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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Evelyn_Yang was sexually abused by HaddenA NYC  gynecologist has been sexually abusing patients for over two decades including Evelyn Yang, the wife of New York politician Andrew Yang, was convicted of sex trafficking yesterday.

64 year old Robert Hadden, a former Columbia University gynecologist was convicted of federal sex crimes yesterday after a two-week trial. The gynecologist who sexually abused patients while working at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and New York Presbyterian Hospital sexually abused patients from 1993 to 2012. He was previously convicted of sexual abuse after being accused by 19 patients but had been able to avoid jail time by signing a state-court plea agreement. The plea agreement infuriated hundreds of women who had been abused by the doctor.

Yesterday  Robert Hadden was charged with sex trafficking after four patients complained the doctor induced them to cross State lines for what they thought were medical examinations during which the doctor assaulted them. The doctor enticed his patients to travel to New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Nevada to engage in illegal sexual activity.  Robert Hadden’s sentencing is scheduled for April 25th. Despite some victims asking for the abuser to remain in jail, Judge Berman allowed Hadden to remain free for now.  He said Hadden was not a flight risk and was the caretaker for his son who suffers from cerebral palsy and autism as well as his wife who has diabetes and neuropathy.

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The New York City hospital where the deadly medical error occurredA mother about to give birth died from medical malpractice in a New York City Hospital.  On July 2020, Sha Asia Temple, a 26 year old pregnant woman was at Woodhull Medical Center about to give birth to her daughter. Dr Dmitry Shelchkov, the anesthesiologist who was in charge of giving her the epidural inserted the catheter to deliver the anesthesia 13 inches deep in her back instead of the recommended 4 inches and administered a full dose of anesthesia neglecting to first administer a test dose and check on the patient before administering the full dose. As a result the anesthesia liquid was injected into the cerebrospinal fluid. The patient complained that she could not breath anymore and died shortly after. According to the federal hospital inspection report, a doctor who rushed to the rescue screamed at Dr. Schelchkov “I can’t believe this is happening again!”. Sha Asia Temple died but her baby, Khloe, survived.

The causes of the death of Ms. Temple were only recently made public and the investigation report indicates that over the two years preceding the death of Ms. Temple, 6 patients in  labor at Woodhull Medical Center “suffered adverse outcomes related to the administration of anesthesia” and Dr Shlchkov was involved in most of them. The same errors of pushing the epidural  needle too deep and mixing the anesthesia with cerebrospinal fluid as well as not proceeding to a test before administrating the full dose were reported. Despite the obvious pattern, the hospital did not take any measures to monitor the doctor who was finally stripped of his medical license in 2021.

Epidural complications are rare and while epidural complications started to occur regularly at Woodhull Medical Hospital, the system was so dysfunctional that cases went unreported. It took the death of a mother for the administrators of the hospital to notice the pattern.

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nine street where the fatal bike accident occurred37 year old Sarah Schick, a mother of two children, was riding an electric Citi Bike when she was fatally struck by a truck on Ninth Street near Second Avenue in Gowanus, Brooklyn, NYC. Multiple cyclists and pedestrians were previously killed or injured on this notoriously dangerous street. Among them was one of our clients, actress Ruthie Ann Miles whose daughter died after being struck by a reckless driver as she was crossing the road with her mom. The actress herself was seriously injured in the crash and additionally, later on, lost her unborn child as a result of the accident.

On Friday, at a vigil for Sarah, around 100 cyclists and bike activists as well a group of politicians including Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez gathered at the corner of Second Ave and Ninth Street. According to Hell Gate, Ydanis was touring the area with other members of the DOT to figure out exactly what type of safety improvements were needed to make Ninth Street safer. He faced a crowd of angry activists and reminded them that he also was an activist back in the day and that he had only been in office for 4 months. He told them that the DOT was on the job to redesign the street and make it safer.

Previous safety improvements were not enough

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children car accident prevention programCar accidents are the number one cause of death for young children in New York and in the US. According to a recent study, the likelihood of children getting injured or killed by cars in New York City is much higher in school areas than in other areas of the city. Statistics show that there are 57% more auto accidents and 25% more injuries per mile in streets near schools than in other streets in the city.

Not only to reduce these types of accidents but also to provide children with safe outdoor spaces for activities, less polluted air and a safer area for arrival and dismissal, schools can apply with the DOT to get a street adjacent to the school closed to traffic during school days. However, so far the program has not been really popular with schools. Streets safety advocate say that the difficult application process is the main cause of this low popularity.

Free webinar to launch the new School Street Toolkit

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The intersection where Fruchter was struck by the car

Norman Fruchter died from his injuries after being struck by a car near his home earlier this month. Street safety activists as well as grieving family members and friends gathered yesterday night in Bay Ridge’s Owls Head Park to honor the life of  the legendary education reformer and civil right activist. The vigil was also attended by Senator Andrew Gounardes, Comptroller Brad Lander and Council Member Justin Brannan.

The driver who killed Fruchter was backing up the wrong way

Norman Fruchter died on January 4th after two weeks of pain and suffering. The accident occurred on December 22nd. Fruchter was crossing 68th Street from Owls Head Park to get to Bliss Terrace where he lives, when he was struck by a careless driver who was speeding in reverse the wrong way on 68th street. The driver backed up over him and then allowed the car to roll forward, striking the pedestrian again.

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SST new cardNew York City construction workers and their supervisors who are working on large or complex construction sites will be legally required to have a Site Safety Training Card issued by the NYC DOB Training Connect Platform.

These cards are equipped with a chip and can be scanned to validate their authenticity. This new legal requirement will take effect on February 1st 2023. Workers who have a SST card issued before January 1st 2022 have to contact the facility that provided them with training and ask them to replace their card with a new card that can only be issued through the NYC DOB Training Connect Platform.

Since  2017, after a peak in construction accident fatalities in New York City, a new construction law was adopted in an effort to reduce construction workers injuries and fatalities. The law  requires every hard hat working on a New York City construction site to attend site safety training classes and to carry a card attesting that they did it.  Unfortunately, while every worker is supposed to sit in classrooms for a certain amount of hours and learn about site safety, some unscrupulous contractors didn’t want to allow their workers to spend so much time sitting in classes and just issued fake cards to them. Other workers got fake cards from unscrupulous individuals and unauthorized course providers started to proliferate issuing invalid certificates to workers.

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location of the fatal pedestrian accident in ManhattanA 20 year old pedestrian died after she was struck by a racing hit and run  driver sending her barreling toward a MTA Bus that also struck her. The accident occurred last Thursday around 6:30 pm at the intersection of Third Avenue and 96th Street (see Google Map picture on the left). A witness who was working near by said the impact was so loud that she could heard it. The bus driver stayed at the scene of the accident but the driver of the car that hit her, a black sedan, never stopped. The police are still looking for the driver. The victim was rushed to the hospital but the injuries were so bad that she could not be saved. (read more in the NY Daily News)

Two more pedestrians killed earlier during the week

A senior pedestrian was killed as she was crossing the street in Lower Manhattan, last Monday morning. The accident occurred around 9:30 am. An 83 year old woman was crossing Lafayette Street when the driver of a pick up truck who was making a left from White Street onto Lafayette struck her. The 35 year old driver remained at the scene of the accident and so far has not been charged. A certified nurse assistant who happened to drive by the scene of the accident told the NY Daily news that the victim was too injured for emergency care. Other witnesses mentioned blood everywhere on the sidewalk.  Paramedics still rushed the victim to the hospital but she could not be saved.

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location of the deadly e-bike accident in ManhattanA cyclist riding an e-bike was killed by a hit-and-run driver in Manhattan, early Sunday morning.  38 year old Carlos Garcia Ramos was riding his e-bike East on West 24th Street in Chelsea and had just crossed 7th Avenue when the driver of a black Infinity sedan rear-ended him.  The cyclist who suffered severe head and body trauma was rushed to the hospital but he could not be saved. After the accident occurred, the e-bike got stuck in the wheel of the car. Instead of assisting the cyclist, the driver left his car on the side of the road and fled on foot leaving the cyclist dying in the street. He was later on identified as 24 year old Edgar Maeda-Luca. He was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of the accident.  (Read more in the New York Post).

Crosstown streets are dangerous for cyclists as very few of them have protected bike lanes

In Manhattan while most avenues are now equipped with protected bike lanes, crosstown streets remain dangerous for cyclists.  Bike lanes are still rare on crosstown streets and most of them are unprotected. So far, according to a recent article in Streetopia, out of hundreds of them only 8 crosstown streets have a protected bike lane in Manhattan: 12th Street, 13th Street, 26th Street, 29th Street, 52nd Street, 55th Street, 61st Street, and 62nd Street.  According to NYC Crash Mapper, over the last 12 months and including Carlos Garcia Ramos, out of the 5 people who died in bicycle accidents in Manhattan, 3 of them died in bicycle accidents that occurred on crosstown streets, one of them on an avenue with an unprotected bike lane and another one lost control of his e-bike in a bike-lane:

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orbes named 3 of our attorneys Best NYC Personal injury Layers 2022Anthony Gair, Howard Hershenhorn and Ben Rubinowitz are among the 15 attorneys that have been selected by Forbes Advisor as Best Personal Injury Lawyers in New York City in 2022.

It is an honor for our Personal Injury Law Firm to have multiple attorneys listed in such a prestigious and reliable list. The Forbes editorial team is completely independent and uses strict methodologies to create their “best” rankings.

Ben Rubinowitz, our managing partner, recently secured the highest pain and suffering award ever in NY State history. During his three decades of practice Ben has won 28 verdicts in excess of one million dollars and more than 180 million-dollar settlements. He also lectures all over the country and writes a column for the New York Law Journal on trial advocacy. Ben has been voted “Lawyer of the Year” 4 times by Best Lawyers in America. He served as Chair of the Board of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy and belongs to multiple prestigious organizations including the Inner Circle of Advocates.