Mississippi Injury Lawyer Blog

For many, the prospect of visiting the dentist is already one that is filled with anxiety, for several reasons. However, the death of a 17 year old young woman from Maryland may lead to additional fears about the dentist. According to the Baltimore Sun, the parents of Jennifer Michelle Olenick , a high school student from Woodstock, Maryland, have filed a civil suit against the dentist who was treating Jennifer on March 28, 2011, when her pulse and oxygen levels began to drop. Jennifer subsequently passed away on April 6, after laying in a coma for several days.

Jennifer Olenick, a 17 year old high school junior who was better known by her friends as Jenny, went in to the offices of Dr. Domenick Coletti on March 28, 2011 in order to undergo a routine wisdom tooth surgery. However, Jenny's surgery turned out to be anything but routine. The Baltimore Sun reports that according to Dr. David Fowler, the state's chief medical examiner, Jenny was first given a standard dose of anesthesia by anesthesiologist Dr. Krista Michelle Isaacs during the procedure that did not "get her deep enough so she was fully anesthetized." Because of this, more anesthesia was administered by Isaacs.

According to the Baltimore Sun, at approximately 8:05 a.m., Jenny began to experience bradycardia, or a slowing of her heart rate. Next, according to medical examiner Fowler, "A little while later, the oxygen saturation in her blood started dropping." Shortly thereafter, according to the autopsy report, Jenny went into hypoxic arrest. Emergency responders were called and advanced cardiovascular life support protocol was initiated. Jenny was subsequently rushed to Howard County General Hospital and then to Johns Hopkins Hospital for more specialized care. Tragically, Jenny died at Johns Hopkins Hospital on April 6 after being in a coma for days. Jenny's autopsy found that she suffered acute hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, or damage to the brain from a lack of oxygen, and severe brain edema, or swelling of the brain tissue. These conditions are what lead to her death. However, the question is whether her death could have been avoided.

According to the lawsuit filed by Jenny's parents against her dentist and the anesthesiologist, her death most definitely could have been avoided. On November 30, 2011, Jenny's parents filed a lawsuit against Dr. Krista Michelle Isaacs, the anesthesiologist; Dr. Domenick Coletti, the oral surgeon; Central Maryland Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery PA and Baltimore Washington Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Center LLC, both Columbia practices in which Coletti is a partner; and Safe Sedation LLC, which the Maryland Board of Physicians Web site lists as Isaacs' primary practice setting. The lawsuit alleged that Isaacs and Coletti were negligent in their care of Jenny and failed to resuscitate her after her heart rate slowed to a "panic level" of 40 beats per minute and her body began losing oxygen. The suit goes on to claim that those failures led to Jenny not having a pulse when emergency responders arrived at Dr. Coletti's office, and that they directly allowed for the "massive and irreversible brain injury" that resulted in her death April 6.

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When consumers purchase and take pain relief medication, it is expected that the medication will be safe and effective. However, in an announcement made on the products website, the makers of Motrin Pain reliever, Johnson and Johnson informed consumers of a malfunction with the product. According to the web announcement, the product may not be as effective as expected under certain circumstances. Although neither Bloomberg nor Reuters have reported any products liability lawsuits s or injuries stemming from the product malfunction as of yet, both new agencies have announced news of the product malfunction.

According to Bloomberg, the maker of Motrin, Johnson and Johnson, which has been plagued by other product recalls over the last two years, recently announced that it was asking retailers to return about 12 million bottles of Motrin over concerns the painkiller may dissolve too slowly. According to a statement on its website, Johnson and Johnson's McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit said that tests of product samples showed some caplets may not dissolve as quickly as intended when near their expiration date.

Johnson and Johnson spokeswoman, Bonnie Jacobs, said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg that consumers do not have to return any bottles, but it's possible there may be "a delay in relief" after taking the drug. In light of Johnson and Johnson's announcement, it seems as if there is not a poison or contamination threat the consumers must be wary of. However, the announcement does indicate that as the pain reliever ages, it may not be as effective as advertised or anticipated, which can pose a problem for consumers who rely on the effectiveness of the product.

According to Reuters, the bottles that are the subject of Johnson and Johnson's recall were distributed in the United States, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Fiji, Belize, St. Lucia and Jamaica. Johnson and Johnson has already initiated its recall efforts in Puerto Rico and Jamaica. According to the statement released by Johnson and Johnson, "Out of an abundance of caution, we are recalling all the listed products since there is a chance they could experience a similar problem as they approach expiration."

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When parents send their children to school, it is expected that school officials will do everything in their power to ensure the protection of their children. One Tennessee mother claims that this is exactly what she expected of her local school district, but this protection was not afforded to her daughter. Christina McDonald is alleging, in a lawsuit against Sumner County Tennessee Board of Education, that the county school board is partly liable for the wrongful death of her daughter, Alexis Thompson.

Christina McDonald is filing suit against the county school board, but not for the reasons that one might think. The death of her daughter did not occur on school grounds, nor did it occur as a result of a tragic accident associated with a school function. Alexis Thompson died in an auto accident, as a passenger in a truck driven by her step father, Dusty McDonald. At the time of the accident, Dusty McDonald was intoxicated. Seeing that Alexis died as a result of an auto accident, in which her father was the driver, the question is: how is the school board liable?

In her lawsuit against the Sumner County Board of Education, Christina McDonald is alleging that the school system is responsible for her daughter's death because they allowed Alexis to leave her school with her father, who came to pick her up, visibly intoxicated. According to The Tennessean, Alexis Thompson, who was a third grader at Benny Bills Elementary School, was killed March 8 after leaving an after school program with her stepfather, Dusty McDonald. The Tennessean reports that according to authorities, Dusty McDonald went to the school after drinking all day to pick up Alexis after he realized that she had not been brought home by the bus.

After picking up Alexis, Dusty McDonald crashed his pickup truck into a tree after losing control of his truck while rounding a curve in the road. Also according to authorities, Dusty McDonald fled the scene of the auto accident on foot, leaving Alexis trapped and seriously injured in the truck. Alexis was later pronounced dead at Sumner Regional Medical Center in Gallatin, Tennessee. In September, Dusty McDonald pled guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of an accident involving a death, and a fifth offense of driving on a revoked license as a result of Alexis's death. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

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Many of us remember the anthrax attacks that began shortly after the September 11, 2001 tragedy. These attacks struck fear in the heart of many Americans because at the time the attacker was unknown, and it was speculated that Al-Queda was responsible for this biological hazard as well as for the September 11th attacks. Last month, the United States government agreed to settle a negligence and wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of the first victim of the 2001 anthrax attacks. The settlement amount agreed upon was 2.5 million dollars. According to the Washington Post, documents filed in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach, Florida, show that the Justice Department agreed to the settlement but did not admit liability in the death of Robert Stevens.

Robert Stevens, the first victim of the 2001 anthrax attacks, was a tabloid editor, who worked for American Media, publisher of the National Enquirer Sun, Globe and other tabloids. According to the New York Times, Stevens, who at the time was 62, died on October 5, 2001, just days after inhaling anthrax spores which were contained in a letter that had been delivered to his place of work. According to the Washington Post, after Stevens death, federal officials initially believed that Al-Queda was the culprit behind these biological attacks. However, the F.B.I. soon began to focus on the possibility that an American biodefense insider was behind the attacks. Four other people died and 17 others were sickened in similar letter attacks, which the FBI concluded were perpetrated by Dr. Bruce Ivins, a Fort Detrick scientist, who committed suicide after he became the subject of investigations.

The Washington Post reports that in their suit against the U.S. Government, which was filed in 2003 and initially sought 50 million dollars, Stevens widow, Maureen, his son and two daughters accused the government of negligence in his death because it engaged in the "ultra-hazardous activity" of experimenting with anthrax bacteria at Fort Detrick. Also according to the lawsuit, officials knew "that the potential harm was likely to be great, namely, the cause of human death."

According to the family's attorney, Richard D. Schuler, documents and testimony showed minimal vetting of government scientists who worked with anthrax and other pathogens, weak laboratory security and haphazard inventory controls before 2001. Mr. Schuler stated: "What we found was a horror show, basically. There was a serious potential danger to society from a biological attack as a result of either an insider or outsider getting access to these lethal organisms."

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