South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers

St. Lucie County officials are investigating whether a firefighter took a man’s severed foot from the scene of a traffic accident.

On Sept. 19, a crash on I-95 caused a Melbourne man’s foot to be sheared off; the man survived and is undergoing treatment at a local hospital.

It’s the Fire District’s policy to take a severed body part with the patient to the hospital if there is any chance of reattachment, or the body part goes to the medical examiner’s office. But authorities said the foot was taken to the hospital days later, on Sept. 24.

Officials would not release the name of the firefighter under investigation, but said the firefighter trains cadaver dogs, which are used to locate and follow the scent of decomposing human flesh.

A man from Virginia filed a personal injury lawsuit against Amylin Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer, and Eli Lilly and Co., the co-marketer of the diabetes drug Byetta (R). The lawsuit, filed in the San Diego Superior Court, alleges that the two defendant companies failed to properly inform patients of the drug’s harmful affects.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff had to be hospitalized in December 2007 for inflammation of his pancreas, a condition otherwise known as pancreatitis, as a result of taking Byetta (R) for diabetes. Pancreatitis causes internal bleeding and can result in death.

Lawsuit Claims Warning Label is not Efficient

In 2007, after negotiating with the FDA, Amylin Pharmaceuticals added the risk of developing acute pancreatitis to the list of “precautions” on the drug’s warning label. The “warning” was reportedly a direct result of 30 cases of acute pancreatitis among diabetics who took Byetta (R).

Although the condition is listed on the warning label, the plaintiff claims the warning was simply not enough. The lawsuit states that the defendant, “ failed to adequately warn prescribing physicians of the risk of pancreatitis, of measures needed to properly assess the appropriateness of prescribing the drug to certain categories of patients, and of measures doctors and patients could and should take to minimize the risk.”

More Cases of Pancreatitis Linked to Byetta (R)

The FDA reported, two days after the lawsuit was filed, an additional six cases of pancreatitis. All of the patients had been prescribed the drug to treat diabetes. Two of the six patients died while the other four suffered serious injuries and pain.

Amylin reported that two more people died from inflamed pancreas’ September 7.

The Fort Lauderdale Police Department Traffic Homicide Unit is looking for anyone who may have witnessed a crash that killed a bicyclist at approximately 6:30 a.m on Thursday.

According to investigators, 48 year old Gene Noel Johnson of Fort Lauderdale was attempting to cross the intersection of State Road 84 and Southwest Fourth Avenue.

Lawrence Beaucher, 65, a Davie resident, was driving a 2002 Lincoln eastbound on State Road 84. The light was green as he approached the intersection of Southwest Fourth Avenue.

As Johnson entered the intersection, he rode into Beaucher’s path and was struck by the car, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Anyone with information regarding this crash is asked to call Fort Lauderdale police at 954-828-5460.

Three people were airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital Friday morning after a car hit a tree in the median on northbound Biscayne Boulevard and 203rd Street.

Only one vehicle was involved in the crash.

Aventura police are investigating the cause.

On Jan. 11, 2006, plaintiff’s decedent Stanley Stinnett, 49, a maintenance supervisor, died at Memorial Medical Center of Modesto.

On Jan. 6, he fractured ribs in a motorcycle accident and was airlifted to Memorial Medical, where surgeon Tony Tam treated him.

Over the ensuing days, Mr. Stinnett went into respiratory arrest with high acidity and low blood oxygen levels. His stomach became swollen with fluid. Tam decided to allow the fluid buildup to resolve on its own, rather than drain it. Mr. Stinnett later vomited heavily, and nurses drained 2.5 liters of fluid from his stomach before he died.

Mr. Stinnett was supposed to be discharged from the hospital on the day he died. An autopsy determined that the cause of death was heart failure.

Mr. Stinnett’s widow, plaintiff Holly Stinnett, sued Memorial Medical, Tam and his practice group, Modesto Surgical Associates, for medical malpractice.

Memorial Medical settled before trial for $175,000.

Plaintiff pathology expert Michael Fishbein testified that Mr. Stinnett’s death was caused by aspiration of stomach contents, and was not a cardiac death as the autopsy pathologist concluded.

Ms. Stinnett alleged that her husband choked on his vomit, and that he would have survived if the fluid in his stomach had been drained sooner. She claimed that Tam negligently transferred her husband out of the intensive care unit and onto the medical/surgery floor after only 15 hours, and before getting repeat arterial blood gases (ABGs), since his previous studies were abnormal.

Tam and Modesto Surgical argued that it was within the standard of care not to place an NG tube after an ileus was suspected, and that although it would have been preferable to obtain repeat ABGs on the patient before transferring him from the ICU to the floor, the standard of care did not require it.

Ms. Stinnett, 36, sought damages for past and future lost earnings, lost retirement benefits and lost household services. Plaintiff economics expert Phillip Allman opined that her past economic damages were $148,302, and that her future economic damages would be $1,242,093.

Defense economics expert David Weiner opined that Ms. Stinnett’s economic damages were about $500,000 less than his counterpart’s calculation.

jury returned a $7,390,395 verdict for Ms. Stinnett, finding that Tam and Modesto Surgical were negligent.

The jury determined that the total amount of future economic loss not reduced to present cash value was $2,329,979.

Holly Stinnett

$148,302 Personal Injury: past economic

$1,242,093 Personal Injury: future economic (present cash value)

$6,000,000 Personal Injury: noneconomic

The defendant is expected to move to reduce the noneconomic damages award, pursuant to MICRA.

A West Virginia judge has cleared the way for a wrongful death lawsuit to proceed against coal mining giant Massey Energy Co. and its Chief Executive Don Blankenship over a fire that helped spur new federal mine safety laws.

The widows of miners Ellery Elvis Hatfield and Don Bragg want damages from Richmond, Va.-based Massey, two subsidiaries and Blankenship for the men’s deaths in a January 2006 conveyer belt fire at a mine in Logan County. Hatfield, 46, and Bragg, 33, died after getting lost trying to escape thick, choking smoke at Massey’s Aracoma Alma No. 1 mine.

Coupled with the deaths of 12 West Virginia miners in a methane explosion 17 days earlier, the fire helped to convince Congress to pass sweeping safety legislation later that year.

A jury should decide whether Massey and the other defendants are liable for damages, Logan County Circuit Judge Roger Perry ruled late Monday.

“The widows look forward to presenting their case,” lawyer Bruce Stanley said. “They are confident that once all the evidence is in, those ultimately responsible for the deaths of Don and Elvis will be held accountable.”

A Massey spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Government investigators found numerous problems at the mine, including missing walls that control air flow and faulty firefighting equipment. They also found that the water supply for fire hoses and sprinklers at the scene of the fire had been shut off.

Massey is still contesting $1.5 million in fines assessed by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration for 25 violations the agency says contributed to the deaths.

The fire remains the subject of a federal criminal investigation as well.

The judge in the civil case concluded there were several issues of fact for a jury to consider. Among them is the meaning of two memos Blankenship sent in late 2005.

The first directs employees to ignore jobs such as construction to focus on producing coal. A follow-up says the first memo shouldn’t be interpreted as a directive to consider safety a lower priority.

“It may well be that the memo was meant in no way to influence the Alma mine and others to disregard safety and focus solely on production,” Perry wrote. “The memo could also have meant the exact opposite and be one piece of evidence in support of establishing inappropriate control and involvement by a corporate officer over its subsidiary. The interpretation of the words in the memo is purely a question of fact that must be decided by a jury.”

Massey is the nation’s fourth-largest coal producer by revenue and operates 19 mining complexes in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky.

Passers-by are being credited with pulling students from a school bus that caught fire after it was rear ended by a tractor-trailer in north Florida, killing one teenager, a school official said.

“This was a tragedy, but it’s also a miracle,” Marion County Superintendent of Schools Jim Yancey told the Ocala Star-Banner. “We’re lucky one person got out of there alive.”

About 20 middle and high school students were on the bus when it was rear-ended Tuesday afternoon. Two were critically injured and several others had injuries not considered life-threatening.

The student who died was identified as Frances M. Schee, 13.

“The kid was lodged and I just couldn’t get her out,” Chris Mann, an elevator installer who stopped to help when he saw the accident, told the Star-Banner. “There was nothing I could do.”

Yancey said at least four bystanders helped the students.

“I’d say they probably got half the kids off the bus themselves,” Yancey said. “They were showing more grief and remorse from not being able to do more.”

Police said charges are pending against the driver of the tractor-trailer, Reinaldo Gonzalez, 30, of Orlando. He was taken to a hospital with head injuries.

Earlier this month, a chain reaction crash southeast of Tallahassee involving a school bus, minivan and cement mixer truck killed an 8 year old girl and injured seven other children and the van driver.

Authorities say a commuter train struck and killed a pedestrian Wednesday morning in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Ron Myer says the victim was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.

Myers says no passengers on the Metrolink commuter train were injured. No further details were immediately available.

The fatality comes less than two weeks after a Metrolink train slammed head-on into a freight train in suburban Chatsworth, killing 25 people and injuring more than 130 others.

A woman who was seven and a half months pregnant had to be airlifted to the hospital Wednesday after crashing her car into the bedroom of a house.

Police said the woman crashed through the North Lauderdale house on S.W. 73 Avenue. The driver drove into the living room and the car ended up in the bedroom.

“The driver apparently struck several mail boxes, struck a parked car, took out some shrubs before the vehicle plowed right into the center of a single family, single story house,” Mike Jachles of the Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue said.

The owner of the house, Seradieu Charles, said he was not at home when the accident happened.

“There’s a lot of damage at the house,” he said. “Total lost.”

Neighbor Mary Diaz said it felt like an explosion. When she took a look outside she said her Mitsubishi SUV was hit by the woman’s car.

Charles is relieved that no one was seriously injured, but said that he is overwhelmed with the damages, especially after he lost his job 10 months ago.

“To be honest with you, I don’t have anything,” Charles said. “So I don’t know. “

The woman is recovering from non life threatening injuries at Broward General Medical Center.

Inspection officials deemed the house unsafe.

Police are investigating the cause of the accident.

A woman was arrested in Northridge, Los Angeles, Sept. 23, for failing to stop after hitting and killing a woman who was walking across the crosswalk.

Marcia Roberts, 42, was reportedly found in her car blocks from the scene. She was arrested and booked on suspicion of felony manslaughter. Reports indicate that Roberts is suspected of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the accident.

Police have not yet released the name of the woman who was hit, but records indicate that the 19 year old woman died at the scene. Roberts is being held in jail in lieu of a $50,000 bail.