Ennis & Ennis, P.A. Blog

Seabrook Family Wakes Up To Truck Explosion

Ennislaw — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:07:40 GMT

- Bay Area Citizen

05/07/2008- It’s a situation all parents hope they’ll never have to contemplate - which kid to save from death first.

Christi Ault’s eyes fill with tears as she thinks about how close she came to that situation last Sunday, when her Ford F-150 truck spontaneously exploded into flames only an hour and a half before her three children would have been strapped into their car seats.

“It’s just horrible to think about, you know?” she said. “Who do you pick?”

The incident was terrifying enough, as the family was sound asleep in their Seabrook home last Sunday morning when the 6-year-old daughter’s bedroom began to fill with smoke billowing up from the blazing truck in the driveway.

Ault is grateful for their neighbor, who woke the family by pounding on the door, screaming that their truck was on fire. Without that wake-up call, Ault isn’t sure she would have been able to get her daughter out in time.

Ault and her husband had bought the truck just a month and a half earlier and were not aware that the 1998 truck’s cruise control switch was part of a large Ford recall - a potentially dangerous piece of information to overlook.

The previous owners, whom the Aults located through Craigslist.com, were apparently either unaware of the recall or chose not to inform the Aults about the problem. Ault is angry, but not sure the former owners are to blame, although she said a friend has received numerous letters about recalls on his Ford vehicle.

Regardless of who’s to blame, the fire has left the family with one car and no savings to buy another one, because they spent their savings on the truck to avoid going into debt.

And, Ford isn’t likely to pay for a new truck and may not even pay for the damage to the Aults’ house.

Ault spoke with David Ennis, a lawyer with Ennis and Ennis, PA, who later told The Citizen that his firm has been able to recover compensation from Ford for damaged homes and other results of the switch fires, but he said it wouldn’t happen without litigation.

Wes Sherwood, a spokesman for Ford Motor Co., said an insurance company would have to investigate the incident and determine the cause of the fire, and if it turned out to be caused by the switch under recall, Ford, would then conduct its own investigation before considering compensation.

But Ault doesn’t think Allstate, her insurance company, will even do that much since the car was paid off and had only liablity insurance.

Ford is not liable for any damages, Sherwood said, if the company can determine the owner of the vehicle received notification of the recall and did not act on it.

Sherwood said recall notices for the 1998 Ford F-150s were sent out in August 2007, after the faulty switches had been in the vehicles for nearly a decade, adding that it was a “safety recall,” but did not mention the risk of the vehicle catching fire.

Sherwood said Ford did not have any reports of that particular group of vehicles, which includes Christi Ault’s truck, catching on fire due to the bad cruise control switch, so the recall did not mention it.

Previous recalls did mention the risk of fire, he said, but only because Ford had received “confirmed reports” of those types of vehicles catching fire.

Sherwood said Ford is not aware of any confirmed cases of death or injury caused by a switch-related fire, but mentioned that Ford is facing litigation from customers over deaths and injuries they say were caused by the fires.

Ennis confirmed that, saying he has a client whose 20-year old son died while sleeping in his Ford vehicle and another client who crushed her leg jumping from a rooftop to escape a house fire caused by a vehicle parked in the garage.

Sherwood said current owners of the vehicles would have received the recall notice last August because Ford uses databases to keep tabs on who owns the vehicles.

But Ennis was skeptical that current owners are really being notified since his firm has been inundated with these cases since 2004.

“I just got three calls about these fires today, and the calls are not slowing down,” he said.

“ In the last year we’ve seen more claims.”

His personal opinion, Ennis said, is that Ford has been too slow in recalling all of the vehicles with faulty parts, indicated by the fact that Ault’s vehicle wasn’t recalled until almost ten years after it was made. Ennis said over the last year the number of Ford vehicles under recall has risen from 3.5 million to 10 million.

Ault said she won’t try to and is not even sure she could get her money back from the former owners, but she has learned something.

“I’ll never buy from a private party again, because at least with a dealership I would have someone to hold liable,” she said. “And I’ll never buy another Ford.”

Most importantly, though, Ault said she wants other Ford owners to be aware.

“I just want people to know about this problem so the same thing doesn’t happen to them, so they can get it fixed before their car explodes,” she said.

To check for open recalls on a vehicle, visit www.carfax.com, which sells full vehicle history reports, or visit www.safetyforum.com to find lists of current recalls for all products on the market.

If you have experienced problems with your Ford, Lincoln or Mercury car, SUV or truck or have experienced a Ford, Lincoln or Mercury car, SUV or truck fire contact the lawyers of Ennis & Ennis, P.A. about a Ford fire lawsuit. Ennis & Ennis, P.A. specializes personal injury and product liability cases. With offices throughout Florida and in Washington DC we are taking cases nationwide. Fill out our free case evaluation form today to find out if you are eligible for compensation

Ennis & Ennis, P.A. Supports Petition To Remove Ortho Evra Birth Control Patch From U.S. Market

Ennislaw — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:01:28 GMT

(OPENPRESS) May 12, 2008 -- Ennis & Ennis, P.A. is supporting the petition to the FDA, filed by Public Citizen, to remove the Ortho Evra Birth Control Patch from the U.S. market. Ennis & Ennis, P.A. encourages women who have used the Ortho Evra Patch and have experienced side effects including DVT, Blood Clots, Strokes or Heart Atttacks to go to the FDA's website and fill out the MedWatch form, which helps the FDA evaluate and retrieve accurate information on the actual victims of the patch. Attorney David Ennis stated: "Based on our 22 years of experience in pharmaceutical and medical device litigation, many times the problems of actual victims are under-reported to the FDA." Ennis also encourages health care providers who have prescribed, diagnosed, or treated patients using the patch to encourage these patients to complete the FDA's MedWatch form.

Ennis feels the FDA should immediately ban any new prescriptions to patients who have never used the patch in the past while the organization evaluates the Public Citizen petition. "There is no reason to put teenagers and young women who have never used the patch on a drug that may eventually be pulled from the market when there are many other, safer, alternatives for birth control in U.S." Ennis & Ennis, P.A. recommends all current users of the patch to speak with their prescribing physician in order to become better informed on the risks of using the Ortho Evra Patch and other forms of birth control.

"We have been representing victims of the patch since the FDA released their first warning to consumers in November of 2005," stated Mr. Ennis. Ennis & Ennis, P.A. will continue to offer free nationwide consultations to users of the Ortho Evra Patch who have experienced DVTs, Blood Clots, Strokes and Heart Attacks by calling our toll free number at 1-800-856-6405 or going to our Ortho Evra website at http://www.ortho-evra-side-effects.com and filling out an online form.

Trasylol Side Effects Resulting In Lawsuits

Ennislaw — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:41:10 GMT

Lawyers & Settlements

Washington, DC: The tragedy that is Trasylol and the scores of people who have died at the hands of the expensive anti-bleeding drug reads like the plot line of a bad movie. Only in this case, the villain doesn't get it in the end. At least, not yet. That payback may eventually be found in the courts of law as hundreds of lawsuits move forward.

In the meantime, we are left to marvel that sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and how the warning bells that rang out at various times during this timeline of tragedy, were ignored—until it was too late for thousands.

December 30, 1993—Aprotinin, the scientific name for Trasylol, is awarded approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to control excess bleeding in high-risk cardiac patients during surgery. It should be noted that some participants in clinical trials experienced kidney problems. Trasylol was approved anyway.

January 20, 2006—'Transfusion', a medical journal, publishes the findings of a study by Karkouti et al, which suggested an association between aprotinin and kidney problems amongst heart bypass patients.

January 26, 2006—Just six days later, the New England Journal of Medicine publishes the findings of yet another study, and this is the first time we hear the name of Dennis Mangano. The noted California-based researcher spent years studying aprotinin on behalf of a non-profit research institute, and concluded that Trasylol patients presented a 55 percent increase of heart failure and a whopping 181 per cent increase in stroke risk. Mangano's study also found that aprotinin patients were more than twice as likely to experience kidney failure, requiring dialysis.

February 8, 2006—The FDA issues a public health warning, and schedules an advisory committee meeting in seven months to vet the study findings, and decide Trasylol's ultimate fate. Unbeknownst to anyone, Trasylol manufacturer Bayer AG, headquartered in Germany, orders its own study in an attempt to verify, or disprove the findings of Mangano and Karkouti. That study is completed and delivered to Bayer in time for the advisory committee hearing.

September 21, 2006—The FDA convenes an Advisory Committee meeting to discuss Trasylol. Despite overwhelming evidence, the committee dismissed the findings of the two studies presented: Karkouti and Mangano et al, taking exception to the fact that Mangano's exhaustive effort was an observational study, and not the gold standard of a clinical trial. Based on that, the Committee voted to support the existing safety and efficacy position on Trasylol and strongly supported its continuance. The third study funded by Bayer and supporting the findings of the other two, was never presented at the hearing. The author of the Bayer study, horrified that his report was not brought forward at the Advisory Committee hearing, approached the FDA.

September 27, 2006—Bayer AG formally reveals to the FDA the existence of its own observational study, which, like the previous two, revealed the risk for stroke, congestive heart failure, kidney damage and death.

September 29, 2006—The FDA reveals publicly that Bayer had failed to disclose the study, and issues a safety warning to the medical community. Bayer explains the oversight as a regrettable human error.

October 13, 2006—Bayer suspends two employees in what appears, it has been reported, an attempt to explain and justify the oversight. Bayer suggests initially that the report was withheld because it was preliminary in nature, but later admitted that the study should have been presented to the Advisory Committee panel, and it undertook the suspension of two Bayer employees. The FDA issues a safety warning.

December 15, 2006—Trasylol product labeling is strengthened on the basis of an ongoing FDA review of Trasylol commenced at the beginning of the year. Trasylol was mandated to carry a black box warning for the potential of kidney damage, and its use limited to certain situations.

September 12, 2007—Yet another FDA Advisory Panel convenes, this time with all study material in hand. Incredibly, however, the Review Panel concludes that the benefits of aprotinin continue to outweigh the risks, and Trasylol is allowed to continue.

November 5, 2007—Trasylol is finally taken off the market after a Canadian clinical trial was halted due to an alarming death rate amongst aprotinin patients. The FDA, Health Canada as well as the German health authority combined to urge Bayer to pull Trasylol. Bayer agreed, subject to analysis of the Canadian BART findings. Dr. Dennis Mangano estimates that 1,000 lives were lost each month to Trasylol, and over 20,000 lives in the nearly two years it took to finally pull Trasylol from the market.

Lawsuits are expected to number into the thousands, as Trasylol patients and the families of those who have died litigate for pain, suffering and loss. Recently Trasylol patients have sued for financial hardship, given the cost of the drug. Trasylol came in at about $1000 per injection, vs. about $50 for alternatives.

If you or a loved one have been injured by Trasylol side effect contact the Trasylol lawyers of Ennis & Ennis, P.A. today by calling 1.800.856.6405 or visit our Trasylol website.

Jury Award 10.5 Million to Accutane Victim

David Ennis — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:57:42 GMT

The lawyers and staff of Ennis & Ennis P.A. would like to congratulate attorney Mike Hook and his staff for their tremendous verdict in the amount of $10.5 million for a 24 year old Utah woman who was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis after taking Accutane. This has been a well kept dirty secret by the manufacturer Hoffman-La Roche for many years. We are glad to see these cases come to light and hopefully the word will spread to teenagers and young adults who are still on the drug or are thinking of taking the drug. We have been working with Mike and his staff since 2003 on these cases and it has been a long hard fight. The manufacturer has stonewalled the litigants time and again and it is good to see these cases finally get to trial and let the truth come out. Mike and his team have won 3 straight trials in New Jersey state court in the amount of $2.5 million, $7.5 million and yesterdays verdict of $10.5 million. We are convinced, based on our research, that there are many more victims out there who have not correlated their illness to the drug accutane. Accutane has received much publicity for side effects including depression, suicide and birth defects. The real dark secrets lie in the correlation between accutane and IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease), Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's, Liver and Kidney damage. Ennis & Ennis, P.A. is still offering free nationwide consultations to victims of accutane by calling 1-800-856-6405 or visiting our website http://www.the-accutane-lawyer.com and filling out our free online case evaluation form.

Accutane Case Won $10.5 Million Verdict

Ennislaw — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:43:39 GMT

A New Jersey state-court jury awarded a 24-year-old woman $10.5 million in a case involving acne medication Accutane, one of 425 against Hoffman-LaRoche Inc. alleging that the drug causes inflammatory-bowel disease.Plaintiffs have won all three cases that have gone to trial so far

Kamie Kendall, a Utah hairdresser, started taking Accutane at age 12, according to David Buchanan, one of her lawyers. She was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at the age of 14, and in 2006 she had her colon removed. As a result, Mr. Buchanan says, Ms. Kendall suffers from debilitating diarrhea.

The jury awarded $10.5 million of compensatory damages plus $78,500 for medical expenses. The judge presiding over the case ruled there was insufficient evidence to allow the jury to consider punitive damages or consumer fraud.

The first case alleging that Accutane causes inflammatory-bowel disease went to trial in May 2007 and resulted in a $2.6 million award to an Alabama plaintiff. In a second case in October, a jury awarded a Florida plaintiff $7 million.
A Hoffman-LaRoche spokesman said the Nutley, N.J., company plans to appeal all three verdicts.

Since it was introduced in 1982, Accutane, which is still sold, has been taken by roughly 13 million people in the U.S. A company spokesman said in a statement that "the Accutane labeling has contained a warning about IBD for more than 20 years."

If you or a loved one have been injured as a result of Accutane Side Effects contact the Accutane lawyers of Ennis & Ennis, P.A. today for a free legal consultation. Call us toll-free at: 1-800-856-6405 or visit our Accutane side effects website and fill out our free online Accutane case evaluation form.

Welcome To The Ennis & Ennis, P.A. Blog

Ennislaw — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:21:05 GMT