There are estimates that at least 10,000 patients may unnecessarily have suffered kidney damage due to use of aprotinin (Trasylol) during heart surgery. Many patients may have been injected with Trasylol to reduce blood loss during coronary artery bypass (CABG) surgery.  Thus, the goal with using Trasylol was to stop bleeding during the heart bypass surgery.   The Food and Drug Administration approved Aprotinin in 1993, a drug marketed by Bayer as Trasylol. Sales of Trasylol over the past several years have escalated to more than $600 million.

Patients undergoing heart surgery are largely unaware if Trasylol was used during their heart surgery. The decision to use aprotinin (Trasylol) was made by a patient’s treating doctor and the documentation would be found in those records if a patient is unaware if it was used.  I realize that most patients have had successful heart surgeries and are concerned that nothing negative happens to their doctors. I am here to make sure that if you have suffered Trasylol kidney damage, stroke or heart failure I will work to hold the responsible drug company accountable, not the doctors using or prescribing the medication in good faith.  A recent study, published by the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) (2006) reported a connection between Trasylol and increased risk of renal (kidney) failure, myocardial infarction, heart failure or stroke in patients who have had heart surgery (see below for more details).

Aprotinin (Trasylol) affects the way in which blood clots inside the body–just as using Vioxx affected the chemicals in the blood with their blood clotting mechanism.  Trasylol is injected into patients who are undergoing open heart surgery as excessive bleeding, during and after heart surgery, is a very serious complication.  Such bleeding exposes patients to multiple risks during and after such surgery.   Trasylol is primarily used during repeat coronary artery bypass surgery to reduce the amount of bleeding associated with such surgical procedures.  The amount of blood transfusion required is reduced by using clotting medications including Trasylol which is why it was heavily utilized.

The NEJM study concluded that 2 other generic drugs are available that are safer and less expensive than Trasylol.

1. The generic Amicar cost per dose s $11
2. The generic Cyklokapron cost per dose is $44
3. Trasylol cost per dose is $1300.

Neither of the generic drugs was associated with increased risk of kidney failure, heart attack or stroke.  If you or a loved one has had open heart surgery and then experienced Trasylol kidney damage, heart failure or stroke, you may be able entitled to money damages. Trasylol attorneys can help evaluate your claim; you may contact Attorney Mark C. Blane toll free at (888) 845-6269, or via email at mark@blanelaw.com.

In a move that was unexpected, the first Neurontin trial has ended with a dismissal, after an anonymous donor offered to put money in a trust fund for the 10-year-old daughter of a Massachusetts woman who committed suicide two years after taking the anti-seizure drug.  Plaintiff’s lawyer Mark Lanier told Bloomberg Television that the anonymous donor was a plaintiff’s lawyer who was not involved in the case.  This was a surprise to many both on the defense and plaintiff bar watching these developments with Neurontin.

The trial, which began in U.S. District Court in Boston on Monday, July 27, 2009, is the first of about 1,200 lawsuits alleging Pfizer promoted Neurontin for unapproved uses and failed to warn consumers nationwide about the increased risk of suicide.  The trial was expected to last three weeks, but was dismissed after the victim’s family dropped the suit.  The case was viewed as a tough one for Lanier, who was representing the family of Susan Bulger, a 39-year-old woman from Peabody, Mass. with a history of drug abuse, depression and several suicide attempts. Bulger had been taking Neurontin for rheumatoid arthritic pain.  She had used the drug of a specific period of time then committed suicide sometime in September 2004.

The Pfizer lawyers claimed a victory in the case, but Lanier told Bloomberg that the dismissal merely postpones plaintiffs’ verdicts in subsequent cases (cases still pending).   For example, the next trial is slated to start March 29, 2010, in Boston Federal Court, although a case in Tennessee state court may start earlier than this date.   During opening arguments on Tuesday, July 28, 2009, Plaintiff lawyer Lanier said Bulger had “kicked her drug problem and was trying to turn her life around at the time of her death. Neurontin was a contributing cause of her suicide,”  he claimed.  He also said Warner-Lambert, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2000, knew before the drug was introduced to the market in 1993 that it increased the risk of suicide when taken for a specific period of time.   Although Neurontin was approved only as an anti-epilepsy medication, the drug company aggressively promoted a variety of non-approved uses, including pain control, according to Lanier.  It will be interesting to see what happens next legally with these trials in Tennessee and Boston.

If you or a loved one  needs more information on the use of Neurontin and its link with suicide, you may contact Attorney Mark C. Blane at toll free (888) 845-6269, or email at mark@blanelaw.com.

Fosamax® (Alendronate Sodium) is a member of a class of drugs known as “bisphosphonates.” Manufactured by Merck & Co., Fosamax was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1995, and is commonly used to treat patients with osteoporosis and Paget’s disease.  Fosamax and other bisphosphonates, including Aredia® and Zometa®, have been linked to a serious bone disease called Osteonecrosis of the Jaw, or ONJ, also known as “Dead Jaw” or “Jaw Death.” ONJ involves the breakdown or death of the jaw bone, frequently leading to infection or fractures and requiring long term care.   This can result in areas of exposed bone inside the mouth and could lead to surgery to remove portions of the jaw bone.  Following a study published in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, the FDA issued a warning to healthcare professionals in August 2004 regarding bisphosphonate therapy and its side effects.

The first Fosamax civil lawsuit is scheduled for trial in the federal MDL in August 2009, and it will be followed by additional trials in October 2009, and January 2010.  The lawyers and staff at The Law Offices of Mark C. Blane, APC, are continuing to review potential cases for individuals who have been diagnosed with osteonecrosis of the jaw or other injuries caused by side effects of Fosamax.

There currently at least 600 Fosamax (jaw lawsuits) pending against Merck for individuals who have developed this painful and disfiguring condition.  All of the federal cases have been consolidated in an MDL, or Multi-district Litigation, which is centralized in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

If you or a loved one has used Fosamax and suffered side effects, please our law office for a free evaluation.

Fosamax Information Links:

Fosamax Overview Page

Merck, the manufacturer of Vioxx,  has begun to make partial payments to some qualified Vioxx claimants who had heart attacks as direct result of taking their once famed drug. Of the more than 50,000 potential claims, only a few hundred were paid in August, and most other pending claims will actually be paid at a much later date.  The claims administrators are not providing updates on when the claims will be processed, and claimants unfortunately has no way of knowing when each individual package will be reviewed. However, once a potential claim is reviewed, deemed eligible for the settlement, and given a points award, it is generally understood that the accepted claim should be paid in line with the particular payout provision in the settlement (partial payment, etc).  If you feel the points assigned to the claim are unfair, then the option of appealing the points award will exist for that pending claimant, or claimant’s family.

The partial payments will be made on an estimated value of each point that is assigned to a particular claim; the amount that will be ultimately paid on qualified claims will only be calculated after the claims administrators determine how many claims are qualified overall, and how many points are awarded overall (for each claim).  Again, law firms across the country are unfortunately not being told when this will happen.  Please check our website for updates as this web blog provide these updates in an effort to help individual clients (or clients represented by other law firms across the country) avoid the time and expense of having to regularly contact the firm about the status of their case.   Again, most of the claims are being reviewed by the Claims Administrators of the Merck Class Action, and I can only imagine this will take more time for the review to go through the many thousands of lawsuits nationwide.  I hope this blog finds you and your family well, and provides a a brief update of the Vioxx Settlement process.

According to Reuters out of New York, Merck & Co, and Schering-Plough Corp will pay $41.5 million to settle class-action lawsuits over their shared cholesterol drugs Vytorin, and Zetia, the companies said on Wednesday, August 5, 2009.

The lawsuits involved allegations arising from the Enhance clinical trial, whose results released in January 2008, raised serious questions about the net worth of Zetia, and Vytorin.  Merck and Schering-Plough, which have agreed to merge, sell the blockbuster medicines through a joint venture agreement.  Vytorin combines Zetia and an older statin drug, Zocor, into one single pill to consumers.  The settlement will resolve all the class-action lawsuits that seek economic damages related to the purchase of the two drugs, the companies said.  They have disclosed about 145 such lawsuits pending in federal court in the State of New Jersey.

Merck and Schering both recorded charges related to the settlement in the second quarter.  The settlement is not an admission of misconduct or liability, the companies said in a statement.  The agreement involves two settlements:

1.  one with consumers, and;

2.  other entities that purchased the drugs, and one with health plans.

The settlement with consumers is subject to court approval in New Jersey; the other settlement is not subject to court approval.  The Enhance study found that Vytorin was no more effective in reducing plaque in the carotid arteries than an inexpensive generic form of Zocor (simvastatin).  Sales of Vytorin and Zetia, which had become blockbuster products, plunged when results of the trial became known.  Last month, the companies agreed to pay $5.4 million to 35 states to settle allegations they delayed negative findings from the Enhance study.

According to the Associated Press out of New York, the first wrongful death lawsuit resulting from the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks will go to trial April 12, a judge said Tuesday, July 28, 2009.  U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein set the trial date over the complaints of aviation security industry lawyers who said they needed more time to prepare for the litigation.  “There’s a great deal of shock on the defense side,” said Desmond Thomas Barry, a lawyer representing the aviation defendants in the pending litigation.   It has not been decided which of three remaining wrongful death claims will go before the jury at the trial in New York.   Currently, more than 90 families have already settled their claims, and therefore do not need trials.

Judge Hellerstein said he wants the trial completed in less than a month and will set limits on the time given to each side so presentations to the jury are equal.  This shows his interest for an expedient and efficient trial.  Judge Hellerstein is in the Federal District  Court in Manhatten, New York.  Once the trial is completed, Judge Hellerstein said, he will begin trials for damages claims by people who suffered respiratory illnesses at the World Trade Center site.  He said he wanted the first trial to result from a lawsuit on behalf of victims who were on the planes involved in 911.  “When we think of 9-11, we think more of the people in the airplane than anyone else,” the judge said.

Judge Hellerstein said the three wrongful death lawsuits that remain will be tried in two different trials as follows:

2.  The other trial will decide whether defendants are liable in the death of Mark Bavis, 31, of West Newton, Massachusetts, a scout for the Los Angeles Kings hockey team who was aboard United Flight 175, which also struck the World Trade Center on 911.

Judge Hellerstein told lawyers for the plaintiffs to tell him in the next week which trial will be first.  Ninety-seven (97) percent of the relatives of those killed in planes that hit the World Trade Center or the Pentagon on September 11, 2001,  chose to receive payments from a special fund that the U.S. Congress established.  It distributed more than $7 billion to more than 5,000 survivors of potential wrongful death actions.  However, 95 lawsuits on behalf of 96 victims were filed by those  families who chose to reject the fund (the great majority on behalf of families whose loved ones were killed on the 911 planes).

One former Boston aviation official said it’s time to speak up: “Maybe now we’ll get to fill in some of the gaps left in the 9/11 Commission Report,” said Brian Sullivan, a retired Federal Aviation Administration offical who long worried about such a doomsday security breach.

According to a new risk assessment, tanning beds are as certain to cause cancer as smoking cigarettes.  Tanning beds, also known as sun beds, and all types of ultraviolet rays are now ranked in the highest risk group by the IARC (International Agency for Resarch on Cancer).  This places the tanning beds in the same category as heavy metals (plutonium and radium), researchers said in a paper published today in the medical journal Lancet Oncology.  Sun beds/tanning beds,  and Ultra Violate light are now considered “carcinogenic to humans.” If a person uses a tanning bed, then it raised the risk of developing the type of skin cancer called melanoma by 75 percent in users that started tanning before the age of 30!  Now I assume the study meant to clarify this position and add excessive exposure to UV light is carcinogenic to humans.  The reason I say this is because I am familiar with studies showing how sun light on human skin knocks off a molecule in it to produce vitamin D (the sunshine vitamin).

Federal regulators (Food and Drug Administration) warned consumers nationwide on July 28, 2009, not to use body-building products that are sold as “Nutritional Supplements” but may contain steroids or steroidlike substances, citing reports of acute liver injury and possible failure of the kidneys.

Tren Xtreme and Mass Xtreme are among the eight supplements cited by the F.D.A. as containing steroidlike substances.  The FDA said it issued this warning because of increased medical reports of medical problems in men who had used such products currently and in the recent past.  Except for naming eight specific supplements sold by a single company, the Food and Drug Administration did not provide much more instruction to consumers on what other products to avoid or to keep their eye on. The F.D.A. acknowledged that it did not know how many products in this category of concern its warning affects, so the idea is to be mindful of these products.

Generally, the F.D.A. said, consumers should beware of body-building products that claim to enhance or diminish (affect in anyway) the effects of hormones like estrogen, testosterone, or progestin.   In particular, the agency said consumers should not buy products labeled with code words like “anabolic” and “tren,” or phrases like “blocks estrogen,” and “minimizes gyno.”  The references to estrogen and “gyno” are meant to indicate the products do not have a potential of producing a feminizing effect on the body, like breast swelling or shrinking testicles, which can be unwanted side effects of steroid use in men.  The F.D.A. cited eight (8) popular products from American Cellular Labs, including Mass Xtreme and Tren Xtreme, that the agency found to contain hidden and potentially hazardous steroids within the products. The agency sent a letter warning the company to make the products comply with federal regulations.  Last week, federal agents in San Francisco, California, obtained search warrents for the company, and for a San Francisco outlet of Max Muscle, a chain of sports nutrition stores, some of which sold the products cited by the F.D.A.

The warning is part of a larger investigation into body-building products that contain hidden or undisclosed steroids, according to court documents in the American Cellular Labs case. A spokesman for Joseph P. Russoniello, the United States attorney for the Northern District of California, said he could not comment on open investigations.  This may be a good trend as people really need to take more responsibility with their diets instead of always searching for a “silver bullet” remedy with nutritional support.  What ever happened to just eating responsibly and making “healthy choices on your own?”

A civil lawsuit against a New Hampshire woman, Ms. Marie Pigaga, charged with driving a car into a woman at a Massachusetts car wash and killing her in 2007 has been settled.  The Eagle Tribune in New Hampshire reports 48-year-old Marie Pigaga heads back to court Aug. 25 to stand trial again on charges of vehicular mansalughter. An April trial ended in a hung jury in which the DA refiled charges to try the case again on the criminal side.

The suit (the civil lawsuit - Personal Injury) was filed against Pigaga last year. The crash killed Robin Young of Danville, N.H., as she was wiping down her car outside Haffner’s carwash on Route 125 in Haverhill, Mass.  The family’s lawyer said terms of the settlement would not be disclosed publicly.  Court documents say a portion for Young’s daughter, Taylor, will amount to roughly $100,000.  Then, 12-year-old Taylor, was inside the car at the time of this unfortunate auto accident.  Pigaga claimed her brakes failed her and that is the reason for the terrible accident.

Elder Abuse is the mistreatment of an elderly person which includes:  physical abuse; emotional abuse; neglect; and financial abuse. Unfortunately, this type of abuse can happen anywhere; in households that are considered poor, middle class, or upper class households.  Statistically, close friends or family members are often times the catalyst or actual culprits of the physical, emotional, physical, or financial abuse; thus, this type of abuse is usually extremely difficult to detect.

FINANCIAL ABUSE: this is the mismanagement of money, assets, or other tangible things or property belonging to a senior citizen.  Protect yourself from this type of mismanagement by third parties.  You can 1) cancel all credit cards you are not using; 2) never keep PIN Numbers in your wallet or in places of easy access; 3) never give out your ATM cards or credit cards–try to give out cash or reimburse with cash or check; and, 4) have a trusted family member or friend balance your books.

PHYSICAL ABUSE: this is the infliction of bodily injuries on a senior citizen.  This can be detected if there are obvious lacerations; abrasions; welts; bruises; bone fractures; swelling; or suspicious discoloration.  Also, you can sometimes notice cigarette burns, or burns from ropes or bonds; detached retina; head/scalp wounds; tenderness or pain upon merely touching the senior; or the senior becomes protective of the suspect or withdrawn.

NEGLECT OF AN ELDER: this is the failure of a caregiver to provide the senior with basic living needs which includes shelter; food; personal hygiene products; heating and air conditioning; & medical assistance.  Statistically, unemployed adult children, or third parties with a criminal history may neglect their elder parents.  You can find evidence of this type of neglect when the elder feels isolated by the caretaker, or is unable to spend time with other or speak freely; the senior shows signs of dehydration, or malnutrition; or the senior has a sudden  and rapid weight loss; or, the elder does not have necessities like eye glasses, hearing aides, dentures, walkers, canes, prostheses, or other necessary items.

If you suspect neglect or abuse of an elder, please contact the Adult Protective Services by calling 1 (877) 4-R-Seniors, or your local police department. Then contact an experienced Elder Abuse Lawyer to help protect the Elder’s legal rights.