New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog

Published on: August 21, 2014

How can hospital and health care providers mitigate the increased risk of medical malpractice related to tubing misconnections during the transition to new ISO connecting standards?

Tubing misconnection error is medical malpractice mostly caused by nursing or hospital negligence that can result in severe personal injury or death of the patient. Misconnections errors have a high risk to happen not only because most patients checking into a hospital are likely to receive at least an IV but also because tubes with different functions can too easily be connected together. Gardiner Harris from the New York Times raised the alarm on this problem in 2010 in the article “U.S. Inaction Lets Look-Alike Tubes Kill Patients”.

To address this issue and prevent these types of medical errors, tubing connector standards have recently been developed through a collaboration of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), clinicians, manufacturers and regulators, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

New connectors are going to start to reach the market during the fourth quarter of 2014 and the transition phase is expected to continue through 2015.

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Published on: August 20, 2014

StarNetworks USA recalls its Magnicubes products because they can cause serious personal injury or death if they are ingested by children or teenagers

By GGCRBHS&M

As part of a settlement of an administrative case based on product defect filed by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in December 2012, the company Star Networks USA announced a voluntary recall of all Magnicubes Spheres sets and Magnicube Cubes sets. These sets contains high power rare earth magnets that create a substantial injury hazard. The CPSC received numerous reports describing teenagers or children who died or suffered serious personal injury requiring surgery after ingesting the small magnets.

To read more about this recall click here

To read more about product liability click here

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Published on: August 20, 2014

Home Health Aid caught by nanny cam abusing 78 year old paralyzed man in Queens, NY

By GGCRBHS&M

A Home Health Aid from Personal Touch Home Care agency was caught on camera abusing a paralyzed senior. The video shows 38 year old Ihor Krutowskyi grabbing the 78 old stroke victim by the nose, violently shaking his head yanking his arm and smacking his hand. The home aid knew about the camera. Before abusing the elderly man, the aid unplugged a cable that was linking the camera to the TV system thinking he had deactivated the device. He only managed to unplug the sound while the camera continued to record the violent abuse. Read more in the New York Daily News

Published on: August 19, 2014

Brooklyn medical students design a simple new device to prevent a women’s death from bleeding during child birth

By GGCRBHS&M

Post-partum hemorraging is the medical term for excessive bleeding after childbirth. It is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the world and accounts for 30% of deaths in Africa and Asia.

Mikail Kalam from Brooklyn, a 25 year old medical student at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in Harlem , New York, and his research team discovered that a condom filled with saline can put pressure on the uterus and reduce or stop the bleeding until the woman is transferred to a hospital. This could be a life saver for millions of women in poor countries including Bangladesh where Mikail is from and where 70% of women give birth at home assisted by midwives.

The device called tampostat, costs only $1.50 to produce. It allows the condom to be securely introduced into the uterus and filled with an amount of saline appropriate to the size of the uterus.

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Published on: August 19, 2014

8 Personal Injury Lawyers from Gair Gair Conason Steigman Mackauf Bloom & Rubinowitz have been selected by their peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© 2015

By GGCRBHS&M

Jeffrey B. Bloom, Seymour Boyers, Anthony H. Gair, Howard S. Hershenhorn, Stephen H. Mackauf, Ben B. Rubinowitz, Ernest R. Steigman and Richard M. Steigman were selected in the following practice areas:

Jeffrey B. Bloom, listed in Best Lawyers since 2007

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Published on: August 18, 2014

Livery driver charged as aggravated unlicensed operator, motor vehicle license violation: no license, right of way violation: left turn and failure to exercise due care after killing bicyclist this morning in Harlem New York

By GGCRBHS&M

A careless limo driver killed a 25 year old cyclist this morning as he was making a left tun at the intersection of Park Avenue and East 108th Street in Manhattan early this morning. According to Brad Aaron from StreetBlog, “For the third time in two years, a driver has killed a cyclist at the same Park Avenue intersection, under the Metro-North viaduct in East Harlem. In addition to recent fatalities, data show that Park Avenue along the viaduct is a hotspot for cyclist injuries.”The victim, 25 year old Jeffison Garcia of Washington Heights suffered severe head trauma and was declared dead at the hospital. The limo driver, 65 year old Nojeem Odunfa, was driving a car properly licensed to Glory Car and Limo Service, a legitimate livery cab company but he has never been licensed with the Taxi and Limousines Commission. The TLC is investigating how and why Nojeem Odunfa was behind the wheels.

Published on: August 18, 2014

Young man killed in Hit and Run Accident in Queens, NYC

By GGCRBHS&M

Early this morning 32 year old Karoll Grzegorczyk was trying to cross a street in Queens, NYC, when he was hit by a dark color Sedan. The driver sped away leaving the man dying on the road. The police are still looking for the driver.

Source: DNAInfo

Published on: August 18, 2014

32 year old woman dies in Brooklyn car accident involving two drunk drivers

By GGCRBHS&M

A young woman was killed in a car accident between two drunk drivers on Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NYC Sunday around 4:00 am. Michelle Migmot was sitting in the back seat of a car driven by 32 year old Herbert Gerrard and another 32 year old woman who suffered minor injuries was sitting in the front passenger seat. As they were turning left onto Troye Ave another car driven by 32 year old Richard Roman Santos crashed into them. Both drivers were arrested and charged with vehicular manslaughter and drunk driving. Additionally Gerrard was charged with driving with a suspended license. Michelle Migmot lived two streets away from the location of the crash. Read more in the New York Daily News.

Eastern Parkway is a dangerous corridor where many car crashes happened previously. It was recently turned into a “Slow Zone” and the authorized speed was reduced to 25 mph as part of the Zero Vision Initiative to reduce traffic fatalities and personal injuries in New York City.

NYC%20Crashmapper%20Eastern%20Parkway.jpg
Picture source: NYC Crashmapper Car crashes statistics between August 2011 and February 2014

Published on: August 14, 2014

New documents indicate that the leader of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance, an anti New York Scaffold Law lobby pressured the SUNY’s Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute to incorporate changes to a study to increase its estimates of the cost and impact of the Law

By GGCRBHS&M

In April, we wrote about a controversial study related to the New York Scaffold Law that steered debate between the Construction Industry and Construction workers advocates. The study was published by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York and funded by the Lawsuits Reform Alliance of New York, an organization lobbying against laws protectingworkers in favor of the construction industry and other corporate interests.

The study drew so much controversy that Freedom of Information Law requests were filed to find out if the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute was pressured by the lobby during its research or after the release of the report.

Last week the Institute produced the draft report that researchers submitted to Tom Stebbins, the leader of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance as well as as email correspondence between them.

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Published on: August 14, 2014

Following two recent pedestrian fatalities, CB7 Transportation committee approves the NYC DOT proposal to improve pedestrian safety on West End Ave

By GGCRBHS&M

61 year old Jean Chambers died on July 10th after being struck by a driver making a left turn at the intersection of of West 95th Street and West End (see previous blog). Earlier this year 9 year old Cooper Stock was crossing the street in the crosswalk and holding his dad’s hand when a taxi turning from 97th Street onto West End Ave struck them. His dad only sustained minor injuries but the young boy died (see previous blog). 96 pedestrians, 41 cyclists and 160 motor vehicles occupants have been injured in traffic accidents on West End between W 75th Street and W 106th Street from 2008 to 2012. West End Ave is dangerous because it is a large 4 lane avenue located in a residential area with schools and seniors center that handles a lot of traffic entering and exiting the Henry Hudson Parkway between 95th and 97th street.

To calm traffic and make it safer for the residents, the Community Board 7 Transportation Committee accepted this week a Road Diet proposal form the NYC Department of Transportation. The proposal includes the reduction of the number of lanes from 4 to two with turn bays, flush median and several pedestrian islands but no bike lanes. The proposal also bans two left turns where traffic exit and enter the Henry Hudson Parkway:Northbound left at W 97th St and Southbound left at W 95th St. The next step is to get the endorsement of the CDB7 full board meeting on September 2nd.

Download the complete DOT Proposal

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