Blog Archive - June, 2011

Think it's complicated to get a new pharmaceutical drug put on the market? Think again. A new report indicates only about half of the new prescription medications that were introduced in the U.S. in the last decade had the appropriate information submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but the FDA approved the drugs to go to market anyway.

It is getting more and more difficult these days for parents in Georgia to find a suitable daycare for their children. This seems astounding given the fact that there are currently about 3000 child care learning centers, 250 group day care homes, 4,500 family day care homes and almost 2,000 informal care providers in the state. The key question that parents should be considering is whether a potential daycare center is licensed. There has been a recent rash of child deaths and abuse associated with unlicensed childcare facilities across the state of Georgia. Parents should do their homework when picking a place to trust with their children.

The parents of two Dacula boys who drowned when they fell through the ice last year have filed a lawsuit against Gwinnett County for $10 million each.

Summer has arrived, and families throughout Georgia are trying to stay cool by swimming in pools and relaxing in spas at home and on vacation. While the pool or spa can be a fun and relaxing way to enjoy the summer, it can also be the cause of considerable danger.

The summer is here, and watersports on Georgia waterways are a fun way to cool off and have some adventure. Wakeboarding and waterskiing are extremely popular summer recreational activities, though there are certain potential dangers that confront those that engage in these forms of watersports.

Police officers in one town in Georgia are being proactive about keeping their roadways safer and reducing the number of auto accidents in their community, and they aren't just giving out traffic tickets.

Plastic surgery is also known today by the term cosmetic surgery. Patients undergo cosmetic surgery for different reasons. Some get surgery on a body part because they are unhappy with their physical appearance. Others suffer from a disfigurement that they were born with or sustained due to an accident, and they undergo surgery to correct it.

University Hospital in San Antonio, TX just completed a study where they compiled 15 years worth of data on serious dog bite injuries that were treated by their doctors and nurses.

While GPS is a great technology, some people start to rely too much on technology and throw common sense out the window.

A recent study that was published in the British Medical Journal shows that the drug levothyroxine, which is used to treat thyroid problems, has been linked to an increased risk of bone fractures in elderly patients.

Although personal watercrafts (PWCs) like jet skis may be fun, personal watercrafts (PWCs) are responsible for 848 injuries and 42 deaths in the year 2009 according to the U.S. Coast Guard. In 2009, out of the 4,730 recreational boating accidents, 22 percent of them involved PWCs.

With the national obesity epidemic and increasing number of people seeking ways to lose weight quickly, surgical procedures designed to reduce weight are becoming more common including Lap-Band Surgery.

There is no question that rear-end collisions are a common occurrence, but when they involve a tractor-trailer, the consequences can be deadly.

Barroom brawls are romanticized in movies as good old boys blowing off steam, but the reality frequently is far more tragic. Places like bars and taverns are often notorious as places where trouble can occur and violence is common.

Many workers end up with what are called repetitive use injuries when required to do jobs such as typing, data processing, continued use of a computer mouse, or repetitive work in a factory like a poultry plant.

Sexual abuse is defined as any sexual activity that occurs without a person's consent. Frequently, sexual abuse is carried out by people who are in professional positions, positions of trust and positions of power.

Large passenger vans like those that carry 15 passengers are considered a high-risk vehicle despite their frequent use by youth organizations for outings in Georgia.

McNeil Consumer Health Care, a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson, may face punitive damages because McNeil has acknowledged receiving reports of two cases in which patients contracted Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, but in a clinical study report that they later published, these two reports were never mentioned.

Drivers who talk on their cell phones while navigating our nation's roadways are four times more likely to be involved in a traffic accident than drivers who are not distracted according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has launched the Compliance Safety Accountability (CSA) program to enact tougher requirements for commercial motor carriers.

While car accidents cannot discriminate, they do affect minority groups at a much higher rate than non-minority groups. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there are a number of major risk factors that have attributed to an increased risk of injuries sustained in auto accidents by certain ethnic groups including American Indians.

It may seem obvious that a car that is approaching a cyclist riding along the shoulder of the road should swerve away from the cyclist and give the cyclist some room when passing them.

Railroad crossings located on rural roads often have no gates, warning lights or bells to warn of approaching trains. The accidents that result because of unsafe crossings like these are actually quite common.

There is an estimated 80,000 Segways that have been sold and are in use around the world. When it comes to tracking any accidents that occur due to the use of Segways, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (UCPSC) includes them in the same injury category as scooters and 4 wheel motorized skateboards.

Concerns regarding driving under the influence by teen drivers is not exclusively limited to alcohol consumption, but also includes impaired driving resulting from the effects of certain medications, whether prescribed by a doctor or obtained over-the-counter.

In an unusual accident in Atlanta, a woman, who was believed to be homeless, was killed while inside a house that was being demolished. A backhoe began tearing down an abandoned house that was slated for demolition when witnesses heard someone cry out for help.

Almost half the people out there are going to seek waterways and pools for recreation this summer with their children will do so in areas where there is no lifeguard present.

Summer is here and it is that time again to be visiting amusement parks with the kids for some thrills and riding all the rides.

A recent accident serves as a sad testimonial regarding the vulnerability of pedestrians in the Atlanta metro area and throughout Georgia. A 19 year-old girl suffered serious head injuries and is in critical condition after being struck in an intersection by a truck that did not stop before proceeding into the crosswalk according to reports from the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office.

We frequently hear the term hydroplaning and associate it with rain-soaked streets and serious Atlanta car crashes. Hydroplaning on a wet road can cause a severe car crash on Atlanta streets.

Tractor-trailer trucks make up just 3 percent of the vehicles on the road, but they are involved in 21 percent of fatal accidents.

A schoolteacher who was commuting to work on her bicycle in Cobb County was recently hit by a car last week and was left in the path of oncoming traffic when the driver who hit her drove off.

There are about 170,000 car crashes a year that involve pregnant women. According to one study, when accidents result in serious consequences to the baby, the lack of a seatbelt typically plays a substantial factor approximately 62 percent of the time.

Many people are severely injured or permanently disabled after falling down a stairway that was not designed, maintained, or constructed properly or has other hazardous conditions.

Georgia has been one of only three states in the whole country to have a ban on alcohol sales at stores on Sundays. Last month that changed when the House approved Senate Bill 10. The legislation would allow for local cities to put the issue out to vote in their elections. By next year, Sunday sales of alcohol could be a reality in metro Atlanta and other locales.

Parents who may be getting ready to send their children off to camp for the summer or to a church group outing or to any extracurricular activity may want to make sure that they fully investigate the organization for their children's safety.

A tubing accident last week that resulted in the death of a young girl is a reminder of the need to be cautious when rafting on the Chattahoochee River. While the river is very popular for tubing and rafts, water releases for Buford Dam can prove very dangerous. Last week, a nine-year-old girl was trapped by a water release from the dam. She was underwater for an hour before her body was discovered. There is a Buford Dam release once or twice a week, and they may be even more frequent during times of heavy rain. Recreational activities in a river always requires caution and close supervision of children, but anyone tubing or swimming within twenty miles of Buford Dam must be especially vigilant.

Even though most cars in the U.S. and Canada now come equipped with anti-lock braking systems (ABS), most people do not really understand how these systems work.

In 2005, three enterprising youths from Ohio State University came up with the idea to concoct a drink made up of four primary ingredients including alcohol, caffeine, taurine, and guarana.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is conducting an investigation into the risks of blood clots associated with the use of Yasmin and Beyaz birth control pills.

All over the country the week of June 5-11 signifies National Tire Safety Week. In line with this, the U.S. Department of Transportation has issued a consumer advisory that is urging all drivers to inspect their tires thoroughly before driving in the hot summer weather.

Electrocution accidents will frequently cause serious injury and are often deadly. 

Many serious auto accident victims in Georgia consider bringing a personal injury lawsuit but are not certain of all available potential defendants.

A case was recently settled in South Carolina that awarded a plaintiff, who was injured in an ATV accident, a $2.2 million settlement. No lawsuit was filed; the attorney for the plaintiff just made a demand on the defendant's insurer.

In about 20 states that experience cold weather and use salt to treat their roads, there has been a recall of about 196,000 vehicles made by Nissan.

Even though drivers of commercial trucks have been required to submit to drug and alcohol testing for the past 15 years, there have been some loopholes in the system that have allowed many of these drug and alcohol users to slip through the cracks and continue to drive.

Despite the fact that fireworks are illegal to varying degrees based on federal and state law as well as certain local ordinances, they are prevalent during many times of the year including holiday celebrations.

While there are many different reasons for car accidents occurring on our roadways, impatience on the part of drivers is becoming a more common one. When drivers get impatient they run stop signs, pass in illegal zones, and engage in other dangerous maneuvers.

One of the most effective ways for a parent to protect their children and secure a bright future is to faithfully employ age appropriate safety restraint systems including car seats and booster seats.

Trucking companies have a lot of responsibility when it comes to hiring and screening their tractor-trailer truck drivers. Truck accidents cause over 5,000 deaths each year and 150,000 serious injuries.

Few people other than dedicated horse enthusiasts gave much thought to the notion of suffering catastrophic injuries resulting in paralysis in a horse riding accident until the serious horse jumping accident involving Christopher Reeves a number of years ago.

The pedestrian accident fatality rate among children ages 14 and under has fallen about 40% in recent years. The injury rate for this same group has also declined by about 29%. While this is good news, it does not mean that there still is not a reason for concern or that pedestrian accidents involving children are not still an all too frequent occurrence.

As summer approaches and people start taking their covers off of their pools to get ready for summer swimming, it is important to perform a safety check and make sure that your pool and your spa are compliant with the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act Law.

A 30 year-old man who fled from police on a motorcycle was killed in Cobb County, Georgia. The police tried to pull the man over because they suspected him of driving impaired on the 1-75 interstate.

The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) put the Highway Emergency Response Operator (HERO) program into place 15 years ago. The main purpose behind the program was to try and reduce congestion on the highways by having HERO officers respond to incidents quickly and efficiently so that the roads could be cleared and the flow of traffic restored.

Are hybrid cars too quiet? If they are too quiet, why is that really a problem? The answer is provided by a study conducted by NPR that concluded that pedestrians are twice as likely to get run over by hybrid vehicles verses other types of automobiles.

A few months ago a man who was test driving a 2011 Harley Tri-Glide trike went off the road after hitting a median and was severely injured when the bike fell on top of him.

When a person is exposed to an overwhelmingly tragic event or experiences a terrible accident, they can develop what is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Sometimes a person is involved in a bad auto accident or has witnessed something gruesome like the death or severe injury of a friend or loved one.

We have all seen debris while navigating the streets and highways of Georgia. Road debris can be a problem for drivers whether it is due to tire treads from tractor-trailers, trash that has fallen out of the backs of pick-up trucks, or parts that have fallen off of cars.

Auto accidents account for the largest number of spinal cord injuries in our country. Serious motor vehicle accidents cause roughly 47% of all spinal cord injuries.

In a report published on May 9 in the online edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers made a case for the connection between the high use of acetaminophen and an increased risk of blood cancer.

An increasing number of people are questioning whether driver education training for teens makes sense. This may sound crazy given that a teen driver is 10 times more likely to get in an auto accident as compared to an older driver.

The family of a 25-year-old mentally handicapped man who died last year in a sleep study may see justice yet. They are bringing a wrongful death lawsuit against the companies who conducted the sleep study, Emory Healthcare, Wesley Woods Center, and Neurocare Inc., which was filed last month.