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

Published on:

Many bus accidents happen because the bus company was negligent or careless. Defective equipment, poorly maintained buses or not properly trained bus drivers put the life of passengers at risk.

All Nation Coach in Staten Island, New York, a high-risk passenger carrier was shut down yesterday by the The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). The bus company was the reincarnation of Tichy Express, Inc. that was shut down last year for multiple violations of federal safety regulations.

This action is the 16th out-of-service order issued by FMCSA since the deployment in April 2013 of more than 50 “Operation Quick Strike” safety investigations targeting high-risk passenger carriers.

Published on:

Severe mitral valve regurgitation is a life threatening condition that affects millions of Americans. It happens when the mitral valve doesn’t close properly and allows blood to flow backward to the heart. Most doctors treating severe mitral valve regurgitation use a watch and wait approach but a recent Mayo Clinic-led study by U.S. and European researchers published in the Journal of the American Medical Association demonstrates that patients that have surgery early after diagnosis have improved long-term survival and lower risk of heart failure.

Published on:

football%20helmet.jpg“No helmet system can protect you from serious brain and/or neck injuries including paralysis or death. To avoid these risks, do not engage in the sport of football” is the type of language that consumers will read on most warning labels when they purchase a football helmet these days.

Football has a very high incidence of catastrophic personal injuries with traumatic brain injury and cervical spinal cord injury being the most common. Recent lawsuits have accused the league and some product manufacturers of hiding evidence or not properly warning about the dangers of repeated head trauma.

In a recent article, Ken Belson, a sport reporter for the New York Times, gives a complete overview of what type of warning helmet manufacturers are using Today to warn the players and to protect themselves from a product liability lawsuit.

Published on:

product%20recall.pngMillions of toys that contained dangerous levels of lead paint and other toxins as well as dangerous children products have been recalled since the Consumer Safety Improvement Act was signed into law 5 years ago.

This bipartisan legislation made a real difference in protecting young Americans from personal injury and wrongful death.

Read more in Consumer Reports.

Published on:

Complications during or after surgery are happening too often at New York City, St Luke’s Hospital. The Hospital scored a low overall surgery rating on the new Consumer Reports surgery safety rating. The safest hospitals in the city to have surgery are Mount Sinai, NYU Langone Medical Center and New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Consumer Reports looked at medicare claims data from 2009 through 2011 for patients undergoing 27 categories of common scheduled surgeries. For each hospital, the results for all procedures are combined into an overall surgery rating.The global ranking is based on who died in the hospital or stayed longer than expected for their procedure. More detail by type of surgery as well as a hospital ranking by state can be found on the Consumer Reports website.

Most common surgery complications are bad reaction to anesthesia, heart problems or surgeon nicking a blood vessel, leaving an instrument inside, or even operating on the wrong body part. Complications can also happen after the surgery. Nationally, 30 percent of patients suffer infections, heart attacks, strokes, or other complications after surgery and sometimes even die as a result.

Published on:

Last April the explosion at a fertilizer plant in West Texas was of the magnitude of a small earthquake. It killed 15, destroyed houses, businesses and municipal buildings, and left a 93-foot crater. To avoid such a tragedy in the future, President Obama last week signed an executive order directing Federal agencies to work with stakeholders to improve chemical safety and security.
West%20Texas%20Explosion.jpg

Published on:

17000 women and 9000 men get cancer linked to human papillomavirus (HPV) every year. For women the most common is cervical cancer and for men the most common are cancers of the back of the throat, tongue and tonsils.

A recent study shows that since it was introduced in the US in late 2006 , the HPV vaccination has reduced HPV infection rates in teen girls by half. More than 57 million doses have been distributed in the US in the last seven years and all studies show that the HPV vaccine is safe.

To learn more about the HPV Vaccine, check the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Published on:

Newborn%20screening.pngNewborn screening prevents 12,000 babies per year from death or lifetimes of intellectual or physical disability. It started in the US 50 years ago. New York started infants screening in 1965 for phenylketonuria (PKU) and today babies are screened for 45 disorders.

New York was the first state to test for sickle cell anemia in 1975 and the first to introduce universal screening for HIV exposure in 1997. In 2006, New York was also the first state to screen all babies for Krabbe disease. Screenings are also conducted for cystic fibrosis, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, primary congenital hypothyroidism, and severe combined immunodeficiency. In December 2013 New York will also be the first state to screen for adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), a rare genetic condition, which affects the nervous system.

Yesterday New York State Health Commissioner Nirav R. Shah M.D., M.P.H was at the Wadsworth Center to visit a national exhibit designed to raise awareness of the importance of newborn screening. the Wadsworth Center screen 250,000 infants every year.

Published on:

Excessive bleeding caused by Warfarin can lead to wrongful death if not addressed promptly. This anti coagulant medication is commonly prescribed to address blood clots but it has a very serious side effects that leave patients at risk of very heavy bleeding. In the US when emergency room doctors are faced with warfarin anticoagulation they commonly use fresh frozen plasma to reverse the bleeding.

Frozen Plasma therapy is slow and unpredictable and most emergency room doctors around the world have been replacing it with Prothrombin complex concentrates (PCCs), a therapy that can reverse Warfarin anticoagulation in minutes according to an article from the American College of Emergency Physician based on a study by Kenneth Frumkin, PhD, MD of the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, Va. published in Annals of Emergency Medicine.

Hopefully the use of these life-saving products will increase in the US since the Food and Drug Administration accepted a form of PCC specifically intended for warfarin reversal last April.

Published on:

One passenger died, five passengers suffered severe injury and 10 including the bus driver suffered minor injuries in this horrible collision between a school bus and a truck that happened near Chesterfield in New Jersey in February 2012. Last week the National Transportation safety Board released a synopsis from the Safety Board’s report that shows negligence by the school bus driver, the commercial license medical examiner, the truck driver, the truck company and the truck manufacturer.

According to the report the crash was due to the school bus driver failing to see the truck approaching the intersection. The bus driver was suffering from sleep deprivation because of a medical condition and alcohol use. He also was using prescription medication with a sedative effect. The school bus driver lied about his medical history when getting his commercial drivers license and the medical examiner did not thoroughly evaluate the school bus driver for medical conditions that could have disqualified him from becoming a school bus driver.

The truck was overloaded, had a deficient braking system and the truck driver was speeding.