The Cochran Firm Legal Blog

Usually, prescription medications are miracles of modern science. Over the years, however, many drugs have harmed instead of helped those who were prescribed some medications although they were taken as directed by the pharmaceutical manufacturer.

Drugs for arthritis, for lowering cholesterol levels, diet drugs, anti-depressants, vaccines and oral contraceptives are only a few of the categories of prescription medications that have been responsible for injuries and deaths perpetrated on an unsuspecting public. Defective drugs have caused liver and kidney damage, heart damage, pulmonary dysfunction, stroke and heart attacks.

The law cannot turn back the clock and undo the harm that was done, but the law can help victims of defective drugs and their families recover damages to help cover the financial costs incurred as a result of their injuries.

The defective drug attorneys at The Cochran Firm have many years experience in product liability litigation and a well-deserved reputation for the successful litigation and negotiation of claims against drug manufacturers because our top priority is the welfare of our clients.

If you live in the Los Angeles, California area and you or someone you love has been the victim of a defective drug, please contact the defective drug attorneys at The Cochran Firm today to schedule an evaluation and investigation of the facts of your case so you can obtain the financial compensation you deserve.

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When a person dies as a result of the negligence or misconduct of another individual, that death is legally considered to be a wrongful death. A wrongful death entitles the deceased’s survivors and beneficiaries to be financially compensated for their losses.

Though no amount of money can replace the loss of a loved one, the legal system has only this one recourse to bring justice and accountability to the victim’s family and that is the assessing of monetary damages on the responsible party or parties.

The laws governing wrongful death claims are very complex, but the wrongful death attorneys at The Cochran Firm have years of experience and knowledge to our credit in handling these complicated cases. We understand the devastation a wrongful death can inflict on a family because we have seen firsthand the suffering these acts of negligence have caused to others.

You are entitled to be compensated for medical, funeral and burial expenses, the pain and suffering of the victim prior to their death, the loss of financial support for the survivors and possible future earning potential. Our attorneys will evaluate the scope of your loss and guide you through the procedures to obtain justice in the loss of your loved one.

If you live in the Los Angeles, California area, please contact the wrongful death attorneys at The Cochran Firm today to schedule a confidential consultation at no cost to you to evaluate your claim and begin the process of assessing accountability and justice for your family.

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Train travel is thought to be safer than plane or automobile travel by many people, especially those who are afraid to fly and think highways are dangerous places. The record high gasoline prices in California are causing the residents of the Los Angeles area to consider train travel as their primary mode of transportation.

Unfortunately, train accidents are more common than we are led to believe and are caused by driver distraction, excessive speed, lack of adequate training and equipment failures. In the state of California, over 48% of all train accidents are caused by human error.

A train accident can result in catastrophic injuries such as, traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries that can lead to paralysis, amputations, burns, broken bones and wrongful death.

If you have been injured in a train accident in the Los Angeles area, you may be entitled to substantial financial compensation from those responsible for your injuries. The Los Angeles train accident attorneys at The Cochran Firm will investigate the circumstances of your train accident and assist you in recovering financial compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, rehabilitation costs and any other accident related expenses you may incur.

Please contact the Los Angeles, California office of The Cochran Firm today if you or someone you love has been injured in a train accident to protect your legal rights and hold those responsible for your injuries legally and financially accountable.

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Every time you go to a store you take your life in your own hands. Does that sound like a true and rational statement? What if you went shopping knowing a few items in every store could cause you serious harm, but you did not know which ones?

That is exactly what happens every day in the United States as millions of Americans buy products and bring them into their homes, a sort of consumer- based game of Russian roulette. Most products are tested by their manufacturers, but in some cases dangerous flaws are either allowed to remain or go undetected until it is too late.

Defective or dangerous consumer products cause devastating injuries and deaths to thousands of unsuspecting consumers every year. Defective and dangerous products cause severe burns, brain injuries, paralysis, lost limbs or debilitating illnesses and even deaths. The parties responsible must be held legally culpable and financially liable for the damages they inflict on an unsuspecting public.

Some typical defective consumer products have included food items, toothpaste, toys, household appliances, automobiles, airbags, tires, cribs, strollers, pet foods, smoke detectors, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, flammable fabrics, the list is endless.

If you or someone you love has been injured by the use of a defective consumer product, please contact the Los Angeles, California office of The Cochran Firm today to learn about your legal rights and how an experienced product liability attorney can get you the financial compensation you deserve.

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Many patients sustain serious injuries and need support, physical, emotional and financial, for the remainder of their lives due to surgical medical malpractice. Families and survivors whose loved ones have died as a result of surgical medical malpractice have emotional and financial needs that have to be met as well.

Many instances of surgical medical malpractice occur as a result of poor post-operative care, including the failure to recognize a complication from the surgery itself. Surgeons are reluctant to admit surgical error until it is too late and the surgical error becomes a wrongful death.

A surgical procedure can cause life-saving healing or cause great harm if the surgeon does not provide a certain standard of knowledge and skill expected in the medical community. A poor surgical outcome caused by poor surgical care and treatment must be investigated and evaluated by an experienced surgical medical malpractice attorney to discover if you or a family member were the victims of surgical medical malpractice.

Surgical procedures commonly involved in surgical medical malpractice lawsuits are cosmetic surgical procedures such as face lifts and breast augmentations, LASIK eye surgery, gastric bypass surgery and back and orthopedic surgery.

If you live in the Los Angeles, California area and you or someone you love has been injured or died as a result of a surgical error, please contact The Cochran Firm today to schedule a private consultation at no cost to you to protect your legal rights and get the compensation you deserve.

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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has sounded the alarm regarding the popular weight loss drugs, Xenical and Alli which contain orlistat because of the possibility these drugs may cause serious liver damage. Millions of people have unknowingly been exposed to the dangers inherent in these two drugs simply because they wanted help in losing a few unwanted pounds. Now they are faced with life-threatening liver damage.

Xenical is a prescripton medication that contains 120 mg. of orlistat that is manufactured by Roche Pharmaceuticals and Alli is an over-the-counter medication that contains 60 mg. of orlistat and is manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline.

There have been reports of serious liver damage with the use of the defective weight loss drugs Xenical and Alli that include liver failure, with users exhibiting the symptoms of fatigue and weakness, fever, jaundice, abdominal pain, brown urine, nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite and light-colored stools.

If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with liver failure, liver damage, liver inflammation, lesions on the liver or hepatitis after taking the defective weight loss drugs Xenical or Alli, you are advised to seek the counsel of The Cochran Firm's attorneys who are experienced in pursuing defective drug lawsuits to a successful conclusion.

We encourage you to contact the Los Angeles, California office of The Cochran Firm today to protect your legal rights and secure the financial compensation you are entitled to if you have been the victim of a defective drug.

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At one of the most famous hospitals in Los Angeles, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, 206 patients were exposed to 8 times the normal dose of radiation during CT (Computed Tomography) brain scans. The patients were given scans over an 18-month period from February 2008 to August 2009 on a CT machine set to a higher dose than normally used. The report prompted the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to issue a nationwide warning to hospitals to review their safety and quality assurance protocols for CT scans. Included is a basic reminder that dose indices are displayed on the control panel and that people performing scans should know what an expected dose should be.

During the 18 months that this machine was used at its elevated setting, more than one patient experienced signs of high radiation doses, including reddened skin and hair loss. It was the latter symptom which finally lead hospital officials to investigate the machine and discover it had been set to a higher dose.

As a result of the higher dosing, patients were exposed to as many as 4 grays of radiation to the head, instead of the expected 0.5 grays. A gray is a measure of radiation absorbed per kilogram. For comparison, a set of dental x-rays typically results in a brain exposure of 0.005 milligrays, or 0.000005 grays. A full-body exposure of 8 grays is considered lethal.

At this point, no medical malpractice lawsuits have been filed, but if they are, they will most likely be for what is known as hospital malpractice. In this type of lawsuit, an entire facility is held responsible because systematic errors by numerous persons contributed to the error. If any person during the 18 months that these 206 scans were conducted had actually checked the dosage, further patients could have been saved from dangerous radiation exposure.

When you undergo a CT scan, it is worthwhile to ask your doctor how much radiation you will be exposed to, and even to ask that they check the dosage on the machine. Also, you should look for signs of acute radiation exposure, including:

• Nausea and vomiting: the closer to the scan, the higher the dose
• Red skin
• Headache
• Fatigue
• Fever
• Hair loss
• Bloody stool or vomit
• Poor wound healing

These symptoms may be delayed by several days. If you experience any of these symptoms, talk to your doctor right away.

If you believe you have been exposed to excessive doses of radiation or otherwise been injured through medical malpractice, the medical malpractice attorneys at the Los Angeles office of The Cochran Firm stand ready to help. Please contact us today for a free case evaluation.

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Most people are not aware of the abuse and neglect that happens on a daily basis in nursing homes and assisted living facilities around the country. With over 65 million people over the age of sixty-five years nationwide, nursing home and assisted living abuse and neglect should be a subject we are all aware of.

Sometime soon you or someone you are close to may find themselves in a precarious position as far as health and the ability to care for themselves is concerned. Hopefully, you will encounter a positive experience and find a facility staffed with hardworking, dedicated and caring people. More than likely, you will encounter facilities staffed by uncaring, undertrained and frustrated staff.

The signs of physical abuse in a nursing home or assisted living setting are relatively easy to recognize, such as open sores, cuts, bruises, malnutrition, and poor hygiene. Emotional abuse behaviors such as continuous rocking, agitation and depression are also less recognizable signs of abuse and neglect.

Visiting family and friends find the nursing home and assisted living residents reluctant to speak out about the abuse or unable to communicate their concerns. Residents of these facilities are guaranteed certain rights under the law and at the very least should be treated with respect and dignity in a safe and clean environment.

If you suspect someone you care about is a victim of nursing home or assisted living abuse and neglect, please contact the Los Angeles, California office of The Cochran Firm today to protect their legal rights.

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Los Angeles County Sheriff, Lee Baca, has called for an investigation into an incident that occurred on September 14, 2009 in Athens, CA. Athens is an area just south of downtown Los Angeles.

The Events So Far Known
That night, there was an armed robbery in this area and sheriff's deputies from the Lennox station were looking for two suspects. They were near 120th St. and Budlong Ave. when they saw two men who matched the suspects' descriptions. According to Sgt. Diane Hecht, the deputies approached to speak to them but one of the men ran and the deputies chased him. When he reached into his waistband, a deputy fired at him, thinking him to be armed. By this time they were in the 1200 block of Poindexter St.

The man was hit in the upper body and was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. He was one Darrick Collins, aged 36, who had apparently been playing a video game with a friend. He is reported to be the father of two and one of them, a daughter, lives in L.A. with her mother. The other child is a boy of 16 months whose mother is one Kendra Dean.

According to Sheriff's Lt. Dave Dolson, who spoke with reporters at the scene, the deputies called out to Collins to "Freeze!" but as the man then ran, they did not get to question him about the armed robbery. The Sheriff’s office is still looking into whether Collins might have been involved with the robbery.

The other man was not detained and no weapons have been yet found at the scene. So far there are no details available about the armed robbery. Collins' uncle, brother, and other family members are much grieved and angry at this sudden loss - perhaps a wrongful death.

An Expedited Investigation
The President of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, will be meeting with Sheriff Lee Baca and various community leaders to discuss this incident. Baca has called for an expedited investigation. Usually such investigations take up to twelve months to complete, but Baca would like this one to be finished within 90 days.

Pending the investigation results, the true facts of Collins' death cannot be certain. It is well known that one should never run when a police officer wants to speak to you - it suggests guilt. On the other hand, Collins was apparently planning to attend barber school and could have been an innocent citizen mistaken for the suspect. Police brutality is never acceptable; yet the police and sheriff's deputies risk their lives daily to protect the innocent and must often make snap decisions under a lot of stress. Genuine mistakes can happen.

If you or a loved one has been injured by a law enforcement officer and are wondering about legal rights and options, please contact our personal injury attorneys today for a free case review. The Cochran Firm has offices nationwide and we are here to serve you regardless of where you live.

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Many businesses in this country rely on the trucking industry for their livelihoods. There are over 3,000,000 trucks on American highways on any given day. Statistics reveal within the span of one year over 144,000 trucks were involved in accidents and over 5,000 of those accidents involved fatalities.

In 80% of those accidents, the non-commercial driver was not at fault, but suffered the injuries and deaths as a result of those accidents. Statistics like those reveal how important it is to keep a safe distance from trucks when you are on the highways, to take extra precautions during hazardous driving conditions and to expect the unexpected and be ready for anything.

The most common causes of truck accidents include speeding, driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, fatigue, reckless or aggressive driving behaviors and mechanical failure.

If you have the misfortune to be involved in an accident with a truck, you need an experienced truck accident attorney representing you from the minute the accident happens. You should be fully compensated for any medical expenses due to the accident, for your pain and suffering and for lost income and other expenses you incur due to the accident. The attorneys representing the trucking company will be doing all in their power to see you get as little as possible, if anything.

If you live in Los Angeles, California or the surrounding area and you have been involved in an accident with a truck, please contact the Los Angeles, California office of The Cochran Firm today to schedule a confidential consultation with an experienced truck accident attorney who will protect your legal rights while obtaining justice for you and the compensation you deserve.

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Eight to ten birth injuries or birth traumas occur for every one thousand live births in this country because of medical malpractice or negligence. Injuries can also involve the mother as well as the baby in some cases.

Birth injuries occur when a healthcare professional such as a doctor, nurse, nurse practitioner, anesthesiologist or a healthcare facility, a hospital, urgent care center or birthing center, fails to maintain an accepted standard of care and treatment for patients under their care.

Birth injuries can have wide ranging effects from mild to severe. Minor superficial bruising to brain damage can occur. Common birth injuries may include bruising from the use of instruments, swelling of the head, facial paralysis, Erb's palsy, cerebral palsy, fractured bones and traumatic brain injury.

The burden of caring for a child injured at birth can be emotionally, physically and financially devastating. Many instances of birth injuries are preventable. An experienced birth injury lawyer is able to study the labor and delivery records and determine if medical malpractice and negligence were involved.

If you live in Los Angeles, California or the surrounding area and you suspect you or someone you care about has a child that has suffered a birth injury, please contact the Los Angeles, California office of The Cochran Firm today to schedule a confidential consultation at no cost to you with an experienced birth injury attorney to protect your legal rights.

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Anesthesia errors can cause permanent injury and death. Patients put their trust and lives in the hands of the anesthesiologist when they are undergoing any surgical procedure, because they have no choice.

Allegations of medical malpractice involving anesthesia are very common. Often the patient is left to deal with brain damage and other devastating injuries if they survive at all. Anesthesia malpractice can include, but is not limited to, the administration of an overdose or the wrong dose, improper monitoring of the patient's vital signs, an error in the intubation procedure or defective or failed equipment.

A condition called "anesthesia awareness" is being reported with more frequency. Anesthesia awareness is reportedly when a patient is awake during surgery, but is unable to communicate this to the surgical team at the operating table. Problems encountered after surgery with anesthesia awareness include nightmares, insomnia, flashbacks and feelings of paranoia.

If you have been the victim of anesthesia malpractice you may be able to be compensated for your medical expenses, costs of long term care, permanent disability, loss of income and loss of potential future earning capacity.

Los Angeles, California residents who have suffered due to anesthesia malpractice should contact The Cochran Firm in Los Angeles today to schedule a confidential consultation to learn about your legal rights.

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You want your baby to have the best products available. Typically, Disney is a trusted company when it comes to items manufactured for children. However, a bassinet manufactured by Simplicity, Inc. with characters licensed by the Walt Disney Company was recalled due to a flaw in the design. Two metal bars in the bassinet were designed too close based on the Crib Federal Safety standard. These two bars resulted in at least two infant deaths.

A lawsuit was filed late last year in Los Angeles because this defective product was still available for purchase even after the bassinet killed the first infant almost a year prior. The wrongful death of these two infants could have been avoided if the manufacturing company stayed true to the rules and stipulations laid down by the law for their products.

When a loved one is lost, you want the responsible parties to be held liable. You want to make sure that their mistakes and negligence will never happen again. This is why a medical malpractice attorney is a necessity. Your attorney will find all responsible parties and help you receive the compensation you deserve for your wrongful death claim.

If you have lost a loved one due to a defective product, please contact the Cochran Firm's Los Angeles office to speak with a Defective Product Attorney about your case. We will find the responsible parties and get compensation for your suffering.

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Someone in this country dies in an automobile accident every 13 seconds. The most common causes of automobile accidents are driver error, mechanical failure or poor road conditions. Driver error, distracted and fatigued drivers account for 95% of automobile accidents. Some examples of driver error are speeding, tailgating, aggressive driving, and driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Cell phone use, adjusting the radio or CD player and other passengers cause serious driver distraction. Driver fatigue accounts for over 100,000 accidents a year in the United States.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that automobile accidents are the leading cause of death among people aged 3 years to 33 years. There are over 6,000,000 automobile accidents every year in this country. Over 3,000,000 people are injured and there are over 45,000 deaths.

An automobile accident can leave you or a family member seriously injured and financially devastated through no fault of your own. If you are involved in an automobile accident, try to remain calm, call police and/or 911, and move automobile to a safe place off the road if there are no injuries and it is possible to do so.

If you live in Los Angeles, California or the surrounding area and you have been involved in an automobile accident, please contact an experienced automobile accident attorney at The Cochran Firm's Los Angeles office to schedule a confidential consultation at no cost to you to learn about your legal rights.

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