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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skierSki accidents occur every winter season in NY State resulting in injuries and sometimes even deaths. Skiing is a hazardous activity. Most of the time injured skiers are  responsible for their injuries. However in some cases, when the ski accident injury is caused  by the negligence of others such as resort operators or other skiers acting recklessly, an injured skier might be able to obtain compensation for his or her injuries.

In New York where skiing is a major recreational sport and a major industry, there is a “ski law”: Article 18 – (18-101 – 18-108) SAFETY IN SKIING CODE  requires ski facilities to to be proprely maintained and skiers to conduct themselves adequately to minimize the risk of injuries.

To prevent accidents and injuries ski operators have the following duties:

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Medical malpractice lawyer Ben RubinowitzOur managing partner, Ben Rubinowitz, will be speaking about medical malpractice and what constitutes “Informed Consent” at the 46th Winter Urologic Forum, sponsored by Columbia University, University of California, Davis, and Vanderbilt University, that will take place from January 14th to 18th at the Manor Vail Lodge in Vail, Colorado.

This meeting will summarize for practicing urologists, urologic trainees, and other interested professionals, new concepts in diagnosis and treatment for conditions including local and advanced prostate, renal and bladder cancer, lower urinary tract symptoms and BPH, women’s health, overactive bladder, surgical treatment for stress incontinence, andrology and men’s health, stone disease and medical malpractice. At the completion of the meeting, urologists will have been exposed to new therapies, areas of controversy, methods to optimize patient care and maintain patient centricity of care delivery.

For more info or to register click here

 

 

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Personal Injury Attorney Ben RubinowitzOur managing partner, Ben Rubinowitz, will be part of a panel of expert litigators who will explore the latest issues involved in federal court practice, along with commentary by Judicial Chair Hon. Gregory H. Woods, SDNY, in a webinar organized by the New York County Lawyers Association, Federal Courts Committee.  “Winning Cases in Federal Court” is a continuing legal education webinar that will take place tomorrow January 11th in the evening and will continue next Tuesday January 18th, in the evening as well.

Tomorrow evening will focus on “the Trial” and the following Tuesday evening will focus on “Discovery, Depositions and Experts”

AGENDA — DAY 1:– Commencing an Action in Federal Court– Responding to a Complaint in Federal Court– Seeking and Opposing Summary Judgment– Trial of a Civil Case in Federal Court– Overview of Post Trial Procedure: Motions; Commencing an Appeal; Enforcement of JudgmentsAGENDA — DAY 2– Overview of Discovery Methods and Motions– Non-Party Discovery– Electronic Discovery

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KIPP scholl where the sexual abused occurredA teacher at KIPP NYC who allegedly groomed and sexually abused a female student for years was recently arrested and the school’s principal was fired for not proprely handling the matter.

39 year old Cesar Sanchez, a science teacher at KIPP Washington Heights Middle School, started to make lewd and sexually suggestive comments to the victim when she was in fourth grade and became more and more aggressive in his behavior. By the time the girl was in seventh grade, he was groping her.  The abuse stopped when the class was remote during the covid19 lockdown and started again when students started to attend school in person again. According to the complaint, Sanchez touched the student’s breast and pushed his crotch against her. The abuse was discovered after another female student complained to her parents that Sanchez blurred student-teacher boundaries by asking her to be friends on Instagram which made her uncomfortable. The parents reached out to school officials and during a conversation with them the girl told them that she had heard Sanchez had been behaving inappropriately with another girl.

Sanchez was considered an excellent teacher and was the recipient of the 2018 New York Family “Blackboard Award”. He is married to another KIPP school principal and has two children.  He was arrested and arraigned on December 23rd and charged with sexual conduct against a child and endangering child welfare.

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carbon monoxide danger signEvery year in the US, thousands of people are injured and an average 70 die from exposure to carbon monoxide after using a portable generator. With more and more power shortages caused by climate events, the number of deaths caused by dangerous carbon monoxide emissions from generators is on the rise in America. Last February in Texas, after a major power shortage, 1,400 people were treated in hospitals for carbon monoxide poisoning and 17 died.

One portable generator can emit the same amount of carbon monoxide as 450 cars together

According to a recent investigation by ProPublica,  the portable generator manufacturers are well aware of the danger of their products and over the years they have been resisting multiple attempts by the Consumer Product Safety Commission to require that their devices emit less carbon monoxide.

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Hospital PatientMost medical devices used by hospitals are legacy devices that are still operating on Windows 7 that Microsoft no longer supports.  Manufactured at a time when cybersecurity was not a preoccupation, these devices can now easily be hacked and potentially be dangerous to patients. As a result, on top of safeguarding traditional IT assets, hospitals now have to figure out a way to secure tens of thousands of legacy devices from hundreds of manufacturers connected to their network.  It is a real headache for most hospitals and healthcare organizations as many of them do not even keep an inventory of their medical devices. According to a recent study only 36% of healthcare organizations know where their medical devices are.

While some devices that can cause fatal injuries, such as insuline pumps or pacemakers, are being actively monitored and recalled by the FDA, it is estimated that all other medical devices have an average of more than 6 vulnerabilities per device and that 40% of devices used by hospitals are at the end-of-life stage and do not have security patches or upgrades available.

Not surprisingly, FDA regulations in this field are lagging with the agency only saying both hospitals and manufacturers are responsible for protecting devices from cyber attacks. Hospitals are pointing fingers at manufacturers for not providing the necessary support and want the FDA to mandate lifetime support of medical devices by manufacturers.  So far, the further the FDA went was to publish post-market guidance for medtechs on what they should do to secure their products. This is not enough as hospitals find themselves dealing with thousands of devices that they are supposed not only to track but also patch to prevent cyberattacks. With the ongoing Covid19 crisis, hospitals are unable to handle this task and as a result they become increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks that could injure or kill patients.

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NY pileup due to icy conditionsFreezing rain caused dozens of car accidents around New York City and in the tri-state area on Wednesday morning. While accidents resulted mostly in pile ups and damages to cars at least one man died and multiple people were injured.

Driver who exited from his car fatally hit by other car sliding on ice

The fatal car accident occurred on a ramp connecting the eastbound Cross Country Parkway to the northbound Bronx River Parkway in Mount Vernon.  After multiple vehicles collided on the ramp due to icy conditions, a man whose vehicle was stopped, got out of his car and was fatally hit by another vehicle that slid on the ice. The passenger of the same vehicle attempted CPR on him and so did the emergency personnel at the scene but the man could not be saved.

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storm drains can be deadlyWhen people died in flooding that occurs after heavy rain there is usually not a lot of information about the cause of the death except for “the person drowned”. However a recent investigation by ProPublica highlights the danger of the actual drainage system in the US. Giant storm drains with no grates have been constantly “swallowing people” during heavy rains and flooding.

A recent case occurred in New Jersey last September. A couple who was driving back from a visit at a North Jersey mall was driving back at night on September 1st when the remains of Hurricane Ida abated in New York and New Jersey. Extremely heavy rain left motor vehicles stranded on the road. The couple, like many other motorists, decided to abandoned their car, thinking it would be safer to walk in the muddy water and find a safe place to stay until a family member could pick them up. As they were walking in the muddy water, they suddenly were sucked under water into what looked like a large black vacuum. The woman, Kavya Mandly was able to grab a bridge railing and did not get sucked in but her fiancée, Dhanush Reddy who was only holding her hand, was not as lucky and disappeared in the drain. Reddy had just been sucked into a 3-foot wide storm drain. As the police arrived they started to look at the exit of the drain. They found another 18 year old man hanging in a tree who also had been pulled in a drain. He was still alive. Reddy was not as lucky and was found dead in a wooded area the following day, blocks away from the entrance of the drain.

Unfortunately Reddy is not the only one that has died after being pulled in a storm drain. Stories like this one are actually quite common but cities and communities are reluctant to put grates in front of these dangerous drains because of the cost of not only installing them but also keeping them clean so they are still functional when a storm occurs.

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patient transition can result in medical errorIn a recent study analyzing 5,270 medical malpractice claims related to medical events occurring between  2017 and 2019, Coverys, a company providing Medical malpractice Insurance, found that 210 of them were medical malpractice related to negligent care transition that led to an alleged medical error. While medical malpractice related to care transition only represents a small share of  all medical malpractice, they have a higher risk of resulting in severe injuries to patients and trigger claims that will result in payments of verdicts and settlements.

When a patient transitions from one healthcare provider to another, it can be difficult for the healthcare providers to proprely collaborate. Miscommunication can occur not only between people but also in the electronic medical records of the patient. Early or rushed discharge as well as not proprely informing the patient and his family about the transition process can also lead to medical errors.

Here are some of the most important findings of this study: