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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water injury preventionAs summer season is back, water related injuries and deaths are starting to increase. In New York, the underwater currents at Rockaway Beach are known to be dangerous and ever year people are seriously injured or died after drowning in the water at this location. This year on May 22nd, 24 year old Fidel Ramirez, went for a swim at Beach 91st street despite recommendations from Mayor de Blasio not to go in the water and drowned. He suffered critical drowning injuries and died at the hospital.

Backyard pools might seem safer than the Rockaway beach especially with the actual Covid-19 pandemic, however they can be dangerous as well.  Last Sunday 3 people died from drowning in a backyard pool in New Jersey.

Behind car accidents, drowning is the second cause of unintentional injury-related death for children from 1 to 14 year old

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child-head-injuy-1Because young children can’t express themselves proprely it can be challenging for doctors to diagnose a traumatic brain injury or concussion.  A recent article published in Pediatric Emergency Care suggests that using previous “Characteristics of Diagnosed Concussions in Children Aged 0 to 4 Years Presenting to a Large Pediatric Healthcare Network” might be helpful. The study was authored by Podolak, Olivia E. MD*; Chaudhary, Sofia MD*,†; Haarbauer-Krupa, Juliet PhD; Metzger, Kristina B. PhD, MPH*; Curry, Allison E. PhD, MPH*,†; Kessler, Ronni S. MEd*; Pfeiffer, Melissa R. MPH*; Breiding, Matthew J. PhD; Master, Christina L. MD, CAQSM, FACSM*,§,∥; Arbogast, Kristy B. PhD*,†,§

The researchers analyzed the medical data of 329 young patients aged 0 to 4 who visited the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia healthcare network from October 1, 2013, to September 30, 2015 . They identified  the 3 top common mechanisms of injury.

The first one was fall and represented 64.4 % of all young patients who were diagnosed with a concussion with children younger than 2 year old being at a higher risk of sustaining a concussion in a fall than children from 2 to 4 year old.  Falling from furniture was the most common type of fall leading to traumatic brain injury, followed by tripping and hitting the ground and falling down the stairs.

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location of the deadly car crashTwo people died and 6 people were injured in car crashes in New York City in less than 24h. As New York is reopening, the number of car accidents which had significantly declined during the lock down are expected to rise again.

The first car accident occurred on Sunday night around 11:20 pm in Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx. The 35 year old driver of a 2010 Toyota Camry lost control of his car as he was driving in the westbound lane of City Island Road near the intersection of Shore Road.  He rear ended the car in front of him, a 2014 Infiniti Q50 driven by a 27 year-old driver. The driver of the Infinity crashed into the rear of another car in front of him, a 2008 Toyota Highlander driven by a 51 year old man. The Camry careened into the eastbound line and hit a 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by a 44 year old man and a 2010 BMW X5 driven by a 41 year old man.

The driver of the Camry died at the scene of the accident. A 34 year old woman, who was sitting in the front seat next to him was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.  5 more people were taken to the hospital, they were occupants of the Infinity and the Jeep. The occupants of the BMW, which was the last car to be struck declined medical attention.

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Bronx bicycle accidents second week of June 20202 people were killed and 20 of them were injured in bicycle accidents in the Bronx, NYC, during the second week of June. Bicycle accident injuries in the Bronx increased by 81.8 % during the week of June 8 to June 14 according to NYPD statistics.  The Bronx is the only NYC borough where bicycle accident injuries increased during this week. In all other NYC boroughs, bicycle accident injuries declined. On average, injuries related to bike crashes were down 30.7% citywide. The largest decline, 59.1%, was observed in the North part of Queens, followed by a decline of 50% of bicycle accident injuries in the South part of Brooklyn, a 45% decline in the North part of Brooklyn, a decrease of 33.3% in the South part of Manhattan, a decrease of  29.4% in the North part of Manhattan, a 16.7% decline in the South of Queens and  a status quo in Staten Island.

The Bronx is the borough that has the less investment by the city in infrastructures to protect bicyclists despite a large part of the population using bikes on a daily basis, including many delivery cyclists

While the city has been creating protected bike lanes all over rich white neighborhoods, the poor  area of the Bronx didn’t get any of these. Even last month when de Blasio announced more streets closed to traffic and a extra 9.2 miles of protected bike lanes, none of them were in the Bronx.

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Personal Injury Attorney Ben Rubinowitz

Our managing partner, New York Personal Injury Attorney Ben Rubinowitz, has developed a reputation as a leading plaintiff’s trial lawyer throughout the country. In recognition of his skill as a national leader in his field, Ben will be speaking to the Wyoming Trial Lawyers at their annual convention. In light of the recent string of eight figure multimillion dollar verdicts that he received, Ben has been asked to speak about developing damages through cross-examination of experts.

The Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association’s Annual Convention ” Litigation in 2020 and Beyond” will take place on June 18th and 19th via Live Streaming.

Click here for more info or to register

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location of the reckless crashA pregnant woman lost her baby and suffered serious injury in a car accident in Staten Island, NYC last Saturday. The accident occurred on Hylan Boulevard. A 26 year old male and his 28 year old pregnant female passenger were driving south on Hylan Boulevard.  As they were  in the left tuning line attempting to make a turn onto Cornelia Avenue, they were hit frontally by a Jeep Grand Cherokee travelling at high speed. The driver of the Jeep was identified as 21 year old Alexander Iacone. He was racing North on Hylan Boulevard and shifted into the left turning lane striking the Nissan. The impact was so strong that both vehicles careened into the woods. Iacone was driving without a license.

The 28 year old female passenger was rushed to the hospital where doctors performed an emergency C section but the baby didn’t survive the accident. The mother sustained serious injury but was in stable condition. The male driver was also hospitalized and treated for several injuries that include lacerations to his knees and to his hand.

The reckless 21 year old driver sustained an arm injury. He was also transported to the hospital and later arrested. He was arraigned in Criminal Court in St Georges on charge of aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, reckless driving, reckless endangerment and second degree assault.  Iacone could face a homicide charge depending on the results of a pending autopsy of the baby. If the City medical examiner determines that the baby took his first breath at the hospital, Iacone could be charged with homicide according to the New York Law.

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child head injuryWhen a child sustains head injury, parents always worry about the risk of traumatic brain injury and now more than ever seek medical advice through telephone triage call systems. When parents call such systems, they will be connected to a triage nurse who will provide them with recommendations on what to do next. However the question is, how parents follow up on these recommendations. A recent study  by PhD, RN, FAANorcidMPHMSN, RN, CRNPPhDMD, FAAP, CAQSM published in Clinical Nursing Research, tried to determine if parents follow recommendations and what percentage of the phone calls result in a TBI diagnostic.  They especially wanted to know if parents who had been recommended to see a doctor because a traumatic brain injury was suspected, would indeed do it.

84.1% of parents follow phone recommendations to seek medical care for their child’s head injury

The researchers analyzed one year of pediatric head injury calls at the Barton Schmitt Pediatric Head Injury Telephone Triage Protocol. Among the 5,045 phone calls for patients ages 17 and younger and meeting the criteria for the study, they found 2, 464 calls during which the triage nurse recommended to seek medical care urgently or in the next 24 hours. They estimated that in 84.1% of cases parents followed the recommendations provided on the phone and brought their children for an urgent medical consultation at their medical home network or at an outside care facility. Among those children who were recommended to seek urgent care, 39.5% were diagnosed with traumatic brain injury.

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Personal Injury Attorney Ben RubinowitzOur Managing partner Ben Rubinowitz and Evan Torgan will be presenting “Successful Trial Techniques from Jury Selection through Summation”, a live streaming Seminar organized by the New York Sate Academy of Trial Lawyers on Wednesday June 10.

This two hour seminar will feature some of the best known Trial Lawyers in New York. For more than 20 years, Evan Torgan and Ben Rubinowitz have provided guidance to lawyers throughout the state in their featured column in the New York Law Journal, Trial Advocacy. This seminar will take you through some of the techniques that have allowed these lawyers to obtain multiple seven- and eight-figure verdicts. They will not only talk about strategies they use but will provide demonstrations of the successful techniques that have allowed them to obtain such remarkable results. The two will be joined by Angélicque Moreno, President of the New York Academy of Trial Lawyers, another successful trial attorney who has numerous multimillion dollar verdicts and settlements to her credit.

Click here to register

 

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MTD_Lawn_MowerAn estimated 9,400 children sustain lawnmower injuries  every year in the US. Injuries are often catastrophic, sometimes deadly. They often require multiple treatments and hospital stays and can have life long consequences. 4 year old boys in rural areas are the most at risk of getting injured in a lawnmower accident.

A study by the Department of Orthopaedics, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA (Mr. Shah, Dr. Talwar, Mr. Aoyama, and Dr. Ganley), the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas City, Kansas City, MO (Dr. Schwend), and the Division of Pediatric Orthopaedics, Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, Baltimore, MD (Dr. Sponseller) and recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons studied lawnmower injuries in the US over 13 years.

The researchers used the Pediatric Health Information System database to identify 1,302 Americans between 1 and 18 years old who checked into the ER to be treated for a lawnmower injury. While, the Pediatric Health Information System database does not record all children injuries in the country,  it is nationally representative as it contains a varied selection of 49 participating children’s hospitals located around the regions and locales.

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Personal Injury Attorney Ben RubinowitzJoin our managing partner  Ben Rubinowitz  as he is co-chairing with Judy Livingston and Jeff Korek  this two part webinar: Openings & Summations. They have assembled an All-Star panel of Trial Attorneys who will demonstrate what they do and say in Opening Statements and Closing Arguments to achieve spectacular results. Trial demonstrations are what this program is all about. Each member of the faculty will demonstrate an opening or summation.

This webinar  organized by the New York State Trial Association is free for all NYSTLA members and non-members. It has been approved for transitional & non-transitional credits. Participants will receive 4 Skills CLE credits.

Part 1 will take place on May 26th from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm