InjuryBoard Richmond Archives

• Brain Injury Causes Later-Life Depression

  Michael Phelan | May 31, 2007 11:52 AM | 0 Comments
  Category: Head & Brain Injuries

  A study by the University of North Carolina's Center for the Study of Retired Athletes of over 2,500 retired NFL players found that the rate of clinical depression among the population of retired players is strongly correlated with the number of concussions they sustained during their careers. This study corroborates other findings regarding brain injury and later-life depression in other...

• Tainted Contact Lense Solution Recalled

  Michael Phelan | May 29, 2007 3:24 PM | 0 Comments
  Category: Defective & Dangerous Products

  Last year, an outbreak of fusarium keratitis resulted in the recall of ReNu With Moisture Loc made by Bausch & Lomb. This past weekend, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked an outbreak of acanthamoeba keratitis to AMO Complete Moisture Plus Multi-Purpose Solution, a contact lens solution made by Advanced Medical Optics of Santa Ana, California. Ancanthamoeba karatitis is...

• FDA Warned About Avandia's Risks Seven Years Ago

  Michael Phelan | May 24, 2007 12:19 PM | 0 Comments
  Category: FDA & Prescription Drugs

  Dr. John B. Buse is the chief of endocrinology at the University of North Carolina and is about to become the president of the American Diabetes Association. In 2000, Dr. Buse sent a letter to the FDA warning of the heart risks of the drug Avandia. The letter cited "a worrisome trend in cardiovascular deaths and severe adverse events" among patients using Avandia.A search of the FDA's database...

• Avandia May Increase Risk of Heart Attack

  Michael Phelan | May 22, 2007 8:56 AM | 0 Comments
  Category: FDA & Prescription Drugs

  Avandia was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1999 to treat type 2 diabetes and is used by an estimated two million people worldwide. An article published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that Avandia significantly increased the risk of heart attacks and heart-related deaths. The article prompted the FDA to issue a public safety alert advising users of...

• Frivolous Judge Hit With Ethics Complaint

  Michael Phelan | May 16, 2007 3:10 PM | 0 Comments
  Category: Miscellaneous

  Judge Roy Pearson, Jr., who filed a $65 million lawsuit against a dry cleaner for losing a pair of his pants, has brought great embarrassment to the legal profession. The profession is fighting back. The American Association for Justice, formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, filed an ethics complaint against Pearson with the D.C. Bar.

• Bush Nominee to Head CPSC Receives Payola from Manufacturers Ass'n

  Michael Phelan | May 16, 2007 2:30 PM | 0 Comments
  Category: FDA & Prescription Drugs

  Michael Baroody, the senior lobbyist at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) nominated by President Bush to lead the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), will receive a $150,000.00 payment from NAM when he takes his new government job; a job that involves enforcing consumer laws against members of the association. Sounds like payola to me. Even Baroody characterized the...

• Senate Beefs Up the FDA

  Michael Phelan | May 11, 2007 12:13 PM | 0 Comments
  Category: FDA & Prescription Drugs

  The day after Oxycontin manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, pleaded guilty to criminal charges that it fraudulently marketed Oxycontin for six years as a drug that was less prone to abuse and has fewer narcotic side effects, the U.S. Senate approved by a vote of 93-1 a landmark drug safety bill that would double the number of scientists at the FDA assigned to monitor drugs already on the market for...

• Don't Let K-Street Takeover the CPSC

  Michael Phelan | May 09, 2007 12:23 PM | 0 Comments
  Category: Defective & Dangerous Products

  President Bush's attempt to emasculate the federal agencies tasked with protecting the American people has reached a new nadir. The President nominated Michael Baroody to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). One would think the head to the CPSC would have a track record of promoting consumer product safety. For the past 13 years, Mr. Baroody has been an anti-consumer lobbyist,...

• FDA Requests Recall of ALL Shelhigh Medical Devices

  Michael Phelan | May 03, 2007 3:23 PM | 2 Comments
  Category: Defective & Dangerous Products

  On May 2, 2007, the FDA issued a formal written request to Shelhigh, Inc. to recall ALL of its medical devices remaining in the marketplace. I blogged in April about the April 17, 2007 raid by U.S. Marshals of Shelhigh's Union, N.J. plant. At the FDA's request, the Marshals seized all medical devices found at the plant because of concerns that the devices were not sterile. During the raid,...

• Virginia Jury Awards $9.25 Million for Asbestos Death

  Michael Phelan | May 01, 2007 9:32 AM | 0 Comments
  Category: Defective & Dangerous Products

  The widow of a former shipyard worker who died from exposure to asbestos while building Navy aircraft carriers was awarded $9.25 million by a Newport News, Virginia jury. The deceased worker was in daily contact with asbestos from 1963 to 1974. He retired in 1994 and was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2004. Mesothelioma can remain latent in the body for 40 years.Sixty percent of the total...