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.
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After a surgeon realized he operated on the wrong leg of the patient he immediately reported the error to the hospital and offered a thorough apology to the patient. Should he be punished for this medical error?

This was the question asked by The New York Times to its readers in the Sunday Dialogue. Most readers believe he should.

At Gair Gair Conason Steigman Mackauf Bloom and Rubinowitz although we believe that a doctor in such an obvious case of negligence should apologize he should also be held responsible for his glaring error and that the patient should be compensated for the pain and suffering, otherwise unnecessary further medical treatment and loss of income caused by the doctor’s inexcusable negligence. The author states”People in the medical field are well intentioned and feel great distress when they harm patients.” That may be so but it does not compensate the patient for the error. What often happens in these cases is that the doctor’s insurance company puts the patient thru unnecessary litigation rather than settling an obvious case of negligence for fair and adequate compensation.

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The personal injury case verdict in which Stella Liebeck was awarded $2.9 million after being severely burned by a McDonald cup of coffee that she spilled on her lap became an immediate media sensation. Corporations used it to push tort reform and the case gave rise to the attacks on “frivolous lawsuits”. The award was reduced on appeal to less than $500,000.

More than 20 years later, Retro Report revisits the story, providing us with the real facts and the New York Times reflects on how the lawsuit has changed the way we drink coffee in the US. James Poulos provides a political follow up on the story at the Daily Beast.

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A man died in an elevator accident last July at the 49ers stadium construction site but OSHA recently concluded that Schindler Elevator Corp., the elevator Construction Company and project’s general contractor, Turner/Devcon, a joint venture between Turner Construction Co. of New York and Devcon Construction Inc. of Milpitas didn’t merit sanctions.

The victim, Donald White, who was 63 year old, had worked all his life in the elevator construction trade. He was hit with an elevator counterweight while on a ladder at the bottom of the shaft at the 49ers stadium construction site in Santa Clara.

Just before the accident happened, White communicated with another co-worker who was operating the elevator and asked him to go up in the elevator to retrieve a tool. As the elevator started to move, for some unexplained reason, White stayed where he was, standing or or sitting on an A-frame ladder in the pit. Nobody witnessed the accident.

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defective%20stent.jpg The defective stents may cause serious personal injury such as complications of bleeding, loss of limb, heart attack (myocardial infarction), stroke, vascular surgery, and/or death if they fail to deploy properly.

The LifeStent Solo Vascular Stent manufactured by Bard Peripheral Vascular is an implantable self-expanding stent and delivery system used to improve the inner open space of a blood vessel in patients who have lesions caused by abnormal narrowing of the affected blood vessel.

Defective products were manufactured and distributed from November 2011 to June 13, 2012 , the defective implants code information can be found on the FDA website

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stent.jpgMedical Malpractice related to Cath Lab procedures are on the rise as overuse of Cardiac Stents lead to an increase of deaths linked to this type of procedure.

In a recent article on Bloomberg, Sydney P. Freedberg, describes the shocking extreme the administrators at Satilla Regional Medical Center in Waycross, Georgia went to in order to keep their cath lab operating and producing revenue.

Because of its remote location, the hospital was unable to attract competent cardiovascular surgeons. In order to keep their cath lab running the administrators paid an extravagant salary to a non qualified surgeon, Dr. Azmat whose only experience with cardiac stents was a two weekend course experimenting on cadavers and pigs.

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In some defectives cars, water from the air conditioning condenser unit housing could leak onto the airbag control module and cause a short circuit, resulting in illumination of the airbag warning light. In some instances, the air bag(s) could become disabled or could inadvertently deploy and may cause accidents. In some cases the issue may also affect the steering system.

The recalled models are 803,000 Model Year 2012-2013 Camry, Camry Hybrid, Avalon, Avalon Hybrid, and Venza vehicles. Vehicle owners will be contacted directly by the company for a free repair.

For more info check the Toyota Newsroom

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gardenfreshfoods.jpgListeria Monocytogenes can cause serious personal injury and is the leading cause of death among foodborne bacterial pathogens, with fatality rates exceeding even Salmonella and Clostridium botulinum.

A possible Listeria Monocytogenes contamination of their ready to eat chicken and ham products prompted the Winsconsin company Garden Fresh Food to recall close to 20,000 pounds of its product on September 25. Today the company just announced that more products may have been contaminated with the dangerous bacteria and an additional 6700 pounds of products are being recalled.

Garden Fresh Foods Products are distributed to retail and food service establishments nationwide. A list of all recalled products can be found on the USDA website.

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Harley%20Davidson.jpgBecause of a defective hydraulic clutch system in some Harley Davidson motorcycles, riders may have difficulty slowing or stopping their motorcycle, which could result in an accident. Therefore Harley Davidson is recalling 25,185 touring motorcycles and 3,861 Custom Vehicle Operations and Trikes built between May 3 and Oct. 14, 2013. The repair will take less than an hour according to Harley Davidson.

Read more at Reuters.com

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Jeffrey%20Bloom.jpgOur partner, Jeffrey Bloom, will be speaking tomorrow at the “Mt. Sinai Update 2013: Breast Imaging” program. This program is designed to cover clinical aspects of breast imaging including digital mammography, breast ultrasound, breast MRI, and interventional procedures, as well as medicolegal issues. The faculty consists of twelve nationally and internationally recognized experts. Jeffrey Bloom will be speaking on the subject of Breast Imaging Malpractice and provide a Plaintiff’ Attorney’s Perspective. The complete Agenda can be found here.

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John Dozier, a 64 year old Navy Veteran died after he was struck by a rented Chevy SUV on Friday night around 8:25 p.m. as he tried to cross Remsen Ave. and Avenue L, in Brooklyn New York. The police are still looking for the hit and run driver. Read more in the New York Daily News

A young man suffered severe personal injury after he was struck by a car at 57th Ave. and 99th St. in Corona, Queens, New York on Sunday. The 32 year old driver who was drunk, fled the scene but was later arrested by the police and charged with leaving the scene of an accident and driving while intoxicated. Read more in the New York Daily News.