All too often, people who are badly injured in automobile accidents are injured by uninsured drivers or drivers with limited insurance coverage. In Oregon, accident victims are surprised to learn that their medical bills and lost wages  may far exceed the available insurance limits and find that they have no method of paying for out of pocket expenses even though the automobile collision was not their fault. Worse yet, some accident victims learn that the other driver was not insured and has no method of compensating the injured person.

Sixty two people are now suspected of dying from use of Heparin. The Food and Drug Administration is analyzing the heparin deaths.

It has not been established how the additive, oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, ended up in heparin. The material is less expensive to produce than the actual drug which raises concerns of involvement of counterfeiters.

Due to the deaths lawsuits will likely be filed against Baxter and the other manufacturers involved.

* FDA on expanded recall

The FDA reported that additional patient deaths may be linked to Heparin, the blood thinner, so Baxter International Inc. is recalling the drug (the remaining lots of single and multi-dose injection and it will recall HEP-LOCK products).

In February, Baxter recalled nine lots of heparin multi-dose after the drug’s use was linked to four deaths and hundreds of allergic reactions.

Now 17 other deaths are being investigated because of a link to heparin. The FDA is cautioning against immediately linking the deaths to Heparin since many of the patients were already sick so a definitive cause of death has not been established.

A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine (January 14, 2008) found that many doctors are aware of medical errors but are not reporting the medical errors.   The study was of 338 doctors from teaching hospitals across the US.

“The most important message seems to be that there is a gap between physicians’ desire to report errors to improve performance over time and reporting of errors,” said study author Dr. Lauris Kaldjian, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.

The study also found that doctors who reported minor medical errors in the past said they were more likely to report any new errors.

Portland, Oregon attorney, John Coletti, recently settled a claim against Union Pacific Railroad for a railroad worker who suffered an amputation when his foot was crushed between 2 rail cars. The claim was filed in Portland, Oregon’s Multnomah County Courthouse.  The injured worker has undergone several surgeries but was able to return to work as an engineer.

The lawyers at Paulson Coletti are experienced at representing people injured while working in the railroad industry. If you have a potential case which you would like to discuss, please contact us.

In June 2006, Jane Paulson obtained a jury verdict for her client for $600,000 — the full amount she asked the jury for. Our client’s lingual nerve was injured when Willamette Dental had a periodontist remove his wisdom teeth. Due to the injury our client had numbness on 1/2 of his tongue, no sensation to pressure, no ability to distinguish hot or cold, no taste on 1/2 of his tongue and he had burning pain in the tongue at times.