New York Injury Lawyer Blog

The recent rash of consumer product recalls offers a stark reminder of the danger posed to consumers by defective products.

The New York City defective product attorneys and the New York defective vehicle lawyers at Queller, Fisher, Washor, Fuchs & Kool represent clients who have been seriously injured or killed by poorly designed or dangerous consumer products.

Companies have an obligation to ensure their products meet safety standards and are free from known defects that could cause harm to customers. But, too often, profits are put before safety. And, when consumers are seriously injured, companies can and should be held responsible for the injuries they cause.

-About 1.5 million Graco strollers have been recalled because they could pose a risk of fingertip amputations and lacerations to children, CNN reported on Jan. 20. The models recalled by Graco Chidren's Products include the Graco Passage, Alano, and Spree Strollers and travel systems, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

- A day earlier, the CPSC issued a statement on Jan. 19 notifying consumers of a recall of more than 600,000 baby cribs by Dorel Asia because of a risk of suffocation and strangulation to infants and toddlers.

-The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced a recall of all Tylenol Arthritis Pain Caplet 100 count bottles with the red EZ-OPEN CAP due to consumer reports of a moldy or mildew-like odor associated with nausea, stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea. The recall has since been broadened to include more than two dozen other over-the-counter products manufactured by McNeil Healthcare, according toThe New York Times.

Continue reading "New York defective products a danger to consumers" »

The boom in cesarean section births worldwide is leading to unnecessary surgeries that jeapordize women's health, The United Nation's World Health Organization warned this week in a report published in the medical journal The Lancet.

The New York City birth injury attorneys and the New York medical malpractice lawyers at Queller, Fisher, Washor, Fuchs & Kool represent families dealing with the injury or death of a child because of medical negligence, including problems during cesarean section delivery and because of surgical complications or failure to manage pregnancy.

Nearly half of all births in China are delivered by cesarean section-- the highest rate in the world. The report noted C-sections have reached "epidemic proportions" in many countries and raise the risk of complications for the mother, according to MSNBC.

The WHO found that 1 in 4 Asian births are the result of c-section; 35 percent of births in Latin America were the result of C-section in 2005; and 30 percent in the United States, where C-section births are at an all-time high.

Here in the U.S., C-sections are often performed on mothers who request it, despite a 2006 government warning against elective C-sections, according to the Associated Press. The WHO found that women undergoing C-sections that are not medically necessary are more likely to die or be admitted into intensive care units, require blood transfusions or encounter complications that lead to hysterectomies.

And U.S. studies have shown babies born by cesarean have a greater chance for respiratory problems.

"The relative safety of the operation leads people to think it's as safe as vaginal birth," said Dr. A. Metin Gulmezoglu, who co-authored the Asia report. "That's unlikely to be the case."

The study also noted that 60 percent of hospitals studied were motivated by financial incentives to perform surgeries.

Continue reading "Risk of New York childbirth injuries from C-section delivery" »

New York and New Jersey are among the nation's leaders in enacting laws to prevent traffic accidents.

The New York City car accident lawyers and the New York wrongful death attorneys at Queller, Fisher, Washor, Fuchs & Kool represent clients who have been seriously injured or killed in a car accident. The New York injury lawyer blog reported in November when the state banned text messaging in an effort to reduce New York car accidents.

New Jersey placed 2nd and New York 4th in the report by Advocates for Highway & Auto Safety, which graded all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The group's primary focus is on three areas: banning text messaging, graduated driver licensing and ignition-interlock laws for drunk driving offenders.

Every day, 102 people are killed and more than 6,000 injured in traffic collisions, according to the report. On average, 5.8 million traffic crashes occur on the nation's roads each year, claiming 30,000 lives and injuring over 2 million motorists.

New Jersey finished behind the District of Columbia with 13 of 15 possible points. Illinois (12.5) was followed by New York (11) and North Carolina (11) rounded out the top five.

The worst states were South Dakota, Arizona, North Dakota, Wyoming, Virgina, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Nebraska.

Nationally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced last week that it is creating the first national nonprofit organization, FocusDriven, devoted specifically to raising awareness about distracted driving.

Continue reading "New York, New Jersey lead nation in laws aimed at preventing car accidents" »

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death among infants and young children, and diagnosing adolescent stroke needs to be a priority in the medical community to prevent misdiagnosis leading to serious injury or death, according to an article in The New York Times.

The New York City medical malpractice attorneys and the birth injury lawyers at Queller, Fisher, Washor, Fuchs & Kool represent clients who have been seriously injured by a doctor or hospital's failure to diagnose or failure to manage a stroke injury.

Stroke, by some estimates, is the sixth-leading cause of death in infants and children; The Times cited the statistic in pointing out that doctors and hospitals need to be far more aggressive in detecting and treating children with stroke-like symptoms.

Strokes kill more than 130,000 people each year in the United States and are the third-largest cause of death behind cancer and heart disease, according to the American Heart Association.

"Front-line providers need to have stroke on their radar screen as a possible cause of sudden neurological illness in children," said Dr. Rebecca N. Ichord, director of the pediatric stroke program at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Symptoms can include slurred speach, droopy eye, stiffness, and an inability or sudden difficulty in walking or standing; all signs quickly recognized as a possible stroke in adults.

Additionally, strokes are often treated with anticoagulants to prevent another stroke; misdiagnosis of a stroke injury in either an adult or child can lead to greater harm and even death.

"A stroke interrupts the blood supply that brings oxyggen to the nerve cells," neurologist Dr. Maurine Packard told The Times. "Without oxygen, the nerve cells die. The longer the blood supply is compromised, the greater the injury."

Continue reading "Misdiagnosed New York City stroke injuries a danger to children" »

A Traumatic Brain Injury is caused by an external physical force, which can diminish or alter consciousness and may impair cognitive abilities and emotional functioning, according to the Brain Injury Association of New York State.

Causes of brain injury vary but can include New York City car accidents, falls, assault and sport's related injuries, including football and skiing accidents. The New York City brain injury lawyers and the personal injury and medical malpractice attorneys at Queller, Fisher, Washor, Fuchs & Kool represent clients who have suffered a New York brain injury.

Sports related brain injury in New York and elsewhere in the country has continued to be a cause for concern in recent years, including concussion injuries in the NFL and NASCAR. The effort to reduce head injuries in football by strengthening rules in youth football and college football was recently reported by The New York Times.

New York City head injuries can be further complicated or aggravated by a failure of medical staff to properly treat or manage the injury or can be the result of an undiagnosed medical condition or surgical error that leads to a stroke or aneurysm.

Even seemingly "minor" had trauma can result in serious brain injuries. Bleeding in the brain or a blow that damages the brain directly, can result in prolonged and irreversible brain damage, according to the National Institute of Health.

Symptoms can include:
-Coma
-Chronic headaches
-Loss or change of sensation, hearing, vision, taste and smell
-Paralysis
-Seizures
-Speech or language problems.

Continue reading "New York City head injuries can result from car accidents, falls, sport's injuries, medical malpractice " »

Fewer people were killed but more people were injured in New York City construction accidents in 2009, the Daily News reported.

The New York City construction accident attorneys and the New York crane accident lawyers at Queller, Fisher, Washor, Fuchs & Kool fight for the rights of people who have been seriously injured or killed at or near construction sites.

There were three fatal New York City construction accidents last year, compared to 19 in 2008. Experts pin the drastic decline on the end of the decade-long construction boom in the city as the economy soured. In 2007, 12 people were killed in New York City construction accidents; 18 died in 2006.

However, the number of construction accidents jumped nearly 50 percent, to 224 in 2009, compared to 151 in 2008.

The Buildings Department attributed the drop in fatalities to better enforcement and the higher accident rates to better reporting by contractors.

While fewer reported fatalities is good news, the drastic increase in New York City construction accidents and injuries is cause for concern. Contractors, builders, property owners and others responsible for the safety of a job site have an obligation to prevent accidents and injuries.

Two of the deaths reported in 2009 involved workers falling, one in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn. Neither victim had been provided with a required safety harness, the Daily News reported.

The third death was caused by the collapse of a concrete wall in Staten Island.

The city revised its construction codes last year for the first time in four decades and launched a series of safety initiatives aimed at cracking down on unsafe conditions.

Continue reading "More New York City construction accidents reported in 2009; fatal construction accidents declined" »

Brain infections in two kidney transplant patients has health officials re-examining transplant policies, The New York Times reported.

The New York City medical malpractice attorneys and the personal injury and wrongful death lawyers at Queller, Fisher, Washor, Fuchs & Kool represent patients in injured or killed by surgical negligence, hospital infections and other surgical complications.

In this case, the Times reported that the organ donor, a child at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, suffered from seizures and a brain disorder thought to be an autoimmune disease that would not transmit to the organ recipient. However the cause turned out to be a fatal infection and the mistake in diagnosis was not recognized until the transplants had been performed and the two recipients had become critically ill.

The case highlights the lack of a national policy concerning donors with poorly defined neurological disorders -- for now, the system leaves the decision in the hands of individual transplant centers.

Dr. Michael G. Ison, an assistant professor at Northwestern University and a specialist in infectious diseases, said the Mississippi case spurred officials to begin looking at nationwide data to see how often such patients become donors.

Instances of disease transmission from transplants are increasing amid better reporting. Recipients have contracted West Nile virus, HIV, tuberculosis, a rodent virus, parasitic worms and other infections -- in a few cases, even cancers have been transmitted.

Transplant patients are especially vulnerable to serious injury or death from hospital infections or transmitted diseases or disorders because the drugs needed to prevent organ rejection work by suppressing the immune system.

"This is a difficult topic, because organs are really scarce and patients who need a transplant are typically quite ill and need a transplant quickly," said Dr. Eileen Farnon, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "(S)ometimes it's hard to do all the testing that one could possibly think of for all the infections out there."

More than 100,000 people are on a waiting list for a transplant, and 9,000 die each year, the organ network says.

Continue reading "Serious infections a concern with New York organ transplants" »

Women who take years to get pregnant are more likely to have difficult pregnancies and may be at higher risk for birth injuries, ABC News reported.

The New York City birth injury attorneys and the medical malpractice and wrongful death lawyers at Queller, Fisher, Washor, Fuchs & Kool represent patients and families coping with birth injuries or the tragic death of a newborn.

The Findland study, conducted by Dr. Kaisa Raatikainen and colleagues from Kuopio University Hospital also found that women who take a long time to conceive were at higher risk for having problems during pregnancy and labor, including pregnancy-related diabetes and infections of the membranes around the fetus.

Women take longer to get pregnant as they age; up to 85 percent of fertile woman under 35 will become pregnant within one year of trying, compared to just half of woman older than 35.

Doctors and medical professionals must take into account an expecting mother's age, health and risk factors. Failure to manage pregnancy or surgical errors during birth can lead to birth-defects, long-term physical and mental developmental issues and infant death.

The report, published in the December issue of Fertility and Sterility investigated 17,114 pregnancies delivered at Kuopio University Hospital between 1989 and 2007.

Nearly three-quarters of the women got pregnant within six months, 12 percent took six months to a year, 6 percent took between 1 and 2 years and 4 percent took longer than two years to become pregnant.

The longer it took a woman to get pregnant, the more likely she was to have had at least one prior miscarriage.

After adjusting for age, health and other risk factors, researchers found that the woman who took more than 2 years to get pregnant were 51 percent to 64 percent were more likely to have adverse outcomes, including premature birth and an unhealthy baby.

Continue reading "Difficult conceptions can require special care to avoid New York City birth injuries" »

Authorities are investigating at least three recent New York bus accidents involving tour buses driving between New York and Canada.

Commercial bus drivers must be professionally licensed and trained to operate tour buses. Busing companies have a responsibility to make sure they are providing safe passage for customers, hiring and retaining safe drivers and ensuring their buses meet safety and routine maintenance standards.

The New York City bus accident attorneys and the mass transit accident lawyers at Queller, Fisher, Washor, Fuchs & Kool fight for the rights of clients who have been seriously injured or killed in bus accidents, subway accidents, train accidents and ferry boat accidents.

Not only do large commercial bus drivers and busing companies have a responsibility to ensure the safety of passengers, they must also do their part in avoiding traffic accidents with other passenger cars and smaller vehicles. Because of the size of large school buses, tour buses and other commerical buses, New York City car accidents involving a bus can lead to devastating injuries similar to those involving semis or New York City trucking accidents.

In the latest incident, one person was killed and two were severely injured on New Year's Day when their tour bus reportedly swerved to avoid a vehicle and flipped onto its side, according to The Canadian Press.

The tour bus, operated by the Big Apple Bus company, was carrying about 30 passengers at the time of the crash. The tour group had left New York City on Dec. 26 and had stopped in towns around the northeastern U.S., Ontario and Quebec. The bus was headed toward Boston at the time of the accident.

While that accident occurred in Quebec, a few miles from the U.S. border, the others happened in New York and all three involved New York tour bus companies.

In fact, both December New York bus accidents involved the same bus company -- Megabus.

On Dec. 21, a double-decker Megabus headed for Toronto had an accident near Buffalo New York, according to CBC News.

The Sunday morning accident on Interstate 90 was one of two serious bus accidents involving the company in December. Forty people were on the bus, which was traveling from New York City to Toronto, when it went off the road near a Buffalo suburb at about 7:15 a.m.

State troopers ticketed the bus driver for failing to maintain his lane, according to media reports.

On Dec. 10, another Megabus traveling between New York City and Toronto overturned on the New York Thruway, CBC News reported. Thirteen people were injured in that accident, which happened during snow and high winds.

Megabus.com offers discount trips on its double-decker buses between Toronto and cities in New York, including New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse.

Continue reading "Officials investigate third New York City bus accident in as many weeks " »

Last week's protest over the removal of 14 blocks of bike lanes in Brooklyn put the spotlight on winter bicycle riding in New York City.

The New York City bicycle accident lawyers and car accident attorneys at Queller, Fisher, Washor, Fuchs & Kool urge motorists and bicyclists alike to practice safe driving habits in avoiding New York City bicycle accidents and car accidents during winter.

Earlier this month our New York Personal Injury Lawyer blog published winter safe driving tips for avoiding New York City car accidents.

Last year, 716 bicyclists were killed and more than 52,000 injured, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. More than 10 percent of those occurred in New York, where 5,535 cyclists were injured and 51 were killed, according to the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles.

A seven-year study in New York City found that 225 bicyclists were killed; more than 9 in 10 fatalities were caused by a crash with a motor vehicle.

As the New York Times reported, many people continue to bike year round in New York City, including professionals, enthusiasts and those who rely on their bikes for daily transportation.

Dr. David Muller, a dean at Mount Sinai medical school, told The Times that he rides all year and doesn't stop "unless there's a lot of unplowed snow on the ground."

"Cold weather is a cyclist's friend," said Wiley Norvell, the spokesman for Transportation Alternatives, the pedestrian and cyclist advocacy group. "You create a lot of heat just riding, especially if you climb a bridge on your commute."

In addition to staying properly hydrated and wearing winter weather gear, cyclists need to be more conscious of what's going on around them and be aware that drivers may be less likely to anticipate their presence on the road in the winter.

Continue reading "Safety awareness can help prevent winter New York City bicycle accidents" »

New York City's fire department has suspended two emergency medical technicians accused of refusing to help a pregnant woman who died after collapsing in a coffee shop while they were on break, the New York Times reported.

Meanwhile, an attorney for the two EMTs told the New York Daily News that they never saw the woman.

The story, which has made national news throughout the holiday, accuses the emergency medical workers of a gross neglect of duty. Doctors, hospitals and other professional medical providers, including EMTs and paramedics, can be held responsible for negligent actions that lead to the serious injury or death of a patient.

The New York City medical malpractice attorneys and the personal injury and wrongful death lawyers at Queller, Fisher, Washor, Fuchs & Kool fight for the rights of clients in New York City medical negligence cases and work to hold negligent or careless doctors and medical professionals responsible for their actions.

Witnesses say the EMTs told employees at the Brooklyn cafe to call 911 when asked to help the 25-year-old woman, according to the Times. Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the EMTs' conduct inexcusable and against human decency.

An ambulance was called and the woman died after being taken to Long Island College Hospital. Her baby girl was too premature to survive.

A spokesman for the EMT union told the Times EMTs generally consider it a 24-hour job. ''Our people tend to spring into action whether they're on duty, off duty, whatever they're doing,'' said Robert Ungar, spokesman for the Uniformed EMTS and Paramedics, FDNY. ''If there was unprofessional conduct by these EMTs, the union does not condone any type of conduct which in any way can harm members of the public."

An attorney for the EMTs told the Daily News "it didn't happen the way it has been presented," adding that the EMTs never saw the pregnant woman, who was an employee in the back of the restaurant.

Continue reading "New York City EMTs accused of ignoring dying pregnant woman in Brooklyn medical negligence claim" »