WRONGFUL DEATH SUCCESSES
We represented the family of Robert Althage who died because of St. Louis based KV Pharmaceuticals and Ethex Corporation’s failure to put the right amount of morphine in their morphine sulfate tablets. These drugs were recalled by KV Pharmaceuticals and Ethex and both of these companies almost went out of business. They were subjected to fines and federal investigation for their lack of safe drug production. They basically made over sized morphine sulfate tablets and then distributed them without advising customers. The tragedy in this case was that Mr. Althage had a back problem, filled a morphine sulfate prescription prescribed by his primary doctor, took five of the pills over two days as directed by the physician and as labeled on the prescription bottle, and died of morphine intoxication. This was a tragedy and a surprise to his family. It is really unfortunate that the family received a notice from the drug manufacturer and Walgreens that the morphine/sulfate may have been contaminated a month after he died. When they received this later they were shocked. We successfully settled this case for a large sum that we cannot disclose because the drug manufacturer required confidentiality as part of their settlement.
We represented the daughter of Sonja Douglas. She was taking Fentaynl prescribed by Janssen Pharmaceuticals pursuant to doctor’s orders Fentaynl is a highly effective and toxic pain reliever that is put in patches and stuck to the skin and administered to the person trans dermally. However, Janssen has had problems (it did not disclose to its patients) where in the providing of the drug through the skin too much Fentanyl can be provided to a person. Unfortunately, Alfredda Allen died of Fentanyl intoxication. We did extensive work on this case, hiring the toxicologist as our expert, getting medical records and bills and filing suit and prosecuting this case in the City of St. Louis. We did discovery and pushed the manufacturer aggressively. We were able to settle this case for a large confidential amount which, unfortunately still will not bring her back. However, we hope that these funds will enable her daughter and grandchildren of future generations to live a more comfortable life and family remember her.
We settled Susan Schmidt’s case while picking the jury on the first day of trial. This came as challenging because Susan had committed suicide while on suicide watch at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center. The physician had prescribed her lethal doses of Fentanyl and a Fentanyl patch on her arm, despite believing she was an imminent suicide threat. We believe this to be negligent and had expert testimony to that effect. The nurses and staff at St. John’s had failed to conduct adequate safety checks on Susan which enabled her to consume the Fentanyl and expire. This case settled for a confidential sum.
We recently settled the case for Peccola Tippett who was dropped and sustained injuries at a local nursing home. Peccola was older (in her eighties) and had significant health issues. However, she should not have been dropped and was. This caused a closed head injury. Like with any older person suffering such an injury, she was more susceptible to pneumonia and other results of this type of injury, and succumbed to them unfortunately. This case settled for a confidential sum against both the physician and the hospital.
We represented the family of a woman, Katherine Bendyke. Ms. Bendyke should have been diagnosed with cancer and her primary doctor failed to make the correct diagnosis and treat her for her cancer. This caused her to significantly lose her chance to survive this, and she ultimately did not. Lost chance of survival case was maintained instead of a straight wrongful death case because there are chances with any cancer that the person will die there from. So the failure to diagnose and treat cancer that reduces the Plaintiff’s likelihood of success which is the basis of a lost chance of survival claim. We were able to settle this case for a confidential sum.
We currently represent the children of a family of a woman who died of carbon monoxide poisoning in her apartment. In that case, the venting for a heater was not properly vented and carbon monoxide leaked from it to go into the premises resulting in a tragic death that could have been prevented. We hope to obtain a successful result in this case.
We represented the wife and family of Steven Jones, a gentlemen who went to Barnes Hospital because he was having chest pains and associated symptoms. They failed to do appropriate studies to diagnose him. He did not have a heart problem but rather a condition called a dissecting aortic aneurysm which occurs when the aorta splits and causes internal bleeding and fairly rapid death. Unfortunately and tragically for Mr. Jones, he died within 48 hours of being discharged from Barnes. Barnes should have done the appropriate studies to assess diagnose this dissecting aortic aneurysm and done immediate surgical intervention to address the problem. We settled this claim for a confidential amount after litigating it.
