Health & Safety Issues in Orlando | Orlando Legal Examiner

Ambien Sleep Driving

You’ve all seen the ads for the popular sleep aid Ambien. Yet, behind this popularity is a little known fact: the sudden rise in Ambien related impaired driver arrests. Some of those arrested state that they have no recollection of driving a vehicle prior to the arrest. In some state toxicology labo

By The Legal Examiner

/ 8 Mar 2006

Truth, Not Marketing, Goal of Scientific Research

According to Harold C. Sox, MD, scientific research should be directed at truth and objectivity rather than promoting the marketing initiatives of pharmaceutical companies. In an article published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the doctor decries the use of fake scientific data to bolster sales

By The Legal Examiner

/ 7 Mar 2006

Drug Trials Promised but Unseen by FDA

The FDA has reported that 2/3 of the drugs approved by the agency remain untested and unproven. When new drugs are approved for public use, they are supposed to report the results of clinical trials to the FDA. One drug approved in 1955 has still not complied with these tests. These studies are impo

By The Legal Examiner

/ 6 Mar 2006

Drug Patch Latest to be Targeted by FDA Probe

In July 2005 it was the fentanyl patch used for chronic pain. The following November it was the Ortho Evra birth control patch after studies had shown women using the patch were exposed to 60% more estrogen than non-users. Now, the FDA is going to probe the entire drug patch industry for safety conc

By The Legal Examiner

/ 5 Mar 2006

Pharmacy Mistakes More Than a Bitter Pill to Swallow

Check out fellow Injury Board blogger Kerry Jardine’s post on pharmacy mistakes.When you get a prescription filled at your drug store, make sure the pharmacist has filled it correctly. The consequences of taking the wrong prescription can be dire or fatal depending upon the severity of the mistake.

By The Legal Examiner

/ 4 Mar 2006

Celebrex Increases Heart Attack Risk Two-Fold, According to Study

New Zealand’s Medical Research Institute has found that Celebrex users are nearly twice as likely to suffer a heart attack as those taking other arthritis drugs, commonly known as Cox-2 inhibitors. Last August, Pfizer, the manufacturer of Celebrex, put a “black box” warning on the drug yet Celebrex

By The Legal Examiner

/ 1 Mar 2006

Guidant Officials Worried About Device Defects

When Guidant Corp. came under fire last year for not revealing to doctors it’s problems with its medical device, it remained positive in its public announcements. But newly released documents show that, inside Indianapolis-based Guidant, executives were struggling to contain a mounting crisis.The re

By The Legal Examiner

/ 1 Mar 2006

Medical Device Approved in Spite of FDA Objection

According to an article in the NY Times, “A top federal medical official overruled the unanimous opinion of his scientific staff when he decided last year to approve a pacemaker-like device to treat persistent depression, a Senate committee reported Thursday.The device, the surgically implanted vagu

By The Legal Examiner

/ 20 Feb 2006

Medtronic Continued Selling Defibrillators in Spite of Failures

Medtronic Inc. continued selling flawed cardiac defibrillators for two years after learning that some of them may suddenly quit working, according to company documents filed in a California lawsuit. After Medtronic last year recalled the devices, 19,000 people had to have surgery for a replacement,

By The Legal Examiner

/ 20 Feb 2006

Kava Kava Feels Good but May Produce Harmful Consequences

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is advising consumers of the potential risk of severe liver injury associated with the use of kava-containing dietary supplements. Kava (Piper methysticum) is a plant indigenous to the islands in the South Pacific where it is commonly used to prepare a traditio

By The Legal Examiner

/ 19 Feb 2006

FDA to Put Warning on Ortho Evra

The FDA will put a new warning on the Ortho Evra birth control patch in order to warn consumers and healthcare professionals that users may be at a much greater risk of blood clots when using the patch.Dr. Daniel Shames, director of the FDA’s division of reproductive and urologic drug products, says

By The Legal Examiner

/ 19 Feb 2006

Guidant Offer to Fix Heart Stent is Inadquate

Guidant Corp.’s program to pay $2,500 to patients to replace a heart device that has had malfunctions is nowhere near sufficient to cover costs of the procedure. The offer covers only about 10% of the cost of the replacement procedure. How is this fair? How is this the right thing to do?

By The Legal Examiner

/ 17 Feb 2006