Articles Posted in Personal Injury

Every 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.

When 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.

Little 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.

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.