South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers

Prosecutors say a spurned lover ambushed his ex-girlfriend and tried to cut out the breast implants he paid for by stabbing her.

San Bernardino County prosecutor David Foy says 28-year-old Thomas Lee Rowley attacked his ex in July 2006 outside her mother’s home in Hesperia, some 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles in the Mojave Desert.

Prosecutors say a spurned lover ambushed his ex-girlfriend and tried to cut out the breast implants he paid for by stabbing her.

San Bernardino County prosecutor David Foy says 28-year-old Thomas Lee Rowley attacked his ex in July 2006 outside her mother’s home in Hesperia, some 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles in the Mojave Desert.

In November 2007, plaintiff Pamela Ruth Dickson, a 54-year-old radiologist, was driving north on Interstate 95 in Daytona Beach when she observed a distressed driver on the roadway. Erica El-Annan, who was having a seizure, managed to pull her car to the shoulder, and Dickson stopped to assist her. El-Annan had stopped her car, but as Dickson and her son got out of their vehicle, the car re-engaged, lunging forward and injuring Dickson and her 14-year-old son, plaintiff Gabriel Pinta.

Dickson sued El-Annan for vehicular negligence. Gabriel, who sustained a leg fracture, reached a confidential settlement agreement with El-Annan prior to trial.

El-Annan denied liability, asserting that the accident was unavoidable. El-Annan maintained that the accident was caused by a seizure of which she had no premonition or warning. The was the first seizure that El-Annan, who was in her late 20s, had ever experienced.

Dickson contended that El-Annan’s seizure was induced by a numerous presecription medications she was taking. Plaintiff’s counsel argued that El-Annan knew that the combination of antidepressants and amphetamines that she was using could cause seizures. According to Dickson’s toxicology expert, El-Annan was pharmaceutically intoxicated at the time of the accident.

Dickson was taken by ambulance to Halifax Medical Center, where she was diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury and dental injuries. She was hospitalized overnight. Dixon treated with neuropsychologist and underwent several root canals.

The neuropsychologist testifed that the plaintiff sustained a permanent brain injury that prevented her from returning to her faculty position at the University of Miami. Dickson’s vocational rehabilitation expert, testified about the types of work that Dickson would still be able to perform.

Dickson testified that the accident had impacted her life physically and emotionally. She testified that she had spent her life building her career, only to have it stripped away from her. Dickson asked the jury to award damages in the amount of $5 million.

According to the defendant, Dickson had sustained no brain injury and no permanent injury of any nature. Defense experts testified that Dickson was left with a genius IQ following the accident.

Dickson was taken by ambulance to Halifax Medical Center, where she was diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury and dental injuries. She was hospitalized overnight. Dixon treated with neuropsychologist and underwent several root canals.

The neuropsychologist testifed that the plaintiff sustained a permanent brain injury that prevented her from returning to her faculty position at the University of Miami. Dickson’s vocational rehabilitation expert, testified about the types of work that Dickson would still be able to perform.

Dickson testified that the accident had impacted her life physically and emotionally. She testified that she had spent her life building her career, only to have it stripped away from her. Dickson asked the jury to award damages in the amount of $5 million.

According to the defendant, Dickson had sustained no brain injury and no permanent injury of any nature. Defense experts testified that Dickson was left with a genius IQ following the accident.

Dickson was taken by ambulance to Halifax Medical Center, where she was diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury and dental injuries. She was hospitalized overnight. Dixon treated with neuropsychologist and underwent several root canals.

The neuropsychologist testifed that the plaintiff sustained a permanent brain injury that prevented her from returning to her faculty position at the University of Miami. Dickson’s vocational rehabilitation expert, testified about the types of work that Dickson would still be able to perform.

Dickson testified that the accident had impacted her life physically and emotionally. She testified that she had spent her life building her career, only to have it stripped away from her. Dickson asked the jury to award damages in the amount of $5 million.

According to the defendant, Dickson had sustained no brain injury and no permanent injury of any nature. Defense experts testified that Dickson was left with a genius IQ following the accident.

The jury rendered a verdict in favor of the plaintiff, awarding damages in the amount of $1.75 million.

Chief Warrant Officer James Brad Smith broke five ribs, punctured a lung and shattered bones in his hand and thigh after falling more than 20 feet from a Black Hawk helicopter in Baghdad last month.

While he was recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, his doctor suggested he add acupuncture to his treatment to help with the pain.

On a recent morning, Col. Richard Niemtzow, an Air Force physician, carefully pushed a short needle into part of Smith’s outer ear. The soldier flinched, saying it felt like he “got clipped by something.” By the time three more of the tiny, gold alloy needles were arranged around the ear, though, the pain from his injuries began to ease.

“My ribs feel numb now and I feel it a little less in my hand,” Smith said, raising his injured arm. “The pain isn’t as sharp. It’s maybe 50 percent better.”

Acupuncture involves placing very thin needles at specific points on the body to try to control pain and reduce stress. There are only theories about how, why and even whether it might work.

Regardless, the ancient Chinese practice has been gradually catching on as a pain treatment for troops who come home wounded.

Now the Air Force, which runs the military’s only acupuncture clinic, is training doctors to take acupuncture to the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. A pilot program starting in March will prepare 44 Air Force, Navy and Army doctors to use acupuncture as part of emergency care in combat and in frontline hospitals, not just on bases back home.

They will learn “battlefield acupuncture,” a method Niemtzow developed in 2001 that’s derived from traditional ear acupuncture but uses the short needles to better fit under combat helmets so soldiers can continue their missions with the needles inserted to relieve pain. The needles are applied to five points on the outer ear. Niemtzow says most of his patients say their pain decreases within minutes.

The Navy has begun a similar pilot program to train its doctors at Camp Pendleton in California.

Niemtzow is chief of the acupuncture clinic at Andrews Air Force Base. He’s leading the new program after training many of about 50 active duty military physicians who practice acupuncture.

The U.S. military encountered acupuncture during the Vietnam War, when an Army surgeon wrote in a 1967 edition of Military Medicine magazine about local physicians who were allowed to practice at a U.S. Army surgical hospital and administered acupuncture to Vietnamese patients.

Niemtzow started offering acupuncture in 1995 at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. Several years later, he became the first full-time military medical acupuncturist for the Navy, which also provides health care for the Marines.

Later, he established the acupuncture clinic at the Malcolm Grow Medical Center at Andrews, and he continued to expand acupuncture by treating patients at Walter Reed and other Air Force bases in the country and in Germany. Niemtzow and his colleague Col. Stephen Burns administer about a dozen forms of acupuncture – including one type that uses lasers – to soldiers and their families every week.

Col. Arnyce Pock, medical director for the Air Force Medical Corps, said acupuncture comes without the side effects that are common after taking traditional painkillers. Acupuncture also quickly treats pain.

“It allows troops to reduce the number of narcotics they take for pain, and have a better assessment of any underlying brain injury they may have,” Pock said. “When they’re on narcotics, you can’t do that because they’re feeling the effects of the drugs.”

Niemtzow cautions that while acupuncture can be effective, it’s not a cure-all.

“In some instances it doesn’t work,” he said. “But it can be another tool in one’s toolbox to be used in addition to painkillers to reduce the level of pain even further.”

Smith says the throbbing pain in his leg didn’t change with acupuncture treatment but that the pain levels in his arm and ribs were the lowest they’ve been since he was injured. He also said that he didn’t feel groggy afterward, a side-effect he usually experiences from the low-level morphine he takes.

Ultimately, Niemtzow would like troops to learn acupuncture so they can treat each other while out on missions. For now, the Air Force program is limited to training physicians.

He says it’s “remarkable” for the military, a “conservative institution,” to incorporate acupuncture.

“The history of military medicine is rich in development,” he said, “and a lot of people say that if the military is using it, then it must be good for the civilian world.”

Safety investigators say the pilots of two Phoenix news helicopters had so many distractions they lost track of each other, resulting in a midair crash that killed four.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators said Wednesday the pilots in the July 2007 crash drifted too close together because they were focused on watching a police car chase and reporting the event for their stations.

The pilots were also listening to police radios, coordinating coverage with news producers, talking with photographers on board, talking to other helicopter pilots by radio and trying to visually keep track of other helicopters nearby.

The board is meeting to determine the probable cause of the crash and make safety recommendations.

A client may not proceed against his former attorneys for failing to sue two doctors who prescribed a pain medication that allegedly worsened his then-undiagnosed kidney disease, a Texas appeals panel has ruled.

The client did not present enough evidence showing a link between the drug Celebrex and his kidney disease, according to the Court of Appeals in Austin.

The panel also found no abuse of discretion in the trial court’s exclusion of a medical expert’s testimony because the expert provided no scientific data to support his conclusion that Celebrex worsened the plaintiff’s condition.

According to the opinion, Mark Hackett underwent back surgery in 1998. His surgeon referred him to a pain-management specialist, who prescribed the anti-inflammatory drug Celebrex.

After taking the drug for five months, Hackett began experiencing swelling and exhaustion, he said. He eventually was diagnosed with kidney disease.

Hackett hired the law firm Littlepage & Associates to file a product liability lawsuit against the manufacturer of Celebrex.

After the manufacturer obtained summary judgment against Hackett, he filed a malpractice suit against the Littlepage firm and its co-counsel in the product liability case, Michles & Booth P.A.

Hackett accused the firms of negligence in failing to file a medical malpractice lawsuit against the surgeon and pain specialist who treated his back problem.

He said the doctors were negligent in prescribing or allowing him to take Celebrex because a urinalysis at the time of his back surgery showed an abnormality indicating possible kidney disease. Hackett alleged that Celebrex exacerbated his kidney condition.

After deposing Hackett’s proposed medical expert, nephrologist and pharmacologist David Lowenthal, the law firms moved to preclude his testimony as unreliable.

The Travis County District Court granted that request and the firm’s subsequent motion for summary judgment.

Hackett appealed, challenging both rulings.

The appeals court determined that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in excluding Lowenthal’s testimony.

Under Texas case law, an expert’s opinion is unreliable and inadmissible if no scientific data support the opinion or if there is “too great an analytical gap” between the underlying data and the opinion, the panel said.

In this case, it noted, Lowenthal cited no case studies, medical publications or labeling information supporting his opinion that Celebrex caused or worsened the form of kidney disease Hackett developed.

Thus, although the trial court did not specify the precise grounds for its ruling, the judge would have been justified in concluding that Lowenthal’s conclusion was not scientifically reliable, the panel said.

As to Hackett’s challenge to the summary judgment ruling, the appeals court rejected his argument that testimony by the law firms’ medical expert, Dr. Stephen Fadem, raised factual disputes about whether prescribing Celebrex to Hackett exacerbated his kidney disease.

Indeed, the panel noted, Fadem testified that medical literature now suggests Celebrex had a beneficial, not adverse, affect on Hackett’s type of kidney disease.

Thus, the panel affirmed the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to the law firms.

Consumers who order or purchase a new 2010 hybrid vehicle from Ford Motor Co. by the end of March are eligible for a tax credit, the company said Wednesday.

Purchases or orders of new Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan hybrids made by March 31 will qualify for a $3,400 credit on their 2009 tax returns.

“Hybrids are an important part of our strategy to deliver the best or among the best fuel economy with all of our new products, and the Fusion and Milan Hybrids have set the pace for the company, as well as our competitors,” said Derrick Kuzak, group vice president of Ford Global Product Development.

The company unveiled its hybrid version of the Ford Fusion last November that can go up to 47 miles per hour on battery power alone. The Fusion gets 41 miles per gallon in the city and 36 mpg on the highway.

The Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner hybrids are still eligible for a $3,000 tax credit. The credits vary due to the performance of the vehicle. The Escape and Mariner get 34 mpg in the city, and 31 mpg on highways.

Ford said its Fusion hybrid would be in showrooms by March 31, but did not offer pricing details.

Fusion and Milan hybrids purchased between April 1 and Sept. 31 are eligible for a $1,700 credit. The tax credit drops to $850 for purchases between Oct. 1 and March 31, 2010. The credit drops over time because Ford has more than 60,000 hybrid vehicles on the road, and tax regulations state that the credit must be phased out after that threshold is met.

New Ford hybrids purchased on or after April 1, 2010 will not be eligible for a tax credit.

The long-awaited traffic signals to help ease the flow of cars onto parts of Interstate 95 will soon be unveiled.

Most South Florida drivers have experienced the headache of entering traffic on I-95.

“Have I ever tried to get on I-95 and not be able to get on I-95? Do I live in Miami? Absolutely I have, yes,” driver Collin Meiburger told Local 10.

Meiburger said that once he is on the entrance ramp, he has to accelerate and fight for his spot on the road.

The Florida Department of Transportation said all that could change with the new ramp signal system. South Florida drivers will have to wait for a green light before entering the highway.

Sensors buried on the ramps and I-95 will detect the volume of traffic. They will send a message to the stoplight on the ramp, turning it green when cars can enter the highway.

“What ramp signals do is it basically slows it down to single-file. Instead of people pouring into the express lane, they go in one by one,” said Brian Rick of FDOT.

Starting Feb. 4, the ramp signals will be activated on northbound I-95 on eight entrance ramps between Northwest 62nd Street and the Golden Glades interchange.

Officials said a few minutes waiting on the ramp should cut down drivers’ commute times on I-95.

Markwins Beauty Products, in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), voluntarily recalled 75000 lip gloss keychains because they contain high levels of lead.

If ingested by small children, lead is toxic and can lead to adverse health effects.

To date, the company has not received any reports of injury associated with the recalled products.

The recall involves lip gloss with a metal clasp keychain attached to the cap by a chain. Markings on the lip gloss container read, “Lip Gloss,” “Brillant á lèvres,” “Fantasy Makers®” and “from the creators of Wet n Wild.”

Consumers are advised to immediately take the recalled products away from children and to contact the company for an exchange or full refund.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, consumers can contact Markwins Beauty Products directly at (800) 626-8878 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT Monday through Friday

On June 11, 2004, plaintiff Chelise Navarro, 16, attended Walton High School, in the Bronx. During gym class, Chelise and other students participated in softball drills in which a batter hit balls to a group of fielders. After Chelise’s turn at bat had ended, she handed the bat to another student. The other student swung the bat, and the bat struck Chelise. Chelise sustained injuries of her face.

Chelise’s mother, Carmen Colon, acting individually and as Chelise’s parent and natural guardian, sued the school’s owner, the city of New York, and the school’s operator, the Department of Education of the City of New York. The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants’ agents were negligent in their supervision of the gym class’s students.

The city was ultimately dismissed, and the matter proceeded to a trial against the Department of Education of the City of New York.

Chelise claimed that the gym class’s instructor had advised that the students were not to execute full swings of the bat, and she also claimed that she repeated the instructor’s advice when she handed the bat to the other student. Chelise contended that the other student nevertheless executed a full swing of the bat.

Chelise also claimed that the gym class’s instructor was not supervising the drill or on the field, and she further claimed that she was not provided a batting helmet or any other type of safety equipment.

Defense counsel presented the gym class’s instructor, who contended that the accident occurred while four simultaneous drills were being conducted. She claimed that she was centrally located so that she could adequately view all of the students. She also claimed that, at the beginning of the semester, she instructed the students not to execute full swings during batting and fielding drills, though she acknowledged that the students did not receive any formal safety instruction, such as brochures, pamphlets or videotapes.

Defense counsel argued that Chelise assumed the gym-class activity’s inherent risk of injury and that the accident was the result of another student’s sudden, unforeseeable and spontaneous act that could not have been prevented by greater supervision. Defense counsel also contended that the other student was liable for failing to heed instructions.

Chelise sustained a crushing fracture of her left eye socket’s infraorbital rim, which is a bone that curves beneath the lower eyelid; displacement and bowing of the malar bone of her left zygomatic arch, which forms the prominence of the cheek; a fracture of her left eye socket’s orbital floor; and a fracture of the anterior wall of her maxillary sinus. She was transported to The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, in the Bronx. Her injuries were addressed via open reduction, the application of bone grafts, and the internal fixation of metal plates and screws that secured her left orbital rim and prevented sinking of her left eye.

Chelise underwent plastic surgery, but she claimed that she suffers residual numbness of the left side of her face. She also claimed that she suffers residual pain and post-traumatic headaches. She contended that cold weather exacerbates her pain and sometimes causes blackening of her eyes.

Chelise’s expert neurologist agreed that Chelise suffers post-traumatic headaches. He opined that she has achieved the maximum medical improvement and that her condition is permanent.

Chelise’s mother sought recovery of damages for Chelise’s past and future pain and suffering. She also presented a derivative claim.

The defense’s expert plastic surgeon examined Chelise in November 2006 and determined that Chelise did not suffer any residual disabilities. Defense counsel contended that any ongoing pain stemmed from the insertion of the fixation plates, not a neurological condition.

The jury found that the defendant was liable for Chelise’s injuries. It determined that Chelise’s damages totaled $2.75 million.

Chelise Navarro

$750,000 Personal Injury: Past Pain And Suffering

$2,000,000 Personal Injury: Future Pain And Suffering

Defense counsel has moved to set aside the verdict or reduce the damages awards.

An 80-year-old man was killed Tuesday morning when a car careened into a group of people at a Miami bus stop.

Several people were waiting at a bus stop on Eighth Street just west of Southwest 27th Avenue at about 9:50 a.m. when a blue Nissan Sentra jumped the curb and careened into the group.

An 80-year-old man waiting at the bus stop died at the scene. It was unclear whether the car hit him or if he stepped back and hit the pole at the bus stop, Local 10′s Todd Tongen reported.

“What happened was, when the car hit me, it kind of pushed me back and it hit the guy who was behind me. I didn’t even know there was somebody behind me, and his head, he busted his head on the pole right there,” said Anisha Anderson. “I usually have my baby with me, and I am so glad I didn’t bring him.”

Anderson had minor scrapes and bruises.

“(The car) was leaving from this plaza, and he’s leaving into Eighth Street, and he just accelerates and he loses control and he just ends up hitting over there,” said witness Jader Potosme.

City of Miami police said 38-year-old Norges Palao was behind the wheel of the car. At this point, police have given Palao a traffic citation, but traffic homicide detectives are investigating.

The identity of the victim has not been released pending notification of next of kin.

The investigation continues.