Many accidents and injuries discussed on these pages result in fractures, or broken bones. It is important to know how to react if you are ever needed to treat a fracture while waiting for professional help to arrive. The Mayo Clinic offers some great advice when it comes to treatment and precautions, including how to stop bleeding, how to immobilize the area with splints and how to treat for...
Many New York City tourists and residents were reminded of the 1997 Macy's Parade last week when a helium balloon collided with a lamppost causing a light to fall and injure two sisters. The M&M balloon hit a lamppost near Times square in Manhattan. Two sisters, an 11 year old and a 26 year old, were injured when a light fell on them, causing an abrasion on the 11 year old's head and requiring...
It appears that the Assembly in Albany may be considering some "comparative negligence" laws. That would be a shame. I agree with the attorney in this article that the reason our great state has such low on-the-job injury rates is because we have such strict rules requiring companies to provide safe working conditions. If the worker mentioned in this article had been provided with a working...
I would just like to take a couple of seconds to congratulate Jeffrey A. Guzman, a member of our firm, for sucessfully trying a birth injury case involving Erb's Palsy. The jury decided unanimously that the defendant obstetrician did not adhere to the medical standard of care during the infant's delivery. I'm happy that our firm in general, and Jeffrey specifically, was able to help protect...
A Saratoga County Deputy was cleared of wrongdoing in an accident that killed a Skidmore College student. Robert Swatling was traveling on the Route 50 arterial in Saratoga Springs when he hit Skidmore senior Phillip Eckstein who was walking on the highway despite the fact that it is closed to pedestrians. Swatling was returning from a routine patrol and did not have any drugs, medications or...
The Judicial Panel on Multi-Districl Litigation ruled recently that Guidant class action lawsuits will be consolidated in a Menneapolis federal court for discovery and other pre-trial motions. The consolidation includes two suits from MN and one each from FL, CA, IN and NY. It is claimed that Guidant knew about malfunctions in their defibrillators for three years before notifying doctors or...
Should there be seatbelts on school buses? A Texas jury has answered with a resounding yes. From Waco, Texas, comes word of a verdict in what may be the first trial in the United States involving the lack of seat belts on a bus. The jury returned a $17.5 million verdict on Nov. 4. Plaintiffs alleged that the bus was defective in part because it did not include seat restraints. (David...
A car accident on Sunday morning involving a 46-year-old Everett man and a 28-year-old Everett man left both drivers in the hospital. The 46-year-old driver apparently pulled his vehicle westbound onto Highway 92 from 99th Avenue NE and struck the 28-year-old, who was driving a Ford pickup and towing another vehicle. The collision sent the Ford and the car it was towing through the guardrail...
Shortly after 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 29, 2005 at least 30 cars were involved in nine separate accidents over a half mile stretch of northbound Interstate 5 near Arlington. The Washington State Patrol shut down all northbound lanes of I-5 for two hours after the accident. Traffic was stopped for eight miles to the south. Police investigating the collisions attributed them to a wall of...
Reuters recently reported a startling statistic based upon a study by the Commonwealth Fund reported in the medical journal, Health Affairs: the United States leads Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Germany in medical errors.Patients in the United States reported higher rates of medical errors and more disorganized doctor visits and out-of-pocket costs than people any of these...