Virginia Beach Personal Injury Lawyer - Head Injury

Using Car Seats as Carriers, Mini Craddles Harms Thousands of Babies

Jim Lewis — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:46:55 GMT

Infant car seats save hundreds of babies' lives each year--when the seats remain properly installed in a vehicle. Using car seats to carry infants or hold them while doing chores or taking care of other children, however, injures or kills thousands of babies.

This scope of the problem with misusing infant car safety seats became clear this weekend when Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center orthopedic surgeon and researcher Dr. Shital Parikh told American Academy of Pediatrics meeting attendees that between 2003 and 2007, 43,000 U.S. children had choked, suffocated or fallen and been seriously injured when their parent or caregiver left them in car seats and placed the seats on tables, countertops, beds or other elevated surfaces.

Most of the injuries Parikh documented were head and brain traumas. He also identified broken bones in data collected by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Parikh explained, “When parents or caregivers place the infant car seat on top of a table or elevated surface, the infant can wiggle and end up toppling off out of the seat onto the floor, which can lead to severe injuries.” He also added that “another accident that can happen is the turning over of the car seat on to a soft surface, which can lead to suffocation.”

A report in Tuesday's Daily Press brings the tragic consequences of misusing infant car seats home. A former Newport News day care center operator will face manslaughter charges stemming from the choking death of 5-month-old baby in her charge on Feb. 4, 2009. The woman left the infant in a car seat an unattended for 10 minutes. At some point, the baby apparently squirmed around and got a strap from the seat wrapped around its neck.

The CPSC has issued several recalls of products marketed as combination infant car seats-carriers over the years. A better course of action might be to ban such products altogether.

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is a law firm which focuses on injury and accident law, and we have experience handling traumatic brain injury and general head injuries. Check out our case results to see for yourself. Our primary office is in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA). Our attorneys have handled numerous head injury and brain trauma cases and, in 2000, achieved the largest verdict ever in Virginia for a brain damaged client. Our lawyers hold licenses in NC, SC, WV, KY and DC, and we are ready to talk to you by phone right now. We provide free initial confidential injury case consultations, so call us toll free at 1-800-752-0042. Our injury attorneys also host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Further, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard and Norfolk Injuryboard as pro bono public information services.

EJL

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jim Lewis

Motorcycle Crash in Chesapeake Claims a Life, Shatters Another

Emily Mapp Brannon — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:47:08 GMT

Take two motorcycles, add excessive speed and a narrow residential road lined with parked cars, and you all too often wind up with a tragedy like the one that occurred Tuesday evening in Chesapeake. Two motorcyclists speeding down Holly Cove Drive off of Airline Boulevard in the northwestern part of the city crashed into each other, slammed into a parked vehicle and flew into a concrete utility pole that snapped from the impact.

Police had not released the motorcyclists' names as of Wednesday morning, but one of the bike riders died on the scene. The other, who was not wearing a helmet, went to Sentara Norfolk Hospital with head and brain injuries.

Hampton Roads has seen more than its share of fatal motorcycle accidents this year. A large number of these accidents have resulted from unsafe riding. Riders have died after losing control of their bikes while speeding. Others have died as result of not following basic traffic rules such as always passing on the left. Too many have died after climbing onto their motorcycles while drunk. It's too early to calculate the death toll among motorcyclists in Virginia for 2009, but in 2008, nearly 90 people died in speed-related motorcycle crashes alone throughout the Commonwealth.

Motorcyclists already face risks of serious and fatal collisions with much larger vehicles on the road. Bike riders do not need to increase their risks for injury and death by operating their motorcycles in unsafe ways.

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is a law firm which focuses on injury and accident law, and our attorneys have handled thousands of car and truck accident cases. Check out our case results to see for yourself. In addition, check out our FREE special reports on distracted driving and The Best Guide to Car Accident Injuries in Virginia. Our primary office is in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA), but our lawyers hold licenses in NC, SC, WV, KY and DC. We are ready to talk to you by phone right now, and we provide free initial confidential injury case consultations. Call us toll free at 1-800-752-0042. Our injury attorneys also host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Further, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard and Norfolk Injuryboard as pro bono public information services.

EJL

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Emily Mapp Brannon

Head Injury Could Lead to Traumatic Brain Injury

Jim Lewis — Sat, 30 May 2009 14:47:00 GMT

If you’ve been involved in a car wreck or some other type of accident, you may have incurred a serious head injury which could lead to a traumatic brain injury. Unfortunately, brain injuries routinely fail to be diagnosed promptly and you could develop a permanent, debilitating condition stemming from the traumatic brain injury.

I’ve written articles about traumatic brain injuries and I’ve been a personal injury lawyer for over 20 years. Our firm, which deals exclusively with personal injury, has represented clients dealing with serious conditions stemming from these types of injuries. For example, we represented a client who had an engine valve hit him right in the head. The extent of his brain injury was not fully determined until visiting multiple doctors, including a neuro-psychiatrist.

Even if you haven’t been involved in a car wreck or some other serious accident, traumatic brain injuries can result from accidents in recreation. An estimated 300,000 sports- and recreation-related head injuries of mild-to-moderate severity occur in the United States each year, according to the Brain Injury Association of Virginia (VA).

Signs and symptoms associated with head injuries can develop immediately after the injury or can take days or weeks to appear, as mentioned above. Here are some tell-tale signs/symptoms to look out for:

•Headache
•Nausea
•Dizziness
•Blurred vision
•Sensitivity to light or noise
•Lack of energy
•Concentration or memory problems
•Confusion

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm is based in Virginia (VA), near the NE North Carolina (NC) border and handles car,truck,railroad, and medical negligence cases and more. Our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as a pro bono public information service. Lawyers licensed in: VA, NC, SC, WV, DC, KY.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jim Lewis

Brain injury: A major problem in Virginia (VA) and Nationwide

Rick Shapiro — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 15:54:56 GMT

Brain injury is a major cause of death and disability of people under age 45 and a significant medical/legal issue in tort and insurance law today. According to the Brain Injury Association of Virginia (VA) 28,000 visits to an emergency room occur in Virginia (VA) each year as a result of traumatic brain injury. Across the U.S. traumatic brain injury (TBI) costs over 56 billion dollars every year.

Brain Injury Association of Virginia (VA) provides information to the Virginia Legislature on behalf of family members and people who suffer from brain injury. The organization also provides a toll free helpline for people to provide assistance in coping with this difficult and often misunderstood disease. Their toll free line is (800) 334-8443. According to the Brain Injury Association of Virginia (VA) website, there are over 151,000 Virginians living with long term problems from brain injuries. Because of the large number of members of the Armed Services in Virginia (VA) the issue is particularly important in this state. One of the main types of injury that our soldiers come back from Iraq with are brain injuries as a result of both open head injuries and closed head injuries from improvised explosive devices.

Attorneys handling personal injury and wrongful death cases in Virginia (VA) have become increasingly aware of the prevalence of brain injury in recent years. Clients can suffer life threatening and catastrophic brain injuries in car accidents, motorcycle accidents, truck accidents, slip and fall injuries, trip and fall injuries, bicycle accidents, off road accidents, medical malpractice accidents, and products liability cases like defective ladders. Each of these areas of these personal injury and wrongful death cases may well involve brain injury to the client. Knowing how to identify cases of brain injury and to properly handle them in a Virginia (VA) lawsuit is key to competent representation. To learn more about this subject, please visit our section on Head and Brain Injuries.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Rick Shapiro

Brain Injury Verdict Among Virginia's Largest

Rick Shapiro — Tue, 15 May 2007 16:24:51 GMT

A woman was recently awarded 12 million dollars for a brain injury from a 2003 fall. The Hampton, Virginia (VA) jury made this large award in a slip and fall accident case.

The large multi-million dollar jury award is probably among the highest in the slip and fall/premises liability category in Virginia (VA) history, and the plaintiff was represented by Stephen Smith, of Hampton, Virginia along with Edward Scher of Richmond, Virginia who did a fantastic job representing the plaintiff.

As an injury lawyer handling these cases for 25 years in Virginia (VA), I know what a good job this attorney did. The defendant was a gas station/convenient store operator with multiple locations in Hampton, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and elsewhere throughout southeastern Virginia (VA). The store had allowed slippery algae to continue to grow unchecked on its sidewalk just outside the store creating a danger for customers.

Brain injury cases are among the most high stakes types of injuries that injury lawyers handle. The results of a brain injury can be so devastating causing life long problems including difficulty staying employed and having normal human relationships with others. In an appropriate case a Virginia jury will be very generous in compensating someone who has suffered a closed head injury also called a traumatic brain injury. Proving the injury which is often hard to diagnosis and demonstrate requires a very skilled trial lawyer. Our law firm has had significant experience in these kinds of cases. In fact the largest verdict ever in Virginia (VA) history for an individual plaintiff occurred in Manassass, Virginia (VA) in 2001 when our law firm teamed with Steve Smith (who handled the Hampton case above also) in representing a traumatic brain injury victim who had been hurt in a train wreck. To learn more about the real cases we have handled and some past results, please look at our law firm website .

The combination of a slip and fall with a brain injury is a very volatile combination which the insurance defense lawyers in the Hampton, Virginia (VA) case obviously failed to manage properly. Sometimes a jury in Virginia (VA) will be hesitant to hold a store owner responsible for their negligence, if there is a strong argument that the person who got hurt was partially at fault for their own injury. For this reason insurance companies are often stingier about resolving a slip and fall case fairly in states like Virginia (VA) that have contributory negligence as a complete bar to recovery. Insurance companies are also quite stingy in traumatic brain injury cases, especially mild or moderate traumatic brain injuries. Part of the reason insurance companies may not be willing to voluntarily pay a fair amount of compensation to a brain injury victim is that they often look fairly normal. To see them across the court room in a first impression you may not be able to realize a person has suffered post-concussive syndrome, closed head injury, or brain injury. The insurance companies hope that they can avoid paying significant compensation to brain injury victims because they hope that a Virginia (VA) jury's first impression may be that the person looks fine. For this reason they may be more willing to let a case like the Hampton, Virginia (VA) case go to verdict. Luckily for the particular client in question, the jury was convinced that the store was at fault, that she was free from fault, and that the brain injury was real and devastating. As a result of this big verdict, hopefully the next time that an insurance company is evaluating a slip and fall case with a brain injury they may be more reasonable knowing that a Hampton, Virginia (VA) jury was willing to arrive at such a large verdict on such a case.

Authored By: Randall E. Appleton

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Rick Shapiro

New Methods to Detect Brain Injury Explained

Staff Writer — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 17:05:55 GMT

For the last several decades, doctors and hospitals have used a device called a pulse oximeter to measure the amount of oxygen in someone's blood during medical procedures and surgeries. The purpose of this device is to ensure that while the patient is unresponsive due to anesthesia, he does not suffer a brain injury because of loss of oxygen in the blood. The pulse oximeter is a device that is placed on the patient's finger and measures "systemic" blood oxygen to monitor brain function and prevent brain injury.

A new device has recently appeared in the medical community called a cerebral oximeter. The difference between a cerebral oximeter and a pulse oximeter is that the cerebral oximeter measures oxygen going to the brain itself, rather than "systemic" oxygen levels. This improves the medical community's ability to prevent brain injury during medical procedures that require sedation or total anesthesia to the patient.
In a recent brain injury study which examined over 2,250 patients, it was found that the incidence of permanent brain injury on patients that were monitored with a cerebral oximeter was less than 1%. While the incidence of brain injury in patients in patients who were not monitored by cerebral oximeter was over 2%. This significant breakthrough bodes well for the further prevention of brain injury during medical procedures in the future.
If you, a friend or family member is about to undergo a surgical procedure, you should be sure to ask your doctor whether or not he has a cerebral oximeter available and insist that he put it to use for your benefit. If he says that he does not, you may wish to ask him if he knows any facilities where this new device is available.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Staff Writer

Man Dies of Severe Head Injury

Shannon Weidemann — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 15:26:07 GMT

A carpenter working on the University of Tennessee's new aquatic center died after suffering severe head trauma on the worksite. The 53 year old man was found at the base of one of the walls.

The Tennessee office of Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating, according to Milissa Reierson, communications director for TOSHA.
Investigations take 4-6 weeks to complete, she said.

No details have been released about what happened, but police have taken statements from those at the scene and ruled it an accidental death.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Shannon Weidemann

3.5 Million Verdict For Brain Damage After Botched Gastric Bypass

Rick Shapiro — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 08:22:29 GMT

A jury recently awarded a 3.5 million dollar verdict in Fredericksburg Circuit Court to a plaintiff who underwent gastric bypass surgery (stomach staple surgery) and suffered brain damage. One doctor, President of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery, testified that a leak from the plaintiff's gastric bypass surgery caused peritonitis and a septic reaction that lead to the brain getting too little oxygen.

The defendant doctor called an expert out of North Carolina who is a former president of the same society and chief investigator for the National Center for the Assessment of Bariatric surgery. The defendant's expert said that the problem was a result of pneumonia and lung failure, not from the botched gastric bypass. The defendant's expert, out of North Carolina, actually was a mentor of the plaintiff's expert and was credited generally with inventing the procedure that was used in the gastric bypass surgery in question. However, the jury saw through the smoke screen of the defense and awarded 3.5 million dollars, apparently agreeing with the expert who was the protÃ©gÃ© of the "mentor" doctor.

What I found interesting about the trial report out of Fredericksburg (this was not my case) was that the "mentor" expert out of NC was also a doctor who had briefly treated one of my clients who had suffered a botched gastric bypass. The "mentor" bariatric surgeon had actually booted my client from his medical clinic solely because she asked him after an appointment if he would help her because she was trying to bring a claim against the doctors that had botched her original gastric bypass. My client was shocked when this doctor told her that he would no longer treat her and basically refused to see her again. When my client called me, I had trouble believing this story and I tried to communicate with the doctor. My calls were never returned. I learned that the doctor was actually at one time on the board of medicine for the State of North Carolina, and had great credentials, but this is something that a physician is never suppose to do (discharge a patient simply because of learning that the patient has a potential claim against another physician).

The moral of this tale is that many doctors have a bias and ax to grind against people that get injured from medical negligence -- even if the patient is simply a victim. To think that your doctor would discharge you as a patient simply by learning that you have a claim against another doctor or hospital for blatant medical negligence is absurd!

At our practice as personal injury lawyers, we learn things about some physicians in the local area that our clients/patients of the doctor are unaware of. For one thing, we see doctors in depositions in a different atmosphere than one of examining a patient where bedside manner is important. Yes, some physicians can be complete jerks, but I will admit that some physicians are great people and have excellent integrity.

After much personal injury litigation, I can assure the public that many doctors with the finest credentials can give testimony that is totally lacking any credibility, so credentials will not carry the day (sometimes) in the real world of jury trials. Many times juries can find the truth despite any expert's credentials.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Rick Shapiro

New Court Decision Holds Hotels Liable For Many Criminal Attacks

Rick Shapiro — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 19:35:51 GMT

It is reasonable for the law to impose upon the innkeeper, and on the common carrier, a duty to take reasonable precautions to protect his guests against injury caused by the criminal conduct on the part of other guests or strangers if the danger of injury by such conduct is known to the innkeeper or reasonably foreseeable...."

In March, 2006, the Virginia Supreme Court announced a major decision that affects hotel and motel liability where guests are assaulted, injured or killed.

Many lawyers in Virginia had thought that there was very limited liability for hotels when a guest is assaulted by a criminal in a parking lot or other location. However, in this case, Taboda v. Daily Seven, Inc., the Virginia Supreme Court said that an innkeeper or hotel's liability is similar to the higher duty of care on a common carrier. The court reasoned that because the common carrier alone knows the condition of his vehicle and the dangers of the neighborhoods and environs through which the roots of travel may lie...., thus the higher duty applies.

The Virginia Supreme Court went on to state:

"It is reasonable for the law to impose upon the innkeeper, and on the common carrier, a duty to take reasonable precautions to protect his guests against injury caused by the criminal conduct on the part of other guests or strangers, if the danger of injury by such conduct is known to the innkeeper or reasonably foreseeable...."

The case noted that this innkeeper or hotel standard of care is higher than that on a landlord or business invitor. The Virginia Supreme Court went out of its way to state that notice of a specific danger under the concept of reasonably foreseeable danger does not require degree of knowledge of criminal assaults but the general concept of reasonably foreseeable dangers in general.

In this specific case ruled upon, the hotel guest was shot eight times in the hotel parking lot. He was walking from the hotel back to his vehicle in the parking lot while having just checked in. The court took note that the hotel had employed uniform security guards in the past, but had stopped doing so to save money. Also, in the prior three year period preceding the shooting, there had been ninety-six police calls to the hotel.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Rick Shapiro

Recovering Medical Expenses--Are Double or Triple Recoveries Permitted?

Rick Shapiro — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 10:26:23 GMT

Virginia has special rules regarding what damages are recoverable in personal injury cases including special rules relating to what some would call "double recoveries" of medical expenses. It is best to use examples to explain some of the rules. Imagine you have a health insurance policy, and a car insurance policy on your own vehicle but you are hurt in a crash when a careless driver runs a red light.

When you go to the emergency room, you provide your health insurance card and your health insurance pays for most if not all of your medical expenses. Lets add that you have a Virginia insurance policy on your car with an optional coverage called "med-pay" or more formally called "medical expense benefits." Medical expense benefits coverage is optional under Virginia automobile insurance policies but covers a defined amount of medical expenses that arise from a motor vehicle accident--generally applying whether or not your were driving and also providing coverage whether or not you were at fault.

To follow this example further, you incur two thousand dollars worth of emergency room expenses that they are covered by the health insurance policy. Again, you also have car insurance "medical expense benefits" that cover up to five thousand dollars worth of medical expenses arising out of an automobile accident, and in such a case, the same two thousand dollars worth of emergency room expenses may be submitted to the automobile insurance company under the medical expense policy. (This is the second permissible recovery under insurance and is not limited to a co-pay balance owed for the E.R. bills).

First, the health insurance plan pays all of the emergency room bills in our example. The full amount of two thousand dollars in emergency room bills must still be paid by the medical expense benefit policy on the automobile insurance as well. Virginia has what is called an "anti-subrogation rule" prohibiting health insurance companies from seeking reimbursement of health insurer payouts from personal injury case proceeds. (Note: an experienced personal injury lawyer must review the health insurance policy as some policies not written in Virginia are not bound by Virginia's anti-subrogation law on this point, but instead are governed under a federal law called ERISA).

Last, in the personal injury claim against the careless driver, the injured victim may also claim the same two thousand dollars in emergency room bills despite the fact that they have been paid twice over. This is a legal "triple recovery" because of a special personal injury rule called the "collateral source rule." In normal circumstances, a careless driver does not get the benefit of the fact that the injured person paid for insurance benefits -- this includes health insurance or medical expense benefits under an automobile insurance policy. The reason is that the injured victim PAID for those side insurance benefits and the law does not want to "reward" the careless person just because you as the victim paid insurance premiums yourself.

In fact, in Virginia, the following is the way that juries are usually instructed by Judges on what is called the collateral source rule:

The presence or absence of insurance or benefits of any type, whether liability insurance, health insurance, or employment-related benefits for either the plaintiff or the defendant, is not to be considered by you in any way in deciding the issue of liability or, if you find your verdict for the plaintiff, in considering the issue of damages.

The Virginia Supreme Court has applied this collateral source rule in tort (civil injury) cases for more than a century. In Virginia, compensation or indemnity received by a tort injury victim from a source collateral to the careless tortfeaser may not be applied as a credit against the amount of damages the careless tort-feaser owes. Virginia's highest court has said that the injured party should be made whole by the tortfeaser, not by a combination of compensation from the tort feaser and collateral or side sources.

In a recent case, Virginia's highest court held that portions of bills for medical expenses "written off" by an injured persons health care provider (after the provider accepted a health insurance payment) could not be deducted from the amount of damages owed by a careless tortfeaser, preserving the integrity of the "collateral source rule." Our law firm's general website is: hsinjurylaw.com .

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Rick Shapiro