Articles Posted in Personal Injury

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An alarming report in the Chicago Tribune talks about an increase in reports of violent attacks by felons living in nursing homes. Many nursing home facilities are apparently not complying with a four-year-old disclosure law that requires them to notify state and public health officials when they admit offenders. As a result, some offenders in that state have been living in facilities undeclared for as long as a year.

There have been several recent incidents involving felons abusing or seriously injuring other nursing home residents. Most recently a 22-year-old mentally ill felon pleaded guilty to brutally raping a 69-year-old woman who lived in the same nursing home. In that case, the felon’s background screening had been improperly handled by the nursing home because they used the wrong birth date. In Illinois, nursing homes are required to conduct criminal background checks on all new residents and immediately notify state health authorities when someone with a serious felony conviction is admitted.

However, some homes still fail to conduct these important background checks or make serious errors on the checks, or simply fail to report these felons to officials. Some of these offenders, as a result, went on to commit assaults and serious crimes inside the homes. As a result of the nursing home’s negligence and their failure to take these background checks seriously, they exposed their own residents to danger.
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Jaguar Land Rover North America is recalling 4,001 Land Rover and Range Rover vehicles because of possible airbag defects, which might prevent the front passenger airbag from deploying in the event of a car accident. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), these affected 2010 Range Rover models may experience airbag lamp illumination on the instrument cluster. The NHTSA report states: “This warning lamp may clear on each subsequent ignition cycle. The passenger airbag will be disabled when the airbag warning lamp is illuminated as a result of this defect and the passenger airbag warning disable lamp in the overhead console will also illuminate.”

The deployment of the passenger side airbag may fail to occur in case of a car accident. This could cause devastating personal injuries and even death to the passenger. When this recall begins, Land Rover dealers will update the vehicles’ restraint control module with the integrated diagnostics system tool with updated software.
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A 58-year old Seattle man was killed in a pedestrian accident after he was struck by a pickup truck while attempting to the cross Benson Highway in an unincorporated area of Kent. According to a news report, the man was not in a crosswalk when he tried to cross the five-lane highway. Washington State Patrol officials said the driver of the 2000 Toyota pickup truck could not stop in time to avoid colliding with the man.

This is apparently the second pedestrian-car collision in the last seven weeks along the Benson Highway. A 22-year-old woman was killed in October when she tried to cross the highway to catch a bus. That pedestrian was not in a crosswalk either. Officials say it is not illegal to cross the highway, but pedestrians must yield right-of-way to vehicles when they are not in a crosswalk. Officials say that pedestrians should use a crosswalk when crossing any street, especially at night time when visibility is greatly reduced.
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A Washington construction site can pose numerous dangers to a worker. One of the less-talked-about dangers in construction sites involves nail guns. There was a recent news report about a construction worker who miraculously survived a nail that went through his heart. The accident occurred when he was in the middle of a construction job. The nail gun bounced off a ladder and the worker’s hand slipped and hit the trigger. He was taken to a hospital where surgeons opened his chest cavity and removed the nail. Doctors said that he might have bled to death had someone pulled out the nail instead of getting him to the hospital first.

Nail gun injuries have been steadily increasing over the last five years. According to a recent study, 42,000 people – more than 100 a day – show up in the nation’s hospital emergency departments annually with nail gun injuries. Treating these wounds reportedly costs the United States at least $338 million a year in emergency medical care, rehabilitation and workers’ compensation, according to an estimate by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Accidental discharge and defective nail guns, which suddenly begin to shoot out nails, cause a majority of injuries at construction sites. If you have suffered a nail gun injury as a result of someone else’s negligence or as the result of a defective product, you may be entitled to compensation.
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Washington State Patrol officials are looking for a driver who they say caused a fatal car accident and then left the scene of the crash in Whatcom County. According to a KGMI news report, the car struck and killed and pedestrian on Blaine Road south of Lynden-Birch bay Road. Witnesses described the car as a dark-colored sedan. Authorities believe that the car may have front-end damage.

Leaving the scene of any traffic accident is a serious crime in Washington State, especially if another individual has been seriously injured or killed. According to the Revised Code of Washington Section 46.52.020: “A driver of any vehicle involved in an accident resulting in the injury to or death of any person or involving striking the body of a deceased person shall immediately stop such vehicle at the scene of such accident or as close thereto as possible but shall then forthwith return to, and in every event remain at, the scene of such accident until he or she has fulfilled the requirements of subsection (3) of this section; every such stop shall be made without obstructing traffic more than is necessary.”
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Errors that occur during surgery can sometimes have devastating consequences and change a person’s life forever. Seattle personal injury attorneys have represented a number of injured clients who have suffered permanent disabilities or have had to undergo unnecessary procedures, pain and suffering, and medical expenses as a result of surgical errors.

According to a news report in the North Platte Bulletin, a couple recently filed a lawsuit against the doctor who they say performed an unnecessary and botched surgery that damaged the woman’s vocal chords permanently. The complaint states that the doctor recommended removing all or part of the woman’s thryroid gland to treat a goiter. During the procedure, the doctor explained to the woman that he would do the necessary monitoring to prevent nerve and vocal chord damage.

However, after the surgery, the woman started to have symptoms such as hoarseness and shortness of breath. After getting a second and third opinion, it was determined that the doctor who performed the thyroidectomy did not employ a monitoring device. As a result, the woman had to have additional procedures to correct the botched surgery and has still been left with damaged vocal chords, permanent shortness of breath and scars from the additional procedures.
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Dorel Juvenile Group Inc. has issued a product defect recall for about 447,000 baby car seat carriers after many reports of the child restraint handle coming loose and infants falling and getting injured. According to an Associated Press news report, at least three infants have been injured. They have sustained bumps, bruises and even head injuries. The Indiana-based manufacturer of the car seats has also gotten 77 reports of the child restraint handle fully or partially coming off the products.

This recall involves several brands of car seats, commonly sold in retail outlets, including Safety 1st, Cosco, Eddie Bauer and Disney. The defective car seat carriers were sold at department and children’s product stores all over the United States from January 2008 to December 2009. This recall is being conducted by Dorel, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
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A construction worker was killed at a work site on Guemes Island, according to a KIRO TV news report. The accident reportedly occurred when an 1,800-square-foot home fell off its foundation and crushed one of the workers to death. Six workers were lowering the house in order to comply with building codes, when the house slipped. Five of the workers apparently, were able to escape, but one worker was killed after being trapped and crushed by pieces of the structure.

A majority of construction accidents are caused by falling objects. Many of these involve catastrophic injuries or death because of the nature of such accidents. However, the sad truth is that most of these accidents are entirely preventable. The big question in such cases is whether the construction company or contractor was following all federal and state construction safety standards. In this case, were all the workers trained to perform the job they were doing? Did they follow all safety procedures? Were they being properly supervised? Was this accident the result of someone else’s negligence or a defective product?
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A jury has awarded $51,000 to the family of a nursing home resident, who died after suffering a large bed sore that ate through her skin, to the bone. According to a recent news report, the jury also decided that the nursing home should cover attorney’s fees incurred by the resident’s children over five years. The 88-year-old resident died in December 2004 after she underwent a procedure to remove bedsores and treat bone infections caused by the nursing home’s extreme neglect including, failing to clean her. Nursing home administrators maintained that the woman had bedsores on other parts of her body and that she did not suffer them as a result of negligence.

Nursing home negligence lawsuits may not yield as much as other personal injury cases in terms of damages. However, in this case, the family gets the satisfaction of holding the facility accountable for their wrongdoing. The civil justice system is about righting a wrong and holding those who broke our nation’s civil laws responsible and financially liable to the victim. That’s exactly what happened here. The nursing home has been made to pay for their wrongdoing.
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A Consumer Reports analysis of a federal safety complaints database is showing that more than 40 percent of sudden acceleration complaints involve Toyota and Lexus models. According to a recent news report, the study looked at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) safety complaints database, which apparently also found Ford standing out with a significant number of complaints relating to sudden acceleration.

Consumer Reports analyzed all 5,916 reports on 2008 models and identified 166 cases in which the complaint described unintended, sudden acceleration that the driver could not control. A fatal car accident in San Diego which killed a California Highway Patrol officer and three members of his family led Toyota and NHTSA to issue a safety advisory on floor-mat entrapment. Toyota is also preparing for a massive recall involving 4 million vehicles to modify gas pedals and make other changes to remedy potential sudden acceleration problems. Consumer Reports’ research found that sudden acceleration incidents were distributed over 22 brands with 47 complaints about Toyota models and five about Lexus vehicles.
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