Massachusetts Injury Lawyer Blog

The warm weather is here and that means many Massachusetts residents can be found poolside. The pool is a fun spot for all ages, but it also poses safety risks. These risks can be reduced by the use of good judgment and common sense.

We want you and your loved ones to be safe. Sadly, each year, more than 300 children under 5 years old drown in residential swimming pools - often pools belonging to their own family. More than 2,000 children the same age are treated in hospital emergency rooms for pool-related injuries.

Here are common sense safety tips to help keep your family safe around the swimming pool:

• Learn CPR and make sure babysitters and older siblings have CPR training.


• Do not allow children to swim without supervision, even if they have attended swimming lessons.


• If a child is missing, check the pool first. Seconds count in preventing death or disability.


• Install a fence or barrier around your pool. The fence should be at least 4 feet high and have a self-closing, self-latching gate.


• If the fence is chain link, then no part of the diamond-shaped opening should be larger than 1-3/4 inches.


• Install a pool alarm to alert an adult when someone enters the pool area unauthorized. A key pad switch alarm allows adults to pass through without setting off the alarm.


• Keep rescue equipment and a phone with emergency numbers by the pool.


• If there are multiple adults at the pool, designate one person the pool-watcher to avoid distractions.


• Ladders leading from the pool to the ground or to a pool deck should be locked or removed when the pool is out of use.


• Remove toys that may attract children from in and around the pool when they are not in use.

Continue reading "Be Safe in Massachusetts Pools This Summer" »

Just weeks after a massive children's crib recall, a portable playard tent linked to a young boy's fatal strangulation has been pulled for safety.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and Health Canada, in cooperation with Tots in Mind Inc. of Salem, New Hampshire, has announced the voluntary recall of 20,000 Cozy Indoor Outdoor Portable Playard Tents Plus Cabana Kits. An additional 85 tents were recalled in Canada.

The tent is a white dome-shaped covering designed to fit over playards that contain a child. In December 2008, a two-year-old boy from Vinalhaven, Maine died when he climbed out of the playard. He was found hanging with his neck entrapped between the playard frame and the metal base rod of the tent. In this case, the tent had been tied to the playard with pieces of nylon rope and partially attached with the tent's clips because the child knew how to remove the clips.

In three other incidents, children removed the clips on the tent and were able to place their necks between the tent and the playard. The children were not injured.

The unsafe cribs were made in China and sold at Walmart, Amazon and various baby stores from January 2005 to February 2010.

Consumers should immediately stop using the playard tents. They can contact Tots in Mind to get free replacement clips. Replacement clips will be available in late August or early September.

This is the second major product safety recall affecting parents and children in recent weeks. In June, the CPSC recalled two million cribs because of an unsafe drop-side rail, which created a gap where a baby's head could become trapped. Government officials say this could lead to suffocation or strangulation.

The companies involved in the recall include Evenflow, Delta Enterprises Corp., Child Craft, Jardine Enterprises, LaJobi, Million Dollar Baby and Simmons Juvenile Products Inc.

Continue reading "Product Safety Recall: Baby Tents Pose Strangulation Risk" »

Massachusetts and several other states have been awarded $25 million in patient safety grants from the Department of Health and Human Services. The funds will be used to implement medical care reform and establish plans for reducing future errors.

The funding is part of a patient safety and medical liability initiative announced by President Barack Obama in September 2009.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health received funding to involve clinicians, patients, medical malpractice insurers and state officials in a discussion about medical errors and malpractice. The goal is to improve efficiency in all aspects of medical care and reduce medical errors resulting in severe personal injury and death.

The grants were awarded in two categories. Three-year awards of up to $3 million will allow states and health systems to implement and evaluate patient safety and medical liability demonstrations. One-year grants of up to $300,000 are for states and health systems to establish a plan for reviewing patient safety in the future.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said: "This new research is the largest government investment connecting medical liability to quality and aims to improve the overall quality of health care."

The Boston medical malpractice lawyers at Breakstone, White & Gluck view this grant as a critical move in improving medical care. Each year, 195,000 people die as a result of preventable medical errors and even more sustain life-altering personal injuries.

Continue reading "Massachusetts Patient Safety Grants Target Medical Liability" »

Massachusetts has banned the commercial use and sale of lacquer sealer, a highly flammable wood floor finishing product linked to deadly home fires.

Gov. Deval Patrick signed the safety bill into law this week. The bill had strong support from MassCOSH (the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health), which convened a Floor Finishing Safety Task Force to investigate the problem.

The task force was convened after a 2004 house fire in Somerville claimed the lives of two Vietnamese floor sanders and burned their co-workers. Shortly after, a Vietnamese flooring contractor died in a Hull house fire. Both fires involved the use of lacquer sealer used in floor finishing.

"This groundbreaking law will save lives and end floor finishing fires that have caused so much pain and destruction," said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, executive director of MassCOSH. "We owe a great deal of thanks to the Governor and Legislature for recognizing these grave dangers and taking action to protect workers and residents."

Following the three fatal fires, the Floor Finishing Safety Task Force issued a 2005 report stating Boston had seen 25 fires involving lacquer sealer over the 10 previous years and Needham had seen two in the prior year that threatened worker safety.

In the 2005 report, the task force recommended the state promote use of non-flammable water-based finishers to protect Massachusetts worker safety and prevent worker deaths.

The task force observed the problem of flammable lacquer sealer was targeting Massachusetts' Vietnamese community, which has a large concentration of workers in the floor finishing industry.

The bill proposing the ban was jointly filed by state Rep. Martin Walsh and Sen. Patricia Jehlen.

Breakstone, White & Gluck of Boston is a supporter of MassCOSH and its work to protect Massachusetts construction workers and other employees.

To learn more, visit the MassCOSH website.

Continue reading "Massachusetts Law Bans Highly-Flammable Floor Sealer" »

Toyota recalled 270,000 Lexus and Crown vehicles sold around the world this week due to possible contamination during valve spring manufacturing. The company has now recalled more than 8.5 million vehicles for sticking gas pedals, anti-lock brake software glitches and a host of other safety problems.

Massachusetts Lexus owners impacted by the motor vehicle recall will receive official notice from Toyota by first-class mail. Owners will be asked to contact their local Lexus dealer to have the engine's valve spring replaced at no charge.

Toyota said a foreign substance involved in manufacturing may have contaminated a small number of the valves. If a vehicle is defective, drivers may notice idling or abnormal engine noise. The engine could also stop while the vehicle is in operation.

Of the 270,000 recalled vehicles, 138,000 were sold in the United States, 91,903 in Japan, 15,000 in Europe, 10,000 in the Middle East, 6,000 in China and 4,000 in Canada.

The vehicles were sold between July 2005 and August 2008. They include Lexus models GS350, GS450h, GS460, IS350, LS460, LS600h, LS600hl and Crown models.

This Lexus recall comes just days after Toyota recalled another Lexus model - the Lexus HS250h - because it spilled too much gasoline during crash tests. The tests were part of yearly safety reviews by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

In May, Toyota paid a record $16.4 million fine in the United States for responding too slowly when motor vehicle safety problems emerged. The fine was the largest civil penalty ever assessed against an auto maker by the NHTSA.

The NHTSA has linked 89 motor vehicle deaths and 57 injuries over the last decade to Toyota accelerator problems. Overall, it has received more than 6,200 complaints involving unintended acceleration in Toyota's cars.

Toyota faces more than 200 lawsuits in the United States. The cases involve defective automobiles, lower resale value of Toyota vehicles and stock price declines. The lawsuits, including 130 class-action lawsuits, are being heard in Southern California, near Toyota's Torrance headquarters.

Continue reading "Toyota Recalls Lexus Models: What to Do if You're a Lexus Owner" »

The recent news that more than 200 EMTs in Massachusetts fraudulently obtained re-certification revealed serious safety lapses in the system. We applaud the state's swift move to suspend the EMT licenses and call on the Department of Public Health (DPH) to closely monitor future re-certifications.

An anonymous caller tipped off DPH officials to the EMT scandal when she reported an EMT-paramedic for a private ambulance company had received re-certification without attending the required classes. When state officials investigated, they learned the fraud ran much deeper, touching more than 200 EMTs throughout the state.

The impacted fire departments include Haverhill, Boston, Lexington and Belmont among others. Haverhill had 30 EMT licenses suspended while Boston had 21.

The abuse was most rampant among private ambulance companies. Armstrong Ambulance of Arlington had 41 EMTs working with fraudulent certification while Trinity EMS had 35 EMTs and Cataldo Ambulance of Melrose had 46 EMTs, according to media reports. For Cataldo, the majority of the involved EMTs came from the company's Atlantic Ambulance Service division on the North Shore.

The state suspended most of the EMT licenses for 90 days to nine months. Lexington firefighter Mark Culleton and former Trinity Ambulance paramedic Leo Nault, the instructors involved in the fraud, have been permanently banned from practicing in Massachusetts.

Emergency medical technicians in Massachusetts are required to undergo between 24 and 36 hours of retraining every two years. The training serves as a refresher course and updates EMTs on new medications, techniques and equipment.

"This ongoing training is critical for EMTs because they are called upon to make life and death medical decisions in the field," said Boston medical malpractice lawyer Marc Breakstone. "The Department of Public Health must maintain a zero tolerance policy towards any fraud or misrepresentation regarding the training and qualifications of the front-line medical providers."

In 2001, Breakstone negotiated a $10.2 million settlement for a Massachusetts family whose toddler was left severely brain-damaged by paramedic negligence. There were significant delays in the care. The ambulance crew got lost on the way to the home, forgot the keys to their medical cabinet and later falsified records in an attempt to hide the medical negligence. As a result of that case, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health established guidelines that made reporting of serious medical errors by EMTs mandatory.

For more information, see these articles from The Boston Globe: "Phone Tip Led to EMT Card Scam" and "State Officials Examining EMT Retraining System"

Continue reading "Massachusetts' Zero Tolerance Policy in EMT Scandal Critical for Safety" »

Welcome news today as the Massachusetts Legislature has finally agreed on a new law that will make it illegal to text while driving. Once the bill is signed by the Governor, Massachusetts will be in line with twenty-eight other states that have already outlawed text messaging while driving.

This law comes in the wake of several tragic text message-based accidents. In May 2009, 62 people suffered personal injury after a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority trolley collided with another trolley because the driver was texting his girlfriend. In September 2008, a California commuter train engineer missed a stop signal while trading texts with a friend, leading to a train accident resulting in the wrongful death of 25 people. In addition, there have been several high profile motor vehicle wrongful death cases in recent memory which were caused by inattentive drivers who were texting as they drove.

The law has several other public safety improvements. The new law will require that older drivers renew their licenses in person and take an eye exam every five years beginning at age 75. Older drivers were involved in several serious car accidents in 2009 in Massachusetts. Further, the law will forbid anyone under the age of 18 from using a cell phone while driving.

Boston personal injury attorney David White said of the new law, "Distracted driving is a serious safety problem. The use of cell phones and text messaging are two of the biggest distractions for drivers. These new provisions will vastly increase the safety of Massachusetts roadways."

A recent study found that texting while driving makes a person twenty times more likely to get into a car crash or near-crash. The problem is most severe for inexperienced drivers. It is hoped that this new law will raise awareness to this growing epidemic of serious personal injuries caused by careless texting motorists.

 For more information

Boston Globe

Virgina Tech Transportation Institute Research Project

Continue reading "Massachusetts Law Will Ban Text Messaging While Driving" »

It's important to know who's providing your medical treatment and their safety record, but many Massachusetts health care consumers fail to ask the question.

The good news is the information is just a few keystrokes away. The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine offers Massachusetts consumers the Physician's Profile database right online.

Click here to learn more about what you'll find on the Massachusetts physician database and for a link to the site.

Continue reading "Know Your Doctor's Safety Record" »

It's summer and that means it's time to enjoy the pool - and think safety. Each year, thousands of children are injured in drownings and hundreds lose their lives. So enjoy your backyard or community pool this summer, but commit to protecting your children and family.

Keep these safety tips in mind:

• Supervise children at all times. If you're in a group, it's easy to get distracted so consider designating someone a "pool watcher."
• Learn how to swim and teach your children.
• Get CPR training.
• Keep a phone with you at the pool.
• Make sure you have proper rescue equipment and keep it nearby.
• Keep your pool inside a fence at least four-feet tall and secure it with a durable lock when not in use.
• Remember small children can drown in kiddie pools and watch them accordingly.
• Check your pool's drains. Suction from a pool's drain can be powerful enough to trap both children and adults underwater. Do not use any pool or spa with broken or missing drain covers. At community pools, ask the operator if the pool complies with the Pool and Spa Safety Act.

Why it's important:

• Pools were involved in the overwhelming majority of emergency room visits for drownings and submersion injuries from 2006 to 2008 across the country. They accounted for the majority of reported drowning fatalities from 2004 to 2006.
• From 2006 to 2008, there were on average 3,100 pool and spa related emergency department visits nationwide involving drowning injuries.
• Children ages one and two accounted for 62 percent of drowning injuries from 2006 to 2008 nationwide.

For more information on pool safety, visit www.poolsafety.gov.

The statistics from this article come from the Consumer Product Safety Commission and is available here.

Continue reading "Thinking Pool Safety Saves Lives" »

A new federal study found many same-day surgery centers have serious problems with infection control procedures.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention visited 68 centers in Maryland, North Carolina and Oklahoma and found 67 percent of the centers had at least one lapse in infection control. Some 57 percent were cited for deficiencies. The patient safety lapses included failure to wash hands, wear gloves and clean blood glucose meters. Clinics also reused medical devices meant for one person. The study did not examine if the lapses led to patient infections.

The study, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week, comes as the nation's 5,000-plus outpatient centers perform more than 6 million procedures and collect $3 billion from Medicare each year.

"This study should be a wake up call to physicians performing relatively minor surgical procedures at walk-in clinics," according to Boston attorney Marc L. Breakstone. "All surgeons must have zero tolerance for lax infection control procedures, which can expose patients to life-threatening infections." According to Breakstone, the risks of serious injury to patients from staph and hepatitis infections are as great in the small center as in the large hospital setting.

The study was prompted by a hepatitis C outbreak in Las Vegas believed to be caused by unsafe injection practices at two clinics. The clinics have been closed.

For more information, read this Boston Globe article about infection control problems at US same-day surgery centers.

Continue reading "Patient Safety Falls Short at Same-Day Surgery Centers, Study Finds" »

If you're a bicyclist, you know safety's first. Knowing the rules of the road and riding defensively are the best ways to protect yourself from harm. But you must also think finances in case of personal injury. Between lost wages and medical costs, the bills can add up fast. Even if a motorist's involved, their car insurance may not cover all your expenses.

There's good news. You can protect yourself financially in a bike accident with a few changes to your own car insurance. The two smartest things a cyclist can do are:

• Purchase adequate amounts of Underinsured and Uninsured Motorist coverage


• Purchase adequate Medical Payments coverage

These coverages are affordable. In fact, you can access up to $100,000 of Medical Payments coverage for just $71! Read on as Boston personal injury lawyer David White shares his advice to cyclists for keeping safe and protecting their wallets.

Click here for full article.

Continue reading "Massachusetts Bicyclists Can Protect Themselves With Car Insurance" »

Maytag Corp. has recalled 1.7 million dishwashers across the United States, citing an electrical failure.The company, which is owned by Whirlpool Corp., issued the recall last week after 12 reports of electrical problems which pose a fire hazard.

Maytag recalled its Maytag, Amana, Jenn-Air, Admiral, Magic Chef, Performa by Maytag and Crosley brand dishwashers with plastic tubs and certain serial numbers. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and Maytag officials say the electrical failures caused by the defective products have caused property damage.

"Product safety is a major concern here because we use our dishwashers daily," said Boston product liability lawyer Marc L. Breakstone. "We advise consumers to immediately stop using the dishwashers and to have them repaired or to replace them as soon as possible."

The 12 electrical failure reports included one case of extensive kitchen damage. No injuries have been reported in Massachusetts or other states.

The CPSC advised consumers to immediately stop using the recalled dishwashers and disconnect the electrical supply by shutting off the circuit breaker or pulling the fuse.

Consumers can obtain free in-home repair of the recalled Maytag dishwashers or a $150 to $250 rebate toward a new model. The Maytag dishwasher recall impacts models priced $250 to $900.

If you suspect your dishwasher's involved in the product safety recall, click here for the full list of serial numbers and for how to obtain a refund or repair.

Continue reading "Product Safety Alert: Maytag Recalls 1.7 Million Dishwashers" »

As Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month draws to a close, we ask both motorcyclists and automobile drivers to take a moment to think safety this summer.

Motorcycling continues to grow in popularity in Massachusetts and around the country, and so do fatal crashes between cars and motorcycles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports in 2008, motorcyclist fatalities increased for the 11th consecutive year. Some 5,290 motorcyclists lost their lives in fatal highway crashes. Almost 50 percent of all motorcyclists involved in fatal crashes collided with other motor vehicles. Over 90 percent of all fatal two-vehicle crashes involving a motorcycle and a passenger vehicle occurred on non-interstate roadways. About half of all fatal crashes between a motorcycle and a passenger vehicle occurred at intersections. Often the driver of the car or truck involved in the accident simply failed to observe the motorcyclist.

Here are some motorcycle safety tips:

• Wear a helmet. NHTSA statistics show you have a 29 percent better chance of surviving a crash than without a helmet.


• If you're concerned helmets interfere with your ability to see and hear on the road, read this NHTSA study. It found helmets caused no substantial impact: drivers wearing helmets had to turn their necks only slightly farther at times and there was no significant difference in hearing.


• Remember to turn off your flash signal if it's not self-canceling.


• Make sure you're experienced enough to ride with a passenger. It changes the way the bike handles and requires more skill.


• Take turns slower than you think is necessary.

Here's a few tips for passenger vehicle and truck drivers:

• Never drive while distracted.


• Remember a motorcycle has the same rights as any other vehicle on the road.


• Do not attempt to share a lane with a motorcyclists. Allow the motorcyclist a full lane width to maneuver safely to avoid motorcycle crashes.
  


• Remember to use your signals to change lanes or merge with traffic. Motorcyclists depend on those signals even more than other drivers.


• Check your vehicle's blind spot! Motorcyclists are even easier to miss due to their small size.


• Don't rely on a motorcycle's flashing turn signal. They may not be self-canceling and riders sometimes forget to turn them off or can't do so immediately due to road conditions. Wait to make sure the motorcyclist is really going to turn to avoid motorcycle collisions.
  


• Remember motorcyclists often change speed or adjust position within a lane suddenly in response to road and traffic conditions. Allow the motorcyclist extra room - at least three or four seconds.

Continue reading "Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month Time for All Road Users to Think Safety" »

The Food and Drug Administration is urging parents to choose generic children's medications over Tylenol as it broadens its investigation into manufacturing facilities operated by Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary, McNeil Consumer Healthcare.

New product safety concerns have arisen in the weeks after an April 30 recall involving McNeil's Fort Washington facility in Pennsylvania, prompting the FDA to start investigating other manufacturing sites. McNeil recalled 43 over-the-counter children's medicines it manufactures for Johnson & Johnson, including various flavors of liquid Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl and Zyrtec. The FDA has not said how many facilities are being investigated.

McNeil Consumer Healthcare issued the April 30 recall voluntarily in consultation with the FDA. In a visit to McNeil's Fort Washington facility, FDA officials uncovered inconsistent active ingredient concentrations, extremely potent metal particles in some medicines, an inadequate testing facility, poorly trained employees and drums of raw materials contaminated with bacteria.The full inspection report is available here. 
 
Meanwhile, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is scheduled on Thursday, May 27, 2010 to hold a hearing on the recent Tylenol recalls and whether McNeil properly handled consumer complaints.  In a recent Fortune Magazine interview, Johnson & Johnson Chief Executive William Weldon admitted that his company owed an apology.  Mr. Weldon has been invited to testify at the May 27 hearing.

The Pennsylvania facility has since been shut down but may resume operation once, according to Johnson & Johnson spokesman James Freeman, "we have taken the necessary corrective actions and can assure the quality of products made there".  

Tylenol has been involved in other product safety recalls in recent years. In 2008, McNeil recalled 51 types of Tylenol after consumer complaints of diarrhea, vomiting and other illness. The company said the medications - mostly all for children and infants - had been contaminated by trace amounts of a chemical used in shipping.

In 2008, McNeil recalled 21 types of children's and infants' Tylenol liquid products, saying an active ingredient did not meet all quality standards.

For additional information on the Johnson & Johnson recalls, see the FDA's website.

Continue reading "FDA Issues Tylenol Safety Warning" »

Commuters across the state have been pedaling their way to work, the grocery store and other destinations all week as part of Bay State Bike Week and the Mass Commuter Challenge.

Commuters pledged to step out of their cars from May 17-21 and pedal 175,000 miles to workplaces from Worcester to Boston to Plymouth and across the rest of Massachusetts.

The challenge was organized to promote a healthy, non-polluting and sustainable means of transportation. Breakstone, White & Gluck supports this mission but hopes the Mass Commuter Challenge also highlights another important point: that as more bicycles take to the road, drivers and bicyclists must be more aware of each other for safety's sake.

There are far too many bicycle accidents taking place on the roads today. In 2008, 716 bicyclists were killed across the country and an additional 52,000 were injured in traffic crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The NHTSA numbers show that 69 percent of bicycle accidents occured in urban areas and 28 percent of accidents occured between the hours of 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. The majority of the accidents occured in June (9 percent) and September (12 percent).

What Drivers Can Do to Improve Safety
The laws have changed significantly in the last year. Drivers have many more responsibilities to avoid injuring bicyclists. The first step is to be aware that you need to check twice for a cyclist. When overtaking cyclists, you cannot turn right unless there is adequate room, and you must yield to on-coming cyclists when turning left. When passing, you must do so at a safe distance. And remember to pay attention even after you turn off your motor vehicle's engine. Under Massachusetts bike safety laws, motorists and their passengers can be fined up to $100 for opening car and truck doors in the path of a bicyclist.

A final tip: Put down that cell phone and concentrate on the road!

What Bicyclists Can Do to Improve Safety
Bicyclists can remember that bright colored reflective clothing and helmets save lives. Massachusetts only requires individuals age 1 to 16 to wear helmets, but we advise adults to wear them as well to avoid head injuries. Cyclists must obey the same rules as automobiles when on pubic ways. One of the biggest causes of accidents to cyclists: traveling the wrong way on a one-way street.

For more information about events in Boston and the Springfield area, visit www.masscommuterchallenge.org or www.massbike.org.

Continue reading "Mass Commuter Challenge and Bay State Bike Week Remind Us to Pay Attention on Roads" »