Legal Media Matters

Lawsuit filed against the maker of Trasylol over man’s death after open-heart surgery

NEWS RELEASE

March 14, 2008

St. Louis – A lawsuit has been filed in a St. Louis federal court against Bayer AG, the maker of the anti-bleeding drug Trasylol, on behalf of a widow whose husband died of kidney failure after open-heart surgery.

On Dec. 16, 2005, Samuel Nakis, 81, underwent open-heart surgery at St. Luke’s Hospital in Chesterfield, Mo. During the surgery he was given Trasylol (also known as aprotinin), a clotting drug used to prevent bleeding. Shortly after the surgery, Nakis experienced kidney failure and underwent dialysis. He died a short time later.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Trasylol in 1993. On Jan. 20, 2006, the medical journal Transfusion published an article suggesting a link between Trasylol and renal toxicity. Later that same month, the New England Journal of Medicine published an article, by Dr. Dennis Mangano of the nonprofit Ischemia Research and Education Foundation, linking Trasylol to a higher risk of stroke, heart attack and kidney failure.

In the fall of 2006, an FDA advisory board met to decide whether the warning on Trasylol needed to be changed. At the meeting, Bayer failed to disclose the findings of a Trasylol study it had funded. That study, conducted by Dr. Alexander Walker, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, reviewed the hospital records of 67,000 patients and found that those given Trasylol had a risk of death 64 percent higher than that of patients who received a comparison drug. It wasn’t until November 2007 that the drug was finally pulled from the market.

On Feb. 21, the New England Journal of Medicine released the study conducted by Walker and a second study conducted by Duke University Medical Center researchers. Both confirmed that patients given Trasylol during heart surgery were more likely to die than patients given a comparable drug.

A lawsuit was filed by Nakis’ widow, Genevieve Nakis, on March 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. She is represented by John J. Carey of Carey & Danis and Jeffrey J. Lowe of The Lowe Law Firm.

The suit alleges that Bayer failed to warn prescribers and consumers of the dangers associated with the drug, defectively designed the drug, fraudulently concealed the dangers of the drug, breached the implied and express warranties and violated the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act.  The suit seeks compensatory damages and damages for aggravating circumstances.

Carey & Danis, LLC is a national law firm based in St. Louis that aids victims of corporate abuse, greed and neglect. For more information, contact John J. Carey or Joseph Danis at 314-725-7700 or e-mail jcarey@careydanis.com.

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Media Contact: Geri L. Dreiling
Legal Media Matters LLC
314.743.3851 or 314.520.3897
legalmediamatters@sbcglobal.net

Lawsuit filed against two trucking companies and their drivers after a chain-reaction collision injures two motorists

Feb. 13, 2008

St. Louis – A lawsuit arising from a chain-reaction accident on Interstate 70 in Indiana that injured two motorists has been filed in Wayne County Circuit Court in Indiana.

On Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2005, around 9:25 p.m., Giacamo Amari, 42, and his son Jonathan Ghahary, 21, were traveling in a car headed east on I-70 near Richmond, Ind. It had been raining, and the highway was wet. A tractor-trailer owned by Salt Lake City-based C.R. England and driven by Kenneth Williams was westbound on I-70 when it allegedly hydroplaned, veered off the highway, crossed the median and drove into oncoming traffic.

Amari swerved to avoid a collision. Their car spun clockwise into the left lane of eastbound highway and ended up sideways. A tractor-trailer owned by Lincoln, Neb.-based Crete Carrier Corp. and driven by Richard Isaacs, eastbound in the left lane, broadsided the car.

Amari and Ghahary were seriously injured in the crash. Amari suffered cervical-spine injuries that required multiple surgeries and also sustained a closed-head injury and postconcussion syndrome. Ghahary suffered a herniated lumbar disc in his spine.

Jeffrey J. Lowe of The Lowe Law Firm filed a personal injury suit on behalf of the motorists in December 2007 against the trucking companies and their drivers. It alleges that the truck drivers were traveling too fast for the wet conditions and that they failed to keep a careful lookout. As a result, the C.R. England truck driver lost control of his semi and the Crete Carrier truck driver was unable to take evasive action to avoid the crash.

“Truck drivers speed on slick roads because of the financial pressures to quickly deliver their loads. Unfortunately, that haste leads to crashes, and it is usually the careful motorist who ends up paying the price,” Lowe said.

Headquartered in St. Louis, The Lowe Law Firm represents clients nationwide in trucking accident, catastrophic injury, mass tort, and class action litigation cases nationwide. For more information, contact Jeffrey J. Lowe at 314-678-3400 or e-mail jeff@jefflowepc.com.

Media Contact: Geri L. Dreiling
Legal Media Matters LLC
314.743.3851 or 314.520.3897
legalmediamatters@sbcglobal.net