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.
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Yellow_cabA taxi driver fatally ran over a woman who was lying on a New York City street and didn’t stop. At his arraignment he said he thought he hit a pothole, not a human being.

Saturday morning around 3:30 am, 68 year old John Bangura was driving his yellow cab on First Ave near 17th Street in Stuyvesant Town, Manhattan. For some unexplained reason, 44 year old Kenya Flores was laying on the ground when the taxi ran over her and dragged her briefly on First Ave. Before laying in the path of the taxi, Flores had laid down in a bus path.

According to the NY Daily News, witnesses saw the taxi trying to drive around a car who had stopped in front of him when he hit the woman.  He dragged her down the street and sped away.  Flores was taken to the hospital where she later died.

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Fire escapeA 23 year old man suffered critical injury after he stepped on a defective fire escape and fell 4 stories to the ground. 23 year old Chad Miller was about to move to a new apartment on Bedford Ave near Lefferts Boulevard in Brooklyn, NYC. He was hanging out with a friend on the fire escape outside his new place when the railing broke. Chad fell 4 stories and was critically injured. According to his dad, his son is still in a coma.

The owner of the building  received a violation for failure to maintain the fire escape. It could cost him up to a $5000 penalty. There is also a good chance that the family of the victim files a premises liability lawsuit against him. In 2011 we settled a case for $5,000,000.00 when a fire escape landing on which a man was standing on collapsed causing him to fall approximately 30 feet to the ground. Discussion of case here.

Read more in the NY Daily News and here 

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A pedestrian suffered serious injury after being hit by a car in New York City but according to a witness, the driver was let go by the police after he flashed a badge.

On January 11th, 63 year old  Cindy Klump who managed the drawing Center at Pratt Institute, was trying to cross Myrtle Ave at Ryerson Street in Brooklyn, NYC.  As she was crossing, she tripped and fell on the ground. She was getting back when up she was hit in the back by a a light colored minivan.  John Cisneros, a Pratt student who witnessed the accident saw the van driver parking his vehicle 50 feet away and run to rescue the woman. Another woman who also witnessed the accident ran to the rescue. She had medical training and tended to Klump while Cisneros called 911.

The ambulance and the police showed up shortly after. One of the police officers, Officer Orlando Vargas, started to interview the woman who helped Klump. She pointed at the driver who was still around and pointed at his car and told the officer: “that’s the guy who hit her and that’s his car”. The driver denied it and said it was a car before him who struck the woman and ran away. Cisneros said he saw the driver flashing a badge to Officer Vargas. He then kept the badge on a chain around his neck and was let go by Officer Vargas.

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Thomas_P._DiNapoli_cropThe Department of Health is not properly enforcing the law to prevent the neglect and abuse of New York nursing home residents according to a recent audit from the New York State Comptroller, Thomas P.  DiNapoli (see wikipedia picture of the left).  In a meeting with senior citizen advocates in Albany, DiNapoli said that the Department of Health is taking too long to fine nursing homes who have committed violations. According to the audit, in 2011 the DOH collected a total amount of $152,000 in fines  in 2014 compared to $628,000 fines in 2011. Not only are much fewer fines are being levied but the time it took from the violation until the collection of the fine was 4 years in 2014 compared to 6 months in 2011.  Read more in the Legislative Gazette 

 

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Defective sterilization process may have caused contamination in some Bumble Bee and Chicken of the Sea tuna cans. Contaminated products may potentially cause life threatening illnesses. According to CNN, the quality and compliance team discovered a malfunction OF a machinery part during the sterilization process during a routine inspection in a Georgia production plant in which both brands were manufacturing their products. The malfunction may have caused some products to be not fully cooked.

The recall affects 31,579 cases of Bumble Bee canned tuna with UPC codes codes 8660000020, 8660000021 and 8660000736 sold nationally in February 2016. The recalls also affects 2,745 cases of Chicken of the Sea brand with UPC codes are 0 4800000195 5 and 0 4800000245 7 and produced last February and March.

Bumble Bee product recall

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nypd chaseA 34 year old mother and her 2 year old daughter suffered personal injury in a car accident in the Bronx, NYC.  The accident was caused by a driver who was chased by the NYPD. The chase started after police officers saw a car speeding on on Nereid Ave in Woodlawn Heights. The driver of the car lost control of the vehicle near the Mount Vernon border and crashed into several parked cars on West 4th Street. The mother and her daughter were sitting in one of the cars when the crash happened. She and her daughter were injured and transported to the hospital. According to the NY Daily News, the mother suffered severe head trauma.

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Abdominal compartment syndrome is well recognized as a potential complication of laparotomy for trauma. It has also been reported after repair of large ventral hernias and may be anticipated in any case in which there is a loss of domain for abdominal organs. Failure to diagnose Intra-Abdominal Hypertension leading to Abdominal Compartment Syndrome, multi-system organ failure and patient death following surgery of the Abdominal Cavity may constitute medical malpractice. For a complete discussion of this insidious condition see our web page, “Abdominal Compartment Syndrome”

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missing hospital patientTo let a dementia patient wander out of a hospital in New York constitutes medical malpractice that can result in serious injury and in some cases the death of the patient.

On Monday, Mt Sinai Roosevelt Hospital located on 10th Avenue in Manhattan called the police after they discovered that one of their patients with dementia eloped from the hospital. 58 year old Nilsaida Smiley, a hospital patient who has been there for the past year, wandered out of the hospital barefoot in a red t-shirt and blue pajama bottoms. The police are now asking New Yorkers to help them to find her. The woman is 58 years old, 5-foot-3 and 115 pounds. She is black with brown eyes and black hair. Anyone who saw her can call the Police at 800-577-TIPS. A dementia patient who gets lost in New York is at high risk of injury or death from falls, accidents and exposure.

According to a report from the Alzheimer’s Association, approximately 35% of the hospital population has some type of dementia. Wandering is a common habit for people with Alzheimer’s or dementia. It is the hospitals responsibility to keep them safe and prevent them from elopement. If a loved one suffers from dementia and needs to be hospitalized make sure that the hospital has a specific policy and rules in place. Hospitals who are effectively  protecting their most vulnerable patients will usually have the following:

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A pedestrian was fatally struck by a sanitation truck in New York yesterday morning around 6:00 am. The pedestrian, a 55 year old woman had the right of way. She was crossing First Avenue in the crosswalk with the walk sign on when she was struck by a sanitation truck driver who was making a left turn from 92nd Street onto First Ave. After the accident the police indicated that the victim was injured but conscious. She had a deep cut on her forehead and she also complained of leg and wrist pain. She was taken to the hospital where she was pronounced dead 20 minutes later.  She may have suffered fatal internal bleeding.

The driver of the sanitation truck stayed at the scene of the accident. So far he hasn’t been arrested or charged. Under the Right of Way Law, New York drivers injure or kill a pedestrian who has the right of way can be criminally charged.

MTS rampResidents of Yorkville had long predicted that such an accident would happened when in 2014 they tried to oppose the construction of the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station, a massive garbage site visited by hundreds of garbage trucks every day.

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Multiple cases of medical malpractice committed by several doctors including 3 neurosurgeons almost killed a patient according to a recent article written by Sandra Boodman in the Washington Post. Brad Chesivior from Maryland almost died after several doctors failed to diagnose a brain bleed. When a neurosurgeon finally made the proper diagnosis, the acute subdural hematoma that he was suffering from was as large as the size of an adult’s palm and was threatening to kill him. According to the neurosurgeon who made the proper diagnosis, Bard had probably no more than 24 hours to live and needed immediate surgery.

In the article the author describes how multiple doctors misdiagnosed the 60 year old man to the point that he almost died. The first significant symptoms appeared just after Thanksgiving 2013. Chesivoir suddenly became very weak and unable to walk. He was transported by ambulance to a Maryland emergency room. As he arrived at the ER he felt better and was able to walk again. The ER staff performed CT and MRI brain scans as well as multiple blood tests.  Doctors thought that he was the victim of a heart attack or a stroke but tests didn not show any of these. They completely missed evidence of multiple bleeds and sent Chesivior home with a diagnosis of headache.  They told him he should consult with his internist.  Chesivior went to see his internist who recommended he sees a neurosurgeon. The neurosurgeon looked at the previous scans made at the ER and missed the bleeds too. Instead she ordered additional tests and scheduled a follow up appointment almost two months later. In between, Chesivior’s headaches got worse. When they got even worse, he consulted with another neurosurgeon as his neurosurgeon was out of town. The second neurosurgeon told him that his problem was a typical migraine and prescribed amitryptiline. A few days later he developed double vision. The neurosurgeon told him it was an adverse effect from the medication and reduced his dose. The problem got worse. Two days later, he went to consult with a ophthalmologist who told his wife to drive him immediately to the ER where a fourth neurosurgeon finally proprely diagnosed the problem and saved him from death by operating on him the following day.