Duerson family lawsuit could alter NFL

League may need culture change more than rules changes

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Tregg Duerson, son of former Bear Dave Duerson, with lawyer William Gibbs… (Antonio Perez / Tribune Photo)

February 23, 2012|Dan Pompei | On the NFL

The NFL is in Indianapolis this week for the annual scouting combine.

But the quakes and tremors that shook the league Thursday emanated from a seismic event a little more than 200 miles away.

In the law offices of Corboy & Demetrio on Dearborn Street just north of Madison, a news conference was held to announce that the family of former Bear Dave Duerson is suing the NFL.

A Louisville woman’s estate has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the Walgreens drugstore in Jeffersontown and one of its pharmacists, claiming she died as the result of getting the wrong prescription.

The family of Mary Moore claims in the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Jefferson Circuit Court, that she presented a prescription to Walgreens for Hydralazine, a high blood pressure medication, in November 2010 but instead received an antihistamine, Hydroxyzine.

Moore had previously been hospitalized with high blood pressure, congestive heart failure and kidney failure, according to the suit, which claims Hydroxyzine is a high-risk medicine for the elderly that’s known to cause confusion and oversedation.

The suit claims Moore was not given counseling regarding the medication she was given, where the pharmacist would have noticed the mistake, according to the suit.

Moore’s hypertension went untreated for two weeks before the error was discovered and the pharmacy substituted the correct medication, “but it was too late” and Moore was soon hospitalized and died, according to the suit.

“She knew she was going to die and nothing could be done to save her life,” the suit claims.

Anthony Bower is named as the pharmacist in charge that day at the store, at 2360 Stony Brook Drive.

Claims made in filing a lawsuit present only one side of a case.

The pharmacy on Wednesday said neither Bower nor anyone else there could comment and referred a reporter to the national Walgreen Corp., which is also named in the suit.

Vivika Panagiotakakos, a spokeswoman, said the company does not comment on pending litigation.

The suit is seeking compensatory and punitive damages as well as a jury trial.

Cincinnati bus company pays $5M, settles death suit

A Cincinnati-based school bus company paid $5 million Monday to settle a wrongful death lawsuit in Missouri where one of the drivers for First Student drove a bus over and killed a teen.

The Missouri case alleged a 23-year-old First Student bus driver failed to defrost or scrape the bus’ windshield and then drove the bus over a 16-year-old who was legally crossing the street in St. Joseph, Mo. The Nov. 15, 2010, incident killed Mason Adams, a high school junior.

It also led to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his mother, Bridgett Blasi, and hard feelings when First Student, which also has a contract to transport Cincinnati Public School students, refused to admit its role in her son’s death – until Monday.

“What Ms. Blasi has been seeking for over a year was an apology and acknowledgment of responsibility from First Student,”.

“What she wanted for over a year was to stop blaming her son. They said he wasn’t paying attention and that just isn’t true.”

Fist Student wouldn’t comment, a spokeswoman noted in a Tuesday e-mail.

The bus’ video captured the incident and showed, Kuckelman said, that the driver’s failure to defrost the windshield left him unable to see the teen crossing in front of the bus in a crosswalk and legally with the light.

The case was ready for trial Monday, but ended when First Student agreed to pay Blasi a $5 million settlement, to apologize, admit the company’s role in her son’s death and allow her to help its drivers learn from this case.

“First Student has agreed that the mother will have the opportunity to participate in training (drivers) to being a first-hand account of how people suffer from a company cutting corners,”

The bus driver, was convicted last year of a misdemeanor in connection with the death.

First Student transports about 13,000 students daily for Cincinnati Public Schools as part of a $91,000, five-year contract. CPS is in the third year of that contract with First Student.

First Student’s website notes it has 68,000 workers transporting 6 million students on 60,000 buses every day in the United States.

The company is part of First Group America, also based in Cincinnati, and is a subsidiary of a British transportation company.

In March, First Group settled a lawsuit, agreeing to $5.9 million after it was sued by thousands of workers and job applicants who alleged the company illegally made background checks on them without the required written authorization.