Injury Law Report

Guarding against infections should be a primary goal of the hospital and its employees during your stay. But you can do a few things as well to decrease the possibility that you’ll bring something nasty and potentially serious germ home from the hospital.

Apparently, folks in Britain don't wash their hands after using the toilet. Then they use their cell phones. Researcher found that 92% of the phone examined were contaminated with bacteria and, worse yet, 16% of the cell phones harbored the dangerous Escherichia coli --- E. coli --- bacteria. Very nasty! Click here to read more.

By the way, are you washing your hands after using the potty? 

A patient complains of shortness of breath after receiving routine kidney dialysis treatment. As a precaution, he was admitted to a local hospital. The next day, while alert and still basically OK, he complained of an upset stomach. His doctor prescribed an antacid. Instead, his nurse gives him a paralytic drug – pancuronium – that was inappropriately stored in the nursing area. This deadly screwup sends the patient into cardiac arrest. He was revived, but the lost of oxygen during the heart attack places him in a vegetative state. He dies a month later. An unusual occurrence, for sure, but preventable medical errors happen far too often and sometime have fatal consequences.
 

Even if you are following all public safety rules, great care must be taken when faced with a disabled vehicle on the highway. You can obey the law and slow down as required, but there certainly will be drivers behind you that will not.

Surgeons operating on the wrong patient or the wrong part of your body? These careless medical problems are called “Never Events” because they are so shockingly avoidable that most doctors say they should “never” happen in the first place. Yet they do happen. Even though the medical profession has developed a “universal protocol” for doctors to follow prior to surgery and performing other key medical procedures, health professionals continue to cause injury and even death to patients in situations where such injury is entirely preventable. Listed below are examples of medical events identified by the National Quality Forum that should never occur and, if they do, require immediate investigation. The NQF is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving American healthcare quality.

if you are considering bariatric surgery, and the doctor tells you that he or she can do it on you as an outpatient, think very hard about getting a 2nd opinion. Leading doctors in the weight loss surgery community, as well as a new outcomes study, suggest that weight loss treatment as an outpatient can be risky and have an adverse impact on your safety.

We all enjoy a fun trip to the ballpark, football stadium or basketball arena. But can it be that serious injuries at these venues is on the rise? We're not sure, but recently there have been several newsworthy injuries at stadiums, arenas and ballparks across the country. Whether through faulty design or lack of security, people have been injured or even killed simply because they decided to enjoy a ball game. While some injuries can be avoided by a more watchful and careful visitor to the park, it's clear that owners of these facilities have a duty to the public to reduce the chance of injury to the public.

Security issues are at the core of the recent Dodger stadium attack. An investigation is ongoing, but questions regarding safety, the number of law enforcement officials present and the training of stadium employees in security undoubtedly will be reviewed.

More on this subject in later blogs.

Motor vehicle crashes are among the top ten causes of death for Americans of all ages and the leading cause of death for children, teens, and young adults aged 5-34 years. What can we do to reduce these deadly statistics? Well, we all can do a better job of driving our own vehicles, and follow a few simple rules to ensure that we don't become an injury or death statistic.

Take a look at this checklist, and change your behavior!

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British Petroleum, now know as BP Plc, will not be the only company in the mix and responsible for the massive and unprecedented oil spill now in progress in the Gulf of Mexico. Several companies are engaged in this business, and now all are scrambling to "lawyer up" and engage PR firms to spin their own stories about their lack of culpability.