The FDA has emergently taken possession of medication formerly known under the trade name Wydase (hyaluronidase) due to sight threatening reactions in a number of patients.

The medication is used to augment the effects of common anesthetics such as bupivicaine and is suspected to be contaminated. Commonly used by ophthalmologists during eye surgery, the medication has not been commercially available since Wyeth took Wydase off the market in 2001. Widely used, Wydase was thought to have been administered in over 750,000 surgeries between 1999 and its withdrawal in 2001. The medication had become very popular with eye surgeons due to its ability to potentiate the effects of anesthetic medication.  Surgeons were outraged following the withdrawal since the drug had become so popular.

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I never thought I would be quoting him, but Newt Gingrich set forth the following on his website:

Allow me to pose these questions to you:

If the people do not have religious freedom, then do they have freedom of assembly?
If the people do not have religious freedom, then do they have freedom of speech?
If the people do not have religious freedom, do they have freedom of the press?
Can any nation which does not allow true religious liberty then call itself free?

The answer to all these questions, of course, is a resounding NO!

So, I assume that Newt would agree it is simple logic that:

If the people to do not have the freedom to seek justice in the courts, do they have any other freedoms? I suggest that, although Newt Gingrich supports tort reform, if he were to answer honestly, he would be compelled to say “a resounding NO!”

There is absolutely no statistical study honestly performed which can conclude that tort reform is good for anyone but insurance companies.

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For these past many years, I have had the privilege and pleasure to be involved with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. This charity funds research to find a cure for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma.

These are a series of blood cancers affecting one person every four minutes. In the United States it is estimated that over 130,000 people will be diagnosed with one of these disease this year alone. Every 10 minutes someone dies from blood cancer; nearly 146 people every day.

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The United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation issued its order on October 1, 2009, establishing MDL No. 2100 for individual lawsuits filed by women who have been injured or died as a result of their ingestion of Yasmin and Yaz oral contraceptive products.  All of the cases pending in federal courts will be transferred to Judge David R. Herndon in the Southern District of Illinois.  The initial transfer order includes 32 cases that have been filed by patients in California, Georgia, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, and Wisconsin.

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This is a story about Bill and Helen. They were not famous people; they did not live an extravagant life; and they loved life as much as any of us. I imagine they were two nice, kind people who, after many years of marital union, still loved each other quite completely. They very likely went about their lives just like the rest of us: they woke; they ate; they worked; and they try to enjoy this finite thing called life. They are two people that, sadly, I only nearly met on Highway 27 near Sebring, Florida.

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If you can read this message, you may be “glty as chrgd” of texting while driving.  Even if you don’t text while driving, you are smart, but may soon be in the minority. More than 20 percent of ALL drivers, not just teens, admit to sending text messages while driving. Chances are that someone driving next to you or toward you is trying to do more than one thing at a time while driving. We all need to be more cognizant of exactly how dangerous this practice is to everyone driving on the highway.  Come to find out, this shorthand way of communicating is causing our highways to be clogged with distracted drivers and, more importantly, a significant number of completely avoidable accidents.

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