Tennessee Injury Lawyer Blog

FDA issued a public health advisory on Tuesday warning consumers to immediate stop using and discard all American Cellular Labs supplements. Many of these dangerous steroid supplements were being labeled as dietary supplements, or as containing “steroid-like” ingredients, when in fact these supplements contain synthetic steroids.

FDA officials have accused the California company of misbranding its supplements and selling unapproved steroids through these dietary supplements. The dangerous supplements include:

• TREN-Xtreme
• MASS Xtreme
• ESTRO Xtreme
• AH-89-Xtreme
• HMG Xtreme
• MMA-3 Xtreme
• VNS-9 Xtreme
• TT-40-Xtreme

The FDA had received five reports of adverse side effects, including serious liver injury and pulmonary embolism (blockage of an artery in the lung), allegedly caused by American Cellular and similar manufacturers’ products. These products appear to be popular among high school athletes whose drug-testing isn’t as sensitive as professional athletes’. Because they’re cheap and can be bought locally, they are extremely popular, despite carrying the same risks as steroids.

Contrary to popular belief, FDA officials have little oversight over dietary supplements. Nor can they recall dangerous supplements from the market.

It is still within recent memory that a company called MuscleTech produced ephedra-containing dietary supplements that may have caused strokes, heart attacks and death, and the muscle-building supplement Teston-6 was found contaminated with steroids increasing and posing risks of aggressive prostate cancer. These dangerous supplement manufacturers target our competitive youth in their marketing for body building and increased muscle mass and have no qualms with causing serious injury with their outright lies and omissions.

If you have been injured by a body-building supplement and believe you have an injury claim, please contact our Tennessee Legal Office. You can also contact us toll free at 1-800-705-2121.

Federal minimum wage (and Tennessee minimum wage) rose today from $7.25 from $6.55 an hour. This affects 30 states, including Tennessee, who either have minimum wage below the federal rate or, like Tennessee, have no minimum wage provisions of their own.

Congress during the Bush Administration set a three-stage, annual minimum wage increase in 2006. In 2007, the federal (and Tennessee) minimum wage rose to $5.85 an hour (from $5.15) and then to $6.55 in 2008. Today’s minimum wage of $7.25 is the final of the stage of the minimum wage increases. Despite these increases, minimum wage remains only 85 percent of what it was in the late 1960s when adjusted for inflation. And despite these increases and over forty hours worked, many Tennesseans are not being paid the overtime they’ve earned. (Read previous blogs on Tennessee overtime lawsuits

Today’s minimum wage increase affects an estimated 4.5 million wage workers and is predicted to reduce the savings rate and stimulate consumer spending to the tune of $5.5 billion annually. A household with a 40-hour minimum wage earner will increase its monthly income by about $120. Today’s minimum wage increase in Tennessee and across the U.S. was met with resistance by the National Small Business Association.

This $.70 increase applies only to non-exempt employees. The $7.25 minimum wage increase will not apply to Tennessee food servers and other tipped employees, who will remain at $2.13 an hour after the proposed increase to $3.28 an hour failed due to the efforts of Tennessee Reps. Campfield, Kelsey and Bell earlier this year.

Tennessee employers are required to update their federal minimum wage and hour notice postings. These minimum wage postings must be placarded in a conspicuous place to notify Tennessee employees about the FLSA minimum wage and overtime rules.

As more Tennessee businesses attempt to cut costs during this recession, I expect my employment law division of my Nashville, TN legal offices will experience a deluge of calls from Tennessee wage earners who have discovered that they have not been paid fairly, whether by time-shaving of their hours or false categorization. Check out our TN Employment law pages for more information on Tennessee employment law or contact my law offices by filling out our TN wage and hour complaint form.

Georgia generic drug manufacturer Brookstone Pharmaceuticals issued a drug recall today after FDA officials discovered potential overdose dangers and corresponding dangers for drug-related injury, such as liver injury, from a manufacturing error.

Unlike earlier manufacturing-based drug recalls Tennessee Law Blog has reported, Brookstone Pharmaceuticals of Alpharetta, Georgia did not negligently dose its pills or provide an ineffective product. Rather, in this recent drug recall, 16-ounce bulk containers of the company’s generic concentrated acetaminophen drops were inappropriately labeled, according to FDA officials. Packing on these concentrated dose pills look very similar to the regular dosage but the pills inside have far more acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol.

Acetaminophen is also found in other pain killers and cold medicines, and significant dosages can cause liver damage, including permanent injury. Serious painkillers such as Percocet and Vicodin combine acetaminophen with other pain-killing ingredients for their synergetic effects, and an estimated 100 people died every year from overdose involving acetaminophen as at least one of the ingredients.

The Georgia company had shipped 344 bottles of the concentrated drops to U.S. customers and donated 5,301 bottles to charity for international distribution.

If you or a loved one has suffered injury from a defective drug or drug manufacturer's error and would like to pursue legal action with a Georgia, Kentucky, or Tennessee injury lawyer, call the Higgins Firm at (615) 353-0930 or fill out our drug injury initial response form for a free consultation with myself or my qualified staff of injury lawyers.

Continuing hospital intensive care and an ongoing police investigation are the result of a Augusta, Georgia dog attack of a two-year-old. On July 10, after scaling the chain link fence between his and the neighbor’s house, 4 vicious dogs left the toddler with over 200 stitches and in critical condition after biting him more than 100 times.

County records show that the absentee homeowner had kept up to 15 grown dogs in her backyard in violation of county code restricting this number to 5. (Georgia dog law allows owners eight pets at their residence.) At the time of the dog attacked, six dogs were present at the residence, though only four participated in the dog attack as two dogs were in another fenced area of the house.

Reportedly, the owner of the vicious dogs is in court in a neighboring Georgia county for dogs kept at another her homes. Four leash-law violations are pending against the dogs’ owner. Authorities had previously sized 24 dogs from her Augusta, GA home, some of which were considered too dangerous for adoption.

The adventurous boy may not have scaled the four-foot high fence but been pulled over by the attacking dogs, as the boy never saw anyone climb the fence or had previously attempted the feat. Relatives of the dog-bitten child claim the neighbor’s dogs had escaped on seven different instances and found in their yard.

The boy remains at Medical College of Georgia Hospital, but the boy’s relatives are encouraged that he is moving his arms, legs, and eyes. A local veterinarian is helping officers determine whether the dogs were vaccinated.

No charges are pending related to the attack because the animals were confined to the yard.

While no criminal charges, the Augusta, GA owner of the dogs involved in the dog attack may face civil action.

If a dog bite injury in Georgia or Tennessee has put your child in the hospital or seriously affected his or her life, you may be entitled for compensation of medical bills, including cosmetic surgeries. To learn more, contact the Higgins Firm's Dog Bite Division of our Nashville, TN personal injury law offices.

It’s not a been week since I posted “Nursing Home Sexual Abuse Disturbing Trend in Tennessee, Neighboring States” on Tennessee Law Blog that national news was made again by another sexual predator lurking in a nursing home. This time, the sexual abuser was an unmonitored male nursing home resident.

In Illinois, the state Department of Public Health issued a 61-page report finding that LaSalle County Nursing Home failed to prevent a male resident from sexually abusing 10 female residents. The sexual abuse included groping of female residents' breasts, kissing them, and sexually explicit language. According to the report, the resident abuser would roam the nursing home, often exposing himself to, and preying on, female residents who couldn't speak or with dementia.

Estimates very, but the alleged nursing home sexual abuse likely began in December and may have lasted until last month when the accused sexual predator was moved to an inpatient psychiatric unit.

The report concluded the IL nursing home failed to recognize or prevent the abuse.

No criminal charges have been filed against the nursing home or resident, though fines against the caregiver are likely.

To contact the Higgins Firm about suspected TN nursing home abuse or negligent care, fill out our nursing home injury form or call our Nashville law team at 615.353.0930 or toll-free at 800.705.2121.

Yesterday, a KY nursing home nursing assistant was indicted on accounts of video voyeurism and adult abuse for recording nude video of one of the nursing home residents under her care. The western KY nursing home where this occurred was Dawson Pointe in Dawson Springs and had previously been cited by Kentucky state officials. The guilty nineteen-year-old nursing assistant recorded at least two videos on her cell phone prior to her arrest.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Sexual Abuse
Disturbing Trend in Tennessee, Neighboring States" »