Michigan Disability Resistance

Tasers are used regularly against people with disabilities.....

https://goo.gl/yVa2G6

Reuters reporters took an exhaustive look at Taser use by U.S. police officers, documenting 1000-plus incidents in which people — often people with mental or physical illnesses, or substance abuse issues — died following a tasing. In half the cases, the person was shocked after they or a loved one actually called for help. Of course, Axon Enterprise (the rebranded Taser International) stands behind the safety of its product, throwing the nation’s medical examiners under the bus in the process.

Taser says these tallies give an exaggerated picture of the weapons’ hazards because they suggest Tasers caused all those deaths, when most involved other types of police force as well. The devices have saved tens of thousands of lives, the company says. All weapons carry risks, said Steve Tuttle, the company’s vice president for communications, but Tasers are “the safest force option available to law enforcement.”

Tuttle also said the autopsy results collected by Reuters are unreliable because they were not “peer reviewed” – a standard for studies published in medical journals, although not applicable in courts of law. The medical examiners and pathologists around the country who decided the official cause of death in those cases may not understand the weapons’ physiological effects, he said, and may be “over-listing” potential factors in their rulings to avoid being criticized for possible omissions.

“Ultimately, Taser is not responsible for educating every medical examiner on the subtleties of electrocution,” Tuttle said.

For well over a year, state officials knew Michigan’s computer-driven unemployment insurance system had wrongly accused thousands of workers of benefit fraud.

That didn’t stop lawyers for the state from working to derail a class action against the Unemployment Insurance Agency. They’ve succeeded – for now – after the Michigan Court of Appeals dismissed the case in July on a technicality, ruling that workers had waited too long to file their claims.

State lawyers have taken the same hard-line approach against individual workers. In one case, the state spent two years and deployed a team of attorneys to pry back $158 in benefits from a seasonal worker at Bloomfield Hills Country Club named Suzanne Lawrence – only to lose when an appeals court ruled in July there was not “even a scintilla of evidence” she had committed fraud.

Consider Flint. Government lawyers continue to contest a battery of lawsuits over the state’s role in the lead poisoning of Flint’s drinking water, acrisis that unfolded in 2014 when the impoverished city was under state control.

Michigan tenaciously fights the claims of Flint residents despite the findings of a state-appointed commission, which concluded state government was primarily to blame for the disaster. Thousands of children were exposed to toxic lead levels as a result of state employees’ neglect and refusal to take seriously complaints over contaminated drinking water.

On another front, Michigan aggressively contested allegations of sex abuse of female prisoners by state prison guards, well after the evidence became overwhelming. The class action was finally settled in 2009 for $100 million, following 13 years of litigation and two lost trials. A lawyer for the women said she had earlier offered to settle the cases for one-quarter of the eventually cost.

More than one-quarter of serious cases of nursing home abuse are not reported to the police, according to an alert released Monday morning by the Office of Inspector General in the Department of Health and Human Services.

The cases went unreported despite the fact that state and federal law require that serious cases of abuse in nursing homes be turned over to the police.

Government investigators are conducting an ongoing review into nursing home abuse and neglect but say they are releasing the alert now because they want immediate fixes.

Insulin from various manufacturers is often made available to patients in an emergency and may be different from a patient's usual insulin. After a disaster, patients in the affected area may not have access to refrigeration.  According to the product labels from all three U.S. insulin manufacturers, it is recommended that insulin be stored in a refrigerator at approximately 36°F to 46°F.  Unopened and stored in this manner, these products maintain potency until the expiration date on the package. 

Insulin products contained in vials or cartridges supplied by the manufacturers (opened or unopened) may be left unrefrigerated at a temperature between 59°F and 86°F for up to 28 days and continue to work.  However, an insulin product that has been altered for the purpose of dilution or by removal from the manufacturer’s original vial should be discarded within two weeks.

Note:  Insulin loses some effectiveness when exposed to extreme temperatures. The longer the exposure to extreme temperatures, the less effective the insulin becomes.  This can result in loss of blood glucose control over time.  Under emergency conditions, you might still need to use insulin that has been stored above 86°F. 

You should try to keep insulin as cool as possible. If you are using ice, avoid freezing the insulin.  Do not use insulin that has been frozen.  Keep insulin away from direct heat and out of direct sunlight.

When properly stored insulin becomes available again, the insulin vials that have been exposed to these extreme conditions should be discarded and replaced as soon as possible. If patients or healthcare providers have specific questions about the suitability of their insulin, they may call the respective manufacturer at the following numbers:

Lilly: 1-800-545-5979
Sanofi-Aventis: 1-800-633-1610
Novo Nordisk: 1-800-727-6500

Additional Storage Information for Insulin Pumps

John Oliver’s tragically funny Big Pharma lampoon went viral. Maybe because, like most incisive satire, his piece is rooted in truth. Here’s some of the shocking evidence with respect to the marketing of antipsychotic drugs such as quetiapine (Seroquel) and risperdone (Risperdal) to elderly people with dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease:

On April 27, 2010, as mentioned in Oliver’s piece, AstraZeneca LP and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP was ordered to pay $520 million to resolve allegations that it illegally marketed the anti-psychotic drug Seroquel (quetiapine) for uses not approved as safe and effective by the United States Food and Drug Administration.

Specifically, it marketed the drug for uses that were not FDA improved including aggression, Alzheimer’s disease, anger management, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar maintenance, dementia, depression, mood disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and sleeplessness.

According to the settlement agreement:

“AstraZeneca targeted its illegal marketing of the anti-psychotic Seroquel towards doctors who do not typically treat schizophrenia or bipolar disorder [for which the drug had FDA approval], such as physicians who treat the elderly, primary care physicians, pediatric and adolescent physicians, and in long-term care facilities and prisons.” (Italics mine.)