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 Tagged with personal injury

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Heat Injury preventionHeat injuries can have serious consequences including disability and death. Heat injuries affect not only people practicing sports during the summer but also workers such as construction workers or landscapers. Anyone who practices a strenuous activity in warm conditions is at risk and should understand the body mechanism behind a heat stroke and how to prevent it.

When someone exercises in the heat, the body reaction is to sweat to cool off the body. Therefore the body looses a lot of fluids that need to be replaced by water or hydrating drinks. The body also needs to cool off.  If someone doesn’t let his or her body cool off properly and hydrate proprely, the body becomes dehydrated and  heat injuries occur.

Heat injuries come in many forms from mild to acute:

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job-made-boxes-can-lead-to-serious-injury-and-deathIn a recent bulletin, OSHA warns construction workers and other workers using forklifts about potential injuries and deaths caused by “job-made boxes”

What are “job-made boxes”?

Job made boxes are any makeshift attachments created by construction workers or workers in other industries such as boxes, baskets or platforms. They are often made of wood as well as metal and plastic. They look like a little balcony: a platform with 3 walls around it. Workers attach these boxes to forklifts to lift equipment, workers or material to various heights. Workers also use them to step on them when working at elevated levels.

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construction workers moving equipment are at risk of struck by accidentsStruck by injuries are the most common non-fatal injuries sustained by construction workers.

Among the 79.7 k construction workers who were injured in 2019, 16.6K suffered struck by injuries and 4 K suffered struck against injuries. Struck by accidents are also among the top causes of construction workers fatalities. In 2019, out of a total of 1,102 workers fatalities, 80 construction workers died after being struck by a vehicle and 70 of them died after being struck by an object or equipment.

The Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) recently analyzed data related to these types of injuries and published the result of the study in a recent data-bulletin. Researchers at CPWR found that there was a big difference on how fatal and non-fatal struck by injuries occur. Fatal struck by injuries mostly occur when a construction worker is struck by a vehicle while non fatal struck by injuries are mostly caused by handheld objects or equipment.

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nurseNational Nurses Week starts Today until May 12. When someone is ill or injured, nurses not only bring physical support but also psychological support to the patient and to the family. During the pandemic they scarified their own health, mental and physical, to fight the pandemic and we thank them for their work. Nurses are our super-heroes.

To kick-off #NationalNursesWeek The Center for Injury Research and Prevention just launched a new website for nurses and medical staff to help children and families coping with illness and injuries. The “Health Care Toolbox”  looks at Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress for children and families and how nurses can play a significant role in reducing distress, bringing emotional support and interact with the family.

When a child is injured or sick, the pain endured by the child as well as the medical procedures or treatment the child has to go through can create psychological and physiological responses from the child and the family called “Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress Disorder”.  Having trouble concentrating, sleeping and eating, blaming each other or feeling numb about the situation, having unwanted thoughts or avoiding things reminding them of the event are some of the symptoms that can be experienced during  Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress Disorder. If the symptoms persist they can lead to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

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Paraquat is a dangerous herbicideMultiple personal injury and product liability lawsuits have recently been filed against Syngenta, a Swiss company manufacturing the weed-killer Paraquat.

According to the lawsuits, the manufacturer omitted to mention to its customers the risk of Parkinson’s disease caused by exposure to Paraquat despite knowing about it.  Syngeta was aware that exposure to its weed-killer Paraquat increased the likelihood of getting Parkinson’s disease by two to five times but concealed it to its customers according to the lawsuits.

All plaintiffs contracted Parkinson’s disease after being exposed to Paraquat

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child in carCar accidents are one of the leading causes of  injuries and deaths for children. In the US, 636 children under 12 year old died and 97,000 were injured in car crashes in 2018.

From researching child restraint performance to analyzing teenager behavior behind the wheel and testing safety of future autonomous vehicles, the Center for Child Injury Prevention Study  has been constantly researching and advocating for better ways to protect children on the road.

Among their most recent studies,  researchers at CChIPS  have been looking at the validity of  recommendations for rear-facing Child Restraint System (CRS) using newly available real car accident injury data.

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child head injuryA   U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) analysis looking at personal injury during the coronavirus pandemic shows that while globally less Americans checked in at the emergency room for product related injuries during the pandemic, the number of severe cases remained mostly stable.   As emergency rooms were overwhelmed with Covid19 patients, Americans who suffered minor injuries opted not to visit the ER. As a result ER treatments for minor product-related injuries decreased by 24%. Visits for severe product related injuries only decreased by 1%.

Less children injuries at school but more injuries at home and outdoors

While school accident injuries dropped by 81 % due to remote learning, accidents at home and in outdoor environment increased. Skateboard, scooter and hoverboard injuries went up 39% with kids age 5 to 9 being the most vulnerable. In this age category,  these type of injuries recorded a 143% increase. While these activities are good options to play alone outdoors and avoid getting Covid-19, they can be quite dangerous, especially for beginners.

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e-scooter-4496668_640Electric scooters have become extremely popular and New York City finally is implementing a first e-scooter share program in the Bronx (see previous blog). The e-scooter wave started around 2017 and researchers have been accumulating data worldwide for a few years that are allowing them to provide pertinent reviews on the risk of accidents and injuries related to e-scooters.

Yesterday, the Injury Prevention online section of the BMJ Journals released “Injury patterns and circumstances associated with electric scooter collisions: a scoping review”, an in depth study on e-scooter collisions and the resulting injuries conducted by Manish Toofany  (Faculty of Medicine, The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada), Sasha Mohsenian, (Faculty of Science, The University of British Columbia), Leona K Shum (Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, The University of British Columbia) Herbert Chan and Jeffrey R. Brubacher (both part of the Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine The University of British Columbia and the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology & Evaluation (C2E2) in Vancouver).

The researchers were able to gather the materials that have been published worldwide about scooter collisions and their injuries during the previous years  to identify injury patterns such as cause, type, body location, and severity of the injury

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Work-Zone-Stand-Down-Announcement-FlyerThe number one cause of injuries among construction workers are “struck-by” accidents. Struck by a flying, falling, swinging or rolling objects are the 4 most common “struck-by” accidents causing injuries to construction workers. To raise awareness and reduce these types of accidents, the NORA Construction Sector Council along with the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) is organizing, on April 20, a National Stand-Down to Prevent Struck-by Injuries”.

Participants to the stand down will pause work on April 20 and set aside time time for stand down activities such as virtual or small group Toolbox Talks, look at work zone safety training and review the traffic control plan of the construction site. Sending emails or texting safety reminders as well as putting posters up and holding quiz contests will also help raising awareness.

Organizers can look for ideas and get material to download on the CPWR website such as promotional flyers, various tool box talks in English and in Spanish related to how to operate a vehicle safely in a work zone, how to work safely around vehicles on a construction site, how to make sure cranes are stable and don’t tip and how to prevent objects from falling. Organizers can also download infographics cautioning workers to stay alert, vehicle operators to observe safety rules and contractors to make sure they have a solid internal traffic control plan.

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rhino-pillRhino Pills and other herbal sex supplements for men often contain hidden ingredients that have caused injuries and even, in rare cases death to consumers.  These types of supplements can still be found at many gas stations around the country, at Walmart and on Amazon despite multiple FDA warnings and  the original manufacturer of the Rhino pill being sentenced yesterday to 4 years in prison.

Nam Hyun Lee, an illegal immigrant from South Korea based in California got into the business of selling sex herbal supplements in 2015.  His marketing was convincing with flashy Rhino labels and consumers quickly noticed that the supplements were actually working. Lee illegally  spiked his herbal supplements with Sildenafil or Tadalafil, the drugs used in Viagra and Cialis. The drugs were illegally imported from China, packaged at warehouses in Southern California and shipped all over the country. Lee was caught when one of the drug packages sent under the description “acrylic paint” was seized by custom agents and tested positive for Sildenafil.  He was arrested in 2018 and has been in federal custody since that date. It is estimated he sold between $3 million and $9 million of sex supplements.

While Lee has been convicted, other unscrupulous competitors quickly took over the market and continue to sell the Rhino brand name or other variations of sex herbal supplements.  Gas stations, Walmart and Amazon still sell them despite multiple FDA warnings.