Oklahoma Injury Lawyer Blog

Some of the most popular denture creams on the market, including Super Poligrip and Fixodent, have been linked to copper depletion in the bloodstream, which in turn may lead to serious medical problems such as nerve damage. Why? Some denture creams contain zinc, and an excess of zinc in one's diet can lead to a depletion of copper in the blood. In fact, according to the medical journal Neurology, using denture creams over a long period of time could result in nerve damage and neurological problems. Symptoms of nerve damage include numbness, tingling, difficulty moving one's arms and legs, and lack of balance.

GlaxoSmithKline, maker of Super Poligrip, has voluntarily ceased production of denture creams containing zinc. Fixodent however, manufactured by Procter & Gamble, is still on the market.

If you believe that you or someone you love has suffered neurological damage as a result of prolonged use of denture creams, please contact us as soon as possible for an initial consultation.

I spent the last 10 minutes or so online searching for "how much the insurance industry spends on advertising."

It's a common complaint among personal injury lawyers that jurors often have preconceived notions that injury victims are out to just make a quick buck and that the insurance companies would have paid the claim if it was legit. Insurance companies have a huge incentive in paying as little as possible (and are very profitable).

I haven't found a good source yet. But, I stumbled on a New York Times article from 1986. The article mentions that the Insurance Information Institute was starting an "advertising campaign aimed at combating the growing litigious bent." There isn't video on the article, but the 30 second commercials depicted a "world without obstetricians, high school sports or firefighters - a world that high insurance rates caused." The campaign started as a $6.5 million advertising effort.

The Pop Tort cites a recent report on medical malpractice and the increased malpractice insurance rates for doctors.  The conclusion of the report:

"[D]espite rising malpractice insurance premiums over the past several years there has actually been a drop in medical malpractice payouts made by New York doctors."

Today's Huffpost has an article on the American Medical Association Lobbyists' efforts to cap medical malpractice damages:  Doctors' Lobby Attack on Reform Aimed at Forcing Malpractice Caps on Obama.

The article also mentions the maximum damages allowed in medical malpractice cases out in California.  They're unchanged for the last 30 years! 

The Tulsa World reported this week a Mannford woman is suing for wrongful termination after she reported nursing home abuse and neglect of facility's residents. 

Some of the disturbing parts of the article:

"Mrs. Harris observed a male resident who had been left in his own waste for so many hours that he had feces caked on to his leg from his hip to below his knee, and had wet himself at least one time," the petition said.

[S]he saw the man sitting in his waste and reported it to her supervisor, the head nurse and two nurse's aides. Her supervisor sprayed deodorant in the man's room to cover the smell. The aides said they would leave him for the next shift.

"Two and a half hours later, he was still sitting in his own waste," Harris said. "He couldn't say nothing. I would always talk to him. He would just light up when I went to clean his room. It's heartbreaking when you see a resident not being taken care of."

[A]n elderly woman paralyzed from the waist down was left in her own waste, Harris said. She rolled out of the bed and into the hallway to get someone to change her soiled garments and the nurses "just laughed at her," Harris said.

Harris reported each instance of neglect or abuse to the facility's staff. But once the staff learned she intended to seek the advice of her husband, Jerry, a retired private investigator known for exposing elder abuse, she was fired, the petition said.

Note that Mrs. Harris was only an employee of the nursing home for 3 months!

The Journal Record reports that:

The 10th United States Circuit Court of Appeals ruled recently that the Ten Commandments monument at the Haskell County courthouse violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.  

Last week the Wall Street Journal Law Blog ran a story titled "Plaintiff's Lawyers, Here's Your New Asbestos: Denture Cream!"  The article (with a touch of sarcasm), looks at the potential for the next "category of potentially huge personal injury lawsuits."  Considering that denture cream is used by about a third of the 34 million Americans currently wearing dentures, the number of potential lawsuits is huge.

The problem with the denture creams is that the products contain zinc.  Excessive zinc intake can be harmful.

Denture cream lawyers are arguing that the zinc in the products, such as Poligrip and Fixodent, is causing neurological damage.  One of the main theories of liability is that the manufacturers have known for years that excessive zinc is harmful yet added zinc to the products anyway. 

The ABC News story mentions a 2008 study published in the Journal of Neurology.  It theorizes that long-term denture cream overuse was the culprit in the cases of four patients who had unexplained limb weakness and poor balance. 

According to 7News (Lawton, OK area), some auto accident insurance companies are now offering additional coverage for your pets:

Auto insurance is needed to protect you from injuries in a car accident, but now injury coverage is being offered for your pets. Not many companies offer the unique coverage, but for those that do, it is pretty inexpensive.

The article states that the additional cost is usually around $10/month and that coverage amounts can range from $500 to $1000 for injuries to the pet.  

Today's Oklahoman asks:

Do you have a loved one in a nursing home? Have their rates gone up recently to help offset a shortage in Medicaid coverage?

Apparently an article will follow detailing the rising costs of nursing homes (and the shortage of Medicaid funding).


Clayton Hasbrook is a nursing home abuse attorney in Oklahoma City. He also writes on a variety of personal injury topics.

Reuters is reporting a troubling medical bills and bankruptcy story today:

Medical bills are behind more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, U.S. researchers reported Thursday in a report they said demonstrates that healthcare reform is on the wrong track.

This is crazy.  What's even more troubling is that more than 75 percent of those families had health insurance but were still overwhelmed by the medical costs.  The report also notes that:

Nationally, a quarter of firms cancel coverage immediately when an employee suffers a disabling illness; another quarter do so within a year.

A 13 year old boy in NY was riding his new Rhino ATV when it rolled over (which he had received hours earlier).  The boy was not wearing a helmet or his seat belt.  The WTEN article states:

What makes the tragedy weigh even heavier on James Spencer was the fact that the Yamaha Rhino 450 had actually been recalled by the federal government this past March after reports of more than 40 deaths and hundreds of injuries.

"I was not aware of any deaths or any injuries with this machine," he told NEWS10.

AllGov reports that military personnel cannot sue the government for medical malpractice.  The article stems from the story of Cindy Wilson.  Ms. Wilson was in the U.S. Air Force when she gave birth to her first child at Langley Air Force Base.

The doctors handling the delivery performed a cesarean section, and inadvertently, severed Ms. Wilson's uterine artery causing massive internal bleeding.  Two surgical sponges were even left inside Wilson's body.  The baby survived, while the mother died 12 hours later.

I was reading through my copy of The Week yesterday afternoon.  There's a brief blurb about Mr. Riches in the "Bad Week For" section:

Johnny Sue-nami,' also known as Jonathan Lee Riches, whom Guinness World Records named as the most litigious man in history for having filed more than 4,000 lawsuits against parties ranging from George W. Bush to Britney Spears and Nostradamus. Riches said Guinness had defamed him and vowed to sue.

According to the Wikipedia article, Mr. Riches is currently incarcerated here in Oklahoma City for wire fraud.

The Week is one of my favorite magazines.  It's a summary of the week's news and editorials.  It should probably be called The Week (In Review) though because the stories are from the previous week.