Tennessee Law Blog

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists will announce in the December issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology their opinion that pregnant women and those who plan to become pregnant should avoid taking Paxil, a common anti-depressant, because of the risk the drug poses to a developing fetus’ heart.

Paxil drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline found in a 2006 study that babies born to women who took Paxil during the first three months of their pregnancy were significantly more likely to have heart problems at birth than those born to women taking other anti-depressants or none at all. The drug has been reclassified to reflect the risk it poses to fetuses, and a warning has been put on the label. If you or a woman you care about is taking Paxil or another SSRI, such as Zoloft or Prozac, urge her to discuss the potential risks of this drug with her doctor and to seek alternative depression treatments.

In Tennessee, more people die every year from suicide than from drunk driving, homicide, or AIDS. The estimated 750 lives that suicidal depression takes every year in this state barely hints at the number of people living with depression in Tennessee and across the country. It is thus highly likely that you or someone you know is taking Paxil or a similar drug. If this, or any other prescription medication, has had a harmful effect on you or your baby, you may be able to file a claim against the manufacturer. Save your prescription bottle and contact an attorney as soon as possible.

It is up to all of us to make sure that drug manufacturers and healthcare providers are aware of these recent findings and take them into account when developing treatments for us and those we love. After all, the future of Tennessee depends on it.

A chemical plant near Boston exploded last night. Luckily, nobody died or was seriously injured, but many fires were still burning hours after the explosion, and at least twenty nearby homes were damaged beyond repair. Closer to home, employees at the Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant in East Tennessee noticed early yesterday morning that they might have a leak of radioactive cooling water inside the plant. As a protective measure, the Tennessee Valley Authority declared the possible leak an “unusual event,” the least severe federal classification for nuclear power plant problems. Concerned with the report, the superintendent of nearby Meigs Counry Schools sent his pupils home for the day. In doing so, he implemented the first nuclear-related evacuation since the 1979 accident at Three-Mile Island.

Although it was ultimately determined that this “unusual event” at the nuclear power plant was really just a miscalculation, news of the evacuation has made it everywhere from Tennessee to Australia to South Africa. Watts Bar President Mike Skaggs states in several of those news stories that there was never a danger posed to workers or community members and that the school evacuation was unnecessary. But the presence of both the school evacuation report and the Boston chemical plant explosion story in papers across the globe tells a different truth than Mr. Skaggs did: whenever you are working, learning, or living close to industries with high levels of chemical and radioactive materials, you are in a potential danger zone, and reporters all over the world are aware of this.

There are many federal regulations in place to minimize the risks associated with working and living in and near such industries, but they are not always adhered to. The most hazardous aspects of chemical and nuclear plants are the invisible effects they have inside our bodies. Invisible, that is, until cancers and other irreversible conditions take over our systems.

If you work in an industry with high levels of chemicals and/or radiation, your employer is responsible for protecting you from the associated workplace hazards. It is up to you to make sure he or she does not allow an “unusual event” to become a deadly one. If you believe that you have workplace-related health problems, do not hesitate to get the health care and legal representation you deserve.

Following years of litigation, the last two lawsuits stemming from the NHC nursing home fire have been settled. These two cases were the last of 32 originally filed. Since the beginning of the lawsuit a majority of the Court documents have been sealed.

Now that the suit is over, the court file should be opened to public review. Whenever a tragedy like this occurs it is important for the public to have as much knowledge as possible. The more we know about events, the better chances we have to prevent a similar tragedy.

In each nursing home neglect case my firm pursues, I learn how the incident occurred and how it could have been prevented. Often we find that the home did not have enough staff to care for the patients or that the staff were not trained properly. We always hope, however, that when we expose the cause of the neglect the home will adjust to avoid similar tragedies in the future.

Joseph Palanki was eleven months old when he underwent surgery to reduce scrotal swelling. Along with taking away the inflammation, the Vanderbilt University Medical Center surgeon removed 90% of the infant’s bladder. Joseph Palanki has undergone several treatments since and still cannot urinate without a catheter. Unwilling to go unremunerated for the malpractice, Joseph’s West Tennessee family sued the hospital and was awarded $16 million by a jury after a trial in May, 2005. Soon after the trial, however, Walter Kurtz, a Davidson County Circuit Court Judge, reduced the verdict to $6.5 million. The Palankis appealed, but on Monday the Court of Appeals upheld Judge Kurtz’s decision.

No amount of money could have adequately compensated that little boy for the life he will lead with only 10% of his bladder, but the original jury-awarded sum could have more easily defrayed the costs his surgeon’s mistake will incur throughout his lifetime. While it is unfortunate that the lesser award was upheld by the court, cases like this send a strong message to our health care providers that our lives, and thus doctors’ diligence, have great worth. It is up to all of us to reinforce that message by taking action any time we or someone we know has been treated carelessly by a physician.

What do cigarettes, car exhaust, tire-manufacturing plants, and burning buildings all have in common? In addition to smelling awful, the fumes they all emit contain benzene, a common industry chemical that scientists are increasingly implicating as a cause of leukemia and other deadly diseases.

It has long been known that individuals working in factories that use or produce benzene have a high risk of acquiring terminal diseases, but a recent study at the University of Cincinnati reveals a new group of uniformed men and women whose exposure to cancer-causing toxins rivals that of gas station attendants, plastic producers, and detergent manufacturers—our childhood heroes, the firefighters.

An interdisciplinary team of medical researchers at the University of Cincinnati compared cancer rates of firefighters to those of workers in other fields. This review of 32 studies revealed that there are 100% more cases of testicular cancer and 50% more cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma among firefighters than among employees of other industries, and the soot, formaldehyde, benzene, and other cancer-causing chemicals found in burning buildings are to blame.

The Nashville Fire Department, alone, employs over 1000 personnel, the majority of whom regularly take in these toxins through their skin and lungs. The results of the Cincinnati study make it clear that many of these hundreds of local workers are at risk of developing painful illnesses with poor prognoses.

It is thus imperative that our local and national fire departments develop protective equipment to minimize their employees’ contact with benzene and other harmful chemicals. By doing so, they will not only minimize the possibility of facing a workers’ compensation lawsuit, but avoid the guilt that comes along with passively promoting life-threatening conditions.

Firefighters must play a role in protecting their own health, as well; in addition to washing their skin and uniforms thoroughly and regularly, it may be up to the men and women who put themselves in the line of fire to hold their employers to the highest safety standards possible.

A young worker employed by Southern Medical Disposal, a medical waste disposal facility on Cement Plant road in Nashville, died last Thursday as a result of an on-the-job accident. The 21-year-old man slipped at work and attempted to brace his fall by grabbing onto a heavy object. Rather than helping the worker stay upright, the object fell on him. The resulting internal injuries were irreparable, and the young man died.

This Tennessee man, whose name was not mentioned in news reports, was one of almost six-thousand people who died from work-related injuries in the United States in the last year. Although he is nameless to the media, his untimely death has certainly affected the many individuals who loved and called him by name.

Six-thousand dead workers are six-thousand too many, but they are just a fraction of the 4.2 million people who are injured on the job every year in the United States. They are just a fraction of the 4.2 million individuals whose very livelihoods, sense of self, and physical abilities are forever changed and, for some, destroyed, as a result of mishaps in the workplace. Employers have a responsibility to provide workman’s compensation to each of these injured people. While some companies do honor those commitments, the confusing nature of Tennessee Workers Compensation Law allows many employers to get away with inadequately providing resources for their injured employees.

If you or someone you know has been injured on the job, do not hesitate to question the quality of your compensation. There are laws in place to protect you. This is your life we are talking about.

Last week a young man lost his life after he was served alcohol at a downtown Nashville nightclub. Bryson Maynard lost his life early Saturday morning. Accordingly to witnesses the downtown nightclub staff and management knew the boy and his friends were - and still served them. Bryson was killed in a car wreck that night.

Unfortunately, our legislature has made it difficult to hold bars and restaurants responsible for people injured consumption of alcohol. Specifically, the law declares that the consumption of any alcoholic beverage or beer rather than the furnishing of any alcoholic beverage or beer is the proximate cause of injuries inflicted upon another by an intoxicated person. This law was passed after lobbying by the liquor, restaurant and hotel industry. It places profit over people. Fortunately, the legislature did place a very limited exceptions to hold the seller responsible. Specifically, a seller can be liable if a jury of twelve (12) persons finds beyond a reasonable doubt that the sale by such person of the alcoholic beverage or beer was the proximate cause of the personal injury or death sustained and that such person:
(1) Sold the alcoholic beverage or beer to a person known to be under the age of twenty-one (21) years and such person caused the personal injury or death as the direct result of the consumption of the alcoholic beverage or beer so sold; or
(2) Sold the alcoholic beverage or beer to an obviously intoxicated person and such person caused the personal injury or death as a direct result of the consumption of the alcoholic beverage or beer so sold.

This is a hard burden to carry. It is sad that these business are given such preferential treatment and the legislature has such disregard for our safety. It is apparent that the have not suffered the loss of a child to a drunk driver. Our firm will fight for a change in this immoral law.