Imported high risk defective drugs are a rising concern for the FDA. The agency wants to spend more resources to fight the “bad guys” and provide incentives to drug manufacturers who are adopting best practices for supply chain integrity by giving them expedited access for the importation of up to five of their drug products. The pilot will last two years and if effective, will be open to additional companies.
Companies that have qualified for the pilot are
• AbbVie Inc.
4000 New Yorkers suffer severe personal injury and 250 are killed every year in traffic accidents and to Bill de Blasio this is unacceptable. Yesterday afternoon the Mayor of New York presented “Vision Zero Action Plan” the first report produced by a multi agency task force that the mayor created last month. (See previous blog) .
Vision Zero has proven to be a successful program throughout different cities of the world because its multi faceted approach brings together government, advocacy and private sector actors as well as the public to become part of the solution. In a similar fashion, yesterday’s action plan contains proposed actions by the City, the Police Department, the Department of Transportation, the Taxi & Limousine Commission, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Some of the most interesting recommendations include
Drunk driving is at the origin of the accident between a truck and a bus that led to the death of the bus driver last week in the meatpacking district of New York. Model Tyson Beckford’s nephew was so drunk that he was kicked out of several venues in downtown New York before he stole a delivery truck parked with the keys inside. He crashed into several parked cars before he ran the red light at the intersection of West 14th Street and Seventh Ave and slammed into an MTA bus. The driver, William Pena who was not wearing a seat belt was ejected and died at the scene. A scooter driver, a food cart vendor and his customer as well as a bus passenger suffered personal injury.
Read more in the New York Post
Blatant medical malpractice was committed by the Emergency Room staff of the NYU Langone Hospital in New York that lead to the death of 12 year old Rory Staunton according to a recently released investigation by the the New York State Department of Health.
Rory Staunton died on April 1st 2012 from sepsis after a scrape on his arm became infected. He was taken to the ER at NYU Langone Hospital but was sent back home after the staff failed to diagnose sepsis. His condition worsened and he died the next evening.
According to the investigation by the NY Health Department “NYU Langone ER failed to provide care in accordance with acceptable standards of practice for both medical staff and nursing services, as well as a systemic failure related to the reporting and follow up of abnormal laboratory results”.
Queens pedestrians are at a high risk of personal injury as they have no other alternative than to walk in the street with the traffic because the City of New York is not cleaning the icy sidewalks that are on its property.
Residents are upset because according to the law in New York, property owners have 4 hours to clean their sidewalk after a snowstorm or they get a $150 ticket. The city hasn’t cleaned its sidewalks for days putting Queens residents at risk of slip and fall injuries or a car accident if they choose to walk in traffic to avoid walking on ice.
A crew from New York One was there to document the situation and met an elderly woman who just slipped and fell on her face. Her face was bleeding and she was taken to the hospital by paramedics for further treatment. Read more and look at the video on New York One website
90% of dangerous and defective children products are not being returned or repaired according to a new report by the Children Safety Advocate Group Kids in Danger. Because it takes an average 14 reports of design complaints and two reports of personal injury related to the product for the manufacturer to initiate a recall, some of the products may have been discarded or may not be used anymore by the parents at the date of the recall. However such a high percentage indicates that many dangerous products that have already injured or killed children are still being used by parents that are unaware of the recall. According to the report, in 2012, 584 incidents and 39 personal injuries were reported after a juvenile product was recalled.
These numbers demonstrate that manufacturers and the Consumer Product Safety Commission have to find a way to better communicate recalls to consumers. The report also shows that social media is a very effective way to communicate recalls but is not used enough by manufacturers.
Parents also have to be responsible and fill out the product registration card for all juveniles products so that the manufacturer can automatically reach out to them in case of a product recall or any other safety issue. Unfortunately only 30% of parents fill out the registration card for juvenile products.
An obvious lack of security puts patients at risk of abuse at the Rebekah Rehab and Extended Care nursing home in the Bronx, New York. Tuesday last week at 3:00 am an unidentified man walked into the nursing home and into the room of an 83 year old female patient without being identified. The man flashed his genitals at the woman and left. Read more at CBS New York
New York Nursing Home Regulations mandate that it is the responsibility of the Nursing Home to provide residents with safe surroundings and protect them from any kind of harsh and abusive treatment.
When choosing a nursing home or other long term care facility it is always important to make sure that the facility is providing a safe environment for the resident, that personal belonging are secure in the residents rooms and that the nursing home is locked at night.
A pregnant woman was struck and killed by a negligent snow plow driver on a supermarket parking lot in Brooklyn, New York. The baby was delivered by C-section but according to doctors the baby suffered oxygen deprivation and may have brain and other organ damages. The bobcat driver wasn’t charged but received 3 tickets because the vehicle, a Bobcat (skid steer loader), lacked an inspection sticker, a headlamp and a license plate light. The neighbors of the woman are upset and believe the driver should be criminally charged. What do you think?
Read more in the New York Daily News
To reduce the number of deaths and personal injuries related to traffic accidents, Bill de Blasio recently launched “Vison Zero” in New York City. In a first step the mayor created inter-agency working groups with members from the Police Department, the Department Of Transportation, the Health Department and the Taxi and Limousine Commission. These working groups had until last February 15th to come up with proposals to improve street safety (see our previous blog). In the meantime, the death of 3 pedestrians in less than 10 days on the Upper West Side prompted the police to take immediate measures to prevent further traffic accidents. Tickets have been issued against drivers and in large numbers against jaywalkers. 215 Jaywalking tickets have been issued from the beginning of the year through February 9th compared to 27 last year.
Read more in the New York Times
Two pending product liability lawsuits including one wrongful death lawsuit, 6100 consumer complaints and a recent recall letter from the NHTSA following an Engineering Analysis of the Office of Defects Investigation have convinced Graco Children’s Product to conduct a recall of the seat harness buckles on most of its children car seats models manufactured since 2009. The defective harness buckles are becoming more difficult to open over time or become stuck in the latched position especially if it gets clogged up with food or dirt. Stuck or sticking buckles may prevent or impede the removal of the child from the car seat in a case of an emergency. According to the NHTSA Graco has been named defendant in two product liability lawsuit related to defective harness buckles. The first one is a consumer class action complaint alleging that the buckles is unreasonably difficult to unlatch or simply doesn’t unlatch. The second lawsuit is related to the death of a young child who died in car fire. Plaintiff alleged that parts in Graco car seat design made it extremely difficult to remove a child that was secured in the seat during an emergency. The recalls 3.7 millions units. Parents who own a defective car seat model and have previously registered it with Graco will automatically receive a Consumer Notification Letter with instructions on how to order a buckle repair kit. Parents who didn’t register their products can order the blucke repair kit online.
Click here for complete list of defective models and contact details.
New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog