February 16th, 2009
According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) preventable medical errors kill as many as 98,000 people every year at a cost of $29 billion. If the Centers for Disease Control classified medical errors as a cause of death, it would be the 6th leading cause of death in the United States. Killing more people every year than car accidents or guns. Here’s what the list of causes of death would look like:
1 Heart disease: 654,092
2 Cancer: 550,270
3 Stroke: 150,147
4 Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 123,884
5 Accidents (unintentional injuries): 108,694
Medical Errors: 98,000
6 Diabetes: ;72,815
7 Alzheimer’s disease: 65,829
8 Influenza/Pneumonia: 61,472
9 Nephritis/Nephrosis: 42,762
10 Septicemia: 33,464
Current Error Reporting Systems Are Not WorkingThe IOM reports that underreporting “is believed to plague all [existing] programs.” Reporting should be truly mandatory and available to patients and their families. The system today is inadequate:The that underreporting “is believed to plague all [existing] programs.” Reporting should be truly mandatory and available to patients and their families. The system today is inadequate:Peer Review allows doctors to share medical error information with each other, but 49 states have confidentiality laws that block this information from the public, even from families of patients who are injured or killed. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Medical Malpractice | No Comments »
February 13th, 2009
The United States Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of Laura Schubert Pearson after the Texas Supreme Court tossed out her lawsuit against the Pleasant Glade Assembly of God in Colleyville, Texas. Pearson’s lawsuit was based upon her severe mental anguish she suffered as a result of two exorcisims performed on her by the church when she was 17 years old. Pearson contends she was physically restrained by church members in a spread-eagle position for hours, during which she suffered carpet burns and scrapes on her back and bruised wrists. She also testified that she suffered from hallucinations related to the incidents, which occurred at a youth retreat while her parents were out of town.
After the terrifying episodes, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Negligence | No Comments »
February 10th, 2009
Three people were killed in an office fire in Houston in 2007. The building was owned by Boxer Property management Company and was insured by Great American Insurance Company. The insurance company denied the claims made by the victims’ families by asserting a policy defense. What was their defense? Great American denied the claims based upon a “polution exclusion” in the insurance contract. It was Great American’s argument that the victims died as a result of smoke inhalation, which the insurer called “polution.” The insurance contract specifically excludes harm caused by polution.
Great American’s outrageous defense in the case offended virtually everyone. The bad publicity and ill-will finally shamed the company into dropping their outrageous and frivilous defense. When most people hear the term “friivilous case,” they think of a person making a trumped up or fabricated injury claim. However, it occurs more often that insurance companies and large corporations refuse to accept responsibility. Those cases, however, rarely make the news.
Studies clearly show the insurance industry is experiencing record profits in the property and casualty insurance area despite numerous hurricanes and other natural disasters. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Insurance Claims, Lawsuits | No Comments »
February 8th, 2009
The Wisonsin Supreme Court issued a gound-breaking ruling when it recently held that high school cheerleading is a contact sport. The ruling came in the case of Brittany Noffke who was a cheerleader at Holmen High School in western Wisconsin. Noffke was practicing a stunt in 2004 when she fell off the shoulders of another cheerleader. A male cheerleader was supposed to be acting as a spotter–to catch Noffke if she fell. However, the spotter failed to catch her and Noffke suffered a serious head injury.
Noffke filed suit against the spotter, the school district and their insurance company. The state of Wisconsin has a law barring lawsuits for injuries in contract sports, but the law fails to define the term “contact sports.” A Wisconsin court of appeals sided with Noffke because cheerleading does not involve contact between opposing teams. However the high court unanimously overturned the court of appeals and found that cheerleading involves “a significant amount of physical contact between the cheerleaders.” As an example, the court cited stunts in which cheerleaders are tossed in the air.
High school cheerleading stunts have become increasingly difficult. Injuries among high school cheerleaders are a problem. Researchers at the University of North Carolina have found that two-thirds of the roughly 100 cases of “catastrophic” sports injuries among high school girls since 1982 have involved cheerleading. More than 95,000 female students and 2,100 male students take part in high school cheerleading every year, according to the North Carolina researchers. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Insurance Claims, Schools, Serious Injury Cases | No Comments »
January 31st, 2009
In March 2005, Jose Herrera was critically burned in the BP refinery explosion in Texas City. The tragic incident was the result of years of carelessness and neglect by one of the largest oil companies in the world. It killed 15 workers and injured another 170.
Workers in Texas have been victimized by state workers compensation law since Lonnie “Bo” Pilgrim convinced republican legislators to pass sweeping changes to the state’s law as he handed out $10,000.00 checks on the floor of the Texas Senate. The new law essentially gutted workers comp law in Texas, stripping agrieved workers of benefit of legal counsel by reducing attorney fees to the point that few attorneys can afford to handle workers comp cases. In essence, the law was a golden goose for the insurance industry.Back to Jose Herrera. If the 1989 rewriting of workers comp law was not bad enough for Texas workers, the all-republican state Supreme Court was eager to repay millions of dollars in campaign contributions by engaging the the worst form of judicial activism. The high court rewrote Texas law to rule against Jose Herrera and other workers in Entergy Gulf States, Inc. v. John Summers, giving big business and insurance companies a late Christmas gift. The Court held that contract workers, like Jose Herrera, had no legal right to sue a general contractor for their injuries. The case was not related to the BP explosion, but it now controls all similar cases in this state. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Job Injuries, Serious Injury Cases | No Comments »
October 28th, 2008
The American Association for Justice released a report earlier this year based upon their comprehensive investigation of thousands of court documents, SEC and FBI records, state insurance department investigations and complaints, news stories and the sworn testimony of former insurance agents and claims adjusters. The results come as no surprise to personal injury lawyers or their clients.
Allstate is the worst insurance company in America. The AAJ investigation quotes a former Allstate claims adjuster who admits they were instructed to lie to claimants. In public, Allstate claims to be the “good hands” people. Behind closed doors, Allstate expects its employees to use a “boxing glove” strategy. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Car Wrecks, Insurance Claims, Serious Injury Cases | No Comments »
October 16th, 2008
Insurance companies today are more aggressive than ever in adjusting (settling) car wreck injury claims. Everyone with common sense understands a human body in a car that gets hit by another two ton vehicle is probably going to have some injury. However, insurance companies want to treat every case as if no one should have been hurt.
Remember the insurance company gets to keep all the money that they don’t pay out. So if they can “save” $1,000 on 1,000 different claims, that adds up to $1 million. Wow! No wonder insurance companies have so much money. There are three deadly mistakes that injury victims often make, and that greatly decrease the value of their claims:
1. Waiting For The Auto Insurance Company To Approve Medical Treatment: Auto liability insurance is not like health insurance. They do not pay for your medical care as you go along. Many people mistakenly believe the auto insurance company is going to set up a claim that will take care of payment for medical care, or that the insurance company needs to authorize the medical treatment. It does not work that way. As as result, many people end up waiting several days (or even weeks) before following up with a doctor. That delay in treatment causes the value of the claim to go down. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Car Wrecks, Insurance Claims, Serious Injury Cases | No Comments »
May 12th, 2008
As previously reported here, Baxter International has recalled its widely used blood-thinner called heparin due to serious adverse affects as several deaths.
According to the FDA, some of the adverse effects included stomach pain, vomiting, low blood pressure, chest pain, fast heart rate, fainting, flushing, headache, shortness of breath and bleeding tendencies. Other side effects included nausea, diarrhea, dizziness, unresponsiveness, drug ineffectiveness, burning sensation, redness or paleness of skin, abnormal sensation of the skin, mouth or lips, sweating, decreased skin sensitivity, restlessness, watery eyes, throat swelling, thirst and difficulty opening the mouth.
The problem began late last year when four children undergoing dialysis in Missouri exhibited severe allergic reactions just minutes after receiving Heparin. Reports of adverse reactions to Heparin continued to mount, leading to last month’s recall by Baxter International of certain batches of Heparin. As the reports continued to spread to include more and more Heparin lots not recalled, Baxter realized the recalled batches were not the problem and decided to stop selling Heparin. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Pharmaceutical, Serious Injury Cases | No Comments »
May 5th, 2008
Baxter International, a leading manufacturer of the blood-thinner heparin, has recalled the drug after numerous adverse events and a string of deaths in the United States.
The recall – and the issuance of a government public health advisory – came after reports of 350 adverse events in January 2008, far more than the typical number. There was concern that the problem occurred because of the possible use of a counterfeit ingredient made in China.
In all, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials, certain batches of heparin may be linked to at least 19 deaths and more than 700 severe allergic reactions in the United States alone. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Pharmaceutical, Serious Injury Cases | No Comments »
April 25th, 2008
5,212 people were killed in crashes involving large trucks in 2005, representing about 12-13 percent of all traffic fatalities. Of these, 78 percent were occupants of another vehicle, 15 percent were large truck occupants, and 9 percent were non-occupants. An additional 114,000 people were reported injured in those crashes (based on data published in 2004 Projections, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), April 21, 2005),
The annual death toll from truck-related crashes is the equivalent of 52 major airline crashes every year, one crash every week resulting in 95 deaths.
* Large trucks are 9 percent of all vehicles involved in fatal crashes and represent 11-13 percent of all crash fatalities despite the fact that large trucks make up only 3 percent of all registered vehicles (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), 2001-2006; NHTSA, 2001-2005).
* The fatality rate for big combination truck (tractor-trailer) crashes in 2005 was 2.34 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (MVMT), almost double the rate for passenger vehicles (1.14 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled) (NHTSA 2005, FMCSA 2007).
* Large trucks are more likely to be involved in fatal multiple-vehicle crashes, as opposed to single-vehicle crashes, than are passenger vehicles. Eighty-four (84) percent of all large trucks fatal crashes were multiple-vehicle collisions in 2002, compared with only 62 percent for passenger vehicles) (IIHS, 2004).
* Almost 3 times as many large trucks are involved in injury crashes than passenger vehicle per 100 MVMT (FMCSA, 2004). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Serious Injury Cases, Trucking Accidents | No Comments »
