Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.

Articles Posted in Personal Injury

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nyc%20senior%20fall%20location.pngEvery year in NYC more than 45,000 seniors suffer personal injury that requires medical treatment after a fall. Around 28,000 of them visit the Emergency Room, 17,000 are hospitalized and 300 die from their injuries. As the New York aging population continues to grow so do the number of personal injuries related to falls. In the report Falls Among Older Adults in New York City, The New York Department of Health indicates that there was an increase of 22% of fall related emergency department visits by seniors between 2006 and 2010.

According to the statistics, senior New Yorkers fall mostly in their home, especially in the bedroom after tripping on throw rugs or taking too many prescription drugs. 48% of the injuries that require hospitalizations are fractures and 13% of then are traumatic brain injury. As a consequence 78% of senior people who are hospitalized after a fall require additional care upon discharge. Only 22% of them are sent home. 42% of them have to be transferred to a skilled nursing facility.

Older New Yorker who are in good shape usually fall less and recover faster from their injury.

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KenmoreFanLARGE.jpgDefective heaters can cause serious personal injury to consumers and should not be used. If you are using a portable heater please make sure that it has been tested under the latest safety standards and that it is not the subject of a recall. Recently Walmart and Sears recalled the the Kenmore Oscillating Fan Heater because it was posing a risk of fire and burns to consumers. A broken motor mount can cause the units to overheat, catch fire and ignite nearby items.

Read more on the CPSC website

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dangerous%20generators.jpgWhen the power goes down, portable generators are very handy products but they are deadly if not used properly. Carbon monoxide poisoning from the the toxic engine exhaust can happen in minutes if a generator is used indoors! From 1999 to 2012, the Consumer Product Safety Commission received 547 reports of Carbon Monoxide Exposure incidents associated with portable generators. 732 people died as a result of these incidents (see CPSC Incidents, Deaths, and In-Depth Investigations Associated with Non-Fire Carbon Monoxide from Engine-Driven Generators and Other Engine-Driven Tools, 1999–2012).

Never use a portable generator in your garage, basement, crawlspace or sheds even if the windows are open.

The only way to use a portable generator properly is outside and at least 20 feets away from doors and windows. Make sure that the wind doesn’t blow CO into the house.

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liver%20damage.jpgSevere personal injury and even death may result from taking too much acetaminophen. Inadvertent acetaminophen overdose may severely damage the liver and can lead to liver failure, liver transplant and death.

Acetaminophen is used over the counter as a pain and fever medication and is often an ingredient in cold and cough medicine. It is also combined with ingredients to treat pain such as opioids and prescribed by doctors. Many consumers are not aware that their medicine contains acetaminophen, making it easy to accidentally take too much. Prescription narcotics which contain acetaminophen include Tylenol with Codeine, Percocet, and Vicodin. Depending on the milligrams of the narcotic the particular drug may contain as much as 650 Mg. of acetaminophen. Patients should read the label as well as the package insert given with the prescription. Further alcohol should not be used as it is well known that in combination with acetaminophen liver toxicity may result.

To prevent these types of adverse results and to reduce the number of acetaminophen induced liver injuries, the FDA recommends that doctors not prescribe any medication that contains more than 325 mg per dose. The FDA also recommends that pharmacists call doctors and discuss options with them if they receive a prescription for a combination product with more than 325 mg of acetaminophen per dosage unit.

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Space%20flight%20Personal%20Injury.jpgLittle is known so far about the risk of personal injury for astronauts who are participating in long-duration and exploration space flight.

The Institute of Medicine recently released the Review of NASA’s Evidence Reports on Human Health Risks: 2013 Letter Report , which is the first in a serie of five reports that reviews more than 30 evidence reports that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has compiled on human health risks for long-duration and exploration space flights.

The 2013 Letter Report builds on the work of the 2008 letter report and examines three NASA evidence reports: Risk of Injury from Dynamic Loads; Risk of Spaceflight-induced Intracranial Hypertension/Vision Alterations; and Risk of Clinically Relevant Unpredicted Effects of Medication.

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Ikea%20Defective%20Lamp.jpgA 16 month-old child wrongfully died and a 15 month-old child was severely injured after they became entangled in a very popular Ikea’s children’s wall-mounted lamp.

There were 2.9 million lamps sold in the US, 1.1 million in Canada and 23 million worldwide.

Consumers should stop using the defective lamp and contact Ikea at 888 966 4532 for a free repair kit. The repair kit has self-adhesive fasteners for attaching the lamp’s cord to the wall as well as safety instructions.

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To prevent wrongful death and personal injury caused by defective or unsafe bedside sleepers a new federal mandatory standard to improve the safety of bedside sleepers was just approved by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)

A bedside sleeper is a bassinet that is attached to an adult bed for parents to easily access their infant from their bed. It is intended for babies up to approximately 5 months.

Among the changes, the new standard includes modifications to the existing standard to address fabric-sided enclosed opening entrapment hazards. Between 2007 and 2009, the CPSC received 4 reports of infant wrongful deaths associated with fabric-sided openings on the products.

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r_steigman_small.jpgOur partner, New York Personal Injury Lawyer Richard Steigman will be a speaker at “LIEN” ON US: GET THE CURRENT STATUS OF THE LAW ON LIENS, a CLE seminar organized by the New York State Trial Lawyers Association on February 6 & 13, 2014, 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM at NYSTLA,

132 Nassau Street, 2nd Floor, New York City.

This seminar will focus on lien resolution.

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A pedestrian suffered serious personal injury after being hit by a New York Fire Department Truck while crossing McDonald Ave near Church in Brooklyn New York. The truck was racing to a blaze when the accident happened. The pedestrian, a 30 year old man, was immediately given aid by the firefighters who dispatched another truck to the blaze.

Read more in the Daily News

 

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In the Winter, the most common types of personal injury which require a visit to an emergency room in New York are slip and fall injuries, winter sports injuries, heart attacks induced by snow shoveling, bad flu symptoms and hypothermia and frostbite according to a recent article by Marc J. Felberbaum, MD, Attending Physician, Department of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Medical Center, NewYork. These injuries are often preventable. Here are a few tips on how New Yorkers and New York visitors can avoid a visit to the ER.

Slip and Fall Injury

Even though New York Premises Liability Law requires that property owners keep their sidewalks, walkways and parking lots in a reasonably safe condition, the number of slip and fall injuries tends to increase in NYC as temperature drops and melting snow turns into ice. Last Sunday afternoon during the icy weather the number of visits to the Lennox Hill Hospital Emergency Room increased by 15% according to a hospital representative. Increases in typical “winter personal injuries” such as broken wrists and ankles were reported by several New York City Hospitals.