Boston Personal Injury Attorney Blog

March 11, 2014

Prescription Drugs: Safe Patient Awareness Week

Patients trust that their doctors, pharmacists and other medical professionals are doing everything possible to keep them safe from harm. Unfortunately, a trend of over-prescribing painkillers has led to substance abuse and addiction. Safe Patient Awareness Week urges patients to be aware of potentially harmful drug prescriptions and long-term risks associated with drug use. The public awareness campaign also urges drugmakers, doctors, and other medical providers to make sure that patients are safely monitored while taking pharmaceuticals to prevent against addiction.

According to the National Safety Council, the number of prescription related deaths has risen 300% since 1999. There are 45 deaths every day in the United States that are related to prescription overdose. Our Boston personal injury attorneys are dedicated to raising awareness to prevent serious injury and wrongful death related to prescription overdose. We are also committed to protecting the rights of patients and their loved ones who have been impacted by dangerous drugs or irresponsible medical providers.
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March 10, 2014

Massachusetts Supreme Court Looks at Arbitration Agreements in Nursing Home Contracts

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Arbitration agreements are increasingly common in nursing home contracts. Arbitration agreements stipulate that if there is a dispute between the nursing home resident and the nursing home facility, it must be handled via binding arbitration rather than in a court of law. This can make it difficult for plaintiffs to pursue legal action to obtain full compensation in cases where a nursing home has failed to live up to patient obligations.

Arbitration agreements can seriously curtail the rights of nursing home residents, and are part of an effort by nursing homes to reduce the potential risk of liability they face. In other words, instead of stepping up and making sure that the homes actually do right by patients, nursing homes are instead trying legal tricks to make it harder for plaintiffs to get damages after they are hurt.
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March 4, 2014

More Proposed Malpractice Changes- Do They Miss the Mark?

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Medical malpractice reform has been much discussed as a means of lowering healthcare expenditures, even though evidence has repeatedly suggested that malpractice is not a significant factor in driving costs.

Despite solid evidence that the vast majority of plaintiffs recover large malpractice payouts only in cases where they have been seriously injured, new proposals continue the fight to fix a system that is not really broken.

Recently, for example, an opinion article was published in Bloomberg View arguing for a “safe harbor” for doctors in malpractice suits provided they followed “evidence-based” protocols. The suggestion is that we should move away from a local customary-based practice standard and instead judge doctors based on whether they follow national practices that are more widely accepted.
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March 3, 2014

Boston Construction Accidents Often Caused by Falling Objects

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Falling or flying objects are a common hazard faced by construction workers.

In fact, our Boston construction accident lawyers note struck-by accidents are one of the four deadliest dangers found on construction sites, according to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration.

More than 25 percent of all deaths in construction are the result of struck-by accidents, which also account for about 10 percent of all occupational deaths.
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February 27, 2014

Could Balance Exercises Help You Prevent a Fall Injury?

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Fall injuries are on pace to become a leading cause of trauma-related deaths in the United States, and falls currently cause thousands of people to get badly hurt in the Boston area each year. To help combat this problem, the Boston Globe recently published an article with some balance exercises that people could do to reduce their risk of a fall.

While these exercises may be helpful to some, the sad fact is that falls are often caused by the negligence or wrongdoing of others and not by anything that the victim did or didn’t do. Balance exercises only go so far to prevent a fall, especially among vulnerable populations. Property owners, and especially nursing home operators, have a duty to prevent falls from happening and should be held liable if they fail to live up to this obligation. A Boston injury lawyer can help victims who have been harmed by a fall to take legal action and pursue a claim for damages.
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February 25, 2014

Burn Injury Awareness Week Aims to Protect Kids

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

In Massachusetts, Burn Injury Awareness week was held in early February to remind the public of the serious risks of burn accidents. While burns are most often attributed to fires, the reality is that fire is not the leading cause of burns in Massachusetts. Instead, as WWLP reports, the leading burn injury cause is hot liquids scalding kids under the age of five.

Young children and the elderly are generally considered to have the greatest risk of suffering a burn injury, although burns are also very common in certain workplaces as well. No matter what age someone is or how a burn happens, burn injuries have something in common: these injuries are often very painful and very expensive to treat. Prevention should be a top goal, and those who do sustain a burn injury should speak with a Boston injury lawyer for help as soon as possible to ensure they have the money they need for plastic surgery and other treatments.
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February 22, 2014

Discouraging C-Sections Could Affect Birth Injury Rates

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

The number of caesarean sections has increased significantly in recent years, in part because of doctor concern about potential malpractice claims. A woman who is in labor too long could experience serious complications and extended labor could cause birth injuries to infants. Cesarean sections are viewed as a solution that reduces the potential for problems from long labors and protects doctors from being sued for failure to act on signs of fetal or maternal distress.

Now, however, the Boston Globe is reporting that two prominent medical groups have issued new guidelines to encourage more vaginal births. The guidelines are encouraging doctors to allow first-time mothers to stay in labor for longer and to push harder to try to increase the number of infants born without resorting to a C-section. While these new guidelines could actually result in better outcomes for parents and children, it is also essential that doctors carefully monitor all labors to ensure that they don’t endanger the life of the child.

Families affected by birth injuries should consult with an experienced Boston birth injury lawyer. Conditions such as Cerebral Palsy can be caused by a difficult birth and can affect a child for the rest of his life, so it is important for families to be fully compensated for birth injury.
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February 19, 2014

Emergency Therapy to Prevent Serious Brain Injury

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

The bad news about brain injuries has just kept coming in recent years. Studies now link brain injuries to seizures, to the development of epilepsy and to an increased risk of dementia. Even a simple concussion has been found to cause a fundamental change to the brain that can still be observed months after the injury.

With so many troubling discoveries regarding brain injuries, the new research coming out of University of California Berkeley is more than welcome. Researchers have discovered reasons why as many as 50 percent of people with brain trauma are at risk of developing epilepsy and work is now underway to develop an emergency drug to prevent this type of serious and lasting damage from brain trauma.
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February 14, 2014

Feeding Tube Dangers Substantial for Boston Dementia Patients

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Alzheimer’s disease is cruel. It will steal a person’s memories, ability to speak, mobility and ultimately, their independence. In many cases, it will also cause patients to lose the ability to eat.

At this point, caregivers and loved ones need to decide whether it makes sense to have a gastric feeding tube inserted. This is usually an issue that arises toward the very end, when the disease has begun to chip away at the part of the brain that allows a person to perform basic functions, such as swallowing.

Loved ones who reach this difficult juncture believe they are essentially deciding whether to buy their aging relative more time or allowing them to slowly die.
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February 11, 2014

Cost of Boston Birth Injury Can Be Astronomical

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

A recent study published in the journal BMJ Open reveals that the cost for a healthy, vaginal birth is anywhere from $3,000 to $36,000. In cases of a C-section deliver, the range varies from $8,000 to about $71,000.

Researchers focused primarily on the fact that costs were disparate for no apparent rhyme or reason. This is a subject worthy of further exploration. However, our Boston birth injury attorneys were interested in these figures for another reason. When you consider that a relatively uneventful, healthy birth has the potential to cost tens of thousands of dollars, situations in which there are complications that require additional hospitalization and specialized treatment are going to result in costs that are astronomically high.

Even in cases where there has been a clear issue of malpractice – such a child who suffers from Erb’s palsy or a mother who dies as a result of undiagnosed preeclampsia – those bills will still come rolling in. People who can’t afford to pay them can suffer a substantial blow to their credit. The family of a child who is disabled as a result of improper care before, during or immediately after childbirth can expect those bills to pile up for many years to come.
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