly want to be placed on an antidepressant.”

Experts say strokes may damage parts of the brain affecting mood. Add to that the stress of relearning simple tasks and adjusting to stroke-caused impairments and you’ve got a recipe for depression.

Lexapro may work by making the chemical serotonin more available in the brain and by promoting brain repair, said Dr. George Bartzokis of the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the new study.

“Treating the depression may actually help treat the stroke and vice versa,” Bartzokis said.

The study, appearing in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association, was based on an analysis of 176 stroke patients, ranging in age from 50 to 90.

At the start, none suffered from depression. One-third were randomly assigned to take Lexapro. One-third took matching dummy pills. And one-third were assigned to receive talk therapy focusing on problem-solving skills.

After one year, about 9 percent of the Lexapro group had developed depression. That compared to 22 percent of the placebo-takers and 12 percent of the people who got problem-solving therapy.

Side effects such as dry mouth, dizziness, rapid heart rate and sexual problems were reported by all three groups at about the same rates.

Lexapro costs about $80 per month. A generic version of a similar drug costs about $40 per month and might be as effective, Robinson said.

Dr. Charles Reynolds, a geriatric psychiatrist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said he hopes doctors will start prescribing preventive antidepressants to stroke patients.

“Depression in the wake of a stroke amplifies the suffering and disability such patients experience,” Reynolds said. “Dr. Robinson’s work supports a novel way of preventing such suffering and disability.”

But with prevention, some patients take pills who never would have needed them, putting them at risk for unnecessary side effects. Seven stroke patients would have to be treated with antidepressants to prevent one depression, the researchers found.

Robinson said that’s acceptable, especially when compared to the current standards in heart attack prevention. He cited a study showing it takes 40 male patients taking cholesterol-lowering statins over five years to prevent just one heart attack.

The researchers excluded from the study patients who had cancer, other life-threatening conditions or severe verbal impairments, so the findings may not apply to all stroke patients.

The research was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

In January 2000, plaintiff Gaylon Jones, a contract negotiator in his 30s, was playing golf at Westchase Golf and Country Club. He was hitting balls at the range when his ball struck a granite marking used to separate each golfer, and tell them where they should tee each ball. The ball struck the marking, ricocheted back and struck Jones in the eye.

Jones sued Westchase for premises liability.

Plaintiff’s counsel presented the testimony of a golf course expert who said that ropes should have been used instead of the granite marking. Granite is risky and could cause an injury. A starter on the golf course also stated that he told his supervisor that the granite markings posed a hazard.

Defense counsel did not present an expert as the case settled prior to deposition of theexpert. Defense counsel argued that granite markings are commonly used and a ricochet is an assumed risk of golf play.

Jones lost his right eye. In an effort to save his eye, he underwent multiple procedures over a one-year period. One of the methods involved him lying on his stomach for long periods so that pressure would be relieved from his eye.

Jones was also diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus. Plaintiff’s counsel believed that based on Jones predisposition for cancer, the stress of the incident and the extensive time lying on his stomach, all added to his cancer diagnosis. Jones is currently in remission.

The parties reached a $1 million settlement.

A van going through an intersection barreled into a second van that had sped a red light Monday, causing a fiery six-vehicle collision that killed five people and sent several others to the hospital in critical condition.

The first vehicle hit the speeding van on one side just before 6 p.m. and “made it go airborne,” setting off a chain reaction that left three vehicles ablaze, melted a traffic signal and scattered debris across the intersection, said Karen Smith, a police spokeswoman.

“By the time the van landed,” Smith said, “it was fully engulfed in flames.”

A 12-year-old boy was ejected from a vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene, Smith said. Two other victims of the accident, in the Hyde Park neighborhood of South Los Angeles, were found burned beyond recognition inside a vehicle.

The scene was “hellacious,” said Smith.

Paramedics took 14 people to the hospital, where a 7-year-old and an adult later died of injuries and six were in critical condition, Smith said.

More than 100 firefighters responded to the scene and emergency workers set up a triage area. The identities of the passengers were not immediately released.

Earlier Monday, an SUV tumbled down a steep slope in the Hollywood Hills, killing two people and injuring three others, authorities said.

The vehicle went off the road just before 8 a.m. in Laurel Canyon, said Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey. The car plunged between 75 and 100 feet down a hillside and came to rest upside down against a carport.

Humphrey said a man in his 70s was trapped in the vehicle and died at the scene. A woman in her 20s died later after being rushed to a hospital, he said. Three others, including a 1-year-old boy, were taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with various injuries.

Two people were thrown from the vehicle. It wasn’t immediately known who was driving or if the victims were related. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Police are searching for a hit-and-run driver who killed a tow truck driver as he was assisting a stranded motorist on a Miami expressway.

It was Vincinte Torres’ third day on the job Monday and his last day alive. The 44-year-old tow truck driver answered the call of the stranded motorist at about 3 a.m. on the Don Shula Expressway southbound near Miller Road. He had just finished putting the car on his flatbed truck when a driver slammed into him.

The driver who Torres stopped to help told the Florida Highway Patrol a purple Hyundai veered from the center lane and onto the shoulder before plowing into Torres. He died on his way to Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Torres, an employee with Black Eagle Towing, lived with his wife and two children in Hialeah. They would not comment on his death.

Black Eagle Towing is offering a $1,500 reward, in addition to the $1,000 reward being offered by Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS

A large cargo plane from a Michigan-based carrier crashed and broke apart close to a row of houses while trying to abort a takeoff Sunday at Brussels airport, authorities said.

The Boeing 747-200 skidded to a halt in a field at the end of a runway around 1:30 p.m. (1130 GMT). Four of the five crew members on board the plane, operated by U.S.-based cargo carrier Kalitta Air, were slightly injured and were hospitalized, said Jan Van der Cruysse, spokesman at Brussels Airport.

“The plane is very seriously damaged,” he said.

The aircraft cracked near the tail and by the wings when it slid 325 yards past the end of runway 20. The plane, full of fuel, stopped just five and a half yards from a rail line and 550 yards from houses on the edge of the town of Zaventem.

“I just heard a boom, and then I saw the plane go by the cemetery and the plane seems to be going off, sliding off, and then I heard a second boom, that’s all I saw,” local resident Johan Schoelink told Associated Press Television.

Rail services to and from the airport were suspended as a safety precaution, but the crash did not affect other flights at the airport, Van der Cruysse said.

Francis Vermeiren, the mayor of the nearby town of Zaventem, said the plane did not catch fire. Vermeiren was coordinating rescue efforts at the airport.

Vermeiren said the pilot told rescue authorities he heard a loud noise while trying to take off, after which he tried to land the plane. Airport officials said it was not clear what had caused the crash. Local news organizations speculated that a tire could have blown during takeoff or the engines could have failed.

Experts planned to examine the aircraft and remove the plane’s cockpit voice recorder, or “black box,” to find out what caused the crash, officials said.

Firefighters coated the wings of the plane with fire retardant foam because the plane was still full of fuel, the mayor said.

Some of the fuel had leaked from the left wing, but the spill was being contained and cleaned up.

Vermeiren said the plane had been scheduled to fly to Bahrain.

Airport officials said the plane was carrying cargo weighing 76 tons, over half of which was diplomatic mail. Other cargo included a car and batteries.

The plane is owned by Kalitta Air, a cargo carrier based at Willow Run Airport near Ypsilanti, Mich., and it made regular flights from Brussels, officials said. A person who answered the telephone at Kalitta Air on Sunday morning said no one was available to comment.

Air traffic was suspended into Fort Lauderdale’s Executive Airport Friday morning while emergency crews tended to a corporate jet that skidded off the main runway after its landing gear collapsed.

“The Sabre Airplane was coming in for a landing when its left landing gear collapsed causing the left wing to hit the runway and put the plane into a spin,” said Chaz Adams, spokesman for the City of Fort Lauderdale.

The two people on board were not injured.

A personal injury lawsuit filed on behalf of 10 plaintiffs against BP is seeking $950 million in damages, according to attorney Brent Coon.

“We believe the only way a company like BP is going to get the message is to hit them in the pocketbook,” Coon said in court earlier this week.

The lawsuit stems from a 2005 blast at the company’s Texas City refinery and claims that BP knew for years that the plant was not safe. According to the complaint, BP failed to improve safety in an attempt to cut costs.

Dozens of people were injured during the explosion and 15 were killed. The company has already settled the majority of the 4,000 lawsuits filed after the incident. BP said it has set aside more than $2 billion to settle injury and death claims.

In September 2003, plaintiff Robert Still, a 50-year-old termite technician with Orkin, claimed that his employer instructed him to spray pesticides in the area surrounding a home when the ground was too wet. Still claimed that treating the home would have been a violation of federal, state and company regulations. When he called a manager to report the conditions, he was allegedly instructed to disregard the regulations and treat the area anyway.

Still filed a report with a regional manager, alerting the office of the Pennsauken branch’s alleged practices of having unlicensed employees administer pesticides and of applying chemicals improperly. On the day the report was filed, Still was suspended. Eleven days later, Orkin fired him.

Still sued Orkin for violation of the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act. According to plaintiff’s counsel, Still’s discharge was wrongful and retaliatory.

Orkin denied liability. According to plaintiff’s counsel, the defendant contended that Still was lying. Orkin claimed that Still’s termination was unrelated to the plaintiff’s complaints. Orkin presented documents from Still’s personnel file indicating that he had a history of work-related grievances against him. His employer claimed that he had been insubordinate during at least one episode. Still’s counsel claimed that the assertion was overcome by accolades in his client’s favor, as well as an eyewitness account that contradicted the insubordination claim.

A regional certified field trainer of termite technicians and a 19-year employee of Orkin, Still claimed that having been fired made finding replacement employment difficult.

The parties stipulated that the plaintiff was owed $49,000 in back pay.

A Superior Court jury in Camden County awarded Still $5,112,184.

Robert Still

$4,000,000 Personal Injury: emotional distress

$49,000 Personal Injury: lost wages

$1,063,184 Personal Injury: punitive damages

The defendant’s motion for remittitur and the plaintiff’s motion for attorney fees and prejudgment interest are pending.