Class-action lawsuit rejected in hepatitis C outbreak

November 6, 2008

After 70-year-old Eugenia Hedstrom was notified last winter by health officials that she should get tested for hepatitis and HIV, she worried about dying.

Night and day. Every day. Until she got word a couple of weeks later that tests showed she was in the clear.

 

“When you get a letter like that, it scares you like you wouldn’t believe,” Hedstrom said Wednesday as she sat in the offices of her attorney, Robert Cottle. “I had friends who got letters too, and they were scared out of their minds. It’s all you think about. It’s hard to do anything.”

 

Hedstrom, like tens of thousands of Southern Nevadans from 2004 to 2008, had gone to the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada for colonoscopies or other endoscopic procedures.

 

In February, health officials said at least six people contracted hepatitis C during procedures at the clinic because staff had contaminated single-use vials of medication and used them on multiple patients. The Southern Nevada Health District urged 40,000 clinic patients to get tested for potentially fatal blood-borne diseases.

 

Read Article: Las Vegas Review Journal

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

$13.5m awarded in hospital death

The family of a 40-year-old Hopkinton woman who died following a cycle of experimental chemotherapy at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute was awarded a total of $13.5 million yesterday by a Suffolk Superior Court jury, according to the family’s attorney.

 

The jury deliberated for nine hours over two days before awarding $9.4 million plus interest in the July 2003 death of Amy Altman, the mother of two young daughters.

The jurors decided that Altman’s death could have been prevented if Dana-Farber doctors had investigated the cause of chronic diarrhea that surfaced during an unusual treatment protocol for a tumor behind her knee, said Robert Higgins, the plaintiff’s lawyer.

 

Altman developed the diarrhea about two months after she began receiving chemotherapy every two weeks instead of the standard regimen of once every three weeks for Ewing’s sarcoma, Higgins said. That form of cancer affects bone and soft tissue and usually afflicts adolescents and children between the ages of 10 and 20.

 

Read Article: Boston.com

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Man Goes to Court to Fight His Own Impending Autopsy

A man anticipating death from a rare form of cancer caused by inhaling asbestos is challenging the constitutionality of a court order requiring his body to be autopsied as a condition of his estate being paid a settlement.

 

James Ross, 71, objects to the procedure on personal moral grounds, said his attorney, Matthew Bergman of Bergman & Frockt in Seattle.

 

Bergman, interviewed prior to his appearance in court last week to argue the case, said mandatory autopsies have been a standard requirement of asbestos settlements dating to a 1984 Washington state court rule. The rule does allow exceptions for “religious or ethical considerations,” but Bergman contends that is unconstitutionally vague. Ross v Saberhagen Holdings Inc., No. 08-2-02434-2 SEA (King Co., Wash., Super. Ct.).

 

“We want the rule declared unconstitutional,” Bergman said. “Autopsy is very invasive; no one should have to do it if they don’t want to.”

As part of his pleadings, Bergman found cases of plaintiffs diagnosed with mesothelioma who were exempted from the autopsy requirement because of their religion.

 

Read Article: Law.com

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Woman awarded $3.6 million in asbestos case

A Broward jury has awarded a $3.6 million judgment to a woman suffering from a terminal disease caused by second-hand contact with asbestos.

 

Lynda Daly, 57, was diagnosed with mesothelioma last year, a disease she claims was caused by the asbestos-filled brakes at a Ford dealership she worked at in Wisconsin during the 1970s. She also may have ingested the asbestos because her husband, Michael, did brake-repair jobs at their home.

 

Michael Daly has had no complications from asbestos despite being in direct contact with asbestos brakes, said Juan Bauta, the Dalys’ attorney.

It took a jury six hours Monday to conclude the Ford Motor Co. was responsible for Daly’s condition, which is being treated by chemotherapy.

 

Read Article: Miami Herald

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Florida sues Imperial Majesty for refund of surcharge

In yet another stand against the state’s cruise industry, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Imperial Majesty Cruise Line, accusing the company of making about $4 million in the past two years by sneaking a surcharge onto its customers’ bills.

 

The Broward County cruising company, known for two-night jaunts to the Bahamas, has added fuel surcharges of $20 to $30 onto bills since late 2006 without adequately disclosing the fees to its customers, McCollum said during a news conference Wednesday.

 

Imperial Majesty either did not include information about the fees in its brochures and on its website or indicated that the charges were government taxes or fees, McCollum said.

”That’s certainly not what it was,” he said outside his Brickell Avenue office.

The lawsuit demands that Imperial Majesty refund the approximately $4 million collected through retroactive surcharges and revise its advertising practices to be upfront about all charges.

 

Read Article: Miami Herald

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

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