Minnesota police settlements, by the numbers

Police Misconduct

The settlement between the Justine Ruszczyk family and the city of Minneapolis for $20 million after former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor fatally shot her in 2017 is the largest in city history.

A jury convicted Noor of murder and manslaughter charges in the death of Ruszczyk, who was also known as Justine Damond. She had called police the night of July 15, 2017 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her Minneapolis home.

According to the settlement, the family will donate $2 million to a safe communities fund.

It is not the first time cities have paid settlements to settle police officer misconduct cases.

Prior to Friday’s settlement with the Ruszczyk family, the city of Minneapolis had paid out more than $24 million in police misconduct related settlements, claims and judgments since 2003.

FDA Warns of Problems with IVC Blood Clot Filters

IVC Filter

After receiving more than 900 reports of problems with IVC filters over the last five years, federal regulators are warning doctors to remove the filters, which are meant to prevent pulmonary embolisms, before they can break free inside the patient and do damage. 

The FDA issued a safety alert this week for inferior vena cava (IVC) filters. The IVC filters are placed inside patients to prevent blood clots from breaking free and traveling to the lungs or heart and causing a pulmonary embolism. However, the FDA is telling doctors they should remove the filters once the danger of the clot has passed, or else the filters could break free and travel through the body of the patient.

The FDA warning notes that the agency has received 921 adverse event reports involving problems with IVC filters implanted. Of those, 328 involved the filter breaking free and migrating through the body, 146 involved components breaking loose, 70 involved the IVC being perforated and 56 reports were of the filters fracturing.

Woman’s death will be focus of 2nd Xarelto Trial

Xarelto

A month after drugmakers Johnson & Johnson and Bayer prevailed in the first trial over allegations of harm caused by the blood thinner Xarelto, the second bellwether case has gone to trial in New Orleans.

This time, the family of a woman who died about a year after she started taking the drug for atrial fibrillation is accusing the drugmakers of responsibility for her fatal hemorrhagic stroke.

Sharyn Orr, of Louisiana, died in May 2015 at the age of 67 after being in a coma for 10 days.

The family’s lawyers say her death was “completely avoidable.”