Articles Tagged with Personal Injury

We are continually disturbed when we hear reports of persons injured by unsafe glass–decades after the need for “safety glazing” material (safety glass) was recognized. Our serious personal injury lawyers have delved deeply into the history of glass injuries in representing clients who have suffered what can be life-threatening injuries from unsafe glass, in premises liability cases tried successfully. We hope to share what we have learned about these dangerous products so that future injuries from dangerous glass can be prevented.
For more than thirty (30) years, the dangers of using glass that leaves sharp, jagged edges when it breaks has been known.
In a 1972 opinion, one court discussed the dangers of glass injuries from glass that was not “safety glass”: “‘Purposeful footsteps, impact, the harsh, shattering crash of jagged spears of glass falling and disintegrating on the floor, and disabling and disfiguring injuries or death — this sequence of events is acted out, according to safety experts, in 40,000 American homes annually.’” Moody v. Southland Inv. Corp., 126 Ga. App. 225, 230, 190 S.E.2d 578, 581 (1972) (quoting Wolfstone, “Glass Door Accidents,” 14 Am. Jur. Trials 101, 105).
The 1972 Moody case concerned a patio door made of non-tempered glass that shattered and injured the plaintiff. The Court discussed testimony from experts that “serious injuries are caused by nontempered glass,” and that “[t]empered glass is harder, and it won’t break as easily, and then when it breaks, it doesn’t come in sharp, jagged pieces, where you are liable to get cut.” Id. at 229, 190 S.E.2d at 581. The Court also observed that “tempered glass was available for use on the door [in question] in 1967, when it was first installed.” Id. at 228, 190 S.E.2d at 580.
For many decades, manufacturers, builders, and architects have known that “plate glass” which breaks in a sharp jagged way. Much of this information has been summarized in a Report in one of our cases prepared by Phillip L. Graitcer, DMD, MPH, who has been an Adjunct Professor at the Center for Injury Control, Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, Atlanta, and is the former Director of the International Unit of the “National Center for Injury Prevention and Control” at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.

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According to Healthgrades, an independent health care ratings company, 247,662 patients studied between 2003 and 2005 died from potentially preventable problems. The Institute of Medicine estimates that 1.5 million patients every year suffer from mistakes with medications.

People can sue for damages under state law if they’re harmed by drugs and medical products, but the Bush administration argues that states have no right to fault a company for selling a product that has been reviewed and approved by the federal government.

“Blocking such lawsuits, in my view, would do great harm to the public health,” Dr. Aaron S. Kesselheim, an internal medicine physician at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, said in a statement.

In what seems to be a classic case of “do as I say, not as I do,” one-time U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork, an advocate for limiting the right of ordinary citizens to sue for damages, has settled a $1 million lawsuit Friday against the Yale Club of New York.

Bork sued in Manhattan federal court last year claiming he fell stepping onto a platform to speak. Bork’s lawsuit alleged he injured himself so badly at the June 2006 event that he needed surgery and was left with a limp. He faulted the club for not having stairs or a handrail leading up to the platform.

Lawyers for the Yale Club blamed Bork, saying any injuries he sustained were at least partially his fault for not recognizing potential risks, which the club said were “open, obvious and apparent.”

In our personal injury practice, we have seen evidence here locally of what has been documented to be a growing and national problem. We have seen more and more brain injury cases resulting from traumatic events, typically tractor-trailer accidents, automobile accidents or some other traumatic incident, many times caused by the negligence of a third party. We have also seen these cases in the context of serious on-the-job injuries. What we see here in our practice mirrors the growing nature of this problem. Indeed, according to the Brain Injury Association of America there are nearly seven times more traumatic brain injuries each year than there are breast cancer and HIV/AIDS cases combined. This is a staggering statistic that is not appreciated by the public and yet the numbers are compelling in demonstrating the significant nature of this problem.
In Georgia, the typical cause of traumatic brain injuries are accidental falls, motor vehicle crashes or being struck by an object. Violence accounts for another ten percent (10%) of the problems. When one suffers a traumatic brain injury typically, they have long term neurological and cognitive problems. The impairments caused by these injuries can be permanent and result in partial or total disability. Because the consequences of such injuries are often life altering, it is obviously necessary that medical care be made available immediately to those who are unfortunate enough to have suffered such an injury. Without prompt medical attention, the problems caused by these injuries can become complicated and can actually worsen over time. As we have written before, the problem caused by a traumatic brain injury is bad enough, in and of itself, but is only complicated and made much worse by the unavailability of appropriate medical care.

Our Atlanta personal injury lawyers constantly hear calls from doctors and politicians to limit the rights of recovery of innocent patients injured by medical negligence. Often, the rights of these innocent patients are sacrificed for the monetary benefit of physicians and big insurance companies. One need look no further than the so called “tort reform” package passed by the Georgia legislature in 2005 and later signed into law by Governor Perdue.

Doctors are quick to support this erosion of rights for patients until it happens to them or their loved ones.

An example is a Charleston, West Virginia physician who has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against two other doctors and a hospital, alleging negligence and improper treatment when he needed abdominal surgery.

On our blog, we have written numerous articles about the dangers associated with high speed police chases. Our firm has handled numerous wrongful death and serious injury cases arising out of these very dangerous pursuits.

By and large the public does not appreciate just how dangerous police chases are. Indeed, more people are killed each year from police chases than are killed as a result of police firearm incidents. Over the last ten (10) years more people have died in police chases than were killed in 9/11. Over the last ten (10) years, the number of those killed an injured as a result of police chases approximate the number of those killed and injured in the Iraqi war.

And yet, one of the reasons that this problem is unappreciated by the public-at-large is the random nature of these events. One police chase occurs in one rural area in one state and someone is killed or injured and there may be some local publicity attendent to that event but it is not connected to another incident of an almost identical nature that occurs across the country in another state and another locale. And yet, national statistics bear out that approximately 500 people each year are killed and thousands and thousands of others are injured as a result of these very dangerous police practices.

The saddest personal injury cases we see in our serious injury law practice often times involves those who have suffered traumatic brain injury resulting from an automobile, tractor-trailer collision or some other traumatic event, with these tragedies being seriously compounded by the unavailability of insurance. While there has been some media attention on the number of uninsured individuals in this country who have no available health insurance coverage, the impact of this problem is not really seen or appreciated until one is confronted with overwhelming medical needs and there is a complete lack of medical coverage available to meet those needs.

One case we are currently handling involves a Hispanic gentleman who suffered permanent and irreparable brain damage. He was taken by life flight to the hospital where he was stabilized. Once he was stabilized, however, the hospital that had been treating him free of charge (because he had no health insurance) discharged him. After discharge, he no longer has the ability to seek appropriate medical treatment because he has no health insurance coverage and being from another country does not qualify for Medicaid or Medicare. His medical needs are overwhelming and yet he has no access to medical care in the richest country in the world.

This individual’s problem is no different in many ways from American citizens who are the victims of traumatic brain injury and do not have health insurance coverage. Oftentimes, the individuals involved may or may not qualify for Medicaid or other assistance. It takes years to qualify for Social Security disability benefits. In the meantime, after the traumatic brain injury has incurred and the patient is stabilized, the necessary ancillary services to a recovery, such as rehabilitation services, vocational and physical therapy and others are typically completely unavailable to the uninsured because they are not affordable and there is no way to get such treatment.

Federal regulators are sounding a warning about dangers associated with the use of insulin pumps by children and teenagers. Insulin pumps are used by tens of thousands of young people worldwide with Type 1 diabetes.

The Food and Drug Administration is warning parents to be vigilant in watching their children’s use of the pumps. They are not advising against using the pumps, but suggested further study to address safety concerns in teens and even younger children who use the popular pumps.

Researchers found that in the last ten years there have been 13 deaths and more than 1,500 injuries connected with the pumps. Some of these were the result malfunctioning pumps, but at other times, teenagers were careless or took risks..

MRSA is a staph becteria which has been in the news in recent years as serious problems have been reported in hospitals and other health care facilities. Staph bacteria, even those that aren’t resistant to antibiotics, have long caused serious infections.

In the 1960s, the first reports surfaced of staph infections that had stopped responding to the antibiotic methicillin. Over the decades, those strains have spread, and the germs have developed resistance to other drugs, largely in hospitals where they infect patients weakened by disease or made vulnerable through surgical wounds and catheters.

MRSA still poses the greatest threat in hospitals, where strains are usually genetically different and, because of antibiotic use, more difficult to kill than those circulating out in the community. About 85 percent of life-threatening, invasive MRSA infections involve people who have been hospitalized, lived in a nursing home or been treated in some other health care facility.

Victims of the wrongful death of their loved ones testified this week before Congress concerning adulterated supplies of Heparin. One of the largest suppliers of this drug, which is used in kidney dialysis and various other surgeries to prevent dangerous blood clots, is Baxter International, Inc. Not only did the victims of families who have been damaged by this product testify before Congress, representatives from Baxter were also subpoenaed by the Energy and Commerce Committee which is reviewing the Food and Drug Administration’s response to this scandal.

While the evidence is still unclear, it appears that the Heparin product manufactured by Baxter International, Inc. was derived from factories in China that had not been properly audited and inspected. There is also evidence that a particular sulfate product used in the manufacture of Heparin was deliberately substituted because it was less expensive to use than a safer sulfate ingredient. Regardless of the final results of Congress’ investigation, it was clear from victim testimony that the lack of oversight by Baxter relative to the activities of its foreign operations has lead to a tremendous amount of suffering for the victims’ families.

To date, 81 people have died from using contaminated Heparin. One gentleman who testified before Congress not only lost his wife but also his son who were undergoing kidney dialysis in Ohio. This man’s wife and son died within one month of each other. Thus, the wrongful deaths caused by this dangerous product clearly are deserving of congressional scrutiny so that other unwitting victims of products imported from abroad will be spared similar fates.