The Drug manufacturing giant, Pfizer, Inc., announced a recall of nearly one million packets of birth control pills Tuesday due to a manufacturing mix-up that could put women at an increased risk of unwanted pregnancy. Reports form WRAL News say that 14 lots of Lo/Ovral-28 tablets and another 14 lots of Norgestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol tablets had placebo tablets placed in the wrong order the tablets are to be taken in.

The mix-up was discovered last year when a customer called after noticing the pills were in the wrong order. The company fixed the problem immediately. Then, in December, Pfizer contacted pharmacies asking them to pull the specific recalled lots from the shelves. The recall was announced publicly on Tuesday only after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made a request that Pfizer do so. Women who have been using affected pills are advised to begin use other forms of contraception immediately.

Experts say that the manufacturing mix-up could put the drug-maker at risk of a multi-million dollar lawsuit. An article by FOX News says the lawsuit could stand on the same grounds as several lawsuits in the past that have been won after a man’s vasectomy did not take and his partner became pregnant.

The North Carolina drug injury lawyers with HensonFuerst are here to answer any questions you may have if you have been affected by a mistake or side effect of a medication prescribed to you by a doctor.

Several young people in Raleigh, North Carolina, are learning the hard way that you don’t have to be the person behind the wheel in a fatal accident to be responsible for a wrongful death. According to WRAL News, three teens and a young adult have been charged with crimes in connection to a fatal single vehicle accident that happened earlier this month.

The accident happened on the morning of January 7th on Rainwater Road in Wake County. The driver, a 16-year-old boy, and several of his friends illegally acquired alcohol for an underage drinking party. After attending the party and drinking for several hours, the driver and the 17-year-old female victim got into his Jeep to head home. Reports from the accident show that the vehicle was traveling at 75 MPH in a 30 MPH zone when the boy lost control of the vehicle and slammed into a tree. The female victim in the passenger seat died at the scene.

In the weeks following the crash, not only has the driver of the Jeep been charged in connection with the girl’s death, but also, so have the 21-year-old man who bought the alcohol for the teens, the host of the party, and the minors who contributed money to have the alcohol purchased.

The North Carolina wrongful death lawyers with HensonFuerst may be able to help you if you have lost a loved one because of the negligence of a drunk driver. Contact an experienced attorney today.

A Fayetteville, North Carolina, hospital is at risk of losing it’s funding from Medicaid and Medicare tonight in response to the death of a mentally ill patient. Reports from ABC 13 News say that the 27-year-old patient died after being put in a chokehold by a security guard at the Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in October of last year.

Video from a surveillance camera at the hospital shows the patient being tackled to the ground by security and choked. When the patient stops resisting and is released, he lies on the ground, unconscious for nearly three minutes before any effort is made to resuscitate the man. He was later declared dead, but a criminal investigation did not begin until a coroner ruled the death a homicide.

The hospital could potentially lose as much as $23 million a month if its funding is cut.

This is not the first time the hospital has faced scrutiny. The Fayetteville Observer reports that the State Department of Health and Human Services began investigating the facility in December of last year after a cancer patient died less than an hour after being involuntarily discharged from the facility. The hospital also has numerous complaints for extremely long wait times and mistreatment of patients.

The North Carolina Medical Malpractice Attorneys with HensonFuerst would advise anyone who believes they’ve been harmed by a doctor or staff member  to immediately contact a lawyer to discuss the claim.

A powerful storm system that blew through western North Carolina Wednesday evening is being blamed for injuring at least 15 people and destroying more than a dozen buildings in two counties. According to WRAL News, the storm possibly spawned tornadoes that are believed to have touched down in Rutherford and eastern Burke Counties.

Spokesman for the Rutherford county sheriffs department, Sergeant Dwayne Wright, told reporters that the town of Ellenboro was hit the hardest. By Thursday morning, ten people had been treated for injuries, of which, two victims suffered serious harm. Wright added that at least 10 buildings had been leveled within a three-square-mile area.

The storm then moved northeast, where within minutes, the town of Icard was being pummeled with high winds and rain. Witnesses stated that they could “hear it rumbling, and knew there would be real bad damage.” Dozens were injured and nearly 75 homes suffered damage to varying degrees.

The storm skipped east before dying off in the town of Hildebrand, where reports of uprooted trees and roofs torn off buildings were piling up by Thursday morning.

Hundreds are still without power according to Burke County Fire Marshal, Mark Pitts.

While no one can be blamed for injuries that occur because of a natural disaster, insurance companies often play this to their advantage in order to pay you less for your injuries and losses. The North Carolina personal injury lawyers with HensonFuerst would advise a victim to never take a settlement from an insurance company without first consulting an attorney.

Right now in the United States, more people die from drug overdoses than from car accidents, according to new research released last month. According to WECT 6 News, the study concluded that the cause of the surge in fatal overdoses could be linked to the increased use of drugs that have potential for abuse.

The study was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) over a 30-year time period. Over the span of three decades, researchers saw an increase of six times as many drug poisoning deaths. In 1980, there were roughly 6,000 deaths associated with drug poisonings. By 2008, that number had capped out at 36,500. That same year, nine out of ten poisoning deaths were drug related, with 77 percent of them being unintentional.

These findings correlate with earlier research that showed the number one type of drug abused in the United States today are legal pharmaceuticals.

A CDC health scientist involved with the study, Dr. Chris Jones, stated that the number of prescriptions that doctors are willing to write to patients today is a major contributing factor to the problem. “Between 1999 and 2010, the sales of these drugs increased fourfold.” he added.

The Raleigh drug injury lawyers with HensonFuerst are an experienced team of attorneys dedicated to helping victims who have been injured at no fault of their own by a prescription drug. If you or someone you know has experienced a similar scenario, call us today to discuss your case.

New studies are showing that a drug once used to treat numerous types of cancer may not work. According to WRAL News, recent data presented to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) not only led to the organization pulling approval for the use of the drug Avastin® in the treatment of breast cancer, but now also in the treatment of ovarian cancer.

The drug was approved last week for use in advanced ovarian cancer patients despite the findings, but the drug’s manufacturer, Genentech, has stayed mum on whether the company will seek approval for the same in the United States.

Two studies in today’s newest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine found that the drug only slowed the cancers progression for several months and did not improve mortality rates. On top of this, patients have suffered from numerous drug side effects, including:

• Blood Clots
• Slow Wound Healing
• Severe Bleeding
• Perforations Of The Gastrointestinal Tract

If you or someone you love has suffered ill effects from drugs like Avastin®, contact the experienced team of North Carolina drug injury lawyers with HensonFuerst. They are here to help their clients in every step of the process of filing a claim to get the compensation they deserve.

This is not Bayer’s first appearance at the FDA scrutiny rodeo. In 2008, Yaz was the best-selling birth control pill in the United States, pushed by an advertising campaign said to have cost hundreds of millions of dollars. You might remember these original ads:  A group of beautiful, young women in a cool restaurant or club are talking with their friend, who happens to be a doctor. She informs her friends that Yaz is birth control, but also prevents severe premenstrual symptoms and clears up acne. As the saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  The FDA cracked down, and in 2009, Bayer was required to run a $20 million advertising campaign designed to correct its previously deceptive—and some might say irresponsible—commercial ads. Bayer’s new ads warned that nobody should take Yaz hoping that it would also prevent PMS or pimples.

This new problem is more serious.

According to an article in The New York Times, there has been a question of whether Yaz, which contains a synthetic form of progestin called drospirenone, is more likely to cause blood clots than other, more conventional contraceptive pills. In October 2011, the British Journal of Medicine published research showing that women taking Yaz or Yasmin had double the risk of blood clots, compared with women taking older contraceptives.

Currently more than 10,000 lawsuits have been filed on behalf of women who were harmed by Yaz or Yasmin…including about 100 fatalities. According to The New York Times:

In documents released recently in those lawsuits, David Kessler, a former F.D.A. commissioner working as an expert witness for the plaintiffs, said that Bayer researchers found increased reports of blood clots in women using Yasmin in the United States, compared with those using three other pills, but did not provide that information to the F.D.A. in a 2004 safety review.

“Bayer presented a selective view of the data, and that presentation obscured the potential risks associated with Yasmin,” Dr. Kessler testified. He also said the company promoted the pill for alleviating premenstrual syndrome, when it was not approved for that use.

To many experts and non-experts alike, blood clots are too great a risk. And many young women may not understand what “blood clots” really means. It sounds innocuous and minor, but the results can be devastating. If the clot lodges in the heart, it can cause a heart attack…if it lodges in the brain, it can cause a life-changing stroke. According to an article in the New York Daily News:

“I can see no real group of patients that this drug benefited over existing alternatives,” said Mark Woods of New York University School of Medicine. “Without any clear benefit, and given the potentially catastrophic risk, I voted no [to keeping the drug on the market].”

If you are a woman who has been injured after taking Yaz or Yasmin birth control pills and have questions about your rights, feel free to call the experienced attorneys of HensonFuerst. Someone is available to take your call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-4-LAWMED. If you have questions, HensonFuerst has answers.

RESOURCES

To read the article in The New York Times about the 2009 advertising correction, click here: A Birth Control Pill That Promised Too Much

To read the article in The New York Times about the blood clot risk, click here: More Detail on Risk Urged for a Contraceptive Label

To read the article in the New York Daily News, click here: Yaz and other birth control pills to get harsher labels

A wreck involving a car and two tractor-trailers in Rowland, North Carolina, has left one person dead. According to WRAL News, the accident happened Thursday around 5:00 AM, along the northbound lanes of I-95.

State Troopers say the driver of one of the tractor-trailers crashed after veering into the center of the road and over correcting. The truck then overturned and skid to a halt, blocking lanes in both directions. A car traveling in the same direction behind the truck did not have time to respond to the wreck and the two vehicles collided. Another tractor-trailer traveling southbound swerved to miss the overturned truck and ran over the passenger side of the wrecked car, killing the person in the font seat of the vehicle.

The crash affirms North Carolina’s number six spot on the top ten states with accidents involving tractor-trailers. Reports by the North Carolina Highway Patrol show that most of those accidents occur because of driver fatigue and safety/maintenance issues with the vehicles. Channel 11 News reports that in 2009, out of the 9.3 million trucks that passed through North Carolina weigh stations, 50 percent had maintenance issues that needed to be addressed. Of those, 12 percent were deemed inoperable and taken off the road immediately.

The North Carolina Truck Accident Lawyers with HensonFuerst understand the dangers that tractor-trailers can pose to drivers on highways and have experience helping victims that were involved in accidents with big rigs at no fault of their own. If you have been hurt, get in touch with us today so we can talk with you about your case.

The cycling community is frustrated today after an accident last Sunday morning in Apex, North Carolina, in which two cyclists in a group of 30 or more riders were hit and injured by a pickup truck. According to WRAL News, the collision occurred on Martha’s Chapel Road off N.C. Highway 751.

The accident happened when a Toyota pickup truck attempted to pass the cyclists and veered into the group, striking two riders. The truck immediately fled the scene. Although they came out with only minor cuts and bruises, they were hit hard enough to take the passenger side mirror off the truck.

Authorities are asking anyone with information about a silver or white Toyota pickup truck to contact State Troopers immediately.

The North Carolina Auto Accident Lawyers with HensonFuerst hope this accident will shed some light on the importance of sharing the road. Even if you think you can pass a cyclist, wait. The dangers of an accident far outweigh the benefit of arriving at your destination a few minutes earlier.

Typically, when we think of nursing home abuse cases, the first thing that comes to mind is elderly folks being neglected in retirement homes and assisted living facilities. What we tend to forget though, is that many of the same regulations in place for elderly-care facilities apply equally for the place of care our youngest family members attend.

Take for instance the recent case of a Durham, North Carolina, woman who was arrested this past Tuesday on felonious charges for running a daycare out of her home without a license. WRAL News reported that authorities acted on a tip from a concerned neighbor that the woman was still running the business after being shut down by officials a year earlier.

The daycare was closed in 2010 when Department of Health and Human Services officials made an unannounced visit only to find that the children had been moved to another house a mile down the road. Can you imagine a parent arriving to find their child is not at the house or with the person they left them with?

This time, after being tipped off the daycare was still in operation, officials returned to find eleven children in the house. The woman and her husband were charged with three counts of running a daycare facility without a license.

The North Carolina Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers with HensonFuerst want you to contact them immediately if you suspect that your loved one, young or old, is not getting the care that they deserve. We can be reached by simply filling out a free online consultation form.