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Popular Antidepressants Linked to GI Bleeding

August 1, 2008

The widely prescribed class of antidepressants known as SSRIs may be associated with bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract, especially when taken with painkillers called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, a new study says.

Although reports of this effect from the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors family of antidepressants — which includes Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft — have been noted before, some outside experts said the evidence is still far from conclusive.

“Certainly, doctors should be advising patients of this finding, but it’s far from definitive,” said Dr. Ewald Horwath, professor of psychiatry, epidemiology and public health at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “The risk of discontinuing antidepressants and getting depression and its consequences are much greater than this drug.”

But, other experts said that the public health impact of the new finding, if confirmed, could be significant.

Read Article Washington Post

Crocs cited in lawsuit over girl’s injuries at airport

A Louisville, Ky., mother is blaming the manufacturer of the popular Crocs shoes for injuries her 3-year-old daughter suffered when her foot was trapped in an escalator at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta.

According to the suit filed Tuesday in federal court in Kentucky, Crocs knew its shoes were dangerous for children but the Colorado-based company continued to market them in colors and styles attractive to prospective young Crocs wearers.

The mother, Alison Cox Pregliasco, said her daughter’s foot was caught in the escalator and permanently injured on June 4. Once the shoe was shredded, the escalator ripped the skin off the child’s big toe and broke that toe and two others, according attorney Andrew Laskin.

“We’re asking for punitive damages,” Laskin said. “Each time this happened to a child, they [Crocs] got out there and blamed everybody else. It’s not the airport’s fault. It’s not the escalator’s fault.”
He said the child was not misbehaving when she was hurt.
The mother is asking for $4 million for her daughter, who was only identified by the initials A.P.
Telephone calls to Crocs seeking comment were not returned.

Read Article ajc.com

E. Coli Illnesses Prompt Beef Recall

Supermarkets across the country are pulling from their shelves more than 530,000 pounds of beef that may be contaminated with E. coli in the wake of an Agriculture Department warning that the beef supplied by a Nebraska company may be responsible for at least 40 illnesses.

The company, Nebraska Beef Ltd. of Omaha, recalled the beef produced since May after some of its products, sold by the Kroger Company with sell-by dates of May 21 to July 5, was linked to reports of illnesses in Ohio and Michigan, the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said on Tuesday.

In addition to Michigan, Nebraska Beef reported some of the contaminated products were distributed in Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania. Other beef products were reportedly sent to Colorado and Texas for further processing, although it was not immediately clear whether any contaminated beef was sold in the other states.

Read Article New York Times

NYC jury awards $19.6M to injured baby’s parents

A jury has awarded $19.6 million to a couple who sued a hospital for medical malpractice after their baby was brain-damaged at birth and the mother was mutilated in the delivery.

The state Supreme Court jury in Queens awarded the money to Eun Sook Maing and her husband, Soo Maing, for injuries she and her baby suffered on Oct. 16, 1998, at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Manhattan.

The Maings’ lawyer, Thomas Moore, said Daniel Maing was born with cerebral palsy after Dr. Po Ching Fong, a hospital resident, yanked at his head with forceps for 23 minutes until she pulled him through his mother’s birth canal.

The boy, now 9, was born lifeless and severely oxygen-deprived and required emergency resuscitation because of the trauma to his head, Moore said.

The anesthesiologist “added insult to injury,” the lawyer said, by inserting a breathing tube into the baby’s esophagus, which carries food or liquid to the stomach, rather than into his windpipe and pumped oxygen into his stomach instead of his lungs.

Read Article Newsday.com

S.F. settles Muni suit for $2 million

The city of San Francisco will pay $2 million to a woman who lost part of her leg after she was struck by an N-Judah train in January, under the terms of a settlement approved Tuesday by the Municipal Transportation Agency board.

Dina Gryn was walking east on Irving Street on Jan. 7 when she crossed Ninth Avenue on a green light and was struck by a westbound N-Judah train making a left turn, according to Gryn’s lawsuit, which was filed in March.

As a result of a Muni driver’s negligence, the lawsuit charges, doctors had to amputate Gryn’s right leg below the knee. The accident also resulted in broken bones and other permanent injuries, according to the lawsuit.

Gryn also accused the city of San Francisco of creating a “dangerous, hazardous and defective condition” at the intersection of Ninth and Irving. The suit says the intersection does not have proper signs and does not give pedestrians enough time to cross the street.

Read Article San Francisco Chronicle

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