Personal Injury

Children At Psychiatric Hospital in Washington D.C. Might Be In Danger of Injury and Abuse

July 27, 2007 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

University Legal Services, Inc., an advocacy group for Washington D.C. children that have developmental disabilities, say that children at Riverside Hospital are in danger of “serious and persistent abuse and neglect.” City mental health officials will now begin to visit the hospital on a weekly basis to monitor the conditions there. Riverside Hospital treats youths up to 21 years of age.

The advocacy group’s report recounts incidents of physical violence (punching, slapping, choking, pushing) and verbal abuse by staff members and the use of physical restraints and seclusion to control patients’ behavior. Not enough supervision allegedly allowed teens to hurt themselves, steal bottles of medicine, and attack other patients. Treatment plans were supposedly not followed and living conditions at the facility were allegedly unsanitary and unhealthy.

Last December, one teen resident died at the hospital. The Department of Mental Health says the female teenager became ill last November and was sent to Georgetown University Hospital where she was placed on a ventilator. She was then taken by air to Inova Fairfax Hospital for cardiac surgery. She died the following month.

The department says that the hospital failed to order basic tests, document the teenager’s vital signs, tell a doctor that her condition was getting worse, or note down that she had a family history of heart disease.

Riverside hospital is a private, for-profit hospital.

When a person is seriously injured while staying at a hospital because of negligence on the part of any staff members, he or she may be eligible to file a personal injury claim or a medical malpractice lawsuit.

Doctors, nurses, and medical staff members are required by law to provide proper care to their patients—medically, emotionally and psychologically. If that care is abused or not properly given, the negligent party could be sued for negligence or malpractice—depending on the type of abuse or neglect that occurred.

Some causes for a personal injury lawsuit can include:

• Nursing home abuse
• Negligence
• Physical abuse
• Verbal abuse
• Neglect
• Sexual abuse
• Rape
• Financial abuse
• Wrongful diagnosis
• Failure to diagnose
• Failure to administer proper care
• Physician error
• Surgical error
Youth Hospital Faulted For Abuse, Washington Post, July 26, 2007

Related Web Resources:

Department of Mental Health, Washington D.C.

Riverside Hospital, Washington D.C., Hospital Data
University Legal Services

Two Fireworks Crew Members Injured In Washington D.C.’s National Mall After Forth of July Fireworks Show

July 6, 2007 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Authorities say that two people were injured in Washington D.C. on Wednesday when fireworks that had been leftover from the big show on the National Mall went off. The injured persons are fireworks crew members. One of them was treated at the accident scene while the other worker has serious burn injuries.

In Vienna, Virgina, a D.C. suburb, seven people were hurt during the community’s fireworks exhibit. Five of the injured persons were children. Some of the fireworks had gone off and hit crowd members at an elementary school. The Fairfax County Fire Department says two of the victims sustained serious injuries.

In 2005, according to the National Fire Protection Association:

• U.S. hospital E.R’s treated 10,800 fireworks-related injuries
• Children ages 10 to 14 had the highest injury rates
• 19 out of 20 injuries were related to fireworks that consumers are legally allowed to use
• Fireworks is an extremely high-risk consumer product

The CDC’s Web site offers the following information about Fireworks-Related Injuries:

About 60% of all fireworks-related injuries in 2005 occurred between June 18 and July 18. During that time period:

• Fireworks-related injuries most frequently involved hands and fingers (31%), eyes (25%), and the head and face (20%) (Greene & Joholske 2006).

• More than half of the injuries were burns. Burns were the most common injury to all body parts except the eyes. In the eyes, contusions, lacerations and foreign bodies occurred more frequently (Greene & Joholske 2006).

• Fireworks can be associated with serious injuries such as blindness, third degree burns, and permanent scarring (Smith et al. 1996).

• Fireworks also cause life-threatening residential and motor vehicle fires (Greene & Joholske 2006).

• Between June 18 and July 18, 2005, Firecrackers (26%), sparklers (17%), and rockets (17%) accounted for most of the injuries seen in emergency departments (Greene & Joholske 2006).

• Sparklers were associated with more than half of the estimated injuries for children under five (Greene & Joholske 2006).

• Between 2000-2005, more than one third of the fireworks-related deaths involved professional devices that were illegally sold to consumers (CPSC 2006a).

If you or someone you love has injuries related to fireworks because another party acted negligently or carelessly, do not hesitate to call a personal injury law firm immediately.

Fireworks injuries in DC and suburbs, July 5, 2007
Fireworks, National Fire Protection Association
Fireworks-Related Injuries, Centers for Disease Control

Related Web Resources:

National Fire Protection Association

Recent Subway Accidents In D.C. Show An Aging Metro System

February 2, 2007 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A series of DC Metro subway accidents in the past year, including a subway derailment in downtown D.C. in early January that put 20 people in the hospital and left 60 people stranded in a tunnel, is causing federal safety officials to examine the country’s second busiest urban rail system.

In another Metro-related accident last year, two track workers were killed after being hit by a train. Two workers were also struck and killed by trains in May 2006 and October 2005. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the latest three accidents.

The DC Metro system, which began operating over 30 years ago, has close to 1,000 rail cars that travel through a more than 100-mile route, taking almost 700,000 people to jobs, their homes, meetings, and tourist sites.

Because of the recent accidental deaths among train workers, track workers are now only allowed to inspect the metro rails between 10 a.m. and 3.pm., when fewer trains are running. Trains are also being ordered to slow down to under 20mph as they approach track workers and cannot pass them unless the workers give them the signal to do so.

Some causes of train-related deaths and injuries:

· Train derailments
· Train crashes
· Faulty equipment
· Walking too close to the train tracks
· Work-related errors

Examples of train injuries: burn injuries, internal injuries, spinal cord injuries, and broken bones, brain injuries, and other injuries that are associated with motor vehicle-related accidents.

The personal injury law firm of Lebowitz and Mzhen represents clients who have been injured in accidents due to someone else’s negligence. We represent clients injured in motor vehicle accidents, boating accidents, products liability cases, medical malpractice cases, and other types of personal injury cases.

On “Deadliest Drunk Driving States” List, Washington D.C. Ranks #1

December 15, 2006 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

With all the holiday parties that take place at the end of the year, drunk driving incidents tend to occur more frequently—which can be especially dangerous if you live in one of the 15 U.S. states where at least 41% of all traffic fatalities can be attributed to drunk driving.

The End Needless Deaths on Our Roadways (END) group, an advocacy organization led by doctors, has just released its list of 15 U.S. states where the most traffic-related deaths occurred due to drinking. Washington D.C. topped this list, where drunk driving was a cause of 54.17% of vehicle-related deaths.

Who Else Made the List:
· Connecticut
· Hawaii
· Illinois
· Montana
· Rhode Island
· South Carolina
· South Dakota
· Texas
· Washington, D.C.
· Wisconsin
· Alaska
· Arizona
· Delaware
· North Dakota
· Washington

END says that in 2005, close to 17,000 motorists were killed in drunk driving accidents in the US with more than 4,000 of those fatalities taking place in these 15 states. Rankings were determined by data taken from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s reporting system.

The CDC offers the following suggestions to prevent injuries due to impaired driving:

· Sobriety checkpoints. Fatal crashes thought to involve alcohol dropped a median of 22% (with random breath testing) and 23% (with selective breath testing) following implementation of sobriety checkpoints.

· 0.08% BAC laws. Fatal alcohol-related crashes showed a median decrease of 7% following the implementation of 0.08% BAC laws in 16 states.

· Minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) laws. Raising the MLDA, such as from 18 to 21, decreases crash-related outcomes a median of 16% for the targeted age groups.

· “Zero tolerance” laws for young drivers. One study found that fatal crash outcomes decreased 24% after implementation of “zero tolerance” laws (Elder et al. 2002, Howat et al. 2004, Shults et al. 2001, Shults et al. 2002).

END is recommending that medical workers and physicians work harder to identify whether patients have drinking problems. The group also suggested that states increase fines and prison times for DUI offenders, while also penalizing motorists who refuse to be tested for sobriety.

Utah, which has the strictest drinking laws in the U.S., has the lowest alcohol-related deaths rate at 13.12%.