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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wandering preventionIf a nursing home resident who suffers from dementia or Alzheimers gets injured because he or she wandered unsafely or into unsafe places, got hurt, eloped, got lost or became trapped in unsafe areas, the nursing home can be held liable for negligence because it failed to proprely supervise the resident.  Incidents of unsafe wandering happen most often in nursing homes that are understaffed or in which the staff is not proprely trained.

Because wandering represents a significant safety risk to older adults with dementia it is often a reason why a family makes the decision to place a loved one in a nursing home.  A good nursing home will train employees on how to prevent unsafe wandering and elopement, assess each patient on a regular basis as to his or her propensity to wander and balance safety and autonomy while implementing measures to deter unsafe wandering.

Families also need to understand the risks of unsafe wandering and elopement and what they can do to help. Discussions may prepare residents and family members who may be unused to seeing wandering behavior in others, and because residents may begin wandering after moving in, discussions might invite more conversation about past or current behaviors.

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Amtrak AccidentAn Amtrak train heading from New York to Washington DC derailed yesterday night in Philadelphia. 6 people died and many the 243 passengers of suffered personal injury and were taken to the hospital. Among the people injured 6 of them were in critical condition. The Amtrak accident happened yesterday night around 9:30 close to Frankford Avenue and Wheatsheaf Lane near a bend in the track. One of the nation’s deadliest railroad accidents happened in the same spot on Labor Day 1943. A train carrying military service members on leave derailed killing 79 of them and injuring 117. The cause of yesterday’s train accident is still unknown. Speed as well deteriorating infrastructure and aging equipment are among the potential factors to be investigated. Former Congressman  Patrick J. Murphy was on board when the accident happened and tweeted the pictures on the left.
Read more about this train accident in the New York Times

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Teen drivingParents can play a big role in helping their children become safe drivers and avoid being injured or killed in a car accident. Thursday April 28th at 1:00 PM CST, the National Safety Council is organizing a webinar during which Jessica Mirman, PhD, a behavioral scientist and researcher on the Center for Injury Research and Prevention HOP’s Teen Driver Safety Research team, will share her recent research on the effectiveness of TeenDrivingPlan, a prototype interactive web-based application to help parents more effectively supervise driving practice. Another speaker Kathy Bernstein, senior manager of Teen Driving Initiatives for the National Safety Council, will talk about DriveitHome– a new resource from the National Safety Council designed to support parents of newly licensed teens. Read more here

 

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Patient SafetyMedical errors and adverse events are among the leading causes of death and personal injury in the U.S. According to a recent study in the Journal of Patient Safety  the number of premature deaths associated with preventable harm to patients is estimated at more than 400,000 per year. Serious harm seems to be 10- to 20-fold more common than lethal harm.

The patient safety awareness week is an annual campaign led by the National Patient Safety Foundation to create awareness about patient safety among healthcare providers and their patients. The campaign is running this week and the subject is “United in safety” . The emphasis is on better communication between healthcare providers and patients to reduce adverse events or medical errors.

Tomorrow Wednesday March 11th at 8:30 pm ET anyone interested can join a twitter chat on patient and family engagement using  #PSAWunited to participate. People interested can also join a free webcast on patient safety on Thursday March 12th.

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Pigment_stone_extractionAfter two patients died and many other suffered personal injury from a recent “superbug”outbreak involving duodenoscopes, the safety of these medical devices (see previous blog) and the method used by hospitals to reprocess them are being questioned. In a recent Hazard Report, the ECRI Institute is recommending culturing Duodenoscopes as a key step to reducing carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE).  The Institute believes that duodenoscope procedures are vital when treating and diagnosing conditions of the gall bladder and pancreas with Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) procedures and the risk of infection can be mitigated if hospitals upgrade their reprocessing methods by also scope culturing.The Institute recommemds that hospitals not only check with the duodenoscope manufacturer as to whether they are using the appropriate reprocessing method but also add a baseline culture of all duodenoscpoes.  Read the complete ECRI High Priority Hazard Report 
Picture Duodenoscopy image of two pigment stones extracted from common bile duct courtesy of Wikipedia

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NSC35,400 people died and 4.3 million people suffered personal injury that required medical attention last year on American roads according to preliminary statistics from the National Safety Council (NSC). The number of crash fatalities is 0.5% higher than in 2013 however because 2014 was a year of economical expansion during which the estimated mileage on US roads increased 1.4%, the estimated annual mileage death rate was 1.18 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, a decrease of 1% from the 2013 rate. It is also the lowest NSC preliminary estimate ever recorded. The number of personal injuries that occurred during a crash in 2014 was unchanged.  Read more in Automotive Fleeet

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Medical negligence by doctors or medical staff who do not respect cleaning procedures or fail to discard contaminated implements are often the reason why hospital patients are getting infected by contaminated instruments.  Yesterday, UCLA Medical Center announced that 179 patients may have been infected by the super-bug bacteria carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) transmitted by two infected endoscopes during diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic and bile duct problems. The hospital also said that two patients died of complications related to this issue. Outbreaks of CRE and other superbugs are a major issue among hospitals in the USA and all over the world. A recent study  found that if the rampant spread of super-bugs wasn’t halted it could kill up to 10 million people a year worldwide and cost $100 trillion. Read more in the New York Daily News

 

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When a car accident occurs, some cars are safer than others and will  protect occupants from severe personal injury or death more effectively. The Buick encore and its cheaper version, the Chevrolet Trax just earned the Top Safety Pick award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. To qualify for Top Safety Pick a car  must earn a “good” or “acceptable” rating for small overlap protection and a “good” rating in the institute’s moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint crash tests. The 2015 Encore received the highest score (“good”) in the small overlap crash test compared to the 2014 model which was rated “poor” in the same test a year before. The small overlap test replicates a collision during which the front corner of a car hits another car or an object such as a light pole or a tree. Read more in the IIHS press release

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AED.jpgWhen a person is injured or dies because of an automated external defibrillator failure, it is often the result of a defective design or a manufacturing flaw such as the inadequate quality control of outsourced components. Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) are usually stored in public places and ready for use if someone suddenly suffers from a life threatening cardiac arrhythmia. Unfortunately these medical devices have a history of malfunctions. In the last 10 years the FDA received more than 72,000 medical reports associated with defective AEDs. During the same period of time, 111 recalls were conducted affecting more than two million defective products.

Therefore the FDA decided to take additional steps to improve the quality of these products. The agency issued a final order that will require AED manufacturers to submit premarket approval applications (PMAs), which undergo a more rigorous review than what was required to market these products in the past.

Read the FDA press release here

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most%20wanted.jpgTransportation accidents are killing and injuring thousands of people every year. Many of these accidents are preventable.

To support and increased awareness of the most critical changes needed to reduce these accidents the NTSB is releasing every year its most wanted list.

This year, distracted driving caused by portable electronic devices (PEDs) is at the top of this list, followed by substance impairment while operating a vehicle and helicopter safety. Implementation of train control, improvement of rail tank car safety, increased safety in mass transportation, prevention of loss of control in non-airline flights, medical fitness for duty, strengthening of commercial trucking safety and strengthening procedural compliance among airlines are the other priorities on the NTSB Most Wanted List.

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