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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To protect your loved one from potential abuse or neglect, when choosing a nursing home it is important to carefully consider your options. The Best Nursing Homes ranking is a trustable source for information that provides data and information on care, safety, health inspections, staffing and more for nearly every nursing facility in the U.S. Each facility’s profile displays health and fire violations, performance in important clinical categories and how much time nursing staff spends with residents. The ranking for 2014 was published Yesterday.

210 New York City area Nursing homes received a global overall five star ranking. The ranking is then divided into 3 categories: Health Inspection, Nurse Staffing and Quality Measures.

Very few nursing homes in the New York City area were actually able to obtain five stars in all categories.

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Medically unfit CDL drivers can cause dangerous bus and truck accidents putting innocent people at risk of serious personal injury or death. Even though commercial bus and truck drivers are required to take a medical test every two years, the actual rules are too loose and open the door to all types of abuses. For example the terrible accident between a truck and a school bus that happened in New Jersey last year was caused by a medically unfit school bus driver (see our previous post).

To prevent such tragedy from happening again, starting May 21st, all bus and truck drivers will be required to be examined only by a Certified Medical Examiner. Certified Medical Examiners have been specifically trained and successfully passed a test that qualifies them to assess if a CDL driver is medically fit to perform his job. The FMCSA maintains a map of Registered Medical Examiners that drivers can use to find a nearby examiner.

This new system will help prevent fraud and set the stage for the next step in which the medical record will be electronically accessible and automatically integrated to the driver’s motor vehicle record.

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A drunk driver who clipped a tractor trailer truck on a New York Highway and continued on his way after the accident was followed by three concerned drivers who were able to stop and trap him until the police arrived. The good Samaritans said they were concerned that the intoxicated man would cause another car accident and kill innocent drivers.

Read more in the New York Daily News

 

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Last week the plaintiff’s lawyer in a now settled product liability lawsuit against GM that showed that the car maker knew about the defective ignition switch before the cars were sold, sent a letter to the NHTSA asking them to require GM to explain why it only had recalled half of the cars affected by an ignition switch issue that previously led to the death of his former client (Melton v. General Motors et. al.,).

In a previous blog we also questioned this recall.

Today General Motors announced that it was doubling the size of last weeks recall to include all models with a defective ignition switch. In addition to the 2005-2007 Chevrolet Cobalts and Pontiac G5 recalled on Feb. 13, GM said it will recall another 748,000 cars in the U.S., including 2003-2007 Saturn Ions, 2006-2007 Chevrolet HHRs and 2006-2007 Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky models.

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Cover_MedMysteries0225%281%29.jpgOften doctors fail to diagnose common variable immune deficiency (CVID). It takes an average of 6 years for patients to receive a correct CVID diagnosis because it is a rare form of immune deficiency that mimics other diseases and causes a variety of disparate ailments. In a recent article in the Washington Post, Sandra G. Boodman describes the case of a woman who was submitted to numerous tests before being properly diagnosed with CVID. The woman’s oldest brother who is also a physician was diagnosed earlier with the same disorder and she kept telling the doctors and nurses about it but no one listened to her. Finally she was able to arrange a phone call between her brother and her hematologist. The hematologist listened to the brother because he was a doctor and then things started to move in the right direction. She started to receive infusions, the only way to treat CVID and the platelet count started to increase. After a few months she was in remission. She then saw two specialists who confirmed she had CVID a condition that so far has no cure and requires painful monthly infusions.

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Stephen%20Mackauf.pngOur partner, New York Medical Malpractice Lawyer Stephen Mackauf will be speaking at the New York City Session of the New York State Bar Association CLE program “Medical Malpractice Litigation: Technique, Strategy and Procedure” on Friday, March 28, 2014.

Lawyers new to medical malpractice litigation seeking to expand their practice as well as experienced lawyers looking to hone their trial skills are welcome to attend this seminar.

Topics include:

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To discuss the implementation of Vision Zero to reduce pedestrian injuries and deaths related to traffic accidents, New York State Senator Brad Holyman held a “Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Town Hall” at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice tonight. See below for more info.
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Manhattan-DA-Cy-Vance.jpgManhattan District Attorney Cy Vance cares about traffic accidents in the city and believes district attorneys should be integrated into the Vision Zero Task Force. All 5 New York City DAs were invited to a City Council Vision Zero Hearing yesterday but only Cy Vance was present. Vance came equipped with a list of solid recommendations that were presented by his Chief Assistant DA Karen Friedman Agnifilo.

The DA believes that prosecutors would be able to make better decisions in holding reckless motorists responsible if they were more involved. The DAs support could also be useful in implementing initiatives that require action by Albany.

Read more in Street Blog

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Many students and parents have come close to being hit by a car on East 109th street between Second and Third Avenues in Manhattan, New York where five schools are located. Parents say that the street is dangerous and that motorists speeding have often come close to hitting pedestrians.
A petition has been launched to ask for the installation of a speed bump on the street to slow down the traffic.

Read more in the New York Daily News

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Low rated New york City nursing homes accumulate complaints of abuse and neglect and little is being done to improve the situation. Unlike other states, New York does not have a mandated minimum staff ratio or a minimum amount of hours that nursing staff is required to devote to nursing home residents. These staffing deficiencies can lead to horrific situations of nursing home abuse and neglect. The Gotham Gazette recently published five articles that looked in depth at the inspection reports, complaints and court reports for five of the lowest rated nursing homes in the city.

The Mosholu Parkway Nursing and Rehabilitation Center is so understaffed that it threatens the health and well-being of its residents. A few years ago, a resident who was supposed to be supervised when he smoked put his wheelchair bed sheet on fire and was engulfed by flames for 4 minutes until the fire was extinguished. He died from his injuries after a year of pain and suffering. Physical abuse of residents by other residents is also common at this nursing home where residents with violent behavior are not properly monitored and managed. Inspections in recent years show serious deficiencies in healthcare as well as 12% of residents suffering from bedsores, double the national average. The place is badly managed and disorganized.
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