Philadelphia Injury Lawyer Blog

When pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson recalled a laundry list of the most popular children's liquid pain and allergy medicines on April 30, frightened Philadelphia parents were told that generic substitutes for children's Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl were safe to use. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reassured Philadelphia parents that the drug recall affected only over-the-counter children's medicines manufactured by McNeil Consumer Healthcare for Johnson & Johnson. The federal agency said Philadelphia parents could safely substitute generic alternatives sold by pharmacies, grocery stores and discount chains for the recalled brand-name drugs. Apparently, the FDA was wrong.

This week, Perrigo, the country's largest maker of generic drugs, received a warning from the FDA citing significant manufacturing violations. Metal shavings, one of the dangerous contaminants found in recalled children's Tylenol and Benadryl, were discovered in ibuprofen tablets produced at Perrigo's Michigan plant. Fortunately, this time the defective drug was recalled before reaching consumers. Perrigo supplies generic equivalent drugs to many of the nation's biggest pharmacy chains, including Walgreens and CVS. While the FDA's warning letter did not specifically mention children's medicines, parents and Philadelphia personal injury attorneys are understandably concerned that contaminants found in one of the company's products may also be contained in other medicines manufactured at the firm's Michigan plant.

Consumer advocates are pushing the FDA to institute stricter pre-market quality control measures to insure that defective medicines do not reach consumers. Today, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hear testimony by Johnson & Johnson and FDA officials on what is becoming a disturbingly more frequent problem. The House committee is expected to investigate the cause of drug manufacturing defects and evaluate the response of federal regulators.

As an experienced construction accident lawyer in Philadelphia, I know firsthand how devastating a construction accident or work injury can be. Coal mining accidents and injuries have been in the news recently. According to the Energy Information Administration, Annual Coal Report of 2009, Pennsylvania was ranked fourth for coal production in the United States, producing 5.6% of the United States' coal. Coal mining accidents and injuries in Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia area is a great concern.

Yesterday, it was reported that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has suspended the mining permit of a nearly two-century-old eastern Pennsylvania company, Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co. of Pottsville. According to the Pocono Record Newspaper, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection accuses the coal company of illegal mining practices, violating water quality standards and failing to reclaim mined lands. These types of practices could cause these Philadelphia suburban coal workers serious accidents and injuries. Many times Pennsylvania workers' compensation benefits are not enough to provide these injured workers sufficient money and medical care. Plus, the accident victim may not qualify for Pennsylvania unemployment compensation.

A congressional hearing into the cause of the fatal Massey Energy Co. mine explosion that killed 29 miners in Beckley, West Virginia last month has revealed that not only did the company regularly violate safety rules, it pressured employees to hide safety violations from federal inspectors. Family members of those who died in the country's worst mining disaster in four decades testified that Massey threatened workers who raised safety issues and ordered workers to direct inspectors' attention away from safety problems during mine inspections. It's a cautionary tale for Philadelphia construction workers who work in hazardous settings every day.

Every year thousands of construction workers are killed or suffer severe personal injuries in construction site accidents. Construction workers rely on their employers to provide as safe a work environment as possible, including adhering to all safety regulations, encouraging safe work practices and maintaining construction equipment in good repair. Even when both the construction company and its workers exercise safety precautions, construction accidents can occur.

Last October a Philadelphia construction worker, James Wilson, was killed on a Center City Philadelphia job site when a construction lift collapsed. Two lifts were being used to inspect masonry on the First Presbyterian Church when the wheel of the lift Wilson was operating crashed through the lid of a sidewalk utility box. The lift overbalanced and fell, tearing through an adjacent apartment building and raining bricks and debris onto the street below. Wilson was killed and several drivers suffered personal injuries when debris struck their vehicles. The construction foreman said Wilson had been one of the company's most safety conscious employees.

When a Philadelphia construction accident occurs, quickly contacting a Philadelphia personal injury lawyer allows an experienced construction accident attorney to investigate physical evidence and safety issues and interview eyewitnesses promptly to protect your legal rights.

Yesterday, Wal-Marts in Philadelphia and across the country started clearing their shelves of Miley Cyrus brand jewelry. The metal necklaces and bracelets were found to contain high levels of the toxic substance cadmium in laboratory tests performed for the Associated Press. A joint statement issued by Wal-Mart, Cyrus and jewelry designer Max Azria said that although the jewelry was not marketed specifically to children, precautions were being taken because young fans of the Hanna Montana pop star could purchase the jewelry or receive it as a gift. While cadmium jewelry is not known to be toxic when worn, it presents a significant personal injury danger if sucked on or bitten, common behaviors in young children and a common nervous habit among elementary and middle school-aged children.

This is the latest of several cadmium scares to worry Philadelphia parents since January when the Associated Press first exposed the potential personal injury risk associated with children's jewelry manufactured in China. Laboratory tests have revealed high levels of the toxic metal cadmium in the metal chains and charms of children's jewelry made in China for sale in Philadelphia and across the U.S. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recently began testing for cadmium and has recalled several children's jewelry products sold at Wal-Mart, Claire's and other retailers. Some recalled jewelry, including a popular Best Friends charm bracelet sold exclusively at Claire's, was found to be 91% cadmium.

A known carcinogen, extended exposure to cadmium can cause serious personal injuries in young children, including kidney failure, brain development problems and bone damage. Philadelphia personal injury attorneys recommend parents remove suspicious metal jewelry from their children's possession. If your child becomes ill or you notice behavioral changes, seek medical attention and contact a Philadelphia personal injury attorney for a free case evaluation.

From a Philadelphia Injury Lawyer perspective, injuries to children can be very devastating. A child's toy dart game that was sold between September 2005 and January 2009 by Family Dollar stores caused the death of two children, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said in issuing a recent warning on its website. Two young boys, a 9-year-old in Chicago and a 10-year-old in Milwaukee, suffocated to death while playing with the Auto Fire target set. In separate incidents, both boys were asphyxiated when the colorful 1-inch darts lodged in their throats. The darts were designed to be shot from plastic toy guns at a target board. In issuing a recall of 1.8 million Auto Fire dart-gun toys, the Consumer Product Safety Commission urged Philadelphia parents to immediately discard the toys.

With summer coming, children will soon be out of school which means more time for play. When parents purchase toys for their children they should be able to anticipate a summer full of fun, not tragedy. Philadelphia parents who purchase age-appropriate toys should be able to rely on manufacturers' and distributors' packaging and marketing. Toys marked as appropriate for children of a certain age should not present a personal injury risk or possibility of wrongful death to children in that age group and older who play with them.

Tragically, too often hazardous toys are not removed from the market until after several children suffer serious personal injuries or die. Often Philadelphia personal injury lawyers ring the first warning bell when they pursue legal damages for victims injured by a toy or for their families when a child dies. Money talks. When corporations refuse to act on consumer complaints about their products, the cost of personal injury lawsuits often gains their attention and forces them to initiate proper safety measures.

A Philadelphia commuter train operated by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority collided with a car trapped between the crossing gates in the East Falls area of Philadelphia last week. The driver of the car suffered serious personal injuries in the Philadelphia railroad accident and was rushed to the hospital. Even though eyewitnesses report that the train was moving slowly as it approached a nearby station, the force of the Philadelphia railroad accident overturned the trapped auto, causing irreparable damage to the crushed car. No one on the train was injured and most passengers did not realize there had been a collision. Philadelphia police are investigating. It is unclear how the car became trapped between the railroad gates.

Hundreds of victims die in railroad accidents every year and thousands more suffer severe injuries that often result in lifelong disability. Railroads are responsible not only for maintaining safe trains and operating trains in a safe manner, but with ensuring the safety of all railroad tracks, roadway and pedestrian crossings, platforms and steps, railroad bridges and stations. Installation and maintenance of crossing lights, gates and warning signs are also the responsibility of railroad companies. When railroad gates or lights malfunction, vehicles can become trapped in the path of an oncoming train. No car or truck is a match for the destructive power of a moving train.

Personal injuries suffered by Philadelphia railroad accident victims are usually catastrophic. Victims and their families may be entitled to recover damages for hospital and medical expenses, lost earnings, permanent physical disability, emotional distress, grief and emotional suffering when death occurs, damage or destruction of property, physical pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life. Railroad accident claims are complicated to litigate. Multiple railroad companies, insurance firms and municipalities are usually involved. A Philadelphia personal injury attorney with proven expertise litigating railroad accidents can cut through the red tape and protect your rights.

A pain pump designed to alleviate pain may be the cause of serious chronic pain suffered by athletes and active adults in Philadelphia and across the country, charges a defective product liability lawsuit. Implanted in the knee by orthopedic surgeons to control pain following anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery, pain pumps manufactured by Breg, Inc., a California medical device maker, were never approved for use in knees or joints by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), despite being marketed for that purpose. Philadelphia surgeons estimate that thousands of orthopedic surgeons across the country have used Berg and similar pain pumps in joint surgery with most patients achieving full recovery. However, for a number of knee surgery patients, recovery has been illusive. These former women athletes report chronic, constant joint pain that limits their ability to walk comfortably or sleep through the night without being awakened by severe pain.

Last November the FDA issued a warning to doctors citing 35 reports of chondrolysis and intimating a possible association with pain pumps used in orthopedic surgery. The most severe cases of cartilage destruction occurred in shoulder surgeries. In all 35 incidents, healthy young adults experienced debilitating cartilage destruction in the joint following orthopedic surgery and implantation of a pain pump. While the FDA noted that the cause of chondrolysis had not been proven, the agency did specify that pain pump medical devices had not been approved for use in joints.

Five Midwestern women in their 20s, former college athletes, have filed personal injury lawsuits against Berg, charging the pain pump manufacturer with product liability and medical malpractice issues, including misleading marketing. One Ohio orthopedic surgeon who uses pain pumps told a reporter that doctors don't commonly read FDA approvals but rely on sales representatives for product information.

If you have had a pain pump implanted during joint surgery and suffer chronic pain, talk to an experienced Philadelphia personal injury attorney about your rights.