February 2010 Archives

The New York Daily News reports that a New Yorker is suing because he claims that a Zicam Cold Remedy Product caused him to lose his sense of smell.

Matrixx Initiatives, the makers of Zicam Cold Remedy Nasal Spray, is listed as the defendant in the lawsuit that was filed by the victim's New York injury lawyer at Manhattan Federal Court. The victim claims that after using the product from 2006 to 2009, he developed anosmia. Anosmia is the complete loss of the sense of smell, according to the Mayo Clinic. Now he has lost his sense of smell and taste. He claims that the injury is especially difficult for him because his former job as the director of operations at Art Food LLC required him to use those skills.

The lawsuit claims that Matrixx Initiatives was negligent to use zinc ions because they have been known to create anosmia since as early as 1937.

The Associated Press reports that an 88-year-old woman is suing Fairbanks Farms of New York for an E. coli infection.

The infected meat was purchased at a Shaw's grocery store in September of last year. She claims that she placed the meat in her freezer and then de-thawed and ate it in November. She claims that as a result of her eating the meat, she was hospitalized for a month.

Food Safety News reports that the plaintiff suffered from extreme dehydration, diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever. During her treatment, she developed Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome. This is a serious illness that can cause the kidneys to shut down. In some cases, it can be fatal.

The Associated Press reports that a Chicago man has filed a lawsuit against a New York company claiming that they are partially responsible for his illness.

The defendants in the lawsuit are Daniele International Inc. of Rhode Island, Wholesome Spice of New York and Mincing Overseas Spice Company of New Jersey. The plaintiff claims that the salami that he ate that was produced by these companies caused him to become sick. When he was tested by his doctor, the plaintiff claims that he "tested positive for the strain of bacteria implicated in the outbreak."

The Providence Journal reports that the salmonella outbreak caused Daniele to recall 1.2 million pounds of salami in January. The black-pepper-coated meat was linked to 230 sick people between the ages of an infant to the ripe old age of 93. These victims became ill between July 4, 2009, and January 24, 2010. Out of the 230 confirmed cases, 43 people needed to be taken to the hospital for care.

So far, the victim from Chicago and another man from Missouri are the only ones who have filed lawsuits against the companies. They are both using the same personal injury lawyer, Bill Marler.

The Associated Press reports that Anderson Cooper is being sued by his interior designer for a fall that she suffered while she was at his Greenwich Village firehouse. Mr. Cooper, the anchor of Anderson Cooper 360° on CNN, bought the former firehouse located at 84 West Third Street in New York City in 2006. He has not yet filed renovation plans with New York City, however, he had hired the 29-year-old woman to help with the designs. Mr. Cooper was planning on transforming the firehouse into a home.

The New York Post reports that the designer stepped into an uncovered hole where the fire pole used to be, and she fell 17 feet. As a result of the fall on September 22, the victim is claiming that she now suffers from severe and permanent injuries. Those injuries, however, were not described by her New York injury lawyer.

A New York injury lawyer is now representing Tyreik Bowers, the 10-year-old boy who was beaten up at his school. He claims that the real bully is the school aide who allegedly had an older student seek out the boy and pummel him.

The New York Daily News reports that Sanford Rubenstein, the family's New York injury lawyer, filed a notice to sue New York City for $2 million as a result of the boy's attack. He said, "If any school personnel committed a crime, particularly endangering the welfare of a minor, they must be held accountable."

WPIX reports that the attack in question took place after the boy got into an argument with a fourth-grade girl. The girl allegedly said something about his mother, and he threatened to hit her if she ever said it again. The reports state that after hearing the threat, a school aide, Ayodele Sandiford, told the girl to repeat what she had said. Following her comment, the boy punched the girl.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and Health Canada (HC) reports that Tiny Love Inc. is voluntarily recalling their Wind Chime Toys. Tiny Love Inc. is in New York City, while its distributor Maya Group Inc. is located in Huntington Beach, California.

There are approximately 600,000 Wind Chime Toys in the United States and an additional 200,000 in Canada. The CPSC sees these toys as potentially dangerous to children because when they are pulled apart, one side of the toy has sharp metal rods protruding from the base. They have already received five reports of infants managing to pull apart the toy. There has only been one reported case of a minor injury: a 24-month-old punctured his cheek while holding the rod-half of the toy.

There are seven different Wind Chime Toys that are being recalled:

New York injury lawyer Natascia Ayers worked with a victim of the Staten Island Ferry crash and helped that victim secure an award of over $813,000. The New York Daily News reports that her client was awarded $813,480 for the personal injuries that she suffered in the 2003 Staten Island Ferry crash.

SILive reported that the crash occurred on October 15, 2003, when the Andrew J. Barberi ferryboat collided with a maintenance pier. The accident happened close to the St. George Ferry Terminal, and it left 11 people dead and dozens injured.

The New York Daily News reported that the victim claimed she was suffering from "post-concussion brain damage." One of the lawyers who was representing the city, Kenneth Sasmor, called up a medical expert who provided testimony that went against her claim. However, the jury awarded the victim for injuries that she sustained in spite of this testimony.  The injuries sustained by the victim were in "her back, arm, neck and shoulder" areas were considered in this award amount. 

The Poughkeepsie Journal reports that a local doctor was cleared of medical malpractice claims in the case of a woman who claimed that he did not detect her breast cancer in time.

The woman's New York injury lawyer filed the $10 million dollar lawsuit against Dr. Thomas Murray, the plaintiff's gynecologist, because he failed to detect a tumor during an examination in July 2004. Dr Murray stated that the patient had not complained of breast pain or lumps. On March, 31, 2005, the patient visited another physician, Dr. Sumita Mazumdar. At this visit which was 8 and 9 months after her visit to Dr. Murray, the patient wrote on a form that she was experiencing pain in her breast.

The United Press International reports that the family of a New York woman is suing the victim's dentist for wrongful death.

The victim who suffered from cerebral palsy; went to Dr. Bruce Lish because her disease had caused some of her teeth to become rotten. On July 23, 2009, the victim underwent surgery to extract the rotten teeth when "she went into respiratory arrest, suffered brain damage and died on Oct. 14 of complications from the surgery." 

The victim's family is now suing St. Luke's Hospital in Manhattan, where the surgery was performed. They are also suing Dr. Lish for the wrongful death of their daughter. The lawsuit does not specify how much the family is seeking in damages.

Product-liability lawsuits are starting around the country concerning pain pumps.

Mayfield describes a pain pump as a small pump that is surgically placed under your skin to deliver spurts of medication directly to the afflicted area. They are most often used to deliver pain medication after a surgery.

While the pain pump is meant to be beneficial, some scientists believe that there may be a connection between the pain pumps and a serious bone condition known as chondrolysis. As the New York Times reports: "several medical studies have concluded that the likely culprit [for chondrolysis] is a pain pump, a postsurgical medical device used to deliver local anesthetics to a specific area through a plastic tube."

The New York Times reports that over 150 lawsuits have developed in response to the belief that "the manufacturers disregarded safety in their quest to expand into the orthopedic market." Some believe that the doctors are to blame for not adhering to what the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning about. In November of last year, after reviewing 35 cases in which chondrolysis developed in patients, the FDA stated:  "The FDA has not cleared any infusion devices with an indication for use in intra-articular infusion of local anesthetics." Basically, they have not approved the use of pain pumps near joints.

For some people, one of the most important days of their lives is their wedding day; and it doesn't typically involve a New York personal injury attorney. But for one couple, they claim that their special day was ruined by their celebrity wedding planner, Mr. David Tutera. Mr Tutera is the host of WETV's "My Fair Wedding" and is a high end wedding planner to the stars. The New York Post quotes the lawsuit as saying that Mr. Tutera is accused of "defrauding and intending to inflict severe emotional distress on (Chin and Choi) through his gross and irrational actions by taking advantage of their generosity and failing to fulfill his contractual obligations to plaintiffs..."

The couple, Melissa Chin and Steve Choi, claim that in addition to not showing up for the wedding in Singapore even though he was paid to, Mr. Tutera "specifically instructed certain subcontractors in Singapore to not fulfill their obligations for the wedding."