Confidential Settlement for Premises Liability Accident
Confidential Settlement for Motorcycle Wreck
$705,000 Verdict in Commission Dispute Case
Confidential Settlement in Golf Cart Injury
$1.9 Million Recovered in Pay Dispute
Confidential Settlement For Atlanta Chiropractic Malpractice
Confidential Settlement in Commission Pay Dispute
Confidential Settlement In Dental Malpractice Case
$3.25 Million For Alleged Fraud in Sale of Business
$5.5 Million Medical Malpractice Verdict
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Numerous Atlanta residents are using or have used Chantix to quit smoking, but recent studies have indicated that patients who do not have cardiovascular problems prior to trying to quit smoking with Chantix, might be putting themselves at risk of developing such problems in the future. Dr. Curt D. Furberg of Wake Forest, the senior author of one such study, has vehemently plead for the removal of Chantix from the U.S. market.

In June of 2011, the Food and Drug Administration issued its first warning that the use of Chantix might be related to an increase of certain cardiovascular problems in patients who have a history of heart disease. As a result, this new information is being added to all Chantix labels.

Furthermore, a medical trial of 700 smokers with cardiovascular disease were treated either with Chantix or a placebo. And according to the FDA, this trial indicated that the patients treated with Chantix experienced more cardiovascular events than those treated with the placebo.

Such cardiovascular events included:

  • angina pectoris
  • nonfatal myocardial infarction
  • need for coronary revascularization
  • in addition to new diagnosis of peripheral vascular disease

Despite the fact that the number of cardiovascular episodes were minor, the FDA has noticed that several episodes have happened more often in patients treated with Chantix. A study that appeared in the Canadian Medical Association Journal has also pointed out the connection between the risk of cardiovascular episodes and the use of Chantix. Might this be only the tip of the iceberg? Only time will tell.

This study found a 72 percent increase in the risk of cardiovascular episodes with the use of Chantix when compared with those using a placebo. And an increased risk of cardiovascular disease in patients who don’t have a history of cardiovascular disease. Of the 4,908 patients who took Chantix, 52 patients experienced an acute cardiac episode. Whereas, only 27 of 3,308 patients who took the placebo experienced a cardiac episode.
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Celebrex is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug or NSAID. It is used by a number of patients here in Atlanta in the treatment of inflammation or pain caused by such medical conditions as ankylosing spondylitis, arthritis, and menstrual discomfort. Celebrex is also used in the treatment of hereditary polyps in the colon as well as for reasons that are not listed in the medication guide.

At present, Celebrex is the only remaining anti-inflammatory drug available to patients since the discontinuation of Vioxx and Bextra. However, since gaining approval from the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), Celebrex has been tied to various gastrointestinal problems and numerous deaths. Consequently, legal action has been taken against Pfizer and Searle Pharmaceuticals who jointly manufacture Celebrex.

Use of Celebrex, particularly long-term use, can cause life – threatening heart or circulation complications. Celebrex should not be used prior to or following heart bypass surgery. And patients should discontinue its use and seek immediate medical attention if balance and vision problems, chest pain, shortness of breath, or slurred speech are experienced. The following are additional, but not all symptoms that should be looked out for.

Other symptoms include:

abnormal bruising and/or bleeding bloody, blackish, tar like fecal matter diarrhea dizziness flu – like symptoms insomnia lethargy nausea and psyrosis (heartburn), skin rashes swelling of the lips, throat, and tongue ventral (abdominal) pain yellowish discoloration of the eyes or skin
Furthermore, patients should not use Celebrex if they are allergic to celecoxib, or have experienced allergic reactions to aspirin, sulfa drugs, or other NSAIDs. Doctors who prescribe Celebrex should be aware of their patients preexisting conditions such as asthma, bleeding or blood clotting disorders, heart disease, high blood pressure, liver or kidney disease, nose polyps, stomach ulcers, or strokes. All of these are serious symptoms that can lead to serious permanent injury or even death.
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A retired dentist, who earlier this year settled a wrongful death dental negligence lawsuit arising from the death of a teenager under his care, is being sued again by another patient. A lawsuit filed in December accuses the 81-year-old retired dentist of dental negligence. The lawsuit has been filed by a woman, who says that she went to the dentist for treatment in December 2010. She claims to have suffered serious injuries, including seizures, neurological damage and other devastating injuries while undergoing treatment at the doctor’s clinic. Some of her injuries are alleged to be permanent. The lawsuit seeks damages to compensate the plaintiff for her injuries that resulted from the alleged malpractice.

It must seem like déjà vu all over again for the 81-year-old retired dentist. In October, his insurer settled a dental wrongful death lawsuit with the family of a teenager who died while undergoing a dental procedure at his office. The parents of the 13-year-old girl had filed a lawsuit against him after their daughter died while under sedation during the surgery. The girl had visited the doctor to have 2 teeth removed, and was given a combination of sedatives. During the procedure, the girl collapsed, and was rushed to the hospital. She was immediately placed on a ventilator, but died a few days later. The cause of her death was ruled as diffuse hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy.

Complications during anesthesia in the dental chair are rare, but when these do happen, it is important to timely obtain a complete and accurate copy of the patient file to determine if an error was made and whether that error caused or substantially contributed to the injuries caused by the anesthesia error. This is the first step prior to filing a lawsuit and should be performed in a timely manner.
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Surprisingly, more than 1.5 million Americans are hurt annually as a direct result of medication mistakes. As healthcare professionals, pharmacists are responsible for counseling patients about their medications in addition to compounding and dispensing medications. And though pharmacists are well-trained individuals, most medication mistakes can only be attributed to human error.

Doctors, for example, are infamous for having illegible handwriting. And though a doctor may prescribe the right medication for a patient, the pharmacist may not be able to decipher it correctly. Sometimes a doctor’s office will place the prescription with the pharmacy via the telephone on behalf of the patient. Nonetheless, mistakes in communication can occur between the caller and the receiver.

Pharmacist negligence can also result when pharmacists or pharmacy technicians dispense the wrong medication, the incorrect dosage of medication, or place inaccurate instructions on the vial or container of the medication. Many of these mistakes happen when pharmacists or their technicians are inattentive to their work or simply succumb to the monotony of the work involved.

Here in Atlanta, we are currently experiencing a shortage of competent pharmacists. And while the available pharmacists are being overworked to compensate for this shortage, pharmacy technicians are being over used. Pharmacists are required to supervise technicians. However, a surprising number of medication mistakes are caused each year by a lack of proper supervision.

In addition, pharmacists must ensure that patients understand: (1) which medication has been prescribed; (2) why it has been prescribed; (3) how it is to be taken; and (4) any and all possible side effects associated with the medication.

Pharmacists must also discern possible drug interactions. For instance, if a patient currently takes a prescribed drug, introduction of another drug may conflict with the preceding prescription. Failure to detect drug interactions can have dire consequences to the safety and well being of the patient. For example, if a patient is taking coumadin (a blood thinner) and is subsequently prescribed many types of antibiotics, the antibiotics cause the coumadin to thin the blood too much–often resulting in serious bleed-related injuries or death.
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The parents of a 17-year-old girl, who died while she was undergoing oral surgery, have filed a lawsuit against the oral surgeon and anesthesiologist involved in the procedure.

The death occurred in March this year, when the 17-year-old patient visited the dentist’s office for oral surgery. According to the report by the chief medical examiner, she was first given a standard dose of anesthesia. However, the dose was insufficient to get her completely sedated. She was then administered an additional dose of anesthesia. This was also part of standard procedure.

However, when the procedure was underway, she began to experience bradycardia, a slowing down of her heart rhythm. This was followed by a drop in the oxygen saturation in her blood. She went into hypoxic arrest, and at this point, the doctors called in emergency personnel. The teen-aged patient was then rushed to the hospital, where she was in a coma for a few days before finally dying.
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Ventilator alarm fatigue, or overexposure to ventilator and cardiac monitor alarms which increases the risk of errors, is finally getting the attention it deserves. The ECRI Institute now ranks ventilator alarm-related hazards right at the top of its annual list of health technology hazards. New data by the Food and Drug Administration also suggests that the time is right for a spotlighting of this phenomenon. According to the agency, more than 800 ventilator alarm-related errors occur in 2010 alone. Many of these occur in nursing homes and result in a form of nursing home abuse (neglect).

A new analysis by the Boston Globe finds that over the past 6 years, more than 100 people have died from ventilator alarm-related errors. According to the analysis, most of these errors occurred due to nurses’ failure to respond to a beeping alarm, and not the result of defective alarms. According to ABC News,  many nursing homes are so understaffed they may be endangering the welfare of their patients, according to a new report by federal health officials. The report, which will be presented to Congress later this month, recommends stricter guidelines that would require thousands of nursing homes to hire more nurses and nurses’ aides, The New York Times reported today. After eight years of research, health officials concluded that under-staffing has contributed to increased incidences of severe bedsores, malnutrition, and abnormal weight loss among nursing home patients.

Over exposure to ventilator alarms is definitely a phenomenon that deserves attention. During any given working day in a hospital, nurses are exposed to hundreds of frequently beeping ventilator and monitor alarms. Many alarms sound an alert even for slight changes in measurements that may not be serious. When this happens, nurses get used to the sound of alarms, and begin neglecting alerts. In fact, as the Boston Globe analysis shows, most of the ventilator alarm-related errors were the result of failing to respond to an alert, and occurred when the alarms were not set properly.
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As an Atlanta personal injury lawyer, a large part of my legal practice is devoted to helping those injured by dental malpractice. Many of these injuries occur secondary to the placement of dental implants. Dental implants are preferred for tooth restoration over dental bridges because they are esthetically more appealing and have the functioning ability of real teeth. In addition, due to the implants being anchored in the jawbone, they mimic normal tooth structure and this prevents jaw bone resorption, which occurs when patients go from having teeth to wearing dentures. And though generally considered safe, the procedure does present some risk to the patient. Some reports indicate that as many as 13% of all implant procedures result in some type of nerve injury.

Serious nerve injuries often occur when dentists drill past the jawbone into the inferior alveolar nerve or actually position the implant itself on the nerve. The usual symptoms are numbness, severe pain, and/or discomfort in the patients mouth or face that was not felt prior to the placement of the implant. Therefore, proper location of the nerve prior to performing the procedure is necessary and required under the applicable standard of care.

The most commonly employed method used in finding the position of the nerve is a radiograph, but tomograph and computerized tomography is similarly used. According to the Journal of Implantology, correctly measuring the available bone or the simple use of a drill guard can preclude over penetration.

For well over 25 years, a safety zone of two millimeters has been prescribed between the drill depth for the implant and the jaw nerve beneath. When a patient is injured, ascertaining the cause of the problem will determine the necessary response. And a three-dimensional cone beam (CBCT) x – ray can verify if the jaw nerve was reached during drilling.
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This dentist doesn’t seem to be too keen on waiting till complaints against her evolve into a full-fledged dental malpractice lawsuit. According to a lawsuit that has been filed a dentist has attempted to prevent patients from commenting on her dental work online, and then retaliated against them when they did. Trust me, as an Atlanta Dental Malpractice Attorney who has been practicing law for over 20 years, I have seen it all, including a local Atlanta dentist who attempted to require new patients to sign a form agreeing to arbitration in lieu of being able to file a lawsuit if the dentist committed malpractice.

The lawsuit has been filed against the dentist who also happens to moonlight as a classical singer, by former a patient. According to the lawsuit, the Plaintiff/former patient visited the dental office with a dental problem, and was surprised when she asked him to sign an agreement not to criticize her work online. The agreement called the Mutual Agreement to Maintain Privacy had to be signed before she agreed to work on his tooth.

The Plaintiff/former patient admits to signing the agreement, and then he went on the website Yelp to accuse the dentist of shoddy work. According to his criticism posted on Yelp, she overcharged him by as much as $4,000.  The dentist accused the former patient of breaching their agreement, and retaliated by billing him $100 for every day that the negative comment remained posted on the internet.
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Have you ever wondered if your dentist is filling cavities that, well, may not be cavities after all.  As an Atlanta dental malpractice lawyer, I have received many calls from potential clients claiming just this. A common scenario, a patient has been seeing the same general dentist for 15 years and, for one reason or another, she switches to another dentist. The new dentist performs a thorough intake, a series of high-tech diagnostics including x-rays and maybe cone bean CT scans. Lo and behold, the patient is informed that she needs 10 cavities filled. Now, does this scenario indicate that there might be dental malpractice on behalf of the prior treating dentist, the one who treated the patient for the past 15 years and who has never mentioned these “cavities” or does it indicate that the new dentist may be guilty of malpractice for over-treating. The answer, as always with the law: it depends. New technologies now help dentists locate minor abnormalities that may or may not ultimately turn into full-blown cavities. These problems do not require dental filling procedures, but far too many dentists recommend these anyway.

The New York Times is reporting on increasingly sophisticated dental technologies that allow the detection of minor abnormalities, like incipient carious lesions. An incipient carious lesion is one of the earliest stages of structural damage, usually caused by bacterial infections. These infections may or may not lead to a full-blown cavity. In some cases, the lesion can be treated by minerals in the saliva.

Many experts are of the opinion that these minor cavities do not need to be treated with a dental filling because damage to the enamel has not yet begun. However, a majority of dentists do not hesitate to operate on a tooth that has minor damage, and decay that has not progressed beyond the enamel. These treatments are not only painful, but also expensive.

Some incipient carious lesions cannot be seen with x-rays or the naked eye, but can be detected through fiber-optic techniques and infrared laser scanning. By using these techniques, dentists now find it possible to locate minor cavities that do not require filling, and proceed to perform these procedures anyway.
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A new study finds that there can be a significant reduction in the rate of obstetrics adverse events through the use of a multifaceted quality program. The findings of the study have been published in the Journal for Healthcare Quality, and the researchers believe that comprehensive staff training programs can help improve obstetrics outcomes dramatically.

The researchers developed a two-year obstetrics safety program, which they then implemented at the North Shore University Hospital and LIJ Medical Center, NY. All staff members of the obstetrics wing of the hospitals were included in the initiative. They were required to complete a training program that included evidence-based protocols to reduce the incidence of adverse events.
The researchers found that the incidence of some of the most common adverse events that Atlanta medical malpractice lawyers come across, like a return to the operating room after delivery or birth trauma, decreased significantly after the training program was implemented. The decline was more than 50%. Before the training program, the incidence of such adverse outcomes was about 2%. After the training program, the incidence of adverse events was reduced to about .8%. The researchers also found that the staff was able to maintain these positive outcomes over a two-year study period.
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