CGWC Orlando Injury Attorney Blog

Orlando, Florida

Rollover/Roof Crush Accidents - Wednesday, November 29, 2006

An all too common occurence is the rollover accident resulting in disabling and often paralyzing, if not fatal, injuries. Typically, sport utility vehicles (SUV's) that are already top heavy are the culprits for these injuries.
There are over 10,000 rollover deaths annually in the U.S. There are about 273,000 such accidents each year. Certain poorly designed vehicles are much more likely to cause these injuries than others. For example, the Ford Explorer is 53% more likely to roll over than other SUV's when faced with equipment failure.
Currently, the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration is reviewing public comments concerning a new proposed "roof crush" rule. The new rule would increase the current roof rush standard only slightly. In fact, the NHTSA did not even follow Congress' instructions to test both driver and passenger sides of the vehicle for structural integrity. The new rule would do nothing, as a practical matter, to increase consumer safety.
The NHTSA should promulgate a new rule that truly improves roof crush standards, follows Congress' mandate and improves public safety.
If you or a family member have been involved in a rollover accident, you should consult with an attorney experienced in handling these cases. Colling Gilbert Wright & Carter has handled these complex cases and has the experience to evaluate your case and determine if poor automotive design contributed in causing the accident or injuries.

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Bedrail Deaths In Nursing Homes and Hospitals Are Preventable - Tuesday, November 28, 2006

The Food and Drug Administration recently issued guidelines to try to end a little-known but not uncommon cause of death of nursing home residents and hospital patients, bedrail entrapment.

Bedrails are supposed to be helpful to patients who use them to position themselves in bed and to keep patients from rolling out of bed. Unfortunately, sometimes patients who are frail, elderly, on mind altering medications, or suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's, can become entrapped between a bedrail and the bed mattress, leading to serious injury and even death by asphyxiation. Approximately 350 such deaths have been reported to the FDA since 1995 with 35 deaths being reported in the last year and a half. Federal officials say they believe these are just a fraction of the actual number of injuries and deaths because many nursing homes and hospitals don't know they are supposed to report such incidents. Others don't report them because they are afraid of legal liability or don't want the bad publicity that might result.

The FDA believes these incidents are largely preventable. Gaps bewteen the mattress and bedframe and bedrail must be eliminated with positional devices, repositioning of the mattress or in anothe safe manner. The mattress must be fit tightly against the the bedframe and bedrail to avoid dangerous gaps that trap and injure patients. The new FDA guidelines issued in March, provide instructions to nursing homes and hospitals on how to make complex calculations to check that beds are properly assembled and there are no entrapment dangers.

Colling Gilbert Wright & Carter have handle bedrail entrapment cases in the past and are experienced at litigating these cases.

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New Study Released On Preventing Backover Accidents - Sunday, November 26, 2006

Accidentally backing over pedestrians in parking lots or children in private driveways cause more deaths and injuries than you might expect. The number of backover accidents can be only roughly estimated since many occur on private property and are not recorded in State or Federal traffic crash databases. A combination of death certificate data and traffic crash data indicate that backover accidents involving all types of vehicles are estimated to cause at least 183 deaths each year. In addition, an additional 6,700 to 7,419 injuries result form backover accidents each year.
The National Highway and Traffice Safety Administration was required by Congress recently to conduct studies on potential electronic safety systems, such as back-up cameras and motion sensor systems, that might be used by manufacturers to help prevent these tragedies. The most promising of these are back-up camera devices. These devices are currently available for after market installation for only a few hundred dollars. If your vehicle has a blind spot that causes you concern when backing up, you may want to consider installing an after market backup camera, especially if you have small children. Blind spots are largest and most concerning in sport utility vehicles (SUV's) and other long wheel based vehicles.
Colling Gilbert Wright & Carter recently represented a victim of a backover accident, a young college student who was killed when she was backed over by a stretch limousine in a parking lot. A settlement of over 1 million dollars was secured for the parents of this promising young University of Central Florida student.
Until Congress requires SUV's, limousines, and other vehicles to have back-up cameras, motion sensors, or other safety devices to prevent backover accidents, please consider after market devices for your family's safety.

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Medical Malpractice Crisis Exaggerated - Saturday, November 18, 2006

Health Affairs, is a bimonthly, peer reviewed journal of health policy and managed care published since 1981 by the non-profit Project HOPE. Health Affairs has become one of the most respected of all health policy journals, with the largest circulation and readership. After studying 30 years of data, Health Affairs published an article in May 2006 which concluded that the medical malpractice "crisis" had been greatly exaggerated.

After studying data from 1970 to 2000, the article concluded:

To paraphrase Mark Twain's comment on reading his obituary in a newspaper, the reported recent demise of medical practice as a result of rising malpractice premiums has been greatly exaggerated. The perception that increased malpractice premiums cause a crisis is at odds with evidence from AMA surveys. These surveys indicate that premiums have consistently been a small percentage of the total practice expense except within anesthesiology, which is a result of its having much lower than average non-premium expenses. When premium increases occurred between 1970 and 1986, and from 1996 to 2000, they only had a small effect on net income.

Remember, this is a study BY the health care industry FOR the health care industry. In short, the sky is not falling and medical malpractice lawsuits and attorneys who bring them for victims of malpractice do not have any significant effect upon health care, income of health care providers, or, for that matter, the premiums charged. Whatever health care crisis exists is in the delivery of competent health care at a cost the average citizen can afford.

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Ban on Silicone Breast Implants Lifted, But Are They Safe? - Friday, November 17, 2006

The U.S Government lifted a 14 year ban on silicone gel breast implants today despite lingering safety concerns. While the Food and Drug Administration lifted the ban for women 22 years and older and women undergoing breast reconstruction surgery, the FDA did warn that silicone breast implants don't last a lifetime, requiring additional surgery to replace them at some point. The FDA also warned that silicone breast implants are not without risks and that they can break, leaking into the patient's tissue without warning or immediate symptoms.

To be sure implants aren't leaking, women who choose silicone implants must undergo regular MRI examinations to identify these "silent ruptures" before the silicone oozing into their systems causes complications. A study report by the Insitute of Medicine in 2000 found rupture rates as high as 77%.

Many women found to have silicone implan ruptures have reported years of pain, numbness, swelling, and a myriad of other symptoms. Silicone gel in leaking implants has also been found to migrate throughout the body, forming lumps. Such implants can also cause infections and the development of hard and painful scar tissue that can distort the shape of the breast.

Women who desire or are in need of breast implants should seriously consider and weigh these grave risks before selecting silicone implants. There are alternative breast implants that have proven to be of no risk. Despite the FDA's decision to lift the ban and studies failing to find direct links to many disorders once thought to result from ruptured silicone gel implants, safety concerns linger and patients should remain skeptical and cautious of silicone gel implants.

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Tort Reform Laws Lead to Worse Health Care - Thursday, November 16, 2006

According to an article written by Jonathan Klick of the Florida State University College of Law and Thomas Stratmann of George Mason University's Buchanan Center for Political Economy, studies reveal that medical malpractice tort reform laws across the country have proven to lead to worse health care and worse outcomes for patients. While it is unclear what the net public health effect of these tort reform laws will be over time, the new laws do diminish incentive of health care providers to provide the highest level of health care. Increases in infant mortalities in some states suggest that the effect of such tort reform laws has lowered the quality of care provided.

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Florida 2nd In Nation in Motor Vehicle Fatalities - Wednesday, November 08, 2006

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety statistics from 2005, Florida was second only to California in total motor vehicle crash deaths in 2005. There were about 40,000 fatal automobile accidents in the U.S.A. in 2005. In those accidents, about 43,000 deaths occurred. This means the national death rate in automobile accidents was 15 deaths per 100,000 people. Motor vehicle death rates varied from a low of 7 deaths per 100,000 people in Massachusetts and New York to a high of 33 deaths per 100,000 people in Wyoming. Florida was second in the nation in total deaths in motor vehicle crashes.

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