Articles Posted in Personal Injury

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If you only read Sharley McMullen’s death certificate, you would think she passed away as the result of respiratory failure and septic shock. The truth is much more alarming.

McMullen, a healthy 72-year old woman from California, was finishing up treatment for a benign stomach ulcer when she contracted an infectious bacterial disease in the hospital where she was being treated. Five weeks later, she was dead. In a morbid twist of fate, the hospital that was supposed to heal her caused her death.
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The New York City Department of Transportation enjoyed a small victory last week with the announcement that the city has surpassed its goal of constructing 15 miles of fully protected bike lanes in 2016. By the end of this year, 18 miles will be completed.

This achievement has been overshadowed by another statistic, however. With 3 months left in the year, New York has seen 17 cyclist deaths so far in 2016. That is already 2 more deaths than 2015’s tally.

The increase in deaths diminishes hope for the success of Vision Zero, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to eliminate traffic deaths by 2020.
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17 New York City construction workers died last year in work-related incidents. That is, if you ask the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health. According to the Department of Buildings, only 12 construction workers lost their lives on the job.

The discrepancy between these two numbers stems from conflicting definitions of a construction-related death, and it is indicative of the absence of clear, consistent data in an industry that has seen both tremendous growth and a surge in preventable deaths over the last 5 years.

The majority of the construction worker fatalities in the last year occurred on non-union sites—the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health identified 15 out of 17 deaths as non-union. However, there is disagreement as to how much of the industry is made up of non-union workers.
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Earlier this year, we covered an analysis published by the BMJ that identified preventable medical errors as the 3rd leading cause of death in the U.S.

Recently, a study funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that nearly one third of patients admitted to rehab centers experience illness or injuries as a result of their medical care.

Dr. David Classen, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Utah School of Medicine who played a key role in the study, stresses the importance of taking immediate steps to curb medical errors. “If the first rule of health care is ‘Do no harm,’ then we’re failing,” Dr. Classen said.
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It takes special kind of criminal to take advantage of another person’s tragedy for profit. According to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, many of those criminals live right here in New York.

When Hurricane Sandy touched down on the eastern seaboard in late 2012, it wreaked havoc in 24 states and caused over $75 billion in property damage. For Long Island engineering firm GEB HiRise Engineering PC and its former executive Matthew Pappalardo, this disaster presented an opportunity to make money.
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In the five years between January 2010 and October 2015, roughly 350 patients have undergone gastrointestinal procedures with contaminated scopes produced by the Tokyo-based company Olympus Corp. Dozens have died as a result.

The product, called the duodenoscope, is used in 700,000 procedures every year in America alone. Doctors insert the scope into patients’ throats in order to identify and treat health problems in the digestive tract. A design flaw makes the duodenoscope difficult to clean between procedures, allowing the transfer of bacteria from patient to patient. So far, we have seen outbreaks in Los Angeles, Milwaukee, and Denver among other American cities.

The worst part about this story is that Olympus has been aware of its design flaw for years. They chose to ignore it.
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“Everyone knew how powerful Roger Ailes was. I certainly felt intimidated by that.”

That’s how former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson describes Fox CEO Roger Ailes, who she alleges sexually harassed her for years. Earlier this month, Ms. Carlson filed a lawsuit against Mr. Ailes, claiming that he fired her after she rejected his sexual advances. Mr. Ailes has countered that Ms. Carlson was fired for low ratings.

According to Mr. Ailes, the lawsuit is a “tar-and-feather campaign” and a breach of Ms. Carlson’s contract. In a statement, he said, “this defamatory lawsuit is not only offensive, it is wholly without merit and will be defended vigorously.”

We are seeing now that by “vigorously,” Mr. Ailes meant inequitably, behind closed doors, and by depriving Ms. Carlson of her constitutional rights.
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Dr. David H. Newman, accused of groping emergency room patients.[/caption]In a speech to medical students at the University of Virginia, former clinical research head at Mount Sinai Hospital and ethics lecturer Dr. David Newman said, “[Patients] believe in us. They have faith in us, it’s almost religious. We need to use that privilege in a way that will better their care.”

In March, Dr. Newman was accused of sexually abusing four of his patients, one of whom claims the doctor ejaculated on her while she was sedated. He now faces up to 7 years in prison.

Dr. David Mata was named Oregon Family Doctor of the Year in 1995. He has since been accused of 140 counts of sexual abuse, 6 of which he has pleaded guilty to. Dr. Mata was charged with 5 years probation, which he served at home. He is now eligible to reapply for his medical license.
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Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin was killed on June 19th, crushed by his own 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee after it rolled backwards down his steep driveway. Mr. Yelchin was just 27 years old.

Recent Jeep Grand Cherokee models as well as Dodge Chargers and Chrysler 300s sedans—all owned by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles—have a history of rollaway incidents. The problem was first officially recognized in August 2015, when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) initiated a preliminary evaluation of the gear shifter design flaw that has been confusing drivers and causing accidents.
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When prosecutors failed to gather enough evidence to file criminal charges against famed yoga guru Bikram Choudhury for raping and sexually harassing numerous women, it was a civil lawsuit that took Choudhury to task for his actions to the tune of $7.5 million.

Likewise, it was civil lawsuits that dealt significant blows to the Catholic Church in cases of child sex abuse, and to police departments in cases of police brutality where criminal actions provided little to no deterrence.

While a criminal lawsuit punishes the guilty individual by placing him or her behind bars, a civil lawsuit seeks money damages for bad behavior. As a result, civil lawsuits often prove more effective in rendering justice to the victims and more importantly, stopping the bad behavior from continuing.

Can a civil lawsuit have the power to get terrorists off the internet?
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