California is again facing treacherous fires that are destroying land, homes, and lives. If you lost everything in this fire, find out how to receive financial compensation here.
Seeking truth, transparency, and resolution for injured consumers
Seeking truth, transparency, and resolution for injured consumers
Trending Cases & Settlements
What they knew. When they knew it.
For example: Cancer, Physiomesh, IVC Filter, Hernia Complications, IBS
California Fires
Tied to Electric Companies
Abilify
Tied to Compulsive Gambling
Transvaginal Mesh
Tied to Amputations and
Corrective Surgeries
Taxotere
Tied to Permanent Hair Loss
Invokana/Invokamet
Tied to Amputations
Monsanto's Roundup
Tied to Blood Cancers
Attune Knee Systems
Tied To High Failure Rate
and Repeat Knee Surgeries
Viberzi
Tied to Hospitalization and Death
Viagra
Tied to Melanoma Cancer
Essure Birth Control
Tied to Serious Injuries
Recalled Medtronic Insulin Pumps
Tied to Serious Injuries
Actemra Arthritis Medication
Tied to Death
Ambien
Tied to Alzheimers
Gadolinium
Tied to Brain Injuries
and Permanent Disability
Monat
Tied to Scalp Irritation & Hair Loss
Automotive Recalls/ Takata Airbags
Tied to Catastrophic Injuries
Uber & Lyft
Tied to Sexual Assault
and Bad Accidents
IVC Filters
Tied to Migration, Puncturing
Organs and Severe Injury
Recalled Hernia Mesh
Tied to Corrective Surgeries,
Disability and Severe Injuries
Onglyza & Kombiglyze
Tied To Heart Failure
Opioid Addiction
Tied To Addiction & Death
Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPI)
Tied To Kidney Disease/Failure
Talcum Powder
Tied To Ovarian Cancer
Blood Pressure Medications
Tied To Cancer
Breast Implants
Tied to Cancer
Don’t see what you’re looking for?
Your trusted advisors
Periscope Group provides information, resources, and compassionate legal counsel, advocating on behalf of those facing injustice due to prescription drug complications and medical device failures.
INFORMATION & RESOURCES
We help you further understand your injuries, get healthy, and gain access to professional assistance in seeking financial settlement.
ACCESS TO LEGAL COUNSEL
We have unique access to a network of trusted legal representatives that will work with you to gain financial settlement for your losses when possible.
ADVOCACY
With over 20 years in health advocacy, we stay abreast of the latest medical complications to educate the public and petition congress for scalable change.
Featured Health & Wellness Resources
Is Your Doctor on Probation? Most Patients Don’t Know
Most patients have no idea if their doctor is on probation or if he had to undergo disciplinary action. A new CA law has changed that. Should other states follow suit?
The Dangers of Dietary Supplements
Dietary supplements aren’t as safe as most people believe them to be. Drug interactions and illegal ingredients can cause consumers to be critically ill. Learn more here.
Video: Dear Governor, What’s a Vagina Worth!? Help us halt vaginal mesh now!
Vaginal mesh was never tested in one vagina before it was put in hundreds of thousands of women. Learn about the dangers of mesh and what you can do to help now—amidst the greatest scandal in women’s health history.
Other Countries Address Mesh Problems While the U.S. Stays Silent
Many countries are apologizing to the women who have been harmed by transvaginal mesh. Why is the U.S. government staying silent?
Big Pharma and the High Cost of Drugs
Some of the most popular drugs have increased by 50% over the last five years and continue to gouge consumers. Here’s one simple way Big Pharma can keep their costs down.
Our in-house legal counsel, Matthew J. Daher, earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Utah and his law degree from the University of Missouri – Columbia School of Law. Matt has devoted his entire practice to civil litigation, and has spent his career representing the rights of individuals who have been injured by pharmaceuticals, medical devices, medical malpractice, defective products, and motor vehicle accidents. As in-house counsel for Periscope Group, Matt leads our internal legal team and liaises with our external partners.
GET YOUR FREE CASE REVIEW TODAY
Periscope Group provides information, resources, and compassionate legal counsel, advocating on behalf of those facing injustice due to prescription drug complications and medical device failures. Contact us today to see how we can help!
Free Guide Download
The Step-By-Step Guide To Taking Action
How to File for Financial Settlement After Injury from an Unsafe Drug or Device
Free Guide Download
The Step-By-Step Guide To Taking Action
How to File for Financial Settlement After Injury from an Unsafe Drug or Device
LATEST ARTICLES
California’s Deadly Camp Fire: How To Receive Financial Support
Once again fires have ravaged California’s forests and have left a multitude of residents displaced. Acres have been destroyed, there is just a charred footprint where thousands of homes once existed, and residents are shocked and wondering how will they ever pick up the pieces to their now broken lives. And for the fourth time in 12 months, faulty electrical equipment has been linked to the devastation.
While all of the fires in the past year have touched our hearts, “Camp Fire” has hit one of our own team members here at Periscope Group. Laura, the manager of our Call Center, has been busily gathering clothes, toiletries, and other essentials for her parents who lost their home in Paradise, CA. This is their story.
Chris and Jenny’s Story
Chris and Jenny bought their retirement dream home in July 2018 off of Pentz Road in Paradise, CA. Just months later, on November 8, Chris walked outside and quickly noticed that the fire was so close that he could see the smoke swirling at the base of the flames. Just ten minutes later, Chris and Jenny tossed two backpacks containing three days’ worth of clothes, the contents of their safe, their two dogs, and a two-drawer metal filing cabinet into their cars. Chris advised Jenny to “make sure your bumper is touching my bumper the whole way down.” Amidst ash, flames, and wind, they desperately hurried to escape the quickly moving firestorm. Jenny would later describe it as moving through a “Biblical hell.”
They escaped to Chico to find refuge with a relative only to be relocated later that night since the fire was quickly spreading. They moved on to stay with Chris’ aunt who lives in Live Oak.
On the Sunday after their escape, a next door neighbor who was a city official went on an escorted expedition to find out what remained of her home. To her shock and heartbreak, her home had been leveled by the fire along with all of the neighboring homes… including Chris and Jenny’s.
Chris and Jenny have decided not to rebuild. Paradise is unique as compared to some of the other California fire locations in that it’s more of a “mom and pop” type town. There are no big businesses that will start over and many people don’t have the resources to pick up where the fire left off.
Other than the few items that they piled in the car, Chris and Jenny are now left with nothing. Photographs, childhood memories, and their dreams of retiring in Paradise have been reduced to ash. The emotional devastation has been as painful as the physical one.
How Could This Happen… Again?
While Chris and Jenny’s story is upsetting, they are in no way alone in this struggle to rebuild. Three fires last year – Butte, Tubbs, and Thomas – caused hundreds of thousands of acres to be wiped out, cost hundreds of millions of dollars, destroyed over 8,000 structures (most were private homes), and 25 people died. The current Camp Fire exceeds even these tragic numbers. As of November 13, 6,522 residential structures and 260 commercial buildings have been destroyed, 120,000 acres have been burned, and 42 people have lost their lives making this the largest and deadliest fire in California history.
What else do these fires have in common? All of them have been linked to malfunctioning equipment owned by PG&E or Southern California Edison (SCE). In this recent Camp Fire, an Electric Safety Incident Report stated that, “On November 8, 2018, at approximately 0615 hours, PG&E experienced an outage on the Caribou-Palermo 115 kV Transmission line in Butte County. In the afternoon of November 8, PG&E observed by aerial patrol damage to a transmission tower on the Caribou-Palermo 115 kV Transmission line, approximately one mile north-east of the town of Pulga, in the area of the Camp Fire.”
What Can You Do About It?
We know that if you’re in this situation, you’re probably feeling heartbroken, devastated, lost, confused, and so much more and we want to help. Our legal team has assisted countless people who have lost everything due to mass fires and they can sort through insurance forms and other crucial paperwork to get the funding owed to you. Call (800) 511-3838 to or reach out to contact our Call Center today (and you can even request to speak to Laura!). We want to help you in any way we can.
##
Sources
Image Source: KQED News
Is Your Doctor on Probation? Most Patients Don’t Know
Most patients either call their doctor’s office or visit a website to make an appointment. We think about what health complaints we want to share, write down any questions we may have, and just hope that we don’t have to sit in the waiting room too long.
However, have you ever consider if your doctor ever had to undergo disciplinary action for sexual misconduct or for improperly prescribing a drug? After all, if they committed a crime like this and caught, wouldn’t their medical license be taken away? Not necessarily. Is your doctor on probation for misconduct?
The New California Law
It’s horrible that so many women have been assaulted, but a plethora of good has come from the female Olympic athletes who spoke out against their team doctor and the women who voiced their stories in the #MeToo movement.
One example of progress can be found in the new California law enacted in September 2018 called the Patient Right to Know Act. This law states that physicians are required to inform patients when they were put on probation for harming those under their care. There is already a public directory in place that shares this information, but most patients are unaware of its existence (if your doctor is in California, you can look for your doctor’s name here. For other states, conduct a Google search that says, “how can I find out if my doctor is on probation in {your state here}?” The website for your medical board should appear.)
With this new law in place, physicians on probation after July 1, 2019, are required to alert clients about their status before an appointment.
Doctors may be put on probation for the following reasons:
- Sexual misconduct against a patient
- Drug abuse that can be harmful to patients
- A criminal conviction which resulted in harm to patients
- Inappropriate prescribing resulting in patient harm
“It’s never made sense that doctors have had to tell their insurance companies, hospitals and clinics when they are put on probation, but not the people who are most at risk — their patients,” stated Lee Harris, president of the Consumer Attorneys of California.
According to the LA Times, surgeons, osteopaths, naturopathic doctors, chiropractors, podiatrists and acupuncturists are also bound by the new law.
The relationship between you and your doctor is important and you need to feel safe, heard, and cared for to receive the optimum care that you deserve. If you don’t feel this way about your doctor, it may be time to search for a new one. Furthermore, this only affects California. We think other states should follow their lead.
##
Sources
“California doctors must tell patients if put on probation for sexual misconduct under new law”. LA Times. Accessed October 31, 2018. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-doctor-probation-law-20180920-story.html
“New Law Requires Doctors on Probation to Disclose Discipline to Patients”. NBC San Diego. Accessed October 31, 2018. https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/New-Law-Requires-Doctors-to-Disclose-Past-Discipline-to-Patients-493909811.html
The Dangers of Dietary Supplements
Natural remedies have been popular for ages and most people have tried them. Anyone can stroll down the drugstore aisle or search on Amazon for fish oil with its omega-3 fatty acids to help manage blood pressure, glucosamine to treat arthritis, turmeric for its anti-inflammatory properties, and the hundreds of other options that are available.
While many of these supplements do not pose a health threat, taking them with certain medications or from a non-credible source can end up making you terribly sick. In fact, the FDA recently reported in early October 2018 that about 800 dietary supplements sold between 2007 – 2017 contained illegal ingredients.
How much do you know about the dietary supplements that you’re taking?
How Do I Know if My Supplements are Safe?
Just because a popular big box store sells a supplement or if the label says “natural” doesn’t mean that it’s safe to use. Here are some ways that you can make sure you’re taking the right supplements correctly:
- Talk to your doctor first – Many times supplements can cause a negative drug interaction with the current medications you’re taking. For example, St. John’s wort – which has been attributed to helping with depression, insomnia, and anxiety – can reduce the effectiveness of many drugs including antidepressants and birth control pills. Or Vitamins C and E can reduce the effectiveness of certain types of chemotherapy treatments. Taking too much of a certain vitamin can also cause liver damage, so read what’s in your multi-vitamin along with the ingredients in your supplements.
- Supplements are NOT FDA approved – The FDA isn’t responsible for reviewing them for safety and effectiveness. So who IS responsible? The manufacturers and distributors. If a new ingredient is introduced in a product, the FDA will review it to make sure its safe, but the claims for effectiveness lies solely on the company that’s making it. The company is responsible for keeping their product free of impurities and contaminants and is expected to put on the label that they followed the FDA’s “Good Manufacturing Practice”.
- Research the supplement company – All supplements are NOT created equal and the potency and safety can vary by company. There are three reputable resources that test to make sure that the supplements are manufactured properly and don’t contain contaminants, but they do NOT test for safety or effectiveness. These companies are U.S. Pharmacopeia, ConsumerLab.com, NSF International, so look for their “seals of approval”.
- Don’t believe all the claims – While many natural remedies have been shown to help patients, don’t believe everything you read about them. The supplement companies are required to present some evidence that their products are safe and that the label claims are truthful, but they do not have to provide that evidence to the FDA to sell to consumers. (Which is why you’ll find this disclaimer on all the bottles: “This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.”)
Approximately 50% of adults take dietary supplements making it a $35 billion industry!!! What’s terrifying is that in the nearly 800 supplements that the FDA found to have illegal ingredients, only half of them were recalled. It’s ironic how so many people take supplements to improve their health, but many times the opposite result can happen.
Talk to your doctor to ensure that dangerous drug interactions don’t occur and research where your supplements are coming from… your body depends on it!
##
Sources
“Nearly Eight Hundred Dietary Supplements Are Adulterated with Unapproved Drugs”. Industry News Insights. Accessed October 29, 2018. http://industrynewsinsights.com/3709/nearly-eight-hundred-dietary-supplements-are-adulterated-with-unapproved-drugs/
“Dietary Supplements: What You Need to Know”. FDA. Accessed October 29, 2018. https://www.fda.gov/food/resourcesforyou/consumers/ucm109760.htm
“DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW”. National Institutes of Health. Accessed October 29, 2018. https://ods.od.nih.gov/HealthInformation/DS_WhatYouNeedToKnow.aspx
Periscope Group is not owned by or operated on behalf of any attorney or law firm. We are not affiliated with any drug or medical device companies. We do not host advertisements nor do we accept advertising requests. We are here to help YOU, the consumer, become better educated and supported. You pay absolutely nothing for our help. It’s as simple as that.
Periscope Group is not owned by or operated on behalf of any attorney or law firm. We are not affiliated with any drug or medical device companies. We do not host advertisements nor do we accept advertising requests. We are here to help YOU, the consumer, become better educated and supported. You pay absolutely nothing for our help. It’s as simple as that.
© All Rights Reserved • 2017 • Periscope Group, 4155 Blackhawk Plaza Circle, Suite 100, Danville, CA 94506 Legal Disclaimer
© All Rights Reserved • 2017 • Periscope Group, 4155 Blackhawk Plaza Circle, Suite 100, Danville, CA 94506 Legal Disclaimer