Negligence

Published on: January 15, 2014

Train Accident Prevention: Rail Safety Authority to receive $185 million to hire Additional 45 Rail Inspectors

Following the New York Metro North Train accident that killed four and injured more than 70 people, U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and Richard Blumenthal announced yesterday that the recently filed Appropriation bill includes $ 185 million for the Federal Railroad Administration to hire additional inspectors, inspect far more track, and begin sending safety “strike teams” to railroads around the nation in order to conduct additional safety audits.

The agency is underfunded and unable to fully evaluate existing and future rail-safety programs across the nation’s freight and passenger railroads.

Read the press release

Published on: November 11, 2013

New York Subway Accident: 73 out of 92 lawsuits related to people hit by trains were resolved in favor of the MTA

By GGCRBHS&M

The MTA is rarely interested in settling man-under cases before trial and if it loses it will keep fighting through appeals. Out of the 92 lawsuits filed in the last five years, the MTA won 73 of them. For nine cases the payments were on average $40,000. Only five big cases resulted in total payouts of $33 million.

Metro-North chief engineer admits negligence in a train accident that injured 76 people and caused $18.5 million in damage last May in Fairfield Conn.

By GGCRBHS&M

The train accident in which Two Metro North commuter trains serving New York City collided last May could have been avoided. Robert Puciloski, the Metro-North chief engineer admitted that poor track inspection and poor maintenance led to the accident. He was testifying yesterday before the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigative hearing in Washington.

Six weeks before the accident, inspectors discovered that a pair of joint bars connecting two sections of rails were cracked. The bars were replaced but two days before the accident inspectors reported a “pumping condition” meaning the ties and rails were moving up and down under the weight of trains, and “inadequate ballast support”.

The report was vague and there were no measures of the pumping conditions. The inspectors said they were pressured to work quickly so they would not interfere with the regular flow of trains.

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Published on: October 31, 2013

Claims related to medical malpractice in outpatient primary care settings are more likely to be settled or result in a verdict in favor of the plaintiff compared with those from other practice settings according to study

By GGCRBHS&M

A recent study looked at the medical malpractice claims of the 2 largest insurance companies in Massachusetts during five years. The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine and led by Doctor Gordon Schiff (Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Division of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care) looks at patterns of primary care malpractice types.

During the five years under review there were 7224 medical malpractice claims of which 551 (7.7%) were from primary care practices. Out of these 551 cases, researchers found out that most medical claims were failure to properly diagnose a condition (72.1%). Other malpractice claims were related to medication errors (12.3%), medical treatment errors (7.4%), failures to communicate properly (2.7%), patient rights (2.0%), and patient safety or security(1.5%).

According to the author “many of these claims “appear to be due to failure in more routine yet high volume outpatient office processes”. The study also found some evidence suggesting that “outpatient primary care in general and diagnostic cases in particular were less defensible than other malpractice claims because they were significantly more likely to be settled (35.2% vs 20.5%) or result in a verdict for the plaintiff (1.6% vs 0.9%) compared with non–general medical malpractice claims.

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Published on: October 30, 2013

New York Nursing home negligence: elderly man beaten to death by fellow resident

By GGCRBHS&M

leg%20rest.jpg A 70 year old man died after being assaulted by another resident at Ocean Promenade Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Rockaway, Queens, New York last night. The attacker used the leg rest of a wheel chair to beat the victim to death according to the police.A dispute over the curtain between their beds sparked the attack. The two men who were sharing the same room since July never got along according to residents.

Medical Malpractice: To keep its Cath Lab running, a Negligent Hospital paid a high price for an unqualified surgeon who butchered multiple patients and killed one while performing unnecessary stent procedures

By GGCRBHS&M

Medical Malpractice related to Cath Lab procedures are on the rise as overuse of Cardiac Stents lead to an increase of deaths linked to this type of procedure.

In a recent article on Bloomberg, Sydney P. Freedberg, describes the shocking extreme the administrators at Satilla Regional Medical Center in Waycross, Georgia went to in order to keep their cath lab operating and producing revenue.

Because of its remote location, the hospital was unable to attract competent cardiovascular surgeons. In order to keep their cath lab running the administrators paid an extravagant salary to a non qualified surgeon, Dr. Azmat whose only experience with cardiac stents was a two weekend course experimenting on cadavers and pigs.

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Published on: October 13, 2013

New York Car Accident: toddler died after being hit by drunk driver in Queens

By GGCRBHS&M

2 year old Jahir Figueroa was hit bit a car as he was crossing the road with his mom. The car driver who drove the child and his mother to a hospital – was drunk at the time of the accident and has been charged with vehicular manslaughter. The toddler who was walking hand in hand with his mother, but slipped out of her grip moments before being struck, died at the hospital.

As a new study confirms that Silica is a human carcinogen, OSHA continues to work on new rules to protect workers from occupational exposure to crystalline silica

By GGCRBHS&M

Exposure to silica significantly increases the risk of developing lung cancer according to a new study published in The American Journal of Epidemiology. The study measured cumulative silica exposure in a group of more than 30,000 workers over a 44-year period and demonstrated that silica is a human carcinogen. The study also suggests that current exposure limits in many countries might be insufficient to protect workers from lung cancer.

These findings are consistent with the preliminary risk assessment in OSHA’s new proposed rule to protect workers from occupational exposure to crystalline silica.

Published on: October 7, 2013

New York Wrongful Death: Brooklyn Grand Jury found that the City’s Administration of Child Services could have prevented 19 deaths between 2005 and 2010

By GGCRBHS&M

At least 19 children under the watch of the ACS died because the agency ignored recommendations to improve its practices according to a report from an investigative grand jury impaneled in Brooklyn after 4-year-old Marchella Brett-Pierce’s 18-pound body was found beaten, drugged and starved to death by her mother in Sept. 2010.

Read more in the New York Daily News

Published on: September 21, 2013

Medical Malpractice: alarming study estimates the number of deaths resulting from Medical Errors by Hospitals may be as high as 400,000 per year. Serious harm seems to be 10- to 20-fold more common than lethal harm

By GGCRBHS&M

The number of deaths resulting from Medical Errors in Hospitals have been grossly underestimated according to new estimates developed by John T. James, a toxicologist at NASA’s space center in Houston. James runs an advocacy organization called Patient Safety America that he created after his 19 year old son died as a result of medical malpractice in a Texas Hospital.

In 1999, “To Err is Human Report“, estimated the number of deaths resulting from medical errors in hospitals at 98,000. In 2010, The Office of the Inspector General for Health and Human Services said that bad hospital care contributed to the deaths of 180,000 in Medicare patients alone in a given year.

According to the study published in the current issue of “Journal of Patient Safety” these numbers are too low and the true number of premature deaths associated with preventable harm to patients is estimated at more than 400,000 per year.