Louisville Personal Injury Lawyer

Documents Alleged to Show Fraud Finally Released by Allstate Insurance Company

Jennifer Moore — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:19:04 GMT

In several lawsuits pending against Allstate, including one in Lexington, Kentucky, plaintiffs have asked for documents regarding Allstate's claims practices and handling, among other areas. Allstate refused to turn over the documents. Today, a Florida Court of Appeals held that Florida's insurance regulators could stop Allstate from writing insurance in Florida until it complies with the subpoenas. After the court's ruling, Allstate released the documents.

Allstate hired a consulting firm, McKinsey & Co. to overhaul its claims-handling process. These documents are referred to as "The McKinsey documents." They are now available for public viewing at http://media.allstate.com/ categories/52/releases/4390.

Allstate Corp. on Friday released thousands of documents that have been cited by trial lawyers across the country, including in Kentucky, as a blueprint for fraud.

The release came the same day that an appeals court in Florida ruled that the state's insurance regulators can stop Allstate's companies from writing new policies in the state until it complies with subpoenas for documents.

Included in those subpoenas were the now-released "McKinsey & Co." documents, prepared by the McKinsey & Co. consulting firm to help Allstate overhaul the way it handled claims.

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation suspended Allstate from writing new policies in January because it did not supply pricing information requested in an earlier subpoena.

Hit and Run Driver Killed Woman in Louisville

Jennifer Moore — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 23:54:12 GMT

Yesterday, a woman died as a result of injuries she sustained from being struck by a vehicle in Jeffersontown. A pedestrian, Amelia Lopez, was hit by a car and thrown approximately 200 feet and landed in the middle of the road. The driver of the vehicle fled the scene. Police are investigating this accident and need information on the driver. If you have any information on the hit-and-run driver, please contact the police immediately.

Jeffersontown Police tell us 64-year-old Amelia Lopez was found in the middle of the road near the intersection of Taylorsville Road and Six Mile Lane about 1:45 a.m. The driver of the car that hit her left the scene.

According to police, the impact threw Lopez nearly 200 feet. She was taken to the hospital but later died from her injuries.

Vehicle Fire Investigation: Critical Part of Your Case

Jennifer Moore — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:12:14 GMT

Vehicle fire investigation is an expertise that requires specialized training. Among the challenges in a vehicle fire investigation is determining cause and origin from the remaining evidence in a devastating car, motorcycle or tractor trailer fire. Often, evidence has been destroyed and it is incumbent on the trained fire investigator to make determinations based on circumstantial evidence that remains in the case. The vehicle fire expert can determine cause and origin from the "footprints" that remain of a charred vehicle. Analyzing the pattern and signature of the fire, experts can determine hot spots and the likely origin. Finding an expert in the area of vehicle fires is critical to proving your case.

Qualified experts should be thoroughly familiar with NFPA 921 Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigations and with texts such as Kirk's Fire Investigation and Lee S. Cole's Investigation of Motor Vehicle Fires.

Proper vehicle inspection requires thorough review of all of the systems that pose fire safety hazards. The vehicle and the scene must be thoroughly documented. Primary and secondary incendiary sources must be determined. Attorneys investigating vehicle fires can obtain information of the same make, model and year from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or
from the Center for Auto Safety.

Jefferson County Jury Awards $3.25 Million in Vehicle Fire Case

Jennifer Moore — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:03:14 GMT

The Courier-Journal reported that a Louisville jury awarded more than $3.25 million in damages to the family of a man who died from burns sustained in a vehicle fire. Attorneys at Grossman & Moore represented the family.

For more information about the jury verdict and the facts of the vehicle fire, read the story in the Louisville paper.

Bernard Mulligan was sitting in his 1995 Buick Riviera on Nov. 6, 2004, when the engine burst into flames, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in April 2006.

The jury on Thursday found Don's Auto Clinic and its owner, Samuel T. Barrett, negligent in repairing and inspecting Mulligan's vehicle. Mulligan, 67, twice had his vehicle towed to Don's because of overheating problems and a rebuilt engine was installed, according to attorneys for Mulligan's estate.

Two days later, the engine caught fire while the car was idling. It was unclear why Mulligan did not get out of the car, though he suffered from diabetes, according to his attorneys.

Mulligan suffered burns to more than 45 percent of his body and died three days later.

Five Die in Car Wreck on I-65

Jennifer Moore — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:27:22 GMT

Tragedy struck early yesterday morning when a pick-up truck hydroplaned on I-65 and crossed the median colliding with another vehicle. A family of three was in the pick-up truck on their way to the State Capitol to participate in a 4-H Club visit. All three in the pick-up truck died as a result of the collision. Two other people died in the other vehicle.

The Kentucky State Police is investigating and it appears that the wreck was due to the heavy rain conditions.

State Trooper Todd Holder said the northbound pickup driven by David McGrath hydroplaned, crossed the median and struck the Lawsons' southbound van. An 18-wheeler driven by Michael Giles, 48, of Philadelphia, Miss., and carrying steel rolls tried to avoid the collision and nearly hit the van head-on, Holder said.
"It's just tragic," Holder said. "It was just raining so hard that nobody could see."

Actor John Ritter's Doctors Cleared in Malpractice Suit

Jennifer Moore — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 01:39:06 GMT

The family of John Ritter brought suit against his cardiologist and radiologist for medical malpractice. Actor Ritter died in 2003 of a torn aorta. A jury cleared both the cardiologist and radiologist of any negligence. The family had previously settled with eight other medical providers. The family argued that the cardiologist should have ordered a chest x-ray which may have revealed a torn aorta.

During the trial, attorneys for the families sought to show that Lee rushed to a faulty diagnosis and failed to have a chest X-ray taken that would have revealed the torn aorta, resulting in surgery that would have saved him.
Testimony showed that an X-ray was ordered as soon as Ritter arrived at the emergency room but for unknown reasons it was never done. Lee was called in later in the evening after Ritter was already diagnosed with a heart attack.
Defense testimony characterized the aortic dissection as lethal and contended that even with surgery the outcome would have been the same.
Lotysch testified he told Ritter he had calcification in three coronary arteries and should consult other doctors. But in a related finding, the jury decided that Ritter's failure to pursue that medical consultation was not a cause of his death.

How Common are Medical Mistakes?

Jennifer Moore — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:53:33 GMT

How common are medical mistakes that occur at hospitals across the U.S.? Unfortunately, more common than most of us realize. In an interview with 60 Minutes, Dennis Quaid recounted how his twins almost died due to a medical mistake. The twins almost died last November when nurses at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles mistakenly gave them an adult version of a blood thinner causing a drug overdose. Nurses mistakenly gave the adult version instead of the child version of the drug. Baxter International, the drug manufacturer, packaged the drugs in similar vials and the color and shape were very similar. After three fatalities last year, Baxter issued a safety alert and sent a new peel-off label, but did not recall the old product.

The Quaids are speaking out in hopes that more people learn how common medical mistakes are.

In their case, the nurses administered the wrong drug.

They were supposed to have been given a pediatric blood thinner called Hep-lock to flush out their IV lines and prevent blood clots. But instead, they had been given two doses of Heparin, the adult version of the drug, which is 1,000 times stronger.
We all have this inherent thing that we trust doctors and nurses, that they know what they're doing. But this mistake occurred right under our noses, that the nurse didn't bother to look at the dosage on the bottle," Dennis Quaid tells Kroft. "It was ten units that our kids are supposed to get. They got 10,000. And what it did is, it basically turned their blood to the consistency of water, where they had a complete inability to clot. And they were basically bleeding out at that point."
"There was blood oozing out of little blood draws on their feet, and things like that, you know, through band-aids," he adds.

Quaid discussed how 100,000 people a year die as a result of human, medical error ranging from misdiagnosis, medication mistakes to surgical errors.

Quaid calls it a conspiracy of silence, where doctors protect nurses, nurses protect hospitals, insurance companies protect drug manufacturers. Almost no one, he says, is aggressively trying to find ways to eliminate medical mistakes. So the Quaids are in the final stages of launching a foundation they hope will help remedy a situation that almost destroyed their lives.

Since the Quaids' incident, Baxter recalled the product.

97 Kentuckians Have Died in Car Crashes This Year

Jennifer Moore — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:02:18 GMT

In less than two months, 97 people have died as a result of automobile accidents in Kentucky. Just last week 10 people died in car wrecks. Statistics as to the causes of these wrecks have not been released yet. Alcohol may have been a factor in one wreck. At this time of year, with the weather changing so much, it is even more important to be careful on the road. Be aware of freezing conditions as roads may appear to be fine, but areas may still have ice on them especially bridges and underpasses.

The wrecks, from Feb. 18 through Feb. 24, included a double fatality in Laurel County on Ky. 80 East and single fatalities in Butler, Christian, Grant, Jefferson, Leslie, Ohio, Warren and Washington counties.

If you or your family member has been injured in an automobile accident, you may need to consult an attorney. The attorneys at Grossman & Moore have over 30 years combined experience in the areas of automobile and truck accidents.

Fatal Car Wreck

Jennifer Moore — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 11:47:08 GMT

A woman died from multiple injuries sustained in an automobile accident on the Watterson Expressway in Louisville, Kentucky on Friday. Two semi tractor-trailers were also involved in the fatal crash. According to witnesses, she may have lost control of her vehicle and then was clipped by a tractor-trailer and subsequently hit by another when her vehicle ended up in its path.

Witnesses told police that Jenkins appeared to lose control of her vehicle and swerve to one side, where she was clipped by a tractor-trailer.
The impact sent her into the path of a second tractor-trailer, which crashed into her car and careened off the roadway, knocking down a concrete sound barrier on the side of the expressway, Russell said yesterday.
Jenkins was taken to University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m., Taylor said.
The driver of the second tractor-trailer was taken to University with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening.

Trasylol Linked to Thousands of Deaths(2)

Jennifer Moore — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 10:50:57 GMT

60 Minutes recently reported that the drug, Trasylol, may be linked to the death of thousands of patients. Trasylol had been on the market for 14 years and was made by Bayer. Estimates show that worldwide over four and a half million people have been given the drug -- about a third of them were Americans. Trasylol was given in the operating room to control bleeding. Bayer aggressively marketed the drug and Trasylol was being used in about 1/3 of all cardiac bypass operations. Trasylol is now off the market, but can still be used in special cases during surgery.

Two studies confirmed that Trasylol causes an increased risk of death and kidney damage compared to alternative medicines or taking no medicine at all. The stories were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

One study showed elevated risks of kidney damage, including dialysis, heart attack and stroke. According to the 60 minutes report, the delay in taking the drug, Trasylol, off the market may have cost 22,000 lives. The physician behind the study, Dr. Dennis Mangano, estimates that as many as 1,000 people per month died as a result of the use of Trayslol during coronary bypass surgery from the publication of his article in January, 2006 until the drug's withdrawal in November of 2007.

Trasylol is an antifibrinolytic agent used during cardiac surgery to reduce the risk of blood transfusions. However, two alternatives exist, which are substantially less expensive than Trasylol. According to the two most recent articles and Dr. Mangano's study, these alternatives are equally effective in reducing the risk of needing blood transfusions due to blood loss and present none of the health risks associated with Trasylol.

...there had been concern about the drug as far back as the early 1980's. It was then, in Bayer's hometown, that Dr. Juergen Fischer, director of the Institute of Experimental Medicine at the University of Cologne, found severe kidney damage in animals given Trasylol. He told Bayer, but he was surprised by the drug company's reaction.
"I felt that Bayer wasn't interested to examine these side effects," Fischer says.
Soon, the same side effects were being seen in humans in America.
"The most common problem we saw was renal failure. That is, that kidneys did not function properly after surgery," says the Missouri Baptist Medical Center's Dr. Nicholas Kouchoukos, one of this country's top heart surgeons.
In 1992, he conducted a small study, not funded by Bayer, in which Trasylol was given to 20 patients.
"Thirteen of these patients had problems with kidney function after the procedure," Kouchoukos says.