New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog

Published on: December 3, 2013

Medical Malpractice Prevention: Telemedicine Consultations help reduce Medication Errors for seriously ill and injured children in rural emergency departments

telemedicine%20conultation.jpg The risk of physician-related ED medication errors among seriously ill and injured children in rural EDs can be significantly reduced with telemedicine consultations according to a study published in the current issue of Pediatrics, the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The study looked at 234 seriously ill and injured children presenting to 8 rural EDs with access to pediatric critical care physicians from an academic children’s hospital. 73 received telemedicine consultations, 85 received telephone consultations, and 76 received no specialist consultations. Medications for patients who received telemedicine consultations had significantly fewer physician-related errors (3.4%) than medications for patients who received telephone consultations (10.8%) or no consultations (12.5%).

Published on: December 3, 2013

One man died and another was injured by a young drunk driver in a car accident in Queens New York

By GGCRBHS&M

An alleged drunk driver killed a man and injured another in a car accident that happened early Saturday morning in Queens New York. A 23 year old driver crashed his car into another car driven by 39 year old Jimmy Sinisi. The impact was so strong that Sinisi was crushed in his car and died at the hospital. The passenger was injured but in stable condition. The 23 year old driver appeared to be drunk but he refused a Breathalyzer test. He was taken to the Hospital in critical condition where his blood was being drawn to test for alcohol.

Product Liability: New pilot tool helps Consumer Product Safety Commission to identify high-risk shipments of consumer products arriving at U.S. ports of entry and make better decisions on which ones to inspect

By GGCRBHS&M

To prevent dangerous and defective products from reaching American consumers, the CPSC has been using a state-of-the-art risk assessment tool pilot called risk assessment methodology (RAM) for its port surveillance. As a result, the screenings led to the identification of about 680 shipments containing violative or defective products, totaling about 6.1 million units for the first half of the 2013 fiscal year. About 600 of the product shipments stopped were children’s products totaling about 1.2 million units. This compares to approximately 450 product shipments stopped with a total of 900,000 units during the same period in the 2012 fiscal year.

Case study: Medical Malpractice related to Electronic Medical Record Systems

By GGCRBHS&M

Electronic%20Medical%20Record%20Malpractice.jpg A doctor can commit medical malpractice if he is not properly trained to use the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system. In a recent case study Web Morbidity and Mortality looks at the case of an epileptic patient who experienced temporary toxicity because of a medication error linked to improper use of EMR.

After being treated in a hospital for seizures, a patient was discharged with an outpatient plan that was to begin phenytoin 500 mg once daily. The resident doctor who prepared the prescription was not familiar with the Electronic Medical Record and failed to notice that the EMR default frequency for phenytoin was “TID” which means 3 times a day. Because the dose was much bigger than normally prescribed an alert was triggered by the EMR but this alert was overridden by the resident doctor who also seemed to suffer from alert fatigue.

Read the complete case and commentary on WebM&M.

Published on: December 2, 2013

Post-intensive care syndrome may affect 80% of ICU survivors and patients recovering from sepsis are the most at risk

By GGCRBHS&M

A temporary brain injury that is linked to later problems with memory and thinking may affect patients that have been recently released from an intensive care unit. According to a recent article by Laura Landro in the Wall Street Journal, 80% of ICU survivors have some form of cognitive or brain dysfunction and some never recover. Among the most at risk are the patients who have Sepsis. In her article, Laura Landor looks at the most recent research in this field and how hospitals are starting to change standard ICU practices such as giving patients breaks from constant ventilation, avoiding over-sedation, monitoring them closely for signs of delirium and getting them out of bed to walk as soon as feasible.

Published on: December 2, 2013

Community Board #5 Transportation Committee unanimously votes for a street study to prevent car accidents involving pedestrians and bicyclists on Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Midtown New York

By GGCRBHS&M

In busy Midtown Manhattan, car accidents especially sidewalk jumping crashes have caused serious injuries and sometimes the death of innocent pedestrians and bicyclists. Last summer a British tourist lost a leg when a cab jumped the curb on 49th street and six ave. (see previous post).
A campaign led by “Transportation Alternatives” to improve walking and biking on Fifth and Sixth Ave has reached its first milestone with Community Board 5′s transportation committee advancing a resolution asking DOT for a complete streets study. The full board is expected to vote on December 12th.

4 people died and 63 suffered personal injury in a train accident that happened this morning in New York

By GGCRBHS&M

A New York Metro-North train derailed this morning. 4 people died in the accident and 63 suffered personal injury including 11 critical injuries and 6 serious injuries.

The derailment happened in the Bronx where the Hudson and Harlem rivers meet. It is a dangerous area as the rails make a sharp curve. A previous accident happened at this location when last July 10 cars of a CSX freight train carrying trash derailed.

“That is a dangerous area on the track just by design,” Governor Andrew Cuomo told CNN after touring the site. “The trains are going about 70 miles per hour coming down the straight part of the track. They slow to about 30 miles per hour to make that sharp curve … where the Hudson River meets the Harlem River and that is a difficult area of the track.”

Continue reading →

Published on: November 29, 2013

The new seat belt rule for new motorcoaches and large buses will increase passengers safety, sadly it doesn’t apply to school buses

By GGCRBHS&M

Rollovers account for 60% of all fatal large bus accidents. When a large bus or a motorcoach rolls over, passengers have a high risk to die or to be severely injured after being ejected from their seat (see graph). Since 1968, the National Transportation Safety Board has been advocating for motorcoaches to be equipped with seat belts to reduce the number of wrongful deaths and personal injuries but the bus manufacturers have been effectively lobbying against it all these years because of the additional cost involved.

Last week this debate was partially resolved when the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a new regulation requiring new motorcoaches and large buses to be equipped with lap and shoulder seat belts for each passenger and driver seat starting November 2016.

Unfortunately, the regulation doesn’t apply to school buses, existing commercial buses and the majority of public transit buses in cities.

Continue reading →

Published on: November 29, 2013

4 people died in 3 accidents after being struck by vehicles between 5pm and 5:30pm the night before Thaksgiving in New York

By GGCRBHS&M

The epidemic number of wrongful death related to pedestrians and bicyclists hit by vehicles reached a new high on Wednesday night as 4 people were killed in an half an hour time span in New York City. A man who was riding his bike in Queens died after being hit by a truck whose driver fled. A an 88-year-old woman crossing Ave. C in Manhattan was killed after being struck by a Con Ed truck and two women were killed when a car hit them as they crossed Forest Hill Road in Staten Island.

Two people suffered severe personal injury after the explosion of an air compressor caused a building to collapse in the Bronx New York

By GGCRBHS&M

A father and his son were seriously injured after an auto body shop completely collapsed in the Bronx.The explosion of an air compressor inside the body shop was mentioned by the FDNY as the probable cause of the collapse.