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Home » Personal Injury News & Developments

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Laws Tightened for California Assisted Living FacilitiesMore than two-thirds of the states in the nation mandate that an inspection of an assisted living facility or nursing home occur every 18 months. However, California has long believed inspecting these facilities once every five years is adequate enough, but might consider conducting a study to determine if annual inspections are necessary. The state’s lack of tighter inspection schedules seems to highlight much bigger issues concerning the deterioration of regulating facilities in business to help the elderly, disabled and ill.

Assisted living businesses, providing day-to-day assistance and housing to the elderly, disabled and ill, are one of the fastest-growing industries in the U.S. The industry provides a variety of housing solutions for its residents to live independently. However, recent publications and television programs have shed new light concerning the industry, where many of the nation’s less able to entrust their lives.

Deplorable Conditions

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Drugs versus Alcohol and CrashesFor decades, law enforcement officers have used proven methods for verifying suspicion of drunk driving by asking the suspect to perform three tasks including using their eyes to follow the officer’s finger moving back and forth, taking steps outside of the vehicle and standing on the leg for a one-half minute. Prosecutors and personal injury attorneys representing victims have used the result of a standard field sobriety test to prove how the motorist was driving under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash.

Unfortunately, medical science has yet to create a device to detect all incidents of driving while under the influence of drugs. The law enforcement officer may be able to identify an alcohol-impaired driver who stumbles on one foot when taking a field sobriety test, but a driver under the influence of drugs might be able to maintain their balance indefinitely during the same test. In recent years, many more states have begun legalizing recreational, medical marijuana, which makes it more important than ever to understand how driving under the influence of drugs can negatively affect driver behavior.

In 2014, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducted a survey and found that the number of motorists driving under the influence of marijuana group approximately 50% during the previous seven years. This number grew sharply from 8.6% in 2007 to more than 12% in 2014. Even though the NHTSA said that drug-impaired driving was increasing, alcohol-related crashes had declined by approximately one-third during the same time. NHTSA spokesperson Mark Rosekind stated that “the rising prevalence of marijuana and other drugs is a challenge to everyone who is dedicated to waiving lives and reducing crashes.” The report revealed that “evidence that marijuana use impairs psychomotor skills, divided attention, lane tracking, and cognitive functions,” every skill essential for safe driving.

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Celebrity Deaths due to Medical MalpracticeMore than 1.5 million patients suffer the serious outcome of medical malpractice in the United States annually. Approximately 200,000 individuals are injured so severely that they die from medical negligence each year. So, it is not surprising that famous people and celebrities face the same potential risk of being injured or dying because a medical professional made a mistake.

In some cases, the accident is the result of the doctor’s failure to review the patient’s medical record before making a diagnosis, providing treatment or performing surgeries. Other times, the doctor prescribed medications at too high of a dosage, or the wrong medication, or a drug that was never needed. The information below details the most famous medical errors that cost and celebrities their lives.

Anna Nicole Smith

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Pot Legalization and Traffic FatalitiesIn 2017, the Denver Post published an article rhetorically asking their readers if there was a link between the rise in traffic fatalities and legal marijuana use. The article stated that since 2013, the number of motorists that died in vehicle crashes in Colorado who tested positive for marijuana in their system had risen significantly to almost double. This number coincides with a report released by the Governors Highway Safety Administration (GHSA) that was recently updated April 2017. That report showed that nationwide, “drugs were present in 43% of fatally injured drivers with a known test result, [that occurred] more frequently than when alcohol was present.”

In recent years, Colorado is among several states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use including Alaska, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and the District of Columbia. Additionally, thirteen other states decriminalized possessing marijuana in small amounts. A 2013 study found a correlation between medical marijuana laws and the increased presence of marijuana in fatally injured drivers.

After Colorado enacted the medical marijuana law in 2000, residents could cultivate and distribute marijuana for medical purposes without restrictions. Between 2013 and 2015, marijuana-related traffic fatalities occurring in Colorado increased 48% after the state legalized recreational marijuana. This sharply rising number is in direct contrast to all other traffic deaths in the state that had increased 11% during the same time.

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Sexual Assault in Nursing HomesThe public always reacts with shock upon learning that another helpless nursing patient was sexually assaulted by the person paid to provide his or her case. What the public is oblivious to, however, is just how common this occurrence has become and why it is so important to take every precaution possible before trusting others with the safety of those who you hold dear. We would all like to believe that the nursing home administrators, health inspectors and government agencies are working diligently on behalf of the victims of these heinous crimes, but many of the victims are deprived of a voice, and the perpetrators walk free.

How Nursing Homes and Authorities are Turning a Blind Eye to the Issue

It is terrifying to think that our loved ones are vulnerable to the whims of sexual predators when they are in their weakest state. Thousands of nursing home patients find themselves with medical conditions or injuries that make it impossible for them to fight back when caregivers, other residents or even their friends or family members commit unthinkable acts toward them. We would like to believe that steps are being taken to prevent the abuse and to bring justice to those who commit these deeds.

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HIgh Rate of Roll Over AccidentsThe high and narrow build of passenger vans can make them top-heavy and more likely to tip or rollover, especially when the driver is not experienced at driving these types of vehicles. Although the space and room inside these vehicles make them seem like a great family option, there are dangers involved with driving them. They handle differently and when loaded to capacity, can be at a higher risk to drive.

A woman with six children in her mini-van recently rolled twice on an Illinois highway. The woman was momentarily distracted and hit the edge of the road and tried to correct the vehicle. The quick movement caused the van to flip and roll twice into the ditch. All seven passengers were taken to the hospital. Luckily, the woman and six children all survived and did not sustain any life-threatening injuries.

15-Passenger Vans

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Surgeries and The Dangers With ThemA hospital in greater South Bend, Indiana, revealed earlier this week that 1,182 of its patients may have been exposed to the hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV viruses by potentially contaminated surgical equipment. Goshen Hospital, which is in Elkhart County, said that patients undergoing surgery at the hospital between April and September of this year are in the group at risk.

Goshen Hospital released a statement explaining that its technicians failed to complete a necessary step in a multi-step surgical instrument sterilization process in a “limited number of cases,” which raises the risk of infection even though other sterilization methods were completed.

“The surgical instruments in question were still treated with other usual chemical disinfection and machine sterilization processes which include a wide margin of safety; however, we are not able to determine if such instruments were completely sterile prior to use,” the hospital said in a statement. “This action has the potential of exposing a limited number of patients to the hepatitis C virus, hepatitis B virus and human immunodeficiency virus.”

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the-best-way-to-handle-irresponsible-dog-ownersWhile dog-owners love their dogs and treat them with love and care, they are expected to extend the same courtesy to their neighbors. The absence of this attention to others results in daily conflicts between dog-owners and those who see the dog as a potentially dangerous threat to their children or even to adults.

Increasing numbers of dog-bite cases

Statistics regarding dog-bite cases in the US have been calculated on the basis of the number of patients who have been admitted in clinics and hospitals to receive dog-bite treatments. The numbers have risen by a whopping 86% between the years 1990 and 2008. Any dog irrespective of whether they live in the house or street is capable of displaying aggressive behavior when it they are confronted with a perceived threat. The extremely high number of dog-bite cases clearly indicates the fact that dog behavior is often observed to deviate from normal, predictable behavior patterns.

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Motorist Safety Tips For Avoiding Truck AccidentsLarge commercial trucks are prevalent on the highways and streets all across the U.S. While their drivers are professionally trained, their sheer size and weight makes them difficult to stop and maneuver when faced with an obstacle. Learning to respect their space and understanding their limitations can help motorists avoid being involved in an accident with one of these large vehicles.

Fatality Rates Involving Commercial Trucks

When encountering a large truck on the road, it is best to use caution. These large trucks can be deadly if a driver is involved in an accident with them. In a passenger vehicle, the driver is more likely to receive a fatal injury than the driver of the commercial truck if you are to tangle with one on the road. The statistics don’t lie.

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Depositphotos_25825003_xl-2015-1024x683With the holidays right around the corner, it’s a good time to be mindful of the risks associated with being on the roadways at this time of year and the need to drive with extra caution. While July 4th and New Year’s are statistically the deadliest holidays for traffic accidents, it might surprise some that Thanksgiving time is not far behind—even deadlier than Labor Day weekend.

In 2017, 528 people were killed nationwide in crashes during the four-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the busiest travel time of the year.

Because of the alcohol consumption associated with holidays, accidents inevitably rise at these times of the year. The two holidays with the highest total number of traffic fatalities, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), are New Year’s Eve/Day and the Fourth of July, which were virtually tied between 2010 and 2015 at an average of about 118 deaths annually. (July 4th is the deadliest day of the year for motorcyclists.)

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