Latest
Heart Valve Disease
& Related Newswire
6/26/2006 7:52:00 AM | Widow blames doctors after husband dies of blood illness 
=(0) A woman in Scotland plans to sue her local doctors for misdiagnosing her late husband's blood infection. George Whitecross was initially diagnosed with gastroenteritis, but eventually died in hospital of an overwhelming blood infection (septicemia). His widow claims the doctors making the initial diagnosis overlooked the fact that he had had h...
Read More
6/13/2006 10:43:00 AM | Surgeries Using Cadaver Tissue Pose Risks =(0) The body parts industry has been the focus of a recent scandal where tissue was taken without permission and sold for surgical use; however problems in the industry run much deeper than that according to an investigation by the Associated Press. Inadequate government regulations and careless procedures put patients at risk of receiving infecte...
Read More
6/4/2006 10:49:00 PM | Parkinson’s Drug Linked to Heart Valve Damage =(0) A new study suggests that a drug used to treat Parkinson's disease may cause heart valve trouble. Pergolide (Permax) is a dopamine agonist which helps symptoms in Parkinson's Disease but seems to be associated with leaky heart valves after long term use. In a new study, the risk of valve problems was three times higher in patients on the drug ...
Read More
5/29/2006 5:51:00 AM | 3 lawyers kept millions from drug's victims =(0) Over 400 Kentucky fen-phen litigants are suing their lawyers for withholding part of their settlement money. Plaintiffs claim they were never told the exact amount they were due and the lawyers kept more than their allotted fees. Some attorneys have already been found to be in breach of their duties to their clients, and investigations ar...
Read More
5/24/2006 9:12:00 AM | Wyeth gets approval for new diet drug settlement =(0) A judge has approved a revised settlement between drugmaker Wyeth and those harmed by its fen-phen diet drug. According to these terms, Wyeth will deposit $1.275 billion into a new supplemental fund. Fen-phen, a mixture of Redux and Pondimin, was found to lead to heart valve damage and was withdrawn from the market in 1997. Wyeth has...
Read More
5/17/2006 10:36:00 AM | Second Family Hires Lawyer In Heart Patient Deaths =(0) A lawsuit is under way against Dr. Constantinos Lovoulos, formerly a cardiac surgeon at Ogden Regional Medical Center in Utah. Four heart surgery patients died there in a four-month period early in 2004, causing the hospital to halt heart surgeries for a year, and the doctor in question to return to Greece. The family of one of the other ...
Read More
4/12/2006 6:16:00 AM | Statins show promise as an aid in controlling heart valve disease =(0) New findings about the causes of heart valve disease may lead to new treatments. Studies show that the valves are damaged by a chronic inflammatory process which causes them to stiffen and even produce cartilage. A high fat diet is just one of the risk factors that leads to this process. Rabbit studies show that treatment with cholesterol...
Read More
4/4/2006 2:50:00 PM | Evidence That Circulating Endothelial Microparticles Lead to Heart ... =(0) Lab studies in Wisconsin have shown a link between a variety of diseases and heart valve damage. Such diseases as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis cause certain cells to shed tiny particles (endothelium derived microparticles) into the blood. It's these microparticles that, in higher than normal levels, interfere with the cells of the heart...
Read More
4/3/2006 1:27:00 PM | 'Closed' Heart Surgery Offers Less Invasive Option =(0) Repairing damaged aortic valves may be a much safer procedure in the future, if experimental methods now in development prove successful. Instead of surgically opening the chest and heart, doctors are trying various ways of threading replacement heart valves into place through small incisions in the body. The diseased valve is not removed...
Read More
3/28/2006 4:22:00 PM | Wyeth says wins four more diet drug cases - =(0) A Philadelphia jury ruled in favor of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in a fen-phen trial involving four plaintiffs. Fen-phen, or Redux and Pondimin, was withdrawn in 1997 after patients began to develop heart valve disease after taking the mixture. Wyeth has set aside over $21 billion to cover liability in thousands of similar lawsuits..........
Read More
3/21/2006 4:18:00 AM | Wyeth wins fen-phen case against area woman =(0) A jury decided against Texas plaintiff Gail Roork in her suit against Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Roork took the diet drug Pondimin (fen-phen) and alleged that it caused damage to a heart valve. A Texas lawyer quoted in the story thinks that the verdict might impact other ongoing fen-phen lawsuits in the United States.......
Read More
2/28/2006 12:09:00 AM | Judge resigns amid accusations he profited from diet drug case =(0) Judge Joseph Bamberger resigned in February 2006, in the face of allegations of wrongdoing regarding his behavior following a fen-phen trial in Kentucky. The class action suit netted $200 million for 431 plaintiffs; however less than half that amount was divided among them. Allegations are that the judge disbursed millions to lawyer-friends and als...
Read More