The FDA has ordered Pfizer Inc., maker of Chantix, to add the strong “black box” warnings – the agency’s most urgent – to this anti-smoking drug reports Forbes.com. The FDA says patients taking Chantix should be watched for serious mental health problems including suicide. The FDA will require the same…
Federal officials are warning consumers to stop using Zicam, a popular cold remedy. The reason: it could damage or destroy users’ sense of smell. The Food and Drug Administration has received 130 reports of people who lost their sense of smell after using Zicam nasal products, which include Zicam Cold…
The Coloradoan reports Larimer County commissioners have agreed to pay $225,000 to the estate of a man who died after being tasered repeatedly by sheriff’s deputies. The man died October 25, 2005, almost three weeks after his heart stopped while being arrested by deputies. The man stopped breathing during the…
Two large debt settlement companies in New York have been sued by the state Attorney General for allegedly engaging in fraudulent and deceptive business practices and false advertising. Among the problems, according to NY Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo: one company enrolled 18,000 customers in New York State during the…
An Illinois meatpacker has recalled nearly 96,000 pounds of ground-beef products after receiving reports of E. coli infections that may be linked to the beef, said the federal Agriculture Department. The meatpacker, Valley Meats LLC, distributed the beef in 10-pound to 40-pound packages in March, according to the federal agency.…
A federal jury awarded almost $1 million to a 79-year-old Vermont resident’s family on May 15, ending a lawsuit filed in 2006 against Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. The woman underwent coronary bypass surgery at the medical center in August 2005 and was readmitted two days later because she had difficulty breathing.…
In 2006, the website, Chantix Home, stated the drug “has no match among the smoking cessation drugs at present.. The site lists side effects, based on the clinical trials performed by Pfizer (the maker of Chantix) are pretty common ones such as nausea, sleep disorder, gas, constipation, headache, and loss…
Ed McMahon has settled a medical malpractice lawsuit against Cedars Sinai Medical center for an undisclosed amount reports Entertainment Tonight. The long time TV personality claims the doctors failed to correctly diagnose a broken neck he sustained in a 2007 after a fall at a friend’s house. He claims the…
Washington State’s Bellingham Herald reports Whatcom County and the state must pay $5.5 million because their negligence allowed a drunk driver to injure a Washington woman in January 2007. The jury found the county and the State Patrol were negligent in not preventing the other woman from driving drunk before…
Following reports of 46 deaths and hundreds of injuries — many from rollover accidents — sales of three Rhino off-highway recreational vehicles have been halted until free safety repairs can be made by Yamaha Motor Corp., the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced in late March. The Rhino vehicles are…