Friday, December 20, 2013

Are all Doctors Trustworthy?

Are all Doctors Trustworthy?


Common sense is not that lucky_20679common, as the saying goes. The legal system is at least partly to blame. It has evolved into a cult of experts, not that the everyday world doesn’t work in much the same fashion. Many of us tend to trust the “experts” with anything that concerns us before we trust our own intuition and even personal experience. We turn to nutritionists for diet advice, magazines for style, personal trainers for physical well-being, psychologists for mental health, movie critics for advice on whether to spend ten bucks or more on the latest blockbuster film. How many of us even step outside our front doors anymore and actually  gauge the weather ourselves by feeling it to consider how to dress instead of consulting our favorite meteorologist’s predictions on the TV or iPad?
Sure, it’s great to have all this “expert” advice and help in planning our days and lives. But is there no point of diminishing returns as regards “the experts”? Do we not at some point give something up when we take all this advice from “experts”? Can we make any decisions on our own anymore? Can we use our own intuition or creative ability or imagination without consulting one expert or another?
The legal field, too, is run by experts. The court system is run by nothing if not a steady genuflection to experts. Few pharmaceutical cases can be made, for example, without the help of costly experts. It is not enough for you or someone you love to have suffered a stroke or heart attack while taking drug X. Your attorney in a drug case needs to enlist experts who can examine studies and statistics that can show that the health records of hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people were examined to arrive at the conclusion that drug X caused more problems than it solved, that its cost-benefit ratio wasn’t worth four bucks a pill, or that its risk of deadly side effects was greater than that which the drug maker revealed upon promotion of the drug.
Of all the experts on whom we most depend, doctors are probably the most important. Doctors are the No. 1 expert most of us turn to for health concerns. But are all doctors “expert”? We’ve all heard the phrase, “Trust your doctor.” Can we always trust our own doctor to make the best possible decision(s) concerning our health? Are all doctors trustworthy?
“Trust Me, I’m a Doctor” was a TV program aired on BBC. It examined the state of health care in Britain with factual reporting and satire. Dr. Phil Hammond presented the series from 1997-99.  A book by Hammond complemented the series. Doctors are not infallible, was the message, and one would be wise to learn as much about one’s healthcare as possible.
Thanks to Hammond and others, it has now become a running gag to say, “Trust me. I’m a doctor.” Josef Mengele (pictured in his Nazi uniform) was a doctor. Was he trustworthy by virtue of his title?

Dollars for Docs

Today, in the information era, you can check out Dollars for Docs atPropublica.org to see if your own doctor may have some conflicts of interest as regards his or her drug prescription choices. Money obviously poisons politics; so who’s to say it doesn’t also have some impact on a doctor’s choice of prescriptions or medical treatments?

AMA advertised Cigarettes

The official publication of the AMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) accepted cigarette ads long after the science became clear that cigarettes cause cancer. The AMA saw the science, too, but either chose to ignore it, or used cognitive dissonance to imagine it wasn’t good science. Many doctors promoted cigarettes for years when common sense might have told anyone that sucking smoke and chemicals deep into the lungs was not a good idea.
It’s worth pointing out that doctors aren’t always right. Doctors also helped promote margarine as an improvement over butter, and we all know how that turned out.
Edward Bernays, a nephew of Sigmund Freud, also helped promote cigarettes. He was very good at his job. Barnays once explained, “[Y]ou can get practically any idea accepted if doctors are in favour. The public is willing to accept it because a doctor is an authority to most people, regardless of how much he knows or doesn’t know” (Bryson 2004).
Maybe we need to think twice the next time somebody says, “Trust me. I’m a doctor.” Given that many “experts,” including doctors, are paid for their opinions and sometimes have vested interests in the opinions they put forth, we probably need to refresh a little trust in ourselves in our seemingly endless genuflection to experts, whether in the health or legal field or any other.
Trust yourself, oh ye of little faith.

If you have been injured by the advice of your doctor, schedule an appointment for a free consultation online or contact us at 508-499-3366 today.

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Tylenol Lawsuits rise as acetaminophen kills

Tylenol Lawsuits rise as acetaminophen kills


Tylenol with acetaminophen can damage your liver and kill you. Though it has been sold over the counter for pain relief for more than 50 years, so many Tylenol users have suffered major liver damage or even died after taking it that Tylenol’s manufacturer will now warn of these dangers emphatically. McNeil Consumer Healthcare will now inform users of these dangers with a big red warning label on the cap.
Even in recommended doses, acetaminophen – the primary active ingredient in Tylenol – can cause major liver damage, even liver failure and death. Acetaminophen is currently the leading cause of sudden liver failure in the U.S. Its metabolites are toxic enough to kill liver cells. Acetaminophen is so toxic, in fact, that emergency room personnel see roughly 80,000 people annually as a result of acetaminophen poisoning. Five hundred or more end up dead from acetaminophen-caused liver failure.
Meanwhile, Tylenol Lawsuits rise as more than 85 personal injury lawsuits are currently filed in federal court – in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania – against McNeil Consumer Healthcare.
AP’s Matthew Perrone wrote:  “The warning will make it explicitly clear that the over-the-counter drug contains acetaminophen, a pain-relieving ingredient that’s the nation’s leading cause of sudden liver failure. The new cap is designed to grab the attention of people who don’t read warnings that already appear in the fine print on the product’s label, according to company executives.”
“CONTAINS ACETAMINOPHEN” and “ALWAYS READ THE LABEL,” is the new legend slated to  appear on all bottles of Extra Strength Tylenol.  This “extreme” product contains more than 50 percent more acetaminophen per dose than the regular strength Tylenol. Soon, according to McNeil, regular strength Tylenol will also show the new label.
The AP adds that some 78 million people take an acetaminophen product such as Tylenol daily. Problems with Tylenol can also occur when someone is taking an additional product which also contains acetaminophen, which is contained in more than 600 over-the-counter products. Excedrin, NyQuil and Sudafed are just a few of the many popular products containing acetaminophen.
The maximum daily dose of acetaminophen is set at 4,000 milligrams daily, but some who stay within that dose still become ill or die from it. This suggests that the toxicity may be greater than imagined, or perhaps that any level of acetaminophen is toxic to some people.
PI Law Group is accepting Tylenol cases with acetaminophen injury.  Schedule your free initial consultation online or call us today at 508-499-3366.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Fosamax Femur Fractures Update

Fosamax Femur Fractures Update


The number of Fosamax cases filed in the country against Merck, the maker of Fosamax, has continued to grow. The main injures in these cases are femur fracture and osteonecrosis of the jaw. Multidistrict Litigation courts (MDLs) have been set up in N.J. and in N.Y. to handle these injuries separately.
Some 4,100 cases of people claiming femur fracture as a result of Fosamax have been filed in the N.J. MDL and in state courts. More than 1,000 of them have been filed in the Fosamax Femur Fracture MDL.
Judge Joel Pisano of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey has set May 2014 for the bellwether trial of one femur fracture case.
More than 2,500 cases alleging Femur Fractures have been filed in New Jersey state court and are pending before Judge Higbee in Atlantic County Superior Court. The next trial there is scheduled to begin in March 2014. Roughly 500 cases alleging Femur Fractures have been filed in California state court.
Merck won at least one of the Fosamax trials on federal preemption grounds, but plaintiffs have also won jury trials against Merck over Fosamax;  so this litigation will likely continue into several more trials before any sort of settlement can be reached, if one is ever reached, to bring justice to the thousands of people injured by Fosamax.