Articles Posted in Personal Injury

Georgia’s Medical Malpractice Law Challenged in Supreme Court

The Georgia Supreme Court is hearing arguments relating to a key provision of the state’s tort reform laws, which requires plaintiffs in a medical malpractice action to establish that an emergency room doctor was guilty of gross negligence.

The hearings revolve around the case of Carol Gliemmo, who suffered a sudden headache on April 22^nd 2007, and visited the San Francisco Hospital in Columbus. According to Gliemmo’s lawyers, the ER doctor, Mark Cousineau diagnosed her condition as resulting from stress, prescribed valium, and sent her home. This was even as the 56-year-old Gliemmo continued to scream in agony. Gliemmo suffered a stroke, and has since been left paralyzed and with significant neurological damage.

A 12-year-old school boy, who sustained serious injuries in a Polk County school bus accident earlier this month, has died from his injuries. Seventh grader Wyatt Pilgrim was stuck by a school bus on September 9^th, as he was waiting for his bus. He was airlifted to an Atlanta hospital, and remained in a critical condition for days. On Sunday, Wyatt succumbed to his injuries.

Police investigations have revealed that the driver could not avoid the accident, and police officials have confirmed that he will not be charged in the accident. According to a Polk County school system representative, the Evergreen Lane in Cedartown where the accident occurred, has heavy traffic. There are schools in the area including the Cherokee Elementary School, and consequently, a lot of children use the area.

Very often, accidents involving pedestrians can be traced to road designs that are simply not pedestrian-friendly. These accidents occur very often when there is heavy pedestrian traffic, and not adequate safety systems to protect pedestrians.

Most of Georgia’s Fatalities From Flooding-Related Accidents

Nine people have been confirmed dead in flash floods that swept through much of north Georgia, including the metro Atlanta area. Most of these deaths occurred when cars were swept away.

After severe flooding on Monday, the Georgia Department of Transportation closed down several bridges, roads and highways across the state. Many of these have now been reopened, and the weather is expected to clear soon.Several roads across the state in Bartow, Douglas, Paulding, Catoosa, Walker and Dooly Counties were closed down, and these have since been reopened.Schools were closed on Tuesday in several school districts, including Atlanta, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb and Fulton.

Questions Remain After Child’s Death in Atlanta School Bus Accident

Earlier this week, a 5-year-old boy was killed when he was run over by a school bus. The driver of the bus has now been charged with homicide by vehicle second degree.

On Tuesday afternoon, Everett Johnson had just gotten off his school bus. According to witnesses at the accident site, Everett was walking in front of the bus, and dropped his book and bag. He was bending over to pick them up when he was struck by the bus, which had begun to move forward. Everett came under the right front tire. He was rushed to the hospital, but died later.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about a million people contract a hospital infection each year. A Consumer Reports survey provides clues to why those rates are so high.

In 2008, Consumer Reports surveyed 731 nurses, and this year, sampled more than 13,500 of its readers, who were polled about recent hospital experiences involving them or a loved one. The findings were surprising.

• 28 percent of nurses reported problems with cleanliness, while only 4 percent of patients reported so.

Elderly Lexington Couple Mauled to Death in Dog Attack

Mystery still surrounds the death of a retired professor and his wife, apparently from a vicious dog attack.

On Saturday, the mutilated bodies of retired UGA professor 77-year-old Luther Karl Schweder, and his wife 65-year-old Sherry were found near their home in Lexington. Preliminary autopsies showed that Sherry had died from dog bite injuries. Her husband’s autopsy results are not yet available. But it’s very likely that Luther Schweder also died from injuries in the dog attack.

A new report by non-profit organization Public Citizen has placed Georgia on the list of ten worst states based on doctor discipline records. The report takes into consideration the numbers of disciplinary actions taken by the state’s boards of medical examiners against negligent physicians. In Georgia, the rate of actions against such doctors is a dismal 2.40 actions for every 1,000 physicians. The state is tenth on the list following Minnesota with a paltry .95 actions per 1,000 doctors, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Connecticut, New Hampshire Maryland, Florida and California.

Not only that, Georgia is also specially marked for criticism as one of the states with the largest decrease in rank for disciplinary action rates. Between 2001 and 20003, the state was at number 15 on the list, while it has dropped to number 42 in this year’s report.

Georgia should take a page out of the book of fellow southern states like Kentucky and Louisiana, each of which features in the ten best states for serious disciplinary actions against doctors. That list also includes Alaska where 6.54 serious disciplinary actions were taken for every 1,000 doctors, Kentucky with 5.87 disciplinary actions, Louisiana with 4.74 actions besides Ohio, Arizona, Okalahoma, North Dakota, Iowa, Colorado and Maine.

A 4-year-old Rockland County boy, who was severely mauled in a dog bite attack, is looking at skin graft surgery to fix the injuries, as well as surgery to fox his ear. Nathaniel Stafford was attacked by a Labrador-pit bull mix that his family had been looking after for its owner. His mother found the boy with his head gripped in the dog’s mouth. The pit bull mix was shaking him violently.  The boy’s mother pulled him away, and suffered a bite on her arm in the process.

By the time the terrifying ordeal had ended, much of Nathaniel’s scalp had been ripped apart and his ear had been torn off. His stepfather picked up the ear, and put it in a bag to reattach in the hospital. The doctors have not been able to confirm whether they will be reattaching his ear, or if he will need to have a prosthetic ear attached.

Nathaniel is bound to be traumatized after the dog bite attack. Beside the serious head injuries and the mutilated ear, the boy also suffered throat lacerations. He is an animal lover, although how he will react to any dog from here on, is debatable. The dog’s owner meanwhile has agreed to have the dog which is currently being held in quarantine at an animal shelter, put down.

The Department of Veteran Affairs has confirmed that three patients who were tested at three of its facilities have tested positive for the HIV virus, including one patient from Augusta, Georgia. The two other patients are reportedly from Murfreesboro in Tennessee and Miami.

These patients got tested for HIV after the Veteran Affairs Department asked more than 10,000 people to get tested for HIV, and Hepatitis B and C because of the risk of contamination from tainted endoscopic equipment. The equipment was used in colonoscopies in Murfreesboro and Miami, and also at an ENT clinic in Augusta. Besides, the department has also confirmed that six people have tested positive for hepatitis B, and nineteen have tested positive for Hepatitis C at these three sites. The VA however does not have evidence that these exposures occurred because of botched medical procedures at the VA facilities.

The problem apparently lay in faulty sterilization of equipment, and dates back more than 5 years, at least at the Miami and Murfressboro hospitals. The agency undertook a nationwide safety training campaign which ended on March 14^th. By April 3^rd, the VA had already confirmed that one person had tested positive for HIV. According to the VA, the number of people who may be at “a very small risk of harm” at the ENT facility in Augusta, is 1,069. The agency has made arrangements for veterans who have tested positive for the disease to receive counseling. There is no information forthcoming on how serious the problem is. Meanwhile, anxious veterans who have used Augusta facilities are waiting their test results.

Georgia’s school children are sharing their buses with more than just their school mates, this report reveals. The presence of several types of toxins that can not only trigger asthma and other respiratory disorders, but also cause cancer is enough reason for parents to worry. .

According to the report, newer school buses come with special particulate filters that block these toxins from entering the passenger cabins. However, an overwhelming majority of school buses in operation in the state are older and come with an antiquated exhaust system that does little to prevent particulates from entering the cabin.In the cabins, these often carcinogenic substances wear away at young, developing lungs that are more at risk for the detrimental health effects caused by these minute particles.

Some schools seem to have done a better job of protecting children from the risk of illnesses caused by these toxins than others. Atlanta Public Schools for instance, has retrofitted 373 of its school buses with newer diesel particulate filters. The school district used funds allotted to it in 2005 to carry out the retrofitting. In sharp contrast, Gwinnett County Public Schools has not made any attempts at retrofitting its buses, and has not even applied for funds to carry out the retrofitting programs. Gwinnett County is Georgia’s largest public school district, and the failure to equip existing vehicles with the new filter systems means that 120,000 students are traveling in these school buses everyday, inhaling toxic flumes that are dangerous to their health.