69,000 work injury and illness claims were filled by New York public employees in 2012. That’s a rate of 7 cases per 100 full-time workers. Nationally, the rate was 5.6 and 2.5 in New York private industry.
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To help combat the epidemic of pedestrians who die or suffer serious personal injury in New York, Gale Brewer, the Borough President, submitted a list of the NYC 57 most dangerous crossings. This list include 96th street and Broadway where two pedestrians recently died as well as 17 other locations in uptown manhattan..
Read more in the New York Daily News
Every year 850,000 people are injured by needles or other sharp medical devices that have not been discarded properly. Sharps is the medical term for any device with a sharp point that can puncture or cut the skin for example, needles, syringes, lancets, auto injectors, infusion sets or connection needles.
An estimated 9 million patients in the US have medical conditions such as diabetes, allergies, arthritis, cancer, hepatitis or AIDS and use sharps at home, at work, at school and also while traveling. These patients and their caregivers need to properly discard needles and other sharp devices to protect others from injuries and infections spreading such as Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV.
The FDA estimates that 7 billion sharps are loosely discarded yearly in regular trash instead of being safely discarded in a dedicated container.
Last Friday afternoon 3 pedestrians were seriously injured in a car accident on the Upper East Side. A taxi driver lost control of his vehicle, jumped the curb and plowed into a group of pedestrians on East 86th Street and Third Ave. (see New York Post)
This accident should be fully investigated according to new police regulations recently announced by NYPD Police Commissioner Bratton. In a recent speech Bratton said that not only vehicle accidents leading to death but also vehicle accidents leading to serious personal injury would be fully investigated. (see our previous blog)
On Sunday, a 67 year old pedestrian died in a car accident on Staten Island after being hit by a drunk driver. The pedestrian, James Benedict, was about to enter his car parked on Lily Pond Avenue when he was struck by a 39 year old drunk driver who lost control of his SUV, resulting in the death of Mr. Benedict. The driver was arrested and charged with drunk driving. Read more in silive.com
When a pedestrian is hit by a car he or she will usually suffer severe personal injury. In most accidents, the car bumper hits the pedestrian’s pelvis and legs shattering his or her bones explains Dr. Kaushal Shah, the residency director of emergency medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Often the pedestrian is “scooped” off the ground by the front of the car and smashed onto the hood and the windshield causing traumatic brain injury. It’s usually at this point that the driver stomps on the break, a move that will then eject the pedestrian to the ground, causing further brain injury as well as neck and pelvis injury.
Read more in the New York Daily News
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The driver of a cement truck was killed and four people suffered personal injury in an accident that happened in the Bronx on Monday. The truck driver was exiting the Major Deegan Expressway when he lost the control of his vehicle. According to witnesses the truck struck two cars before it crashed into a two faimly dwelling destroying the front of the building.
Read more in the New York Times
Every year in NYC more than 45,000 seniors suffer personal injury that requires medical treatment after a fall. Around 28,000 of them visit the Emergency Room, 17,000 are hospitalized and 300 die from their injuries. As the New York aging population continues to grow so do the number of personal injuries related to falls. In the report Falls Among Older Adults in New York City, The New York Department of Health indicates that there was an increase of 22% of fall related emergency department visits by seniors between 2006 and 2010.
According to the statistics, senior New Yorkers fall mostly in their home, especially in the bedroom after tripping on throw rugs or taking too many prescription drugs. 48% of the injuries that require hospitalizations are fractures and 13% of then are traumatic brain injury. As a consequence 78% of senior people who are hospitalized after a fall require additional care upon discharge. Only 22% of them are sent home. 42% of them have to be transferred to a skilled nursing facility.
Older New Yorker who are in good shape usually fall less and recover faster from their injury.
Defective heaters can cause serious personal injury to consumers and should not be used. If you are using a portable heater please make sure that it has been tested under the latest safety standards and that it is not the subject of a recall. Recently Walmart and Sears recalled the the Kenmore Oscillating Fan Heater because it was posing a risk of fire and burns to consumers. A broken motor mount can cause the units to overheat, catch fire and ignite nearby items.
Read more on the CPSC website
When the power goes down, portable generators are very handy products but they are deadly if not used properly. Carbon monoxide poisoning from the the toxic engine exhaust can happen in minutes if a generator is used indoors! From 1999 to 2012, the Consumer Product Safety Commission received 547 reports of Carbon Monoxide Exposure incidents associated with portable generators. 732 people died as a result of these incidents (see CPSC Incidents, Deaths, and In-Depth Investigations Associated with Non-Fire Carbon Monoxide from Engine-Driven Generators and Other Engine-Driven Tools, 1999–2012).
Never use a portable generator in your garage, basement, crawlspace or sheds even if the windows are open.
The only way to use a portable generator properly is outside and at least 20 feets away from doors and windows. Make sure that the wind doesn’t blow CO into the house.
Severe personal injury and even death may result from taking too much acetaminophen. Inadvertent acetaminophen overdose may severely damage the liver and can lead to liver failure, liver transplant and death.
Acetaminophen is used over the counter as a pain and fever medication and is often an ingredient in cold and cough medicine. It is also combined with ingredients to treat pain such as opioids and prescribed by doctors. Many consumers are not aware that their medicine contains acetaminophen, making it easy to accidentally take too much. Prescription narcotics which contain acetaminophen include Tylenol with Codeine, Percocet, and Vicodin. Depending on the milligrams of the narcotic the particular drug may contain as much as 650 Mg. of acetaminophen. Patients should read the label as well as the package insert given with the prescription. Further alcohol should not be used as it is well known that in combination with acetaminophen liver toxicity may result.
To prevent these types of adverse results and to reduce the number of acetaminophen induced liver injuries, the FDA recommends that doctors not prescribe any medication that contains more than 325 mg per dose. The FDA also recommends that pharmacists call doctors and discuss options with them if they receive a prescription for a combination product with more than 325 mg of acetaminophen per dosage unit.
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