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 Posted in Personal Injury

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17000 women and 9000 men get cancer linked to human papillomavirus (HPV) every year. For women the most common is cervical cancer and for men the most common are cancers of the back of the throat, tongue and tonsils.

A recent study shows that since it was introduced in the US in late 2006 , the HPV vaccination has reduced HPV infection rates in teen girls by half. More than 57 million doses have been distributed in the US in the last seven years and all studies show that the HPV vaccine is safe.

To learn more about the HPV Vaccine, check the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Newborn%20screening.pngNewborn screening prevents 12,000 babies per year from death or lifetimes of intellectual or physical disability. It started in the US 50 years ago. New York started infants screening in 1965 for phenylketonuria (PKU) and today babies are screened for 45 disorders.

New York was the first state to test for sickle cell anemia in 1975 and the first to introduce universal screening for HIV exposure in 1997. In 2006, New York was also the first state to screen all babies for Krabbe disease. Screenings are also conducted for cystic fibrosis, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, primary congenital hypothyroidism, and severe combined immunodeficiency. In December 2013 New York will also be the first state to screen for adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), a rare genetic condition, which affects the nervous system.

Yesterday New York State Health Commissioner Nirav R. Shah M.D., M.P.H was at the Wadsworth Center to visit a national exhibit designed to raise awareness of the importance of newborn screening. the Wadsworth Center screen 250,000 infants every year.

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Excessive bleeding caused by Warfarin can lead to wrongful death if not addressed promptly. This anti coagulant medication is commonly prescribed to address blood clots but it has a very serious side effects that leave patients at risk of very heavy bleeding. In the US when emergency room doctors are faced with warfarin anticoagulation they commonly use fresh frozen plasma to reverse the bleeding.

Frozen Plasma therapy is slow and unpredictable and most emergency room doctors around the world have been replacing it with Prothrombin complex concentrates (PCCs), a therapy that can reverse Warfarin anticoagulation in minutes according to an article from the American College of Emergency Physician based on a study by Kenneth Frumkin, PhD, MD of the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, Va. published in Annals of Emergency Medicine.

Hopefully the use of these life-saving products will increase in the US since the Food and Drug Administration accepted a form of PCC specifically intended for warfarin reversal last April.

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One passenger died, five passengers suffered severe injury and 10 including the bus driver suffered minor injuries in this horrible collision between a school bus and a truck that happened near Chesterfield in New Jersey in February 2012. Last week the National Transportation safety Board released a synopsis from the Safety Board’s report that shows negligence by the school bus driver, the commercial license medical examiner, the truck driver, the truck company and the truck manufacturer.

According to the report the crash was due to the school bus driver failing to see the truck approaching the intersection. The bus driver was suffering from sleep deprivation because of a medical condition and alcohol use. He also was using prescription medication with a sedative effect. The school bus driver lied about his medical history when getting his commercial drivers license and the medical examiner did not thoroughly evaluate the school bus driver for medical conditions that could have disqualified him from becoming a school bus driver.

The truck was overloaded, had a deficient braking system and the truck driver was speeding.

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Exposure to 1-Bromopropane (1-BP) can cause serious injury to the nervous system such as headaches, dizziness, loss of consciousness, slurred speech, confusion, difficulty walking, muscle twitching, and/or loss of feeling in arms and legs. The symptoms can persist even when the worker is not exposed anymore.

1-BP is a solvent that is used mainly in degreasing operations, furniture manufacturing and dry cleaning. Its usage has been growing for the last 20 years as it replaced other solvents. Some case studies in furniture manufacturing such as “Majersik JJ, et al” associated severe neurotoxicity with exposure to 1-bromopropane.

So far only California OSHA has specific exposure standards for 1-BP however “federal” OSHA is reminding employers that they are required by law to protect their employees from this recognized hazard.

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A bridal party on a speedboat turned into a horrible tragedy when then intoxicated skipper of a of a 19-foot Stingray bowrider collided with a construction barge on the Hudson River near the Tappan Zee Bridge , north of New York City. The best man and the bride died in the accident leaving behind an injured and unconsolable husband-to-be.

Alcohol use is the number one contributing factor in deaths for recreational boating in the US.

Last year in New York 11 people died in boating accidents where alcohol use was cited as the primary contributing factor. This number is the highest among all states with a total of 140 deaths for the totality of the US territory in 2012.

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Lead poisoning is the primary environmental health threat to young children because they are more likely to put lead contaminated toys in their mouth than older children or adults. Lead poisoning does not cause immediate symptoms but it can permanently damage children’s brains and cause serious developmental problems.

The recent statistics from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on port surveillance show that during the fourth quarter of the 2012 fiscal year, toys containing lead represented 62% of the children products that have been refused at port entries because they were violating US safety rules or were found hazardous. A significant amount of children products with small parts representing a choking hazard and child care articles with excessive phthalate level were also kept away from young american customers. Children’s product represented 87% of all stopped products in the fourth quarter of the 2012 fiscal year.

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An elderly woman with an history of pancreatitis was admitted for an emergency laparotomy after she showed symptoms of acute abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. The diagnosis was small bowel obstruction. Her heart stopped during anesthesia and she had to be resuscitated and sent to the ICU. She died there the day after. The hospital’s case review committee concluded it was a misdiagnosis: the patient suffered acute pancreatitis and not a small bowel obstruction therefore surgery was contraindicated and death could have been prevented. This type of cases raises questions about the decision process in emergency surgery, specifically for elderly people. The complete case as well as a medical commentary, references and World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist can be found at Web M&M.

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Doctors should be vigilant when they decide to send home some pediatric cancer patients who still need to use a central venous catheter for their treatment. Because the central line is a tube that is placed directly into a major blood vessel, it can easily become a gateway for bacteria in the blood stream if it is not handled properly. Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) can lead to serious personal injury such as organ damage and sometimes death.

A recent study from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center published yesterday in the journal Pediatric Blood & Cancer followed 319 children with cancer between 2009 and 2010. Most children were first treated in the hospital and then sent home to continue their treatment. 19 children developed a central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) while hospitalized and 55 while at home.

Hospitals have been fighting for a long time against bloodstream infections and they have made serious progress in reducing them. They have experienced clinicians following precise protocols.Things are different when children are treated at home by family members. More should be done in preventing development of CLABSIs at home.For example teaching family members how to handle and clean central lines should be part of the formal discharge protocol. It is not the case yet.

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Last August Sears recalled Kenmore Dehumidifiers after they received 107 reports related to burns and fire with more than $7 million in property damage and 3 reports of smoke inhalation injuries. However it seems like many consumers were still not aware that their product was defective as after last year recall Sears continued to receive more incident reports including a severe burn to a consumer’s foot and 3 fires resulting in significant property damage. Therefore Sears is once again asking consumers who bought Kenmore 35-, 50- and 70-pint dehumidifiers made by LG and manufactured between 2003 and 2005 to immediately turn off and unplug their dehumidifier and to contact the Recall Fulfillment Center.

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