Wilmington Personal Injury Lawyer - Negligence

New Hanover Community Health Center Latest Facility To Expose Patients To Risk Of Blood-Borne Illness

Jean Martin — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:30:00 GMT

Headlines about unsanitary hospital practices causing disease outbreaks in places like China, Bulgaria, and even Ireland cause most of us to shake our heads and turn the page.

After all, American hospitals in the 21^st Century couldn’t possibly transmit fatal diseases by reusing syringes or equipment. Right?

Think again.

Hospitals and clinics in Nebraska, Oklahoma, Nevada, New Jersey, and Texas are just some of the health-care settings in which hundreds of patients have contracted Hepatitis C because workers failed to take proper precautions or outright violated safety protocols.

And now a health clinic in New Hanover county has followed this deadly trend. The New Hanover Community Health Center recently announced that it had sent letters to almost 300 patients who may have been exposed to blood borne illnesses, which can include hepatitis and HIV, due to a machine malfunction. The center recently discovered that a glucose meter used to monitor blood sugar levels in diabetic patients may have malfunctioned so that more than one patient was pricked with the same needle. The patients that were sent warning letters were patients who had been seen since January of this year when this new machine started to be used. It took 6 months for someone to notice that the needles in the meter were not rotating properly? Was this user error instead of a machine malfunction? The patients are being asked to come in for free blood tests. Fortunately, those patients that have been tested to date have tested negatively, but this story is a perfect example of why proper training and proper maintenance of equipment is vitally important.

Not counting hospital outbreaks, the CDC reported earlier this year that 33 outbreaks of hepatitis B and C in settings such as nursing homes and outpatient clinics over the last 10 years put an estimated 60,000 people at risk of bloodborn infections. In those cases, 173 people were diagnosed with hepatitis B and 275 were diagnosed with hepatitis C.

Hepatitis is a virus that comes in six varieties: A, B, C, D, E and G. All of them attack the liver, but hepatitis C is usually considered the most serious. Hepatitis C can be fatal. It can cause liver cancer, liver failure, or cirrhosis. It is usually transmitted by infected blood, often through shared or reused needles.

How can something so dangerous yet so preventable happen in modern American health care facilities?

In little Laurinburg, N.C., last year a technician infected seven patients with Hepatitis C during cardiac stress tests conducted at an outpatient clinic. The tests involve injecting a dye into a patient’s vein.

Nearly 100 patients at a cancer clinic inside a Nebraska hospital were infected with hepatitis C from 2000 through 2001 because the clinic reused syringes. In Las Vegas last year, two endoscopy clinics spread the virus to 114 patients by reusing syringes and medicine vials.

In Texas, a nurse at a military hospital injected himself with a patient’s drugs and then injected the patient with the same needle, giving him hepatitis C. In Atlantic City this year, 15 people were infected after starting dialysis at an Atlantic City hospital.

In Colorado, 5,700 patients may have been exposed during surgeries at the Rose and Audubon Surgery Center in Colorado Springs by a technician accused of using their syringes full of painkillers and then refilling them with saline for use on the patients. In that instance, the hospital and the technician may have known the technician needed testing to determine if she was positive for the virus after signs turned up in a pre-employment exam.

These events not only threaten the lives of the patients that health care facilities are supposed to treat; they cast a cloud of fear over thousands of patients notified that they may have been exposed to a dread disease.

It would be easy to blame the technicians performing the seemingly mundane tasks that often result in hepatitis C transmission. But taking blood, injecting dyes, and administering pain medication are medical procedures. Doctors, hospitals and nursing homes should be held responsible for their safe performance.

*Thanks to Cory Reiss, summer law clerk and 3L at Wake Forest University School of Law, who was the major contributor to this blog post*

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jean Martin

Lawsuits Against North Carolina State Employees

Jean Martin — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:14:03 GMT

The government and governmental agencies have protection from lawsuits under the theory of sovereign immunity, which precludes lawsuits against the government without its consent. Governments can waive sovereign immunity to allow for lawsuits.

In 1951, North Carolina adoped the State Tort Claims Act which allows injured persons and grieving families to file suit against state agencies and state employees for acts of negligence. Under the State Tort Claims Act, a state agency, state employees or agents of the state may be sued for injury to another for the negligence and carelessness caused of a state employee or agent acting within the course and scope of their employment.

An action under the State Tort Claims Act must be filed with the North Carolina Industrial Commission within three years of the date the cause of action accrued or within two years of the date of death in the case of a wrongful death. Under the State Tort Claims Act, the liability of the State is determined under the same principles applicable a private person under the laws of North Carolina. This simply means that the State has no greater protection or available defenses than would private citizen who was sued for negligence. As the injured party, although you have to bring your claim in a particular court of law, you have the same rights and claims against the State for the negligence causing the injury as you would if a private citizen would have been at fault.

Types of claims that may be brought under the State Tort Claims Act include:

* medical malpractice at a state hospital

* wrongful death in automobile accident caused by state employee driving a state vehicle

* gross negligence during a police chase

* premises liabilty at a state owned property or facility

Citizens need to be aware that they do have rights to bring lawsuits against the state for negligent acts of state employees or agents.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jean Martin

Settlement Reached in Nursing Home Bus Fire Deaths

Gary Shipman — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:17:41 GMT

The families of 23 residents who died in a bus fire near Dallas, Texas have settled a lawsuit against the nursing home who evacuated the residents during Hurricane Rita.

In September, 2005, Sunrise Senior Living Services leased two buses to evacuate residents as Hurricane Rita approached the Texas coast, and the rear axle of one of the buses overheated, causing the bus to fill with flames and smoke, resulting in the deaths. A federal grand jury found Global Limo, the owner of the bus, guilty of failing to conduct required inspections.

The amount of the settlement was not disclosed, and attorneys for the residents' families were prohibited by a confidentiality agreement from discussing the details.

For more information on this subject, please review our section on Negligent Care.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Gary Shipman

Who/What is Your Personal Injury Attorney?

Gary Shipman — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:14:01 GMT

You Deserve the Best"

"We'll Fight for You"

As consumers, we are constantly hearing/seeing television and radio ads from law firms, seeking to have those injured in a car accident, on the job, as the result of medical negligence, or in a nursing home, call their offices.

Those solicitations use persuasive, but often deceptive, "come ons" in an attempt to convince you to make that call. There is nothing wrong with lawyer advertising. Many times, it is the only way that a consumer has the opportunity to know that there are lawyers that can protect their legal rights. But as a consumer, it is important for you to be informed. Just like there is a difference between the quality of a car, there is a difference between the quality of a lawyer.

First, ask appropriate questions. How many cases have you actually tried in court? What is the percentage of cases that your firm handles that are settled? Are you or members of your firm rated by Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory? If you were injured, who would you hire? There are many law firms out there that advertise for cases that won't be able to provide you with impressive answers to those questions.

There are firms that advertise for cases that have never actually tried a case to verdict, or have tried very few. Insurance companies know that; other attorneys know that; judges know that. The ability to successfully resolve a case is dependent upon numerous factors, not the least of which is the experience of the lawyer handling the case. Lawyers who don't try cases aren't viewed as a threat to the insurance companies. On the other hand, lawyers with substantial courtroom experience are viewed as a threat, at least in those cases where liability is clear and the client has substantial damages. Settlement of a case is better than litigation of a case 10 out of 10 times - because the result is certain. Having said that, the best way to maximize recovery in any case is to insure that you have the best lawyer that you can find.

Second, access other resources that are available to you. Do a Google search on the lawyer that you've spoken to. Go to websites like www.lawyers.com, www.bestlawyers.com, www.superlawyers.com and find lawyers in your area that other lawyers rank as being the best.

Third, once you've chosen a lawyer, stay informed. The law firm that is working on your case should provide you with a "warm and fuzzy" feeling that they are acting in your best interest. There should be a strategy that the law firm has for resolving your case, and you should understand what that strategy is. Patience will be your best virtue. Cases don't always move along at the pace that clients believe that they should, for legitimate reasons. But if you don't have answers to your questions, keep asking them until you do.

Finally, when it comes time for you to make a decision about resolving your case, make sure that you are armed with all of the pertinent information. What is the settlement value of my case vs. other cases like mine? What is the jury value of my case? How long will it take to get my case to trial? What are the costs and expenses that I will be charged if my case goes to trial? What are the strengths and weaknesses, both factually and legally, with my case? Knowledge is power, and you, as the client, has to be empowered to make the decision about whether to settle your case. It's your case, not your lawyers.

Our firm is consistently, year in and year out, rated as exceptional by our peers. We have substantial trial experience, and therefore, we believe that we're able to maximize the settlement value of the cases that we handle, because insurance companies know what we're capable of doing in the courtroom. Being a trial lawyer is hard work; but that's what we are - trial lawyers. That's not necessarily what other lawyers are, and you should know the difference.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Gary Shipman

Who/What is your Personal Injury Attorney?

Gary Shipman — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 10:03:29 GMT

"You Deserve the Best"

"We'll Fight for You"

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Gary Shipman

Nursing Home Aide Accused of Abuse

Christina Cole — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 16:34:11 GMT

Police are investigating an alleged case of nursing home abuse. Officers were called to a Georgetown Healthcare and Rehab where they met with the home direct and a representative from the Department of Social Services. The report alleges a 55-year-old patient was choked by a nurse's aide.

In the report, the man said the attacked occurred in December but he had not reported it due to fear of possible retribution. Police interviewed the man and he said on the day of the incident, the female aide, yelled at him and then refused to take him to the restroom or to empty his urinal. When the man protested the aide allegedly began cursing at him.

The workers are supposed to lift him and put him in and out of his bed. On the day of the incident, the aide tried to make him stand up and it took two workers to get him back into his bed. Once in his bed, the aide - in front of another female worker- grabbed him by the neck, using both hands and used this position to push him closer to the pillow on the bed, states the report.

Officials are still investigating the accusation of nursing home patient abuse.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Christina Cole