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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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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Nail%20Gun%20Injury.jpgNail gun injuries send more construction workers to the hospital than any other tool-related injury. Most injuries are punctured hands or fingers but in some cases the injuries are far more serious and can even lead to death.

To prevent these type of injuries OSHA just created a new Nail Gun Safety web page and a complete guide on Nail Gun Safety that can be downloaded by construction workers directly to their mobile phones in English or in Spanish.

The new webpage offers great links to relevant content from the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) and from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as access to training, regulations and additional resources.

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Failure to diagnose cancer most commonly breast cancer, colon cancer, melanoma, lung cancer and malignant tumors in the female genital tract are the most common misdiagnoses in the primary care setting. The second most common type of misdiagnosis is failure to diagnose myocardial infarction. Failure to diagnose meningitis in children is also among the most misdiagnosed conditions by primary care doctors.

Medications errors such as prescription errors, contraindicated medication, administration errors leading to adverse reactions are the second most common types of medical malpractice committed by general practitioners.

These findings are the result of a computerized literature search that compiled 34 relevant studies mostly in the US but also in Canada and Europe. The complete results of the research, led by Dr. Emma Wallace from the HRB Center for Primary Care Research of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Medical School, in Dublin can be found at BMJ open.

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Children exposed to anti-seizure medication in the womb have a higher risk of suffering from early developmental issues according to a study led by Dr. Gyri Veiby from Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway.

The study covered a 9 year time frame and looked at the risk of adverse outcomes in children according to epilepsy in the mother or father, and with or without antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) exposure in the womb. At 18 months, the children exposed to AEDs in utero had increased risk of abnormal gross motor skills and autistic traits and at 36 months an increased risk of abnormal gross motor skills, sentence skills, and autistic traits compared to unexposed children.Further analysis determined that AED-exposed children had increased risk of birth defects compared to children not exposed to the drugs in utero.

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3 people were severely injured and a total of 12 were hospitalized including 4 firefighters after what appeared to be a gas explosion occurred in a beauty parlor at the first floor of a five story building and caused the ceiling to collapse.The building has several violations and further investigation will determine if these violations may be related to this accident.

One of the victims suffered second degree burns and another one was found unconscious by the firefighters. Burns, loss of limb, electrical shock, concussion, traumatic brain injury and lacerations are among the most common injuries that victims suffer from a gas explosions.
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85% of car accidents worldwide happen in developing countries and 25,000 of the deaths involve tourists. The Center for Disease Control is asking Americans who are vacationing abroad to exercise extra precautions if they decide to drive a car during their stay. Very often roads in low incomes countries are poorly maintained and traffic laws are not sufficiently enforced. In case of an accident, emergency services may not be as fast as in developed countries, increasing the risk of a fatality. Adding to that the level of care may not be up to the level of US standards.

Making sure you know the local traffic rules or avoiding driving at night are among a CDC list of measures that may help minimize your risk of being injured in a car crash while you are on vacation.

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Alarm fatigue happens when medical workers overwhelmed by constant and loud alarm rings turn down the volume on the devices, shut them off or simply ignore them. These actions can lead to serious personal injury or wrongful death.

As hospitals invest in more and more sophisticated equipment to save lives, nurses and other hospital workers especially in Intensive Care Units have to deal with the constant and sometimes very loud ringing of alarms during their shift. A recent study estimated that the average number of alarms that sounded per bed per day in one ICU was 771. This is obviously more than staff and patients can take and hospitals have to make a priority of reviewing their alarm system or they may risk loss of their accreditation.

In a very interesting article, Lena H. Sun from the Washington Post, gives an overview of recent Medical Malpractice cases related to Alarm Fatigue and what measures are being taken by hospitals to address this growing medical concern.

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