Congressional leaders in Washington DC berated federal regulators today for not implementing recommendations that the National Transportation Safety Board made in 2001 to keep medically unfit truckers off the roads. According to a recent safety study, reported on by the Associated Press, there are hundreds of thousands of commercial truck and bus drivers working even though they qualify for full federal disability payments.

Commercial drivers that have seizures, blackouts, heart attacks, and other health emergencies while driving are a leading cause of catastrophic truck accidents in the United States. Thousands of motorists and pedestrians have been injured or killed because a bus driver or the driver of an 18-wheeler truck, a tractor-trailer, a semi-truck, or a big rig truck became ill or unconscious while driving.

Among its recommendations, the NTSB suggested that a system be set up to trace medical certificate applications and stop drivers from doctor shopping. The NTSB also suggested that examiners who certify commercial drivers be properly trained to determine whether a trucker or bus driver was medically fit.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has found that it is not difficult to fabricate medical certificates stating that a driver is medically fit to drive professionally. Of the 614 medical certificates it examined, the committee found that they could verify only 407 of them.

Truck accidents can lead to catastrophic injury accidents for victims. The force of impact of a large truck or bus striking a pedestrian or the passengers of a compact car can lead to serious injuries, such as severed limbs, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and massive internal injuries, or death for the victims.

Trucking companies are experienced in dealing with injury claims against them, which is why it is important that you speak with an experienced Louisville, Kentucky truck crash law firm to explore your legal options.

Regulators scolded on medically unfit truckers, Associated Press, July 24, 2008

Medically unfit truckers still on the road, safety study shows, CNN.com, July 21, 2008

National Transportation Safety Board

Transportation and Infrastructure Committee

In Kentucky, Moses Young, the Ex-Assistant Director of Nursing Home Regulation at the State Inspector General’s Office, was reportedly fired following allegations that he had an improper relationship with the owner of the Garrard Convalescent Home in Northern Kentucky.

Among the allegations, Young is accused of living—possibly rent-free—in a house owned by Ralph Stacey, Jr., the operator/owner of the nursing home. The State Attorney General and the FBI are currently conducting a criminal investigation to determine whether criminal charges need to be filed against Young.

The Garrard Convalescent Home has come under fire following 23 complaints in the last 4 years accusing the care residence of nursing home neglect, abuse, and problems with bedbugs. Records show that state investigators looked into the complaints and the home was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Now, however, there is concern that Young’s relationship with Stacey may have compromised the investigations, as well as the safety and care of the residents residing at the home.

Kentucky’s Inspector General fired Young in May for possible conflicts of interest and using his position with the state for financial profit. While an investigation confirmed that Young had been residing in a home that belonged to Stacey in Griffin Gate, a gated subdivision in Lexington, the former regulator reportedly could not provide evidence documenting that he has paid Stacey rent.

Documentation also showed that Young called Stacey 427 times over an 18-month period using a state government cellular phone—usually on days when investigators were about to conduct surprise inspections following the complaints.

Since the probe into Young’s relationship with Stacey, the nursing home has been given a Type A citation for jeopardizing the safety of residents. Kentucky is recommending that the Garrard Nursing Home be slapped with a $500,000 fine.

Last week, Young appealed the decision terminating him from the post. He has denied all allegations.

If you are the victim of nursing home abuse or neglect at a Kentucky nursing home, contact our Louisville nursing home abuse lawyers for your free consultation.

State nursing home inspector fired, Kentucky.com, July 19, 2008

Ex-chief of nursing home inspections appeals firing, Courier-Journal.com, July 19, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Garrard Convalescent Home

How to Protect Nursing Home Residents (PDF), Commonwealth of Kentucky

The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure has suspended the medical license of Dr. Hamid Sheikh, a Lexington gynecologist, amid allegations that he engaged in improper medical practices.

One investigator for the Attorney General’s office said that when she went to Sheikh's Lexington office, she discovered unsanitary conditions, expired medications, and inoperable or missing equipment.

Last year, in Franklin Circuit Court, Sheikh was indicted on four counts of defrauding Medicaid, including allegedly presenting abortions as ultrasounds, submitting bogus billing statements, and illegally charging Medicaid patients. An investigator reported a nurse’s findings that the standard of care that Sheikh provided was “dramatically out of compliance.” Another Medicaid agent said that seven patients had complained of their care, including “a lack of medication.” One patient reported that Sheikh did not ask about her medical history and that the pain during her procedure was extremely severe.

Sheikh, who has performed abortions at his office in Lexington since 1975, says that his arrest was politically motivated.

Medical Malpractice
Doctors in Kentucky are obligated to provide patients with a certain standard of care. When failure to provide that standard or errors in care result in injury or death, the patient or his or her family may be entitled to file a Kentucky medical malpractice claim or wrongful death lawsuit.

Examples of Obstetrics and Gynecology Malpractice:

• Botched hysterectomies
• Birthing errors
• Failure to detect cancer or another disease/medical condition
• Surgical errors
• Abortion malpractice
• Testing errors involving pap smears, ultrasounds, etc.
• Birth control-related errors
• Inappropriate medical exams

If you or someone you love was injured by a doctor, a dentist, a surgeon, a nurse, or another health care provider anywhere in Kentucky, contact our Louisville medical malpractice law firm today.

Gynecologist's medical license suspended, Kentucky.com, June 26, 2008

More Details Revealed in Case of Kentucky Abortion Practitioner's Malpractice, Lifenews.com, June 26, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Medical Malpractice, Justia

Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure

Following an 18-month investigation into the way the nation’s largest auto insurance companies handle claims involving minor motor vehicle accidents, CNN last year reported that there is a good possibility that the two largest insurers—State Farm and Allstate—will challenge any minor medical claim and offer to pay only a small fraction of all accident costs.

The news network says that the confidential documents it examined revealed that these actions are motivated by profits—papers that the companies are determined to keep private. The insurers reportedly execute this strategy by dragging victims of minor car collisions into court for cases lasting years in the name of supposedly fighting fraud.

When given the opportunity to respond to the allegations, both companies refused to engage in a discussion. State Farm said it addressed each claim on its own merits and that generalizations that it had adopted consultant recommendations like other insurance companies was inaccurate. The consultant the insurer was referring to, McKinsey & Co., works for both State Farm and Allstate.

One former Allstate claims agent, Shannon Kmatz, says that the company trained her to treat minor accident cases as fraudulent and to offer victims as little as possible. She says she has offered injury victims of minor accidents payments as low as $50.

Former insurance company insider Jim Mathis says the insurers’ strategy involves three D’s: delaying, denying, and defending the claim. The end profits for insurers that limit accident payments have reportedly been huge.

One victim involved in a rear-end accident, Ann Taylor, says that State Farm only offered her $2,000, even though her medical and recovery costs and lost wages related to her herniated disc muscle tears ended up costing $15,000.

Another injury victim initially offered $15,000 by Allstate spent years fighting her case in court until a jury awarded her $167,000 plus interest. According to industry insiders, however, 80-90% of accident victims do not contest what insurance companies offer them.

In Kentucky, our Louisville personal injury law firm helps clients file bad faith claims against insurers that refuse to pay accident claims or make unreasonably low offers to injury victims.

Related Web Resources:

Auto insurers play hardball in minor-crash claims, CNN.com, February 9, 2007

AAJ Report: Ten Worst Insurance Companies in America, July 9, 2008 (PDF)

In Kentucky, Alison Cox Pregliaso, a Louisville mother, is suing Crocs Inc, for her 3-year-old daughter’s personal injuries. Pregliaso’s daughter sustained permanent injuries last month when her foot got caught in an escalator at Hartsfield-International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. Her daughter was wearing Crocs footwear.

Not only did the shoe get shredded, but Pregliaso says that her daughter’s big toe broke and its skin was ripped off. Pregliaso is suing the company for $4 million in punitive damages.

According to the personal injury lawsuit, filed in Kentucky in federal court, Pregliaso is accusing the manufacturer of trying to blame the children or parents for her Crocs-related injuries. This is not the first time a child has been injured while wearing Crocs. In February, the parents of a 3-year-old injured at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York sued Crocs for $7 million. In another Crocs-related injury accident last September, a 4-year-old Croc wearer got hurt when his foot got caught in a mall escalator.

Earlier this year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission found that there have been at least 77 escalator entrapment incidents since January 2006 involving soft-sided flexible slides and clogs. Although the report did not name Crocs directly, the CPSC said that the shoe line is part of this category of shoes.

In Japan, the Trade Ministry asked the Crocs manufacturer to change its design following 65 complaints of escalator accidents over a six-month period involving mostly children using Crocs and fake Crocs.

If you or your child were seriously injured because of a defective product, it is important that you speak with an experienced Louisville, Kentucky products liability law firm that can help you evaluate your case during your free consultation. A good defective products lawyer can assess whether a defect occurred during the design, manufacture, or marketing process. The responsible party can also be held strictly liable for the injury accident even if they didn’t do anything negligent but the product still proved dangerous for use.

Crocs cited in lawsuit over girl's injuries at airport, AJC.com, July 2, 2008

Crocs and similar soft shoes linked to escalator entrapments, Consumer Report, May 20, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Crocs Inc.

Crocs shoes dangerous on escalators, The Japan Times, April 19, 2008

My partner Vanessa Cantley filed three separate bullying lawsuits on behalf of children today. In what has become a troubling pattern here in Kentucky, despite being made aware of repeated episodes of abuse, teachers and school administrators did nothing to stop the abuse.

The lawsuits were filed in three separate counties: Meade, Floyd and Oldham. These cases involve more than pushing or name calling. One Freshman at South Oldham was repeatedly assaulted by teammates on his wrestling team. The kids broke his nose, and several times choked him until he passed out. Once he regained consciousness, they would choke him again.

The families were interviewed today by WAVE3's Connie Leonard and featured on the local news cast. Read about it here.

Watch the video.

I have to admit I am outraged by this story. Guys like this make it hard for Kentucky personal injury lawyers like me to obtain justice for auto accident, medical malpractice, and other injury clients with valid claims.

New York attorney Richard Roth recently made headlines by suing Delta Airlines for ruining his vacation. Apparently Roth missed the memo that airlines do not control the weather, and feels it was the airline's duty to ensure he had the vacation of his dreams, not just that he got to his destination safely. Perhaps he could have simply enjoyed the remaining days of his vacation, spent Christmas with his family, and changed his attitude, rather than spending his vacation chasing down Delta employees and preparing to litigate.

Unfortunately for lawyers everywhere, Roth's actions further the negative stereotypes many Americans have of lawyers. By suing Delta, Roth has taken a giant leap away from the professionalism that should surround competent lawyers and made a mockery both of himself and of his profession.

Kentucky drug lawyers know that pharmaceutical companies have been slow to “self report” complications to the FDA. Today, the FDA announced that it plans to develop a computer tracking system to monitor side effects of drugs. The system is being designed to replace the self-reporting system that led to the slow responses in the Vioxx cases. See the articles on Reuters and New York Times.

Contaminated Heparin blood thinners from Baxter International Inc have led to several lawsuits in Kentucky recently. As many as 400 serious injuries and 81 deaths resulting from the partially-recalled product have been reported thus far. http://www.pharmalive.com/News/index.cfm?articleid=540566&categoryid=10

The new electronic system proposed by the FDA should drastically reduce the number of potential victims affected by contaminated drugs and serious side-effects.

Medical Malpractice News: Lawyers for the family of actor John Ritter will proceed to trial today in their claim that his death could have been prevented. Learn more about the case: LA Times NBC Today Show Interview with John Ritter's widow

Make no mistake about it, aortic dissection is a dire emergency requiring immediate medical intervention.

In the Kentucky medical malpractice cases involving failure to diagnose aortic dissection cases I have handled, one of the key issues is the time between the failure to diagnose and the death of the victim. In other words, was there enough time to make a difference? Based on conversations I have had with experts on the subject, cardiologists and thoracic surgeons, if the misdiagnosis and the death are more than an hour or two apart, it is virtually certain that there was enough time to treat the condition appropriately and prevent the patient from dying.

I assume this will be one of the key issues in the Ritter case.

Amy Yasbeck, widow of actor John Ritter, does a fantastic job in her interview on NBC's Today Show. It sickens me every time I hear a reporter talk about a "$5 Million Dollar" lawsuit, or that a victim is seeking "$70 Million Dollars". Ms. Yasbeck clearly explains what Kentucky injury lawyers know, that she is not seeking "$67 MIllion Dollars".

Watch the video.

My partner Larry Jones and I recently created a website as a resource people who suffered heart attack or stroke while taking Avandia. KentuckyAvandiaAttorneys.com provides victims with resources and information on how Glaxo SmithKline marketed this dangerous drug, and a review of current Avandia lawsuits.

Kentucky mesothelioma lawyers will want to take note of this recent verdict in Baltimore. The plaintiff, a 73 year old man who worked with asbestos laden rope manufactured by John Crane, Inc. in the 1950s, was awarded $15.3 million.

$15.3 million in asbestos case

January 31, 2008

A Baltimore jury ordered a sealant company yesterday to pay a 73-year-old man $15.3 million after determining that he developed mesothelioma from exposure to asbestos-containing products made by the company, the plaintiff's lawyer said.

The National Senior Citizen Law Center recently reviewed nearly 200 admission agreements from Nursing Homes across the U.S. What they found was very disturbing, but not unexpected. At least it isn't to Kentucky nursing home lawyers.

It seems that nursing homes have been inserting language into their ad mission agreements that conflict with Federal and state law. In many instances, the agreements contained arbitration agreements. What nursing home neglect victims and their families don't often realize is that such provisions are almost universally unenforceable.

Clauses in nursing home agreements may violate the law
Kansas City Star, MO - Feb 2, 2008
... complex nursing home agreements, according to a new study. Although most presented few problems, some admission agreements skirt state and federal laws, ...

Click here to download the entire study

Kentucky dog bite victims were dealt a blow recently in an opinion written by Judge Tom Wine of the Court of Appeals. In the opinion, Wine extended the logic of Johnson v. Brown, 450 S.W.2d 495, 496 (Ky. 1970) and Dykes v. Alexander, Ky., 411 S.W.2d 47
(1967), which held that "one who keeps a dog enclosed or fettered on his own premises will not be liable to an interloper whose presence and exposure to the dog he has no reason to anticipate." In Carmical, the Court extended the logic to include deliverymen, further abrogating KRS 258.275(1).

Read the opinion here: Carmical v. Bullock

In other dog bite news, my partner Vanessa Cantley recently appeared at a Metro Louisville subcommittee hearing on the new dog ordinance. She has proposed a change to the dog ordinance which would require landlords/homeowners in Metro Louisville to provide insurance to cover tenants’ dogs in case of attack or require their tenants to maintain renter’s insurance which would do so. Kudos to Vanessa for taking a stand for dog bite victims.

In a fascinating change of policy, Medicare announced last week that it will not cover medical care for injuries resulting from medical errors. In other words, medical malpractice. This raises a host of serious questions for doctors, hospitals, injured patients and their lawyers. Will Kentucky medical malpractice attorneys be able to use this to their client's advantage? Or will it complicate matters?

Download the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services press release or visit the website for more information.

New York Times Article

Medicare Says It Won’t Cover Hospital Errors

By ROBERT PEAR
Published: August 19, 2007

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 — In a significant policy change, Bush administration officials say that Medicare will no longer pay the extra costs of treating preventable errors, injuries and infections that occur in hospitals, a move they say could save lives and millions of dollars.
Skip to next paragraph

Eileen O’Neill-Pardo’s mother, Margaret, died after an infection developed at a hospital.

Private insurers are considering similar changes, which they said could multiply the savings and benefits for patients.

Under the new rules, to be published next week, Medicare will not pay hospitals for the costs of treating certain “conditions that could reasonably have been prevented.”

Among the conditions that will be affected are bedsores, or pressure ulcers; injuries caused by falls; and infections resulting from the prolonged use of catheters in blood vessels or the bladder.

In addition, Medicare says it will not pay for the treatment of “serious preventable events” like leaving a sponge or other object in a patient during surgery and providing a patient with incompatible blood or blood products.

“If a patient goes into the hospital with pneumonia, we don’t want them to leave with a broken arm,” said Herb B. Kuhn, acting deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The new policy — one of several federal initiatives to improve care purchased by Medicare, at a cost of more than $400 billion a year — is sending ripples through the health industry.