Central New York Injury Lawyer Blog

Can New York Hospitals Be Shamed Into Preventing Hospital Medical Malpractice?

September 2, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

The Syracuse Post Standard reports today that the “central line” blood stream infection rate at the surgical intensive care unit of Upstate University Hospital fell to zero last year only a year after it had one of the highest infection rates in the State (8.3%). A “central line” is a tube or catheter inserted in a vein to draw blood or deliver fluids and medications to a patient. Infection can occur when bacteria travel down the tube or catheter and enter the blood stream.

The cause of the decline in the infections? The Hospital initiated an infection prevention program. The new program consisted of a checklist of steps aimed at avoiding infections, ultrasound machines to help place catheters more accurately, and a computer software program that reported daily on infections and their sources.

What spurred Upstate into initiating the aggressive infection prevention program? Its embarrassingly high infection rate in 2008, one of the worst in the State!

Yates County NY Motorcycle – Car Collision Injuring Child Reminds Bikers To Use Defensive Biking Techniques

August 31, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

The Geneva Finger Lakes Times reports that an 11 year-old Dundee girl, a passenger on her father’s motorcycle, suffered a leg injury Friday when an oncoming car turned left in front of it in an attempt to enter a driveway off of Dundee-Starkey Road in the Town of Starkey, Yates County, New York. The motorist was ticketed for failure to yield the right-of-way to the oncoming motorcycle. The child was taken by Mercy-Flight to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York.

How sad that such a young child has to have such an injury, and through no fault of her own. We hope that it is not too serious, but the fact that she was airlifted to Rochester is not a good sign.

I can tell you from my experience as a Central New York motorcycle accident lawyer that this failure-to-yield car/motorcycle collision is very, very common. I bet the driver of the car never “saw” the motorcycle. One of the big dangers of riding bikes is that other motorists just don’t “see” you, even with your lights on! So they cut you off, violate your right of way, and sometimes injury or kill you.

NY Boating Accident Lawyer: Oswego Boating Accident Case Demonstrates That Drinking and Boat Operating Don’t Mix

August 30, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

This Central New York Boating season (one of the best in recent history!) is drawing to an end, but not without more Central New York boating accidents. The most recent Central New York boat crash involved three boaters who were injured when their boat crashed into the Oswego Harbor breakwater, near the Oswego Lighthouse Saturday at 7:00 p.m. Although the damage done to the boat and to the wall indicates a high rate of speed, miraculously the worst injury appears to be a broken arm. All three boaters were taken to Oswego Hospital.

Police investigators believe alcohol consumption played a role in the crash. From my experience as a New York boating accident lawyer, I can tell you this is not unusual. Statistics bear me out: U.S. Coast Guard records indicate that MOST recreational boating fatalities involve alcohol! The same statistics indicate that a boat operator with blood alcohol level above .10 is ten times more likely to be killed in a boating accident than a boater who has consumed no alcohol. Experts say that the mixture of sun, wind, boat motion, wind and noise amplifies the effects of alcohol. To make matters worse, for some reason people who would never drink while driving a car feel it is perfectly fine to drink, and even drink heavily, while boating.

Boating deaths are second only to car accident deaths in transportation-related fatalities in the United States. More people die in boating accidents than die in airplane, train wrecks, or bus accidents.

Syracuse Firefighter’s Line-Of-Duty Accident Demonstrates Special Rights Firefighters and Police Officers Have In Personal Injury Claims

August 29, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

I read in the Syracuse Post Standard today a story about a Syracuse firefighter who fell into a 12-foot shaft while searching a smoke-filled, burning building on James Street yesterday. The firefighter had opened a door he assumed would lead to a stairwell, took a step in, and — well he was wrong — it did not lead to stairs, but rather to a shaft for a “wheelchair lift”. He plunged to the floor 12 feet down and got injured.

Reading this story reminded me of the special rights New York firefighters and police officers have to bring New York personal injury claims against building owners who fail to follow building codes and other statutes and regulations. New York’s General Municipal Law (GML) section 205-a (for firefighters) and 205-e (for police officers) basically say that if the officer or firefighter is injured on the job because a statute or regulation (usually a building or fire code) was violated, he or she can bring a claim against the building owner.

What makes GML 205-a and 205-e so special is that the building or homeowner who violated the regulation or statute can’t use the defense of “comparative negligence” against firefighters or police officers in court. This means that even if the firefighter or police officer was partly at fault for the accident, he or she still gets 100% compensation for his or her injuries, medical expenses, lost wages, etc., from the code-violating building owner, with no reduction at all for his or her own comparative fault. All the officer or firefighter has to show is that the building owner was negligent in violating the building or fire code, and that this violation was at least “indirectly” a cause of the injuries he or she suffered.

Syracuse Medical Malpractice Claims May Be Reduced By New Welch Allyn Invention

August 28, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

Syracuse New York medical malpractice, like medical malpractice everywhere, is by definition avoidable. And any new medical procedure or device that helps avoid such errors is a godsend — especially to the patient who, thanks to the new procedure or device, avoids becoming one of the many victims of medical malpractice.

A new Syracuse-area invention may pave the way for a significant reduction in Syracuse medical malpractice claims, and eventually medical malpractice claims elsewhere. The Syracuse Post Standard reports that Welch Allyn, a Skaneateles-based manufacturer of medical equipment, has brought to market its “electronic vitals documentation system”, which does the work of three machines, by recording (1) oxygen levels, (2) temperature and (3) blood pressure. These vital signs are then automatically stored into the device’s computer, where they can be instantly viewed by other medical personnel from their Blackberries or computers.

This machine avoids the possibility of human error because no one has to handwrite or type the vital signs — the machine automatically records them. Currently, many medical errors occur when nurses or medical professionals handwrite the vitals data incorrectly (or illegibly) on a piece of paper, and then later type the wrong numbers into the computer. Such errors can lead to serious consequences for the patient, including death.

Syracuse Fall-Off-Scaffold With Back Injury Case Settles For $1,000,000.

August 24, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

I just settled a Syracuse New York workplace injury case today for $1,000,000. It was a fair settlement. Because of some Labor Law violations, my client fell off a scaffold at a construction project in Syracuse. He landed on his feet, and his lower back suffered what is known in the medical community as a “spondylolysis” (a small fracture in the pars of the vertebrae) which later developed into a “spondylolystheisis” (the small fractures caused one of the discs to slide relative to the disc below, narrowing the spinal canal, and causing impingement).

Like I said, the settlement was fair. We used a mediator in Rochester. It took just about all day to hammer out the settlement. But in the end my clients were happy with it.

The case was scheduled for an Onondaga County personal injury jury trial in just a little over two weeks. For me that means that I was already prepared to try the case. I knew the case backward and forwards, and had my arguments all set to present to the jury.

There’s Hope for New York Cyclists and Pedestrians Injured By Unleashed Dogs: Some Insurance Adjusters Don’t Understand New York Dog Law

August 23, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

My last Central New York injury law blog was about New York dog law and how it has no “teeth”. It doesn’t protect innocent bicyclists, pedestrians and runners from dog bites and dog attacks because it does not make dog owners pay for injuries their dogs inflict when they violated leash laws. I explained how in New York, unlike in other states, a dog owner is not liable for the injuries his dog causes to pedestrians, bikers, runners and others merely because he violated a leash law and allowed his dog to roam unrestrained. In New York this is not enough. You have to show that the dog owner knew or should have known of the dog’s vicious tendencies, or of its tendency to run out after pedestrians, runners or bicyclists. This is sometimes hard to prove, because the dog owner will invariably deny that his dog ever did this before.

But, as usual after I publish a blog, I had a “I should-have-said” moment. In this case, I should have added an anecdote about a case I had a few years ago where the dog owner’s insurance adjuster (with whom I was negotiating behalf of my client) did not know this rule. He, like many people, assumed that a dog owner would be liable for injuries caused by a dog when the dog owner disobeyed a leash law, thus allowing the dog the opportunity to attack a bicyclist, runner or pedestrian.

I settled the case with him and got my client a fair settlement, even though I knew I was able to do so only because the adjuster was ignorant about the law. Did I feel bad about that? Absolutely not; my client deserved the compensation, I did not deceive the insurance company about the law, rather, its adjuster was just too lazy to look it up, and the law in New York is so unjust that this “error” on the part of the insurance adjuster actually worked a justice.

Is a Dog Owner Who Violates a New York Leash Law Liable For Injuries Suffered in a New York Dog-on-Bicyclist or Dog-on-Pedestrian Attack?

August 21, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

I hate dogs. At least when I am on a bike or out running. I have a dog (“Pisca”), but she is not like those dogs. She does not run out after bicyclists and runners. I keep her inside unless I am walking her, and then she is leashed.

Maybe my view of the world is skewed because I handle a lot Syracuse and Central New York bicycle accident cases, where I see close up how lives, damn good ones, are destroyed by unrestrained dogs.

But I am not the only one who thinks dogs should be restrained. After all, many New York State local lawmakers agree with me. They pass “leash laws”. Many dog owners apparently don’t agree with me and the lawmakers, though, because they let their dogs roam free, leash laws be damned!

“Concussions Are More Dangerous Than You Think”, Syracuse Brain Injury Lawyer Explains

August 18, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

Concussions used to be a joke. You know, all those cartoons and slap stick movies with people getting knocked out, then waking up and shaking it off as if it were nothing. Ha, ha, ha! Well, it wasn’t nothing. It’s really something.

So what exactly is a concussion? It is a temporary loss of brain function caused by a blow to the head. That’s what we used to think was the end of it. But we now know that it can lead to many long-lasting physical, cognitive and emotional symptoms.

And we are finding out more and more about the hidden damage concussions can cause. Concussions are a kind of TBI (traumatic brain injury) that can lead to life-long disabilities. Take “Lou Gehrig’s disease” (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or “ALS”) for example. Yesterday’s New York Times reported that Lou Gehrig might not have actually had the disease named after him. Rather, he might have had what doctors now understand to be a TBI which manifests itself through symptoms mimicking ALS. The Times reports that those afflicted with the disease probably were predisposed to it by genetic factors, but concussions serve as the catalyst.

Syracuse Accident Lawyer Prepares for Syracuse Construction Accident Trial

August 17, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

My last blog was about ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution), such as mediation and arbitration, which is, to a certain extent, replacing jury trials as a way to resolve personal injury lawsuits in Syracuse, Central New York, and, in fact, just about everywhere else. Here’s a recent example of how ADR works from my own case load.

I am scheduled to try a Syracuse fall-from-scaffold lawsuit in about 3 weeks. Meanwhile, the defendant’s insurance carrier has invited me to try to settle the case through “mediation” first. After I explained how this works, my client agreed to it, and we will be at the mediation table in about a week. If we don’t settle at the mediation, I will have only a few weeks to prepare my trial, which is not enough time. I really need 6 weeks! So I am already preparing my exhibits, my direct examinations, my cross-examinations, etc., in case I need to try this Syracuse construction accident lawsuit.

The case may or may not settle at mediation. Much of that depends on how reasonable the insurance carrier will be. If the case settles in mediation, I won’t feel bad about having spent so much time preparing for trial. I always learn by preparing for trial. It makes me a better lawyer.