Washington DC Injury Lawyer Blog

The US Food and Drug Administration is proposing that surgical mesh products be subject to tougher regulations. The mesh products, which are placed in the vagina to treat pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence, can cause serious injuries. In an update to its 2008 advisory warning that transvaginal mesh products can serious complication, last month the federal agency announced that these complications are not rare.

If you or someone you love has experienced bleeding, organ perforation, infection, urinary issues, and severe pain after undergoing a transvaginal mesh procedure, you may have reason for filing a Washington DC products liability case against the manufacture of the surgical mesh products. These medical devices are currently manufactured by about nine companies, including Boston Scientific Corp. and Johnson & Johnson.

Now that the FDA believes that the severity and rate of injuries related to surgical mesh to treat POP repair are serious enough to raise questions about the safety of these medical devices, the federal agency is proposing that new mesh products go through a premarket review process. This would require companies to conduct studies examining a product’s effectiveness and safety before it is approved. Right now, mesh products are subject to the 510(k) process, which is less rigorous.

According to consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, of the almost 300,000 women who underwent surgery for pelvic organ prolapse in 2010, nearly 67,500 women underwent procedures involving a mesh product that was implanted in their vaginas. From these transvaginal procedures, federal regulators received 1,503 reports of complications, such as mesh implant erosion and pelvic organ injuries. Also, surgical mesh-related complications may require a woman to undergo more surgeries, which can place her at risk of additional complications and decrease her quality of life.

Our Washington DC personal injury lawyers represent clients that have sustained injury, illness, infection, or died because the medical device they used proved unsafe, dangerous, defective, and/or worsened their condition or health.

Public Citizen calls for a ban of surgical mesh devices, NJ.com, August 25, 2011

FDA Planning Tougher Regulations For Surgical Mesh, The Wall Street Journal, August 31, 2011

Related Web Resources:
FDA

Pelvic Organ Prolapse, Web MD

Stress urinary incontinence, NIH

More Blog Posts:
Are Some Children Undergoing Unnecessary CT Scans?, Washington DC Injury Lawyer Blog, May 11, 2011

Dangerous Medical Device?: Woman Files Cold Therapy Lawsuit Against DeRoyal Industries Alleging Tissue Damage, Maryland Accident Law Blog, June 18, 2011

US Lawmakers Seek to Reinstate Right to Sue Medical Device Makers for Personal Injury and Wrongful Death, Maryland Accident Law Blog, February 19, 2009

Continue reading " Washington DC Defective Medical Device Cases: Surgical Mesh Can Cause Serious Side Effects " »

Our Washington DC personal injury law firm represents children and adults injured in motor vehicle crashes. Unfortunately, DC school bus accidents can be a cause of serious injury to kids—especially because there is no law requiring that these large vehicles be outfitted with seat belts. This means that during a school bus collision, kids on a bus don’t have anything to keep them securely tethered to their seats. As a result, head injuries, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injuries, and other debilitating injuries are more likely to occur during a crash.

The NHTSA has just turned down a petition calling for a federal law requiring that all school buses come with seat belts. The National Coalition for School Bus Safety and the Center for Auto Safety were the leaders of the petition.

According to the Washington Post, In the Federal Register NHTSA said it considered big school buses among some of the safest vehicles in the country. Their fatality rate is six times less than that of passenger cars. NHTSA also said that of the approximately 19 school kids who die annually in bus crashes, 14 are killed in school bus loading zones—compared to the five that die while on the bus. The federal agency argued that since fatalities in a school bus usually will have occurred because of impact with an object or another auto, seat belts would likely not prevent this. Cost, decrease in the number of passengers, and smaller fleets were also cited as a factor for why mandating seat belts on large school buses did not make sense.

School bus safety coalition member Arthur Yeager, however, noted that it was “hypocrisy” for NHTSA to push for seat belts in almost all other vehicles under their control but not for school buses. (Smaller school buses weighing less than 10K are required to have shoulder-lap belts for their seats.)

Regardless of whether or not a school bus is equipped with seat belts, depending on who caused the crash and the severity of your child’s injuries, you may have reason to seek damages from the school bus operator, the school, the bus manufacturer, the district, the motorist of another car that was involved, and/or the entity in charge of maintaining the road or traffic signals where the accident happened.

Feds reject request to require seat belts on school buses, Washington Post, August 25, 2011

NHTSA Turns Down Petition for Lap/Shoulder Belt Requirement on Large School Buses, School Transportation News, August 25, 2011

Related Web Resources:
Read the petition for rulemaking (PDF)

The Federal Register

Center for Auto Safety

National Coalition for School Bus Safety

More Blog Posts:
Preventing the Non-Crash Auto Deaths of Kids, Washington DC Injury Lawyer Blog, July 26, 201

Tour Bus From Washington DC Involved in Deadly Crash May Have Been Derailed by Tire Blowout, Washington DC Injury Lawyer Blog, July 18, 2011

Frederick County, School Bus Crash Involving Injuries Went Unreported, Say Maryland State Police, Maryland Accident Law Blog, October 28, 2010

Continue reading " NHTSA Rejects Petition Calling for Safety Belts on School Buses " »

According to an article published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, most doctors will face at least one medical malpractice lawsuit as a defendant by the time they turn 65. Their findings come from looking at the files of a national malpractice insurance carrier.

The five most-sued specialties, with its doctors having a 99% chance of being sued by the time they celebrate their 65th birthday, are:

• Thoracic cardiovascular surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Orthopedic surgery
• General surgery
• Plastic surgery

The odds of getting sued by the same age in the 5 least sued specialties is 75%:

• Pediatrics
• Psychiatry
• Dermatology
• Family medicine
• A category referred to as "other specialties"

Yet, according to the study, even with these odds, most plaintiffs will never receive payment in the form of a jury verdict or settlement. Only 22% of medical malpractice cases result in actual payment each year. The average payment size ranged from $117,832 for dermatology malpractice to $520,932 for pediatrician medical malpractice.

Washington DC Medical Malpractice
It goes without saying that not only do you want to make sure that you obtain a settlement or win damages for your DC medical malpractice case, but you also want to get paid. Our Washington DC personal injury law firm is familiar with the devastating consequences that can be brought by a medical mistake, as well as the financial, emotional, and physical toll that this can take on the victim and his/her family.

Our DC medical malpractice lawyers are experienced in determining what happened and who did what, and we know how to pursue your recovery from all liable parties. Whether you are the victim of Washington DC surgical malpractice, dental malpractice, nursing negligence, anesthesia malpractice, psychiatric malpractice, or any other type of medical mistake, you want to work with a legal team that knows how to protect your rights while helping you obtain damages.

Most Physicians Will Be Sued for Malpractice by Age 65, Medscape, August 17, 2011

Most Doctors Will Face Malpractice Suit During Careers, Study Finds, Fox News, August 19, 2011

New England Journal of Medicine

More Blog Posts:
Washington DC Medical Malpractice: Surgeon’s Estate Must Pay $1M Share of Settlement, Washington DC Injury Lawyer Blog, July 31, 2011

$20M Washington DC Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Over HIV Misdiagnosis Can Proceed, Says Appeals Court, Washington DC Injury Lawyer Blog, July 21, 2011

Maryland Birthing Malpractice: Brachial Plexus Injuries During Delivery Can Cause Permanent Damage, Maryland Accident Law Blog, July 26, 2011

Over the last two days, at least people have been killed in Washington area motor vehicle crashes. AAA says that we currently in the deadliest driving period of the year through the Labor Day weekend. Part of this can be attributed to there being so many people on the road driving long distances because its the summer holiday season. Unfortunately, reports AAA, some motorists that are in vacation mode may forget to be as vigilant while driving, which can lead to fatal DC car crashes.

On 4am on Friday, a driver of a 2004 Mercedes-Benz lost control of the vehicle in a Southeast Washington car crash. The auto hit a utility pole before bursting into flames. The bodies of two juveniles were retrieved from the vehicle. That same day, a St. Mary’s County motorcycle crash claimed the life of Devin Sweeting, who sustained multiple pelvic fractures when his bike left Route 5, hit a cement culvert, skidded on its side for approximately 170 feet, before hitting a utility pole. Sweeting was pronounced dead at a Baltimore hospital.

Several hours later, two people died in a Montgomery County car crash that also involved the vehicle leaving the road and bursting into flames. Not long after that an adult and a teenager were killed in a Prince George’s County SUV accident on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. The vehicle went off the road before crashing into a large tree. Five other kids and one adult were transported to local hospitals in critical condition. One of these children, a 3-month-old baby, was later pronounced dead.

Single-Car Crashes
Washington DC car crashes involving just one auto can be just as deadly as motor vehicle crashes involving two vehicles or more. Common causes of DC single-car crashes:

• Speeding
• Road defects
• Poor weather conditions
• Auto defects
• Distracted driving
• Texting or talking on a cell phone
• Driver inexperience
• Drunk driving

An experienced Washington DC personal injury law firm can help you determine who should be held liable for the single-car crash. In some cases, it is a negligent driver. In other instances, the motorist was not at fault at all and crashed the vehicle because other parties were careless, reckless, or made other mistakes.

8 die in Washington area vehicle crashes, The Washington Post, August 13, 2011

Related Web Resources:
District Department of Transportation

Washington DC Traffic Information, Federal Highway Transportation

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

More Blog Posts:
Chevy Chase Driver Found Guilty of Negligence Homicide in Washington DC Car Crash that Killed Howard County Woman, Washington DC Injury Lawyer Blog, June 28, 2011

Traffic Injuries and Fatalities in Anne Arundel County taking Toll on Maryland Pedestrians and Cyclists, Maryland Motorcycle Accident Lawyer Blog, August 8, 2011

Baltimore Auto Accident News: Maryland Woman Dies in Single-car Anne Arundel County Rollover Crash, Maryland Car Accident Attorney Blog, August 11, 2011

Our DC injury lawyers are familiar with the devastation that suffering from a traumatic brain injury can wreak on the lives of victims and their families. Now, here is more disturbing news about some of the serious side effects that can come with a Washington DC TBI.

University of California-San Francisco scientists, who studied nearly 300,000 older war veterans (age 55 and older), found the having a brain injury can more than double a person’s risk of developing dementia. According to lead researcher and San Francisco VA Medical’s Center Memory Disorders Program’s director Kristine Yaffe, veterans with a TBI diagnosis had a 15% chance of developing dementia, while the risk for those who never had a TBI was 7%.

Obviously, you don’t have to go to war to develop a traumatic brain injury. Fall accidents and car crashes are two of the most common causes of TBIs. In many instances, these types of accidents occur because someone else was negligent, which is where an experienced Washington DC traumatic brain injury law firm can step in to help you.

Unfortunately, a TBI doesn’t just up someone’s dementia risk, but Taiwanese researchers report that having a TBI can increase the patient’s chances of developing a stroke by up to 10-fold. It doesn’t help that complications from a TBI, such as cardiac injuries, ruptured arteries, and blood clotting disturbances, can also increase the chances of stroke.

The researchers compared data between 69,597 patients without TBIs and 23,199 patients with TBIs. They found that within the first three months, TBI patients had a 2.91% risk of stroke while the risk for those who didn’t have a brain injury was .3%. That’s a 10-fold difference. However, with time, the risk of stroke for the TBI patient did go down. Although his/her risk of stroke was 4.6 times more one year after the injury, after five years it had gone down to 2.3 times more than for patients who never had a TBI.

A fractured skull, however, did up the chance of stroke by 20 times for patients with brain injuries compares to those without this type of fracture. The chances of brain bleed, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, diabetes, heart failure, and atrial fibrillation was also greater for TBI patients. This study can be found in Stroke’s July 28 online edition.

Proving that you have a brain injury and that it occurred in an accident caused by another party’s negligence can be incredibly challenging, which is why you want to make sure you are represented by experienced DC traumatic brain injury lawyers.

Stroke Risk Spikes After Brain Injury, The State Column, July 31, 2011

Traumatic brain injury doubles risk of later dementia, USA Today, July 18, 2011

Related Web Resources:
Traumatic Brain Injury, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Dementia, Medicine.net

National Stroke Association

More Blog Posts:
Many Brain Injury Patients Suffer from Pseudobulbar Affect, Says Survey, Washington DC Injury Lawyer Blog, January 6, 2011

Maryland TBI: Call a Concussion a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Says Researchers, Maryland Accident Law Blog, January 23, 2010

Natasha Richardson Did Not Receive Medical Attention Until Four Hours After Ski Fall Accident that Resulted in Fatal Traumatic Brain Injury, Maryland Accident Law Blog, March 20, 2009

Continue reading " Washington DC Traumatic Brain Injuries May Up the Risk of Stroke and Dementia " »

Over the past year, our Washington DC personal injury law firm has written about the civil lawsuit between Kathy Wone and Victory Zaborsky, Dylan Ward, and Joseph Price. Wone is the widow of Robert Wone, a Radio Free Asia attorney who was fatally stabbed at the DuPont Circle residence shared by the three men in August 2006.

Although the Zabrosky, Ward, and Price were acquitted of charges of obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and evidence tampering related to Robert’s death (they have always maintained that he was killed by an unknown intruder), Kathy went ahead and pursued the men in civil court. Now, she and the three men have settled the DC wrongful death lawsuit against them for $20 million.

The outcome of this civil case is an example of how even if an acquittal is the outcome of the criminal case, you can still hold the parties that you believe are liable for your loved one’s death in civil court. Granted, a jury might have awarded Kathy a larger monetary sum if she had decided to go to court. However, in an interview that she gave this week Kathy explained that even if the case went to trial, she didn’t think more information would be shed on what happened to her husband (the three defendants had refused to answer a lot of questions that were posed during deposition). She has also decided to start focusing her energy on moving forward with her life and using some of the settlement money to go toward the causes that her husband believed in.

Who killed Robert remains a mystery. However, court documents reveal that it was likely that the then 32-year-old attorney was drugged so that he became paralytic and then sexually assaulted. He was also stabbed in the chest three times.

Wone family settles $20 million lawsuit against three former D.C. roommates, The Washington Post, August 3, 2011

Acquitted, But Not Exonerated, Metro Weekly, July 1, 2010

Related Web Resource:
Who Murdered Robert Wone

More Blog Posts:
Judge Refuses to Dismiss Washington DC Wrongful Death Lawsuit in Robert E. Wone Case, Washington DC Injury Lawyer Blog, December 9, 2010

$20 Million Washington DC Wrongful Death Case is Next for Three Men Acquitted of Covering Up Dupont Circle Murder, Washington DC Injury Lawyer Blog, July 19, 2010

$10M Prince George’s County Wrongful Death Lawsuit Seeks Damages Over Man’s Fatal Stabbing, Maryland Accident Law Blog, February 28, 2011