Dallas Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Slip and Fall At WorkPlace Results in Plaintiff's Verdict

A jury awarded nearly $5.7 million to a crane operator who was severely burned when he fell into an open sluiceway. In 2007, Mike McCraven, then 56, was an employee of Austin Industries and working at a Pasadena Refining System Inc. plant when he was told move a boom truck. As he was walking to the truck, he fell into an open sluiceway, which was full of boiling water. He sustained burns over 15 percent of his body and permanently lost feeling in his feet, and he said he is no longer able to work as a crane operator as a result. He blamed PRSI, alleging it was negligent because it left the drain covers off the sluiceway and continually flooded the area with boiling water. PRSI in turn filed suit against Austin Industries, contending it failed to adequately communicate the existing conditions to McCraven before he started the task. The jury found PRSI 75 percent, Austin 20 percent and McCraven 5 percent liable.

Doctor's Failure to Diagnose Medical Condition Lead to Plaintiff's Verdict

 

A diabetic man who accused his doctor of failing to recognize the symptoms of Charcot foot recovered $1,475,000. In 2006, David Luna, then 63, said he complained of ongoing swelling to his leg and foot to his doctor at a Diabetic Centers of America facility. He alleged Dr. Lloyd Damon Weddington told him the swelling was a by-product of his diabetes and that he would just have to tolerate it. However, a podiatrist later diagnosed Luna with Charcot foot, and the podiatrist contended Luna must have been suffering from the condition while treating with Weddington. Luna claimed Weddington's failure to diagnose Charcot foot led to ulcers and infections. He is no longer able to walk and his leg will likely have to be amputated below the knee. Weddington argued that he performed all adequate testing and that Luna never complained about his foot after his first visit. The jury awarded Luna and his wife $2.27 million in damages, but it was reduced to due comparative negligence.

Hospital Must Pay For Patient Wrongfully Discharged From ER

A jury awarded $1,315,276 to the family of a woman who died just hours after being sent home from the emergency room. In 2007, Stacy Meaux, 46, presented to Christus St. Mary Hospital in Port Arthur. According to her family, Meaux's chief complaints were pain and tightness in the chest. She was diagnosed with high blood pressure, given medicine and discharged. Less than 10 hours later, Meaux went into cardiac arrest and died. Her family sued the hospital, alleging its nurses failed to inform the ER doctor of Meaux's chest complaints. The hospital denied that Meaux had mentioned chest pain and it argued that it followed the doctor's discharge instructions. The jury found the nurses 80 percent liable and the doctor, who settled before trial, 20 percent liable. The hospital is jointly and severally liable for the entire award, which is subject to caps on damages.

Jury Finds Doctor Gave Informed Consent

A jury sided with two doctors accused of failing to obtain informed consent before performing multiple surgeries on a patient. In 2005, Helen Hale, then 54, underwent a series of surgeries performed by Dr. Peter Lotze and Dr. Kimberly Miller-Miles at The Women's Hospital of Texas in Houston. Hale claimed the procedures reduced the size of her vaginal opening and the length of her vaginal canal to the point where she experiences constant pain and intercourse is unbearable. She contended Lotze and Miller-Miles never told her the procedures could reduce her vaginal opening. The doctors argued that Hale was aware of this possibility before she consented to the surgeries. They also contended that while the procedures did shrink Hale's vaginal opening, it remains within the normal range of vaginal size.

Man Paralyzed Due To Construction Accident Settles Lawsuit

A man who is paralyzed due to an incident involving a violently jerking earth scraper recovered $25 million. In 2006, Alfonzo Lopez, then 38, was operating a Caterpillar tractor-scraper when the 80,000-machine began to jolt up and down. He sustained spinal fractures that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Lopez blamed Caterpillar, alleging the scraper's transmission system had faulty gear sensors. He said dozens of warranty claims from 2002 to 2009 showed Caterpillar scrapers moving against operator commands or shifting on their own. Lopez claimed Caterpillar was aware of the problem, but opted not to fix it because of the cost. He also sued Holt Texas Ltd., which had a mechanic at his job site, for negligent maintenance. The defendants denied the allegations, arguing Lopez initially said he hit a bump or rough terrain while operating the scraper. The jury found Caterpillar 90 percent and Holt 10 percent negligent. It awarded Lopez and his wife $56 million in damages, which was reduced due to statutory caps.

FDA Recommends Avandia Be Recalled Due to Heart Attack Injury

 

Hundreds of people taking Avandia, a controversial diabetes medicine, needlessly suffer heart attacks and heart failure each month, according to confidential government reports that recommend the drug be removed from the market.

The reports, obtained by The New York Times, say that if every diabetic now taking Avandia were instead given a similar pill named Actos, about 500 heart attacks and 300 cases of heart failure would be averted every month because Avandia can hurt the heart. Avandia, intended to treat Type 2 diabetes, is known as rosiglitazone and was linked to 304 deaths during the third quarter of 2009.

“Rosiglitazone should be removed from the market,” one report, by Dr. David Graham and Dr. Kate Gelperin of the Food and Drug Administration, concludes. Both authors recommended that Avandia be withdrawn.

The internal F.D.A. reports are part of a fierce debate within the agency over what to do about Avandia, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline. Some agency officials want the drug withdrawn because they believe there is a safer alternative; others insist that studies of the drug provide contradictory information and that Avandia should continue to be an option for doctors and patients. GlaxoSmithKline said that it had studied Avandia extensively and that “scientific evidence simply does not establish that Avandia increases” the risk of heart attacks.

The battle has been brewing for years but has been brought to a head by disagreement over a new clinical trial and a Senate investigation that concluded that GlaxoSmithKline should have warned patients earlier of the drug’s potential risks.

Avandia was once one of the biggest-selling drugs in the world. Driven in part by a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, sales were $3.2 billion in 2006. But a 2007 study by a Cleveland Clinic cardiologist suggesting that the drug harmed the heart prompted the F.D.A. to issue a warning, and sales plunged. A committee of independent experts found in 2007 that Avandia might increase the risk of heart attack but recommended that it remain on the market, and an F.D.A. oversight board voted 8 to 7 to accept that advice.

Hundreds of thousands still take the medicine, although some top endocrinologists say they have sworn off the drug.

Since 2007, more studies have been done. In a December 2009 internal memorandum, Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the F.D.A.’s drug center, wrote that “there are multiple conflicting opinions” about Avandia within the agency, and she ordered officials to assemble another advisory committee, expected this summer, to reconsider whether the drug should be sold.

“I await the recommendations of the advisory committee,” the agency’s commissioner, Dr. Margaret Hamburg, said Friday night. “Meanwhile, I am reviewing the inquiry made by Senators Baucus and Grassley and I am reaching out to ensure that I have a complete understanding and awareness of all of the data and issues involved.”

Plane Crash In Austin, Texas Results In Injury

A software engineer furious with the Internal Revenue Service plowed his small plane into an office building housing nearly 200 federal tax employees on Thursday, officials said, setting off a raging fire that sent workers fleeing as thick plumes of black smoke poured into the air.

A U.S. law official identified the pilot as Joseph Stack — whose home was set on fire just before the crash — and said investigators were looking at an anti-government message on the Web linked to him. The Web site outlines problems with the IRS and says violence "is the only answer."

Federal law enforcement officials have said they were investigating whether the pilot, who is presumed to have died in the crash, slammed into the Austin building on purpose in an effort to blow up IRS offices. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

"Violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer," the long note on Stack's Web site reads, citing past problems with the tax-collecting agency.

"I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well," the note, dated Thursday, reads.

At least one person who worked in the building was unaccounted for and two people were hospitalized, said Austin Fire Department Division Chief Dawn Clopton. She did not have any information about the pilot. About 190 IRS employees work in the building, and IRS spokesman Richard C. Sanford the agency was trying to account for all of its workers.

After the plane crashed into the building, flames shot out, windows exploded and workers scrambled to safety. Thick smoke billowed out of the second and third stories hours later as fire crews battled the blaze.

"It felt like a bomb blew off," said Peggy Walker, an IRS revenue officer who was sitting at her desk in the building when the plane crashed. "The ceiling caved in and windows blew in. We got up and ran."

Andrew Jacobson was on the second floor when he heard a "big whoomp" and then a second explosion. He also thought a bomb exploded.

"When I went to look out the window I saw wreckage, wheels and everything. That's when I realized it was a plane," said Jacobson, whose bloody hands were bandaged.

Jacobson, also an IRS revenue officer, said about six people couldn't use the stairwell because of smoke and debris. He found metal bar to bust a window so the group could crawl out on a concrete ledge where they were rescued by the firefighters.

Earlier Thursday about five miles from the crash site, Stack's $232,000 home was engulfed in flames. Two law enforcement officials said Stack had apparently set fire to his home before the crash.

 

Dallas Woman Killed By Train

The woman who was struck and killed by a Trinity Railway Express train Monday night has been identified as Van Phan of Dallas.

Phan, 54, walked around the crossing arms east of Market Center Boulevard near Harry Hines Boulevard about 5:25 p.m., said Morgan Lyons, a spokesman for Dallas Area Rapid Transit. The operator saw her and sounded the horn, Lyons said, but she continued walking into the side of the westbound train.

The medical examiner has not yet determined the cause or manner of death.

Phan's death was the second fatality involving the rail line in less than a week. On Wednesday night, Steven Whitaker, 52, of Dallas was crossing the tracks in the same area when he was killed. The medical examiner has ruled Whitaker's death an accident.

"This is a reminder to be aware of your location and what’s going on around you," Lyons said. "There’s no safe way to walk around a train."

Phan’s death was the 11th fatality involving the TRE since it began operating in December 1996.

Ford Settles Suit Involving Car Accident And Death of Police Officer

On Dec. 30, 2009, the Ford Motor Co. agreed to pay $1,925,000 to settle a suit filed by the family of a police officer who died from injuries sustained in a car accident.

In 2005, Officer Mark Simmons Jr. was a passenger in a 2000 Ford Crown Victoria police car when it was rear-ended by a pickup truck. His family alleged the support and anchor mechanisms on Simmons' seat failed due to design and manufacturing defects, causing him to be violently thrown to the back of the car.

Simmons, a father of two young children, sustained severe brain damage and died in 2008.

Ford argued the seat, which met all government safety standards, was safe. It contended Simmons’ injuries were caused by the severe nature of the accident and his failure to wear a seat belt, but it ultimately agreed to the settlement.

Construction Accident Leads To Serious Injury and Settlement

 

 

A jury awarded $1.72 million to a worker who was seriously injured when a load lifted by a crane swung into him at an oil refinery. In 2005, Ernesto Tamez, then 59, attached an oil burner to the boom of the crane while working for a turnaround contractor at a BP America Inc. refinery in Texas City. When the crane operator lifted the boom, it swung like a pendulum into Tamez and pinned him against a handrail. He sustained a torn rotator cuff and herniated discs in his neck and back, all of which required surgery. Tamez claimed that the crane operator worked for Maxim Crane Works LP and he was to blame. Defense counsel denied that the crane operator was at fault and argued that Tamez didn't prove that he worked for Maxim.