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.

Articles Tagged with wrongful death

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courage-to-intervene-promise-wsl-nrsf-final3This week is National Passenger Safety Week. Initiated by We Save Lives and the National Road Safety Foundation, the National Passenger Safety Campaign is a groundbreaking movement. It unites over 60 organizations in a common belief: passengers must actively participate in ensuring their safety and that of others. The campaign’s message is simple yet powerful – encourage passengers to “SPEAK UP” against reckless driving.

A glance at the statistics from 2020 is sobering

  • Approximately 16% of all traffic fatalities were passengers.
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Misdiagnosis can lead to serious harm and deathMisdiagnosis of diseases and medical conditions is leading to an estimated 800,000 cases of permanent disability or death each year according to a recent study published by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute Center for Diagnostic Excellence, in partnership with researchers from the Risk Management Foundation of Harvard Medical Institutions Inc.

Misdiagnosis is not a mere statistic; it is a human tragedy that affects hundreds of thousands of patients and their families every year. The report reveals that approximately 371,000 people lose their lives, while another 424,000 suffer from permanent disabilities annually due to misdiagnosis. These disabilities encompass brain damage, blindness, loss of limbs or organs, and even metastasized cancer. Behind these numbers are real individuals whose lives have been irreversibly altered or lost due to medical negligence.

The Top Culprits: Stroke and Other Common Diseases

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pregnancy medical malpracticeThe alarming rise in maternal deaths in the United States has become a pressing issue that demands immediate attention. According to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the number of individuals dying from pregnancy-related causes has more than doubled over the past two decades. This devastating trend affects all racial and ethnic groups, with the worst outcomes observed among Black women, Native American and Alaska Native people. As medical malpractice lawyers representing victims of birth related injuries and deaths, we are deeply concerned about the persistently high maternal mortality rates and the disparities that continue to place certain populations at greater risk.

The study highlights the detrimental impact of structural racism and the historical lack of access to adequate healthcare services on maternal mortality rates

The disparities in healthcare outcomes are further exacerbated for populations that have been historically underserved. Black women, in particular, have consistently experienced the highest maternal death rates, which have more than doubled over the past two decades. Similarly, the rates for Native American and Alaska Native people have tripled during the same period.

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GSHA pedestrian fatalities reportThe alarming increase in pedestrian fatalities in the United States has reached its highest level since 1981, according to a recent report released by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA).

The GHSA report reveals that in 2022, at least 7,508 pedestrian died marking a staggering 77% increase since 2010. This tragic statistic signifies not only a significant loss of life but also a growing safety disparity for pedestrians compared to other traffic-related fatalities, which saw a 25% increase over the same period.

Multiple factors contribute to this escalating crisis. Dangerous driving behaviors, inadequate infrastructure, and the prevalence of larger and heavier vehicles all play significant roles in the rising number of pedestrian fatalities. Regrettably, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic witnessed a surge in dangerous driving practices, which have persisted and further jeopardized the safety of pedestrians.

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US PS truck contractors are danegrousLast June, 5 people including a baby were killed in a truck accident involving a truck carrying mail for the U.S. postal service. Investigation found that the truck driver who didn’t have a valid commercial license, got distracted and slammed into a car as traffic was slowing down. An entire family was killed. The truck was carrying U.S. postal mail and belonged to Caminantes Trucking from Long Beach, California. Caminantes is one of the many truck contractors that USPS hire to carry its mail across the country.  Investigation of the accident by the DOT indicates that Caminantes has a history of similar violations over the last 10 years.

Five months after the crash, as USPS  continued to work  with Caminantes, a 9News tv investigation looked back at the accident and at the truck company’s troubled past. The investigation found that the truck driver was travelling at 75 mph when it crashed into the back of the car that had slowed down because of traffic and was moving at only 5mph. 9News also checked the federal records of Caminantes and found out that the company was involved in two other deadly crashes over the past two years. 3 drivers were caught without valid commercial licenses. The company also had several violations for drug and alcohol testing. After the deadly accident that killed the family, the company was fined $21,460 by the Federal Motor Carriers Association but continued to carry the mail for the U.S. Postal service. The driver responsible for the accident was not charged and Caminantes continued to operate as well.

Finally after the tv investigation, USPS announced it was reviewing its contract and relationship with Caminantes and said in February that it would stop to work with the truck contractor.

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map of crash fatalitiesAn estimated 42,915 people died in crashes in the US in 2021.Traffic accident fatalities which had been on a declining trend for 30 years started to increase since 2020. Last year, the US DOT announced that it would apply the Vision Zero concept nationally to tackle this problem.

New Yorkers are familiar with Vision Zero which started in 2014. The program was successful at the beginning but got out of hand since the Covid19 crisis.  The program was  good at identifying dangerous corridors and areas that needed improvements but the implementations of safety measures in dangerous areas, especially those  located in historically disadvantaged communities remained too often unrealized. As a result, most road fatalities in New York City  still occur in dangerous areas that had been identified as such almost 10 years ago.  Just like in 2014 in New York City, the US DOT did some outstanding in-depth research and developed amazing interactive maps to point out dangerous areas in each community of the entire country.

The work of the DOT is extremely impressive:

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construction workers have a high risk of fatalityDespite OSHA’s efforts, the death rate on construction sites in the US has not declined for the last 10 years, questioning the effectiveness of the agency.

While there is no doubt that OSHA is doing a great job developing and implementing safety standards, it does not have enough resources to proprely inspect jobsites. Additionnally fines are not only too low to dissuade bad actors but also most of the time they are not being paid and OSHA has little resources to go after those who don’t pay. Also on the top of deaths purely related to construction accidents, the opioid crisis and suicides are also taking a toll on construction workers.

For the last decade, out of every 100,000 construction workers, 10 died on the job. Among those fatalities 3 out of 5 died from what is known in the construction industry as the “Fatal Four”:

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Car are dangerous to pedestrians and cyclistsAmong rich countries, America is one of the most dangerous for road users especially pedestrians and cyclists.  In The Exceptionally American Problem of Rising Roadway Deaths, an article recently published by the New York Times,Emily Badger and  take an in-depth look at road fatalities in the US compared to other rich countries. They found out that during the Covid19 crisis, most countries in the world saw a decline in fatalities with the exception of the United States, Switzerland and Ireland.  When  comparing national traffic fatalities in 2020 to an average yearly traffic fatalities in 2017 to 2019 , Italy, Hungary, Turkey, Spain, France and Sweden all saw a decline or more than 20% in road fatalities. Italy recorded a 27% decline in traffic fatalities while the united States had a 5% rise in traffic fatalities.

While most rich countries have developed bicycle and pedestrian friendly infrastructures over the last decade, the United States did not do as much

While many countries started to take measures to protect pedestrians and cyclists such as protected bike lanes, lowering of speed limits and adopting safe vehicle technologies such as automatic braking systems, cars got bigger and deadlier in the United States.

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MeFDA-logodtronic HeartWare Ventricular Assist Device (HVAD) device caused the wrongful death of more than 3,000 people since it was introduced on the market more than 10 years ago. The sale and distribution of the heart pump was stopped in June last year but many patients still have the pump implanted in them. Now some of the batteries powering the device might be deadly too.

Medtronic announced last May that a model of battery that was powering the Medtronic HeartWare Ventricular Assist Device (HVAD) was defective and that it could cause serious personal injury or death if it was not changed for a new battery. An urgent Medical Device Correction letter was sent out by Medtronic to all affected customers on May 5th  recalling 429 devices manufactured in April 2021. Then a month later, after the company received 1,159 complaints including 6  injuries and one death, the recall of the same model of batteries was extended to those that were distributed since January 2009.

The recall affects 23,372 Medtronic HVDA Batteries with model number 1650DE that were distributed between January 1st 2009 and now

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cyber attack can arm patientsHospitals are one of the favorite targets of ransomware hackers because hospitals simply can’t afford to have their IT down as it can cause severe harm or even death to patients. As a result when a hospital  has its systems blocked by hackers it might be more willing to pay a ransom than any other type of organization in order to get their systems working again.

Recently, a debt collection company working with 657 healthcare providers announced that it had been the victim of a cyber attack. Hackers were able to obtain patients information including their name, address, social security number and medical information. It is unclear so far how many patients have been affected but this might have been of of the largest healthcare data breach of 2022.

CISA warns hospitals and healthcare providers of Maui ransomware