Category : Medical
image from sjm.com
St. Jude Medical, Inc. announced that it has filed a lawsuit against Volcano Corporation for patent infringement. The global medical device company says that several products distributed by Volcano have infringed on patents. The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.
In the lawsuit, St. Jude alleges that Volcano products like PrimeWire pressure guide wire products infringe on key patents used for the St. Jude Medical PressureWire technology platform that the company acquired from Radi Medical Systems AB in December 2008.
“St. Jude Medical has made significant investments in the interventional cardiology space, including the coronary assessment and more recently the coronary imaging markets,” said Frank Callaghan, president of the St. Jude Medical Cardiovascular Division. “From clinical research to important product advancements, Radi Medical Systems and now St. Jude Medical have contributed considerably to the success of this marketplace. As a company that values the innovations we bring to the marketplace, we intend to protect our intellectual property.”
The patent lawsuit follows the acquisition of LightLab Imaging, Inc. by St. Jude Medical, which is also involved in its own litigation against Volcano.
It’s interesting to note that two former St. Jude executives serve on Volcano’s board, including former Chairman and CEO Ronald Matricaria and Michael Coyle, a former president of its Cardiac Rhythm Management division.
St. Jude’s suit seeks injunctive and monetary damages.
If you own a patent, it is important that you protect your intellectual property. If you think that someone else has violated your patented ideas, it is best to speak with a patent attorney to be apprised of your rights.
(Note: This post is a continuation of yesterday’s post called “Wandering Seniors.”)
If your elderly parents have a tendency to wander, you are probably looking for different ways to keep them safe and secure. Nursing home walk-aways do occur, especially with seniors who have dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, or other conditions that cause confusion and disorientation.
There are many things that both the family and the residential caregivers can do to prevent nursing home wanderings and injuries.
A key to preventing senior wandering is knowing whether your relative has the propensity for walking off or wandering. Do they easily get bored? Are they often agitated? Do they get restless or pace? These are all signs that your loved one may be susceptible to wandering.
Nursing Home Safety and Senior Wandering Prevention
- Ensure the nursing home has warning bells or wander-prevention devices that alert staff when a door or window is opened.
- Loosely cover the door knobs to make opening more difficult for the elderly.
- Disguise doors with curtains, removable screens, or painting them the same as the walls.
- Install a pressure sensitive mat at the door of the person’s room that sounds an alarm if the person leaves the room.
- Have round-the-clock supervision.
- Do not have car keys or bus tokens readily available. Make the resident have to ask for them.
- Review the facility to ensure that all the alert mechanisms work and that staff have not propped open a door to smoke which would allow your senior access to escape from the facility.
If your parent or loved one has suffered a serious injury as a result of a senior wandering incident, consult a nursing home attorney right away! You’ll want to ask critical questions such as: how long have you been practicing law; do you have experience with senior wandering cases; how many cases have you won?
To review part 1 of this post again, click here.
Wandering seniors is a large problem for nursing homes. Wandering can occur if an elderly person gets confused or feels like walking and leaves the nursing home without the knowledge of the staff.
This can be extremely dangerous if they have dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Often, the senior doesn’t know where they are and doesn’t know how to get back to the home. Some elderly nursing home residents have died because of wandering off and suffering from the elements.
In New York, the Department of Health goes so far as to send out a letter every so often (most recently in April 2008) reminding officials at residential facilities to increase their awareness of elderly residents wandering.
The letter states that spring increases the incidence of wandering for various reasons, including nicer weather and increase of visitors to the nursing home.
Some risk factors for senior wandering include:
- The senior has been diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease
- The senior has an illness that can cause confusion
- The senior has a previous history of departing their home or another nursing home without supervision
- The senior has a propensity to roam without intention or direction
- The senior has a history of depression or a family history of depression
- The senior is not happy at the nursing home or has trouble adjusting to new surroundings
- The senior has trouble seeing or hearing
- The senior feels abandoned by their family and friends
Elderly abuse laws can be complicated and vary from state to state. It is important to speak with an attorney who specializes in walking away claims before making any hasty decisions about the care your relative has received in a nursing home.
Update: Part 2 of this blog post is available here.
Although we have had an incredible amount of engagement the last few weeks, we have not been receiving as much feedback from the #whocanisuebrand campaign on Twitter as we would have hoped.
Regardless, we do have a few responses for you to peruse. You will notice that we are not afraid to highlight the negative comments. After all, this campaign is supposed to show the “honest” thoughts of common consumers.
9swords: @whocanisue I would have to use the service to give proper feedback. Your site came up #1 in Google search for the keywords “who can i sue”.
izzy_presley: @whocanisue its the whol blame somebody else for something and sue thm for it mentality that has been ruining our country for years
izzy_presley: @whocanisue I refuse to comment any further because I don’t want to get sued
Prempro hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has sent a high proportion of women to the hospital in over a dozen years on the market, and the victims are getting restless.
Court claims began rolling in by the thousands as women in menopause and post menopause realized that their health problems were caused by Prempro’s side effects.
Manufacturer data and FDA approval had convinced doctors and patients that HRT and Prempro were safe at first. When a 2002 cancer report maintained that they were not, drug maker Wyeth took steps to make the medical community think otherwise.
Doctors kept prescribing Prempro to relieve symptoms of menopause and to reduce women’s risk of developing osteoporosis later in life. When patients did report fewer symptoms and fewer bone fractures, they could hardly deny Prempro’s effectiveness.
Many patients quit the drug following the 2002 news of Prempro side effects and the FDA’s publicized “black box” cancer warning. But for some, it was too late.
Both women on Prempro and those who had stopped HRT showed a higher incidence of heart attacks and some cancers, and a much higher rate of dementia. Lawyers are claiming that Wyeth warned consumers too lightly or too late to avoid serious injury or death.
Prempro’s side effects created victims of the patients it purported to help. Wyeth’s possible manipulation of data published in medical journals may finally prove that the drug company is liable for victims’ injuries.
If you or a loved one suffered a serious side effect or developed a health issue as a result of taking Prempro, consult an experienced personal injury or product liability attorney right away.
A personal injury lawyer can help you determine liability and get you the compensation you deserve for your pain.
The requirement to have surgery is usually an unpleasant and stressful experience. Add to that the fear of an anesthesia error and patients can have nightmares long before surgery.
Worries
Not only are pre-surgical patients worried about the health matter that is causing them to have surgery in the first place, they often worry the anesthesiologist will overdose them on the anesthesia and that they may die from this tragic error. To say that it can’t happen would be a lie.
Surgical and anesthetic errors can and do happen. Additionally, there are side effects from the use of the anesthesia that can concern a patient:
- Headache
- Allergy to the anesthesia
- Sore throat
- Many others
Medical Professionals
Doctors and anesthesiologists should spend time getting to know their patient prior to the surgical procedure. If yours doesn’t offer this time to you, ask for it. During this time they can:
- Reassure the patient about their fears
- Advise of the actual risks and complications that may be involved in the surgery
- Share why the surgery outweighs the risks of using anesthesia
- Answer any questions the patient may have
Patients can and should use pre-operative appointments to get all of their questions answered. This should include questions about what kind of anesthesia will be used and the risks involved.
Are you preparing to file a medical malpractice lawsuit? While some cases are settled quite quickly, others can extend from months to even years. By checking out these quick facts and tips, you’ll be ready to hire your medical malpractice attorney and pursue your claim.
Medical Malpractice Defined
Medical malpractice occurs when a health care provider fails to adhere to expected standards of health care practice and causes injury or death to an individual. Because more than 50% of all doctors are sued during their career, most carry professional insurance to protect them against the high costs of liability.
Medical malpractice can involve the following medical errors:
- Wrong site surgery
- Nicked nerves
- Vein damage
- Inadequate sanitation
- Problems with anesthesia administration
- Dirty or damaged equipment
- “Left behind” items stitched back into the body after surgery, such as scissors or forceps
Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Tips
If you are ready to pursue your lawsuit, here are some tips that will help:
- Find a lawyer in your area who specializes in the type of injury you incurred. Some medical malpractice attorneys deal with birth-related malpractice, while others concentrate on plastic surgery, for example.
- Bear in mind that some lawyers may reject your case. Keep on looking!
- Know that you will need to release full details of your medical records to your medical malpractice attorney.
- Be prepared to dedicate time to the resolution of your case. Many medical malpractice suits are not settled quickly.
When you are expecting, you picture a perfect birth and delivery experience. If or when that dream is shattered, you are left to pick up the pieces. In today’s litigious society, it is not uncommon for the parents to look for someone to blame when something goes wrong during the birth and delivery of their child.
Some birthing problems are the result of nature and are completely unavoidable. Others are the mistakes or negligence of the medical team entrusted with the care of the mother and baby, especially during cesarean section procedures. Pregnancy Clue writes in recent article, “Birth mistakes that do not come from the mother are often procedural errors made by the doctors. Some of these errors have severe consequences.” It is in times such as these that compensation may be ordered for the parents.
If you believe your c-section caused your child’s birth injury, it is important to understand the basics of medical malpractice by speaking with a malpractice attorney.
Visit the medical malpractice section of our library to learn more about birth injury lawsuits and liability.
Plastic Surgery isn’t something to be taken lightly. Once you start researching what can go right as well as what can go wrong, you might also want to research your options should such a complication occur under the knife.
Complications of Plastic Surgery
Plastic surgery can be risky, but do you know the exact complications that have required some patients to hire medical malpractice attorneys post-procedure?
- Numbness: It is possible that the area operated on can lose sensation either temporarily or permanently.
- Slow Healing: While all patients’ recovery times differ, it is possible that slower healing times can increase the chances of infection.
- Loose Stitches: Loose stitching can result in excess bleeding or infection.
- Aspiration: If a person vomits or produces mucus while being operated on, some fluids could enter the lungs. If this happens, the person could die if not attended to immediately.
- Airway Obstruction: Anesthetics used during the surgery could cause the airways to be blocked. The doctor may need to insert breathing tubes to assist the patient, who could experience brain damage or die.
- Blood Loss: Large amounts of blood loss could harm a patient, while excess pooled blood under the skin could result in the need for extra surgical procedures.
- Brain Damage: Breathing problems can lead to a lack of oxygen reaching the brain, in turn causing brain damage.
Learn more about the risks associated with plastic surgery procedures and what may constitute medical malpractice.
Are SSRIs Right for You?
If you or your child suffer from depression, anxiety, panic disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder, your doctor may suggest antidepressants. While there are several classes of these drugs, those most often prescribed for general depression are selective seratonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs.
The SSRI drug category has generated controversy for its potential severe side effects, including suicidal behavior and birth defects. Are you at risk for less common but more harmful side effects? Consider the trade-off between risks and benefits before you start taking these drugs.
How Is Your Health?
Some of the side effects you might experience on SSRIs are: diarrhea, constipation, nausea and weight gain. If you have another medical condition that shows similar symptoms, such as colitis or Crohn’s disease, exacerbating these problems may not be safe. Your doctor must examine your full health history before deciding to prescribe antidepressants. If your provider failed to do so and the drugs caused you injury, contact a medical malpractice or products liability lawyer.
Are You Pregnant?
Controversy is raging over the link found between depression medications and birth defects. Research trends indicate an increase in congenital heart defects in babies born to mothers who took SSRI antidepressants. Some doctors don’t consider the risk high enough to offset the benefits of the drugs. Women of child-bearing age have a higher incidence of depression than men and the general female population.
Is Your Child Depressed?
A similar issue surrounds the use of antidepressants in children. Studies found a higher risk for suicidal thinking in children who use certain formulas of SSRIs. If your doctor prescribes one for your child, consult the packaging or manufacturer’s Website for the latest FDA warnings. Discuss these risks as well as any alternative therapy options with your doctor before placing your child on the drug.
If you have questions regarding the safety of antidepressants, and may have suffered adverse side effects because of antidepressants, you should consult a products liability attorney. Get started by completing our short questionnaire.
