Error in glmer fit

Hello.

I attempted the following command and got the resultant error.

glmer(InInt~speciality+position+stkperyr+conf+age+years+risk+stroke_type+(1|pid),data=dord4mod,family=binomial,verbose=TRUE)

Error in pwrssUpdate(pp, resp, tolPwrss, GQmat, compDev, fac, verbose) :
   PIRLS step failed

It seems to happen right off the bat.  Any idea what the source may be? 
  I don't want to post the data in the open, but will send it privately 
if requested.  Here also is my sessionInfo()

R version 2.14.0 Patched (2011-11-29 r57769)
Platform: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu (64-bit)

locale:
  [1] LC_CTYPE=en_US       LC_NUMERIC=C         LC_TIME=en_US
  [4] LC_COLLATE=C         LC_MONETARY=en_US    LC_MESSAGES=en_US
  [7] LC_PAPER=C           LC_NAME=C            LC_ADDRESS=C
[10] LC_TELEPHONE=C       LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US LC_IDENTIFICATION=C

attached base packages:
  [1] grid      tcltk     splines   stats     graphics  grDevices utils
  [8] datasets  methods   base

other attached packages:
  [1] lme4_0.999902345-0  Matrix_1.0-2        ResearchMethods_1.4
  [4] ellipse_0.3-5       gplots_2.10.1       KernSmooth_2.23-7
  [7] caTools_1.12        bitops_1.0-4.1      gdata_2.8.2
[10] gtools_2.6.2        irr_0.83            lpSolve_5.6.6
[13] lattice_0.20-0      rms_3.3-2           Hmisc_3.9-0
[16] survival_2.36-10

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] MASS_7.3-16    Rcpp_0.9.10    cluster_1.14.1 minqa_1.1.18 
nlme_3.1-102
[6] tools_2.14.0

Kevin E. Thorpe
Biostatistician/Trialist,  Applied Health Research Centre (AHRC)
Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's
Assistant Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
University of Toronto
email: kevin.thorpe at utoronto.ca  Tel: 416.864.5776  Fax: 416.864.3016