A Dallas hospital under heavy scrutiny over patient safety is refusing to release a report on changes that will be made to improve patient care at the facility. According to reports from the Dallas Morning News, Parkland Memorial Hospital executives said this morning that they will not release the report because of concerns over litigation and other legal ramifications.

Last month, the hospital was forced to undergo an overhaul in their patient safety policies and procedures after the US Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services threatened to cut funding due to dozens of cases being discovered where patients were being put in “immediate jeopardy” by hospital staff and doctors.

Parkland Hospital’s chairwoman, Dr. Lauren McDonald, said that she fears the policy changes could be used against them in several pending medical malpractice cases against the hospital.

The one particular lawsuit silently being singled out involved a psychiatric patient who died in the facility last year after being pinned down and injected with a cocktail of sedatives and anti-psychotics. Federal reports found that the man’s rights and hospital standards and policies of care were repeatedly violated.

The Dallas medical malpractice lawyers with Ferrer, Poirot & Wansbrough say it is best to seek legal help if you feel you have been the victim a hospital’s negligence. The firm’s experienced team of attorneys is available 24/7 to answer your questions about your case.

With laws changing to require longer waiting periods and more training for teen drivers licenses, a growing number of teens are choosing to wait until they are older to get their license. According to reports from CW 33 News, a study from the University of Michigan found that in 2008, only 31 percent of 16-year-olds had a license as compared to 46 percent in 1983; for 18-year-olds the numbers were 65 percent in 2008, down from 80 percent in 1983.

These numbers compare two different generations with two completely different sets of laws. In 1983, a teen only needed to be 16-years-old and able to pass a driving test in order to get a license.

Now, although teens can begin a graduated licensing program at age 15, it requires extended classroom and driving hours that can take up to two years to complete. Because of the increased time commitment required, many teens today are choosing to wait to get their license at 18, when requirements are less stringent.

While many feel waiting may make help teens make wiser decisions, others feel that teens need experience on the road to become better drivers.

The Dallas car accident lawyers with Ferrer, Poirot & Wansbrough would like to hear your opinion on whether or not teens waiting to get their license will make better drivers. Tell us your thoughts on our Facebook page.

Not all drug warnings are created equally. At least that is what new research from a doctor at the University of Chicago shows. According to MedPage Today, his data confirms that the attention people pay to drug warnings from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can vary greatly.

The researcher examined 49 studies that were published over a 20-year period and conducted extensive interviews with doctors and patients to gather results on how fast and to what extent the studies’ warnings were heeded by doctors. What they found was astounding.

The first thing they noticed was that similar warnings against drugs received different responses depending on the severity of the danger. For instance, they saw that while the use of Avandia dropped after warnings of cardiovascular events, the use of long-acting beta-agonists (LABAs) without inhaled controller medications did not decrease after warnings.

They also found that warnings aimed for certain age groups spilled into other age groups. For example, after warnings for antidepressant use in children, decline in adult use followed as well.

The most disturbing discovery was that most physicians do not heed warnings about increased monitoring of patients taking certain medications. For example, glucose testing for patients on antipsychotics did not change after the FDA warned to watch for hyperlipidemia and diabetes in those patients.

The Dallas drug injury lawyers with Ferrer,Poirot & Wansbrough urge citizens to educate themselves on medications recommended to them by a doctor before taking anything. If you have been injured from taking a drug at no fault of your own, contact an experienced attorney today.

It has been discovered that several members of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee that backed the drospirenone-based birth control pills, Yaz and Yasmin, had ties to the drugs manufacturer, Bayer AG. The news was released in an article by Washington Monthly and said that four of the panel members that voted in favor of the drug at a December 8th meeting also had received money from Bayer in the past.

It was uncovered in the article that the panels chairwoman, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, had received money from Bayer for work she did in 2009 involving clinical trials of drugs containing drospirenone.

Also, three other panel members had received research funding in the thousands of dollars from the company.

Although the monetary exchanges were disclosed to the FDA and determined to have no influence over the panel members, it was determined that one panel member did present a conflict of interest. The panel member was also an author of a book that told readers to stay away from drospirenone-containing medications because of the increased risks of blood clots and deep vein thrombosis.

The Texas Yaz® drug injury lawyers with Ferrer, Poirot & Wansbrough see first-hand, on an almost daily basis, the dangers that drugs like these can present to patients. Contact us today if you have suffered from thrombosis, blood clots, heart attacks, or strokes while taking a drospirenone-containing medication.

Three people were killed in a single-vehicle crash early last Wednesday morning in Las Colinas, Texas. The accident is believed by the Irving police department, who is heading up the investigation into the crash, to be alcohol related. According to NBC 5 News, if alcohol is to blame, the bars that over served the driver could be held responsible for the accident.

The night started as a young couple from Austin, Texas, went to a Dallas Stars hockey game. After the game, they went to the Hilton Hotel bar, where they met a 41-year-old local attorney.

The attorney was in the midst of a divorce from his wife and had been living in the hotel.

The group got acquainted and by 1:00 AM, all three were seen leaving the Hilton in the attorney’s Porsche sedan. They soon arrived at a local gentleman’s club, where the driver was served one final drink. The group left by 2:45AM.

Ten minutes later, a neighbor reported hearing a sound similar to “a dumpster being smashed.” Investigators determined that speed was a contributing factor to the Porsche leaving the road and crashing into a canal.

Investigators say toxicology reports will take approximately eight to ten weeks to complete. They say if the driver was over served, the bars and bartenders may be haled accountable for the accident.

The Texas auto accident attorneys with Ferrer, Poirot & Wansbrough ask that motorists watch their speed and refrain from drinking if you are going to get behind the wheel.

More than sixty people will have their name and age placed on a website as being individuals who were arrested on DUI Charges over the New Years weekend in Tarrant County, Texas. According to NBCDFW 5 News, Assistant District Attorney Richard Alpert says that Tarrant County is placing the names on the web for the whole world to see in an effort to deter people from driving drunk. He says if people believe their reputation could be effected if they are caught, they may be less likely to drink and drive.

Over the holiday weekend, extra officers from several different departments were on patrol to help deter and catch drunk drivers. Of the sixty individuals arrested on suspicion of DUI, thirty have been charged and had their names and ages listed on the site.

The holiday weekend was a “no refusal weekend,” which allowed officers to get warrants from judges very quickly to obtain breathe and blood samples from suspected drunk drivers who refuse to submit to testing.

Opponents to the “shaming” website say that listing names and ages will not, and has not, acted as a deterrent to drunk driving. They say in the six years the program has been around, there have consistently been 5,000 to 6,000 arrests in Tarrant County each year for DUI.

The Texas DUI victim attorneys with Ferrer, Poirot & Wansbrough want to know if you think listing people’s names, ages, and possible mug shots would deter people form drinking and driving. Tell us what you think by posting to our Facebook page.

A car crash where an SUV rolled over late Monday night left one person dead and another injured. According to NBC-DFW 5 News, police say the accident occurred at around 11:30 PM at 10700 block of Stemmons Freeway, in the area where northbound Loop 12 joins northbound I-35 E.

A spokesman for the Dallas police department, Senior Cpl. Kevin Janse, stated that officers arrived on the scene to find the SUV upside down. Accident reconstruction teams were able to determine that the 2003 Chevy Tahoe struck a construction barrier for an unknown reason just before rolling. The crash ejected the 58-year-old woman driving the vehicle, who was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash. She was taken to Parkland Hospital, where she later died.

The woman’s 32-year-old son, who was a passenger in the vehicle, was also taken to Parkland to be treated for non-life threatening injuries suffered in the crash.

Police were later told the pair had been watching football nearby when the woman decided to take her son home because he had been drinking. The discovery prompted authorities to request blood tests of the deceased to determine if alcohol was in her system at the time of the crash.

The Dallas auto accident attorneys with Ferrer, Poirot and Wansbrough have decades of experience helping auto accident victims. If you’ve been injured in a car accident at no fault of your own, contact them today for a free initial consultation.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning to healthcare professionals yesterday about the drug Multaq (dronedarone) following results in a safety review that showed dramatically increased risks of cardiovascular events, including death, in patients with permanent atrial fibrillation (AF) who take the drug. According to the FDA press release, Multaq is approved for use to reduce the risk of cardiovascular hospitalization in patients with paroxysmal or persistent AF or atrial flutter (AFL).

The warning is based off two studies that were shut down before finishing after researchers noticed a 200 percent increase in the number of AF patients who died or were hospitalized while taking the drug versus those taking a placebo.

Since the information has been released, the FDA has issued the following recommendations and changes:

• Healthcare professionals should not prescribe Multaq to patients with AF who cannot or will not be converted into normal sinus rhythm (permanent AF), because Multaq doubles the rate of cardiovascular death, stroke, and heart failure in such patients.
• Healthcare professionals should monitor heart (cardiac) rhythm by electrocardiogram (ECG) at least once every three months. If the patient is in AF, Multaq should be stopped or, if clinically indicated, the patient should be cardioverted.
• Multaq is indicated to reduce hospitalization for AF in patients in sinus rhythm with a history of non-permanent AF (known as paroxysmal or persistent AF)
• Patients prescribed Multaq should receive appropriate antithrombotic therapy.

The Drug Injury Lawyers with Ferrer, Poirot, & Wansbrough encourage you to contact us if you have been injured by a medication prescribed to you by a doctor.

The 23-year-old editor of a Dallas-area fashion magazine was severely injured last week after she walked into a spinning propeller of an airplane she was exiting. According to ABC News, the woman is making a slow recovery after losing her left hand and suffering deep lacerations to the face and shoulder.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stated in their report of the incident that the woman had just exited the airplane at the Aero County Airport, 30 miles northeast of Dallas, when the accident occurred. She was attempting to walk around the front of the plane to thank the pilot and did not realize the propeller was still powering down when she walked directly into it. She lifted her hand to shield her face, and it was cut off by the spinning metal blades. Along with the loss of her hand and the numerous other cuts she suffered, the woman also received major trauma to her left eye.

A plane’s propeller is a difficult thing to see when it is in operation. That is why in August of 1978, the FAA issued Report No. FAA-AM-78-29, Conspicuity Assessment of Selected Propeller and Tail Rotor Paint Schemes. The report summarizes the evaluation of three paint schemes used to make the blades for airplane propellers and helicopter tail rotor blades more visible to the naked eye.

The Dallas Personal Injury Lawyers with Ferrer, Poirot & Wansbrough encourage those flying on small aircraft to be mindful of following safety precautions around propellers.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning several months ago regarding the dangers of surgical mesh being used to support organs in women suffering from pelvic prolapse, a condition in which organs slip down into the vagina. Doctors have also used the mesh to correct stress bladder incontinence in women.

The warning states that complications could arise from the use of the product, such as pain, bleeding, and infection. Over a two-year period, from 2008 to 2010, more than 1500 patients reported post surgery issues involving the mesh. Most often, the complications arose after the mesh failed to bond correctly to the body and came through the vaginal wall.

Even with the great risk of injury, the FDA is choosing not to pull the product completely because certain patients may still benefit from its use. For now, experts are recommending that doctors perform a more traditional prolapse surgery using only stitches instead of the mesh product.

The FDA conducted a meeting in September to determine the fate of the surgical mesh by asking patients whether it should be considered a high-risk product and are still working to decide which patients could benefit from its use.

The Texas Vaginal Mesh Failure Lawyers with Ferrer, Poirot, and Wansbrough have years of experience helping victims who have been injured because of a doctor’s mistake in surgery. Contact us today by filling out a free initial consultation form if you have been hurt.