Articles Posted in Personal Injury

Every year 850,000 people are injured by needles or other sharp medical devices that have not been discarded properly. Sharps is the medical term for any device with a sharp point that can puncture or cut the skin for example, needles, syringes, lancets, auto injectors, infusion sets or connection needles.

An estimated 9 million patients in the US have medical conditions such as diabetes, allergies, arthritis, cancer, hepatitis or AIDS and use sharps at home, at work, at school and also while traveling. These patients and their caregivers need to properly discard needles and other sharp devices to protect others from injuries and infections spreading such as Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV.

The FDA estimates that 7 billion sharps are loosely discarded yearly in regular trash instead of being safely discarded in a dedicated container.

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.