Syracuse Personal Injury Law Blog

Dosing with spoons will lead to under- or overmedication

Published on: July 17, 2014 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

At some point in our lives, most of us have been given a prescription for a liquid medicine. Liquid medicines, though generally as effective as pill-based medicine, do have one major drawback, it is up to the patient or his or her caretaker to measure out and administer the medicine. Unfortunately, this means that many people are being under- or overmedicated. Sometimes these medication errors can lead to serious injuries or even death.

One way in which patients can be improperly dosed is if a patient or caretaker uses a spoon to measure medicine. And if neither the prescribing physician or the pharmacist explains that it is important to measure out medicine in milliliters, some patients may not realize they aren’t taking the proper amount of medicine.

It would also be relatively easy to eliminate the risk of medication error if doctors and pharmacists would just prescribe a certain number of milliliters instead of in teaspoons. If the directions say to “take 5 milliliters” of medicine, patients would need a measuring container that lists various volumes. If the directions are listed in teaspoons, a patient may wrongly assume a kitchen spoon will be fine.

North Syracuse car crash remains a mystery

Published on: July 15, 2014 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

Sometimes it is immediately clear who caused a crash, like when a tractor-trailer driver falls asleep at the wheel, crosses into oncoming traffic and smashes headlong into a car. Or, when a driver is busy texting and fails to notice a stop sign, plowing into a left-turning motorcycle. Sometimes, however, fault is a little harder to find, at least at first glance, yet this does not mean that the family members of those killed in fatal car accidents shouldn’t work with a wrongful death lawyer to file a lawsuit.

And that may be what the family of a woman who is believed to have been killed in a North Syracuse car crash will do once it is a bit more clear as to whose fault the accident was.

Although the North Syracuse police are saying that one of the vehicles involved in this two-car crash ran a red light, officers have not yet said if it was the minivan in which the woman was riding or an SUV.

Using medical malpractice lawsuits to prompt change

Published on: July 3, 2014 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

Most fields are always changing, and medicine is no different. What is changing within medicine, however, is not necessarily techniques and skills that will reduce serious medical errors or fatal hospital negligence. Instead, it is often finding new medicines or new ways of performing procedures. Yet many of the problems of medical malpractice remain.

So, what could get the medical community to change? There are some people who believe that hospitals, physicians and other medical professionals would be more likely to delve into safety issues if they were subject to more high-publicity, costly malpractice lawsuits. There is even historical evidence that backs this presumption up.

In the early 1980s, anesthesiologists were getting slammed by a series of medical malpractice lawsuits. Time and time again they were found liable for serious medical errors, so the American Society of Anesthesiologists looked into what had been harming patients. After making some changes to working hours and monitoring, updated machines, and created safety devices, anesthesiologists have seen a tremendous increase in safety.

Animal attack? You may be able to sue the zoo

Published on: July 1, 2014 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

Let’s say you want to go to the zoo in Burnet Park. You walk around, see the animals and, while you are standing near one of the exhibits, you are bitten by one of the animals.

It is shocking, to say the least, but it also leads to a battery of tests to make sure that you haven’t caught any diseases from the animals. Depending on the size or strength of the animal, you may have very serious medical concerns that you need addressed. While all of this is going on, you may need to take time off of work. When all is said and done, you have had to spend a lot of time and money for one trip to the zoo.

And that is why, should such an animal attack happen, many people in Syracuse would want to sue the zoo. Every business or organization has a responsibility to warn the people on their property of any unsafe conditions. Most of the time we think of that as wet floors, but, in the case of a zoo, it could be the risk of an animal bite. Though it may not be intuitive, zoos are held to the same responsibility of protecting against unsafe conditions as any other business would be.

Government and safety organizations at odds over trucker fatigue

Published on: June 25, 2014 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

There are many people in Syracuse who will work while tired. For most jobs, this isn’t a problem, but for some jobs, being tired can cause some very serious complications. No one wants, for example, a tired surgeon. One career that is particularly susceptible to fatigue is truck driving. It is also one position in which being tired is very dangerous.

Congress and the federal government recognize this and there are a number of rules in place to limit trucker fatigue. Just last year, the government mandated that truckers must take 34 hours off before starting a 70-hour work week. Moreover, the rules require the drivers to have two nights or rest each week. While studies have shown that this time off does a better job of reducing fatigue and increasing alertness, there are trucking companies and truckers who are fighting the regulations.

While it makes sense that truckers would want their flexibility when it comes to when they can work, they are not the only ones on the road. When they drive while tired, they are not just putting their lives at risk, but everyone’s on the road. They can cause extremely serious trucking accidents, severe injuries and death.

Better diagnosis of diabetes could help prevent heart attacks

Published on: June 19, 2014 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

For anyone in Oneida who has wondered how doctors can tell if a patient has diabetes, the easiest way is to test the patient’s A1C levels. By ordering a simple test, doctors can learn a patient’s blood sugar levels for the past two to three months. If it is that easy, why are there an estimated 7 million people in the country whose diabetes is undiagnosed?

What is even more frightening is that undiagnosed diabetes has been linked to heart attacks. Roughly one in 10 people who have had heart attacks have undiagnosed diabetes, Had these individuals known of their diabetes and taken the steps necessary to regulate their weight, blood sugar and other factors, it is possible that they would have been able to avoid the heart attack altogether.

Not only does a failure to diagnose diabetes put a patient at risk of a heart attack, but it also dictates how likely a person is to seek diabetes treatment. Since untreated diabetes could lead to a subsequent heart attack, heart disease and a host of medical conditions, it is important that doctors do what they can to get their patients into diabetic treatment.

Study: 1 in 10 doctors are addicted to drugs or alcohol

Published on: June 17, 2014 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

There is no doubt that the practice of medicine is stressful. There is immense pressure on getting it right, because failure could mean serious injuries or death. The overwhelming majority of doctors in upstate New York do take this responsibility seriously, but there are some doctors who are reckless or who let the pressure get to them. For the patients of these doctors, there is a real risk of medical malpractice.

Take one out-of-state doctor as an example. His alleged dependence on alcohol and drugs has had serious consequences. A number of his patients have been paralyzed with both paraplegia and quadriplegia. Many of them must now use wheelchairs because they can no longer walk. One man has even said that part of his spinal cord was removed in what should have been a simple back surgery.

This does not even cover the two patients who died after the surgeon operated on them.

Broome County car crash leaves passenger seriously injured

Published on: June 11, 2014 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

What some people may not realize is that when a car accident happens, there doesn’t have to be two cars involved to file a personal injury lawsuit. Passengers can also sue the drivers of the vehicles they are in if they suffer serious injuries in a car accident. Just like with other motorists on the road, the driver is responsible for doing everything possible to prevent a crash.

Unfortunately, many drivers don’t take this responsibility seriously and will drive recklessly with passengers in the car. If they cause a crash, they can then be held liable for any injuries, lost wages, pain and suffering and more the passenger may experience. Moreover, a driver may need to pay surviving family members if he or she causes a fatal motor vehicle crash.

At the end of last month, a driver was apparently driving recklessly when he lost control of his vehicle and smashed into a utility pole in the town of Maine in Broome County. His passenger was seriously injured and admitted to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. The driver was killed in the accident.

Medical groups issue paper that asks doctors to avoid C-sections

Published on: June 5, 2014 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

There is no denying the fact that a cesarean section can be convenient. Instead of having to wait and wait for a baby to come, parents can schedule a C-section. Instead of having to go through a long labor, mothers can have a C-section and be taken to recovery. Though convenient, C-sections should only be used when absolutely necessary, and according to the World Health Organization, countries should not have C-section rates higher than 15 percent. The U.S., however, delivers one in three children by C-section.

Not only do C-sections potentially expose children to higher risks of asthma, juvenile diabetes, breathing problems and allergies, the procedure can also seriously injure mothers. In some cases, if a mother is hurt in the process of a having a C-section, she may sue her obstetrician for personal injury.

One reason that researchers believe has caused the spike in the number of C-sections is medical professionals’ fear of medical malpractice lawsuits. Some doctors are quick to recommend C-sections if there is a risk that a delay in birth could cause a birth injury. If doctors were better able to tell when C-sections were actually necessary, however, this could potentially be avoided.

Front crash prevention system may not help with negligent drivers

Published on: June 3, 2014 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

There are a number of new vehicles on the road these days and, as always, they are utilizing a variety of new technologies to keep drivers and passengers safer. These technological breakthroughs are certainly important, but they often fail to protect against negligent drivers. Yet having one of the newest safety features, front crash prevention systems, won’t necessarily keep a driver safe from a motor vehicle accident caused by a distracted or reckless driver.

Front crash prevention systems do what they say, they try to prevent crashes to the front of the vehicle. In essence, a system will let driver A know that his or her vehicle is getting to close to the rear of driver B’s vehicle. Sometimes there are warnings, sometimes the car automatically slows down. What the system does not do, however, is warn driver A that driver C’s vehicle is quickly approaching from behind and will hit the back of driver A’s car. It also would not warn driver A that his or her car is about to be hit on the right or left side by drivers D or E, respectively.

Although there are some amazing safety features out there, they have not yet gotten rid of the need for personal injury lawsuits. When a negligent, reckless or distracted driver causes a motor vehicle accident, it will be a personal injury lawsuit that then protects an injured victim, not a safety feature.