The massive fire that d
destroyed a 19th-century Serbian Orthodox cathedral in Manhattan is being investigated. The fire started Sunday a little bit before 7:00 pm at the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava, on West 25th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues. The orthodox Easter services had ended a little bit before and the church was empty. The roof which was made of wood was one of NY’s largest Gothic timber hammer beam roofs. It was completely destroyed. The rest of the building is structurally sound according to the preliminary inspection of the department of buildings. Read more in the Gothamist
Hit and run driver who stole a SUV, killed a pedestrian and injured two other people in NYC is still at large
A pedestrian died and two other people were injured in a car accident in NYC on Sunday. The accident occurred at the intersection of E. 94th Street and Avenue K in Canarsie, Brooklyn. The driver of a SUV struck another car, lost control of the vehicle that slammed into two pedestrians waiting to cross the road. The pedestrians were a couple living nearby. The wife, 51 year old, Chooi Tan suffered severe injury. The couple as well as the driver of the car hit by the SUV were all transported to the hospital. Chooi Tan died at the hospital while her husband and the driver were in stable condition.
The driver of the SUV and a passenger fled the scene of the accident by foot. The police are still looking for them. The SUV was reported stolen last Friday.
Read more in the NY Daily News
Should doctors attend a mandatory training program to prescribe opiates?
The fear of providing lawyers with new weapons for medical malpractice lawsuits and the idea that the FDA wants to tell doctors how to practice medicine are among the many reasons why most physicians are still opposed to mandatory training for prescription of painkillers . In 2012 a recommendation by an expert panel to implement such training was rejected by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The American Medical Association was also against the recommendation.
However since 2012 the opiate addiction problem in the US grew so big that the government is looking at all possible solutions to fight this crisis. The role of the doctor is again taking center stage as, Today and tomorrow, the FDA is convening a new panel of experts to discuss the possibility of mandatory training for physicians prescribing opiates (see briefing document for the meeting).
The Obama administration and even some drug manufacturers have now stated that they wareere in favor of such mandatory training but other organizations such as the American Medical Association Task Force to Reduce Prescription Opioid Abuse are still against it.
Johnson & Johnson just lost $55 million in a product liability lawsuit
Johnson and Johnson failed to warned about the risk of ovarian cancer for women using its talc powder for genital use. Yesterday the company was order to pay $55 million damages to a female consumer who blamed her ovarian cancer on the use of of the famous baby powder for genital use. This is the second product liability lawsuit that Johnson & Johnson has lost for failure to warn about the risk of ovarian cancer. In February a similar lawsuit brought by the family of a woman who died from ovarian cancer at 62 years old led to a $72 million verdict against the company. J&J is now facing more than a thousand similar lawsuits.
The use of talc for feminine genital hygiene has been a controversial subject for decades. In 1971, British researchers looked at ovarian tumors under a microscope and found that 13 out of 10 were embedded with talc. A more recent study by Dr Daniel Kramer, a gynecologist and Harvard Medical School Professor found that women who used talc powder on their genitals had a 33% higher risk of ovarian cancer than women who didn’t use talc on their genitals.
So far 20 studies have found a relation between the use of talc for feminine hygiene purposes but other studies also found no association.
Multiple bicyclists were injured after they collided with the motorcycle leading a popular NYC bike race
Several bicyclists were injured in an accident with a motorcycle in Brooklyn, NYC. The bicyclists were all participating in the the popular Red Hook Criterium 30k bike race in Brooklyn. The motorcyclist who was supposed to ride ahead of the race stalled near the start of the men’s final race. A bicyclist struck the motorcyclist and then a second one obstructing the narrow passage which competitors were riding through, resulting in a massive pile-up of dozens of bicyclists (see video). Seven bike riders were taken to the hospital to be treated for non- life threatening injuries. The men’s final was restarted shortly after the accident.
Read more in the NY Daily News
Department of Health blames negligent New York hospital for medical malpractice after patient caught fire during surgery
A fire erupted in a New York hospital operating room while a patient was having surgery. The accident happened in 2014 at NYU Langone Medical Center but the results of the investigation were only recently released by the New York Department of Health. The report was obtained by the NY Post under a Freedom of Information Law request. In the report State investigators indicate that the hospital lacked adequate safety procedures to prevent surgical fire. NYU Langone Medical Center also was not conforming with standard practices to protect patients from these type of fires.
Additional medical malpractice was also committed by the surgeon and the anesthesiologist who failed to communicate proprely about which instrument would be used by the surgeon and which gas would be used by the anesthesiologist to check if there was incompatibility or danger. According to the DOH report the surgeon used an instrument that sparked a fire in presence of the oxygen used by the anesthesiologist. The patient was injured but the the extent of the injury was redacted in the report received by the NY Post.
After the accident happened at the beginning of December 2014 the hospital didn’t act to improve safety measures to prevent patients from being injured in a similar manner. It was only after the the Department of Health inspection, at the end of the same month, that the hospital instituted new safety measures related to operating room fires. The measures included changing the oxygen delivery method for surgeries posing a high risk of fire.
After another Metro-North train accident, NY Governor Andrew Cuomo asks for increased security at rail crossings
A Metro North train crashed into a car in Bedford Hills NY last Wednesday. The driver of the car was crossing the Green Lane railroad crossing when the car stalled. As the crossing gate started to go down she immediately realized what would happen next. She and her passenger quickly escaped from the car before it got hit by the train. Thankfully nobody was injured in the crash. The service on the line was disrupted for thousands of passengers. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo who has been campaigning for the Federal Government and the MTA to improve grade crossings reiterate its call for better safety measures. Read more in the Lohud
Picture: an example of grade crossing courtesy of Wikipedia
To prevent and reduce traffic accidents related to distracted driving , causing injury and death, New York legislator wants to introduce a textalyser
In New York City there are around 3,500 motor vehicle accidents related to distracted driving every month. It is the main cause of accidents in the city. Many New York drivers consider their cars like a second office and handle all kinds of businesses that require using their phone while they are behind the wheel. Despite multiple campaigns to try to convince drivers not to text and drive, a recent At&T survey indicates that Americans continue to illegally use their mobile phone while they are driving. They are not only texting but they are also engaging in social media, surfing the web and even having video chats.
The increase in car accidents related to texting and driving can be somewhat compared to the drinking and driving crisis in the 80ies. Several road safety advocates who have previously been involved in campaigns to reduce the number of accidents related to drunk driving are now working on campaigns to reduce distracted driving. These advocates believe that distracted driving so far hasn’t been treated as seriously as drunk driving and that more needs to be done including at the legislative level.
In New York, lawmakers are considering introducing a textalyser. Just like the breathalyzer is able to check alcohol blood level, the textalyser is be able to check if the driver was texting behind the wheel. According to lawmakers the textalyzer does not access private data but only checks if the driver was using the phone to text, email or do anything else illegal under New York’s hands free driving laws.
How to avoid medical malpractice and negligently performed surgeries in complicated procedures?
Too many patients requiring complex surgery are suffering the devastating consequences of medical malpractice committed by inexperienced surgeons who negligently performed the surgery. Some medical experts believe that there should be some type of legal way to prevent patients from undergoing high risk surgeries with inexperienced surgeons in hospitals that handle a low volume of patients. In a recent article in the Washington Post, Sandra G. Boodman writes about a long-running battle known as the volume-outcome debate among medical experts. This debate was recently re-activated by the decision of John Hopkins, Dartmouth-Hitchcock and University of Michigan to require surgeons practicing specific types of high risk surgery to meet an annual threshold to be able to perform the procedure. In her article Boodman takes the example of a pancreatic cancer patient who suffered a botched Whipple surgery after an inexperience surgeon convinced him she could do it. The patient had to undergo another surgery where a surgeon specializing in Whipple surgery successfully treated him. Boodman also refers to several studies demonstrating that in cases of complex procedures patients undergoing surgery at hospitals with a high volume of these types of surgeries had a much lesser risk to die than those in hospitals performing a low volume of the same procedures. The author also discusses the difficulty for patients to find information about how many times the surgeon performed the risky procedure and what is his or her success rate is.
Read the complete article here
Stop work and violation issued at New York construction site after crane accident
A hydraulic crane crashed into a building in New York yesterday. The accident occurred at 133 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Witnesses living in the neighborhood told the NY Daily News that they had been worrying about the crane for a few days. They mentioned that the crane was “funny looking”. Before crashing into a window of the building’s 6th floor the crane slowly tipped for two hours. After the accident, the FDNY received a request from the DOB to conduct a structural stability inspection. The results show the stability of the building was satisfactory but officials still ordered tenants from the top floors to evacuate their apartments.
The NYC Department of Building issued a stop work order for the construction site. In the past the construction site was hit with several complaints and violations. They have all been resolved or dismissed with the exception of a violation related to the elevator. The contractor, Jepol Construction, was also hit with a violation for “failure to safeguard the site”.
Picture courtesy of Wikipedia shows the type of crane that crashed into the building
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