An elderly patient with dementia was sexually abused in a Bronx nursing home last night. A male nurse at Manhattanville Health Care Center in the Bronx, NYC, was caught in the act of raping a 64 year old patient who was suffering from dementia. 42 year old Nanic Aidasani was picked up by the Bronx police and charged with rape.
For more info see video.
Imported sub-standard quality and defective drugs were the central theme of FDA Commissioner, Margaret Hamburg’s visit to India. The visit was organized after the FDA recently banned the import of drugs and drug ingredients from several large Indian manufacturers for quality reasons. The commissioner met with health officials, regulators and drug makers executives including those of the banned companies.
Both countries agreed that their regulators would work more closely to better coordinate regulatory oversight as well as organize seminars, webinars, meetings and training sessions.
India is the second largest drug importer in the US after Canada and supplies 40% of the generic and over the counter drugs used in the US. Recently the FDA has been concerned by the increase of defective or low quality drugs imported from India. Weak domestic regulatory oversight and a lax approach to quality control by some manufacturers are the main reasons why a significant quantity of low quality or defective drugs reach the American market undetected.
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
New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog