Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blawg

May 11, 2009

Forklift Accidents Fatalities On the Rise According to National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Results from a new study show that deaths associated with forklift accidents are rising. Data was collected over a 15-year period by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) under their Traumatic Occupational Fatality surveillance system.

The study showed that forklifts, or powered industrial vehicles, were involved in a significant number of deaths in the workplace. According to the study several different factors contributed to the cause of the Illinois construction site accidents, including the nature of the injury and the decedent’s age, gender, race, occupation, and industry.

Many of the fatalities resulting from forklift overturns might have been prevented if the operators had been restrained with lap or shoulder belts. Careful consideration should be given to separating pedestrian and forklift traffic and restriction of use of forklifts near time clocks, exits and other areas where a large number of pedestrians pass through in a short time.

May 7, 2009

Hydroxycut Diet Aid Recalled Nationwide For Causing Heart Problems and Kidney Failure: Chicago Area Health Stores Pull Products From Shelves

by Robert Kreisman

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reported that it has received 23 reports of adverse health effects in persons who have used the weight-loss product, Hydroxycut. Reported complications from using Hydroxycut include heart problems and a kind of muscle damage that could lead to kidney failure. One person suffering from severe side effects of Hydroxycut even required a liver transplant.

On May 1, 2009 the FDA issued a warning to consumers to stop using Hydroxycut. According to the FDA warning the manufacturer, Iovate Health Scientists of Oakville, Ontario, Canada and its American distributor, are recalling Hydroxycut. All in all, lovate is recalling 14 of its product line. This recall will not affect its products Hydroxycut Cleanse and Hoodia, which have different ingredients than the other products.

The Hydroxycut brand has been widely sold at national stores including Vitamin Shoppe and GNC. The product is sold in a form of pills, drinks and powders which is designed to increase energy, burn calories and fat, and control appetite. According to the FDA about nine millions units of the product were sold in 2008. Vitamin Shoppe and GNC reportedly are removing Hydroxycut products from their websites and stores.

May 6, 2009

Illinois Cracks Down on Truck Driver Licensing to Reduce Truck Accidents and Improve Trucking Safety

by Robert Kreisman

New reports show that even licensed truck drivers and bus drivers in Illinois may be unqualified to drive their respective vehicles because of inadequate testing in other states. Some of these unqualified drivers are threats to the public utilizing Illinois highways and can even lead to tragic trucking accidents and bus accidents. In fact, a link has been found between unskilled drivers and an increase in Illinois trucking accidents.

The Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 (CMVSA) was designed to stop these abuses by prohibiting drivers from holding more than one state license. The CMVSA is addressing the problems caused by unqualified truck drivers and bus drivers by creating a nationwide system that prevents the issuance of multiple licenses.

The CMVSA is also cracking down on the past practice among some unqualified drivers who had multiple licenses from different states to spread around their traffic convictions using different licenses from different states. A new system allows states to exchange information on traffic violations, making it easier to remove problem drivers from the road. In addition, truck drivers who violate the law are subject to tougher penalties.

May 4, 2009

Chicago Fleet Phospho-Soda Case Returns Multi-Million Dollar Verdict

by Robert Kreisman

I recently came across a case where a Chicago jury returned a verdict of $3.4 million for the plaintiff who had been prescribed Fleet Phospho-Soda Buffered Saline Laxative for a colonoscopy procedure.

The case centered on the physician who had prescribed Fleet Phospho-Soda, an over-the-counter oral laxative used to cleanse the system pre-colonoscopy. Recent studies of Fleet Phospho-Soda have shown that the drug can pose a risk of kidney damage in patients with kidney disease.

Prior to being prescribed the oral laxative the plaintiff had blood work done that showed chronic kidney disease. During the trial the plaintiff alleged that the physician should have instead prescribed an alternative drug that posed no risk to the kidneys. The plaintiff ended up suffering from renal failure and required dialysis for two and half years.

Fleet Phospho-Soda has been the subject of multiple pharmaceutical lawsuits connected to its use, including those in Illinois. It is found to cause kidney damage, renal failure and other kinds of kidney ailments.

May 1, 2009

Illinois Trucking Accidents Linked to Unskilled Truckers

by Robert Kreisman

Trucking accidents in Illinois linked to unskilled truckers have spiraled upward in the last several years, which is in part a result of many unskilled truck drivers have actually receiving their trucking licenses fraudulently.

In the last five years, the US government has uncovered licensing fraud in 24 states, including Illinois. Thousands of truck drivers nationwide have received licenses under suspicious circumstances. One licensing scheme involves third-party examiners who the state hires to perform the driver testing for truckers.

An Illinois trucking license scandal helped shed some light on the widespread problem of fraudulent driver’s licenses. A federal judge in Chicago remarked during a license fraud case that some of these truckers can be likened to “10-ton torpedoes”.

The judge’s comments came in a case related to a federal and state investigation launched 8 years ago in Illinois involving the sale of trucker’s driver’s licenses that led to the conviction of former Governor George Ryan on federal corruption charges. It was discovered that trucking licenses in Illinois were essentially for sale regardless of results on driving exams. That probe showed that unskilled truck drivers on Illinois highways lead to at least the deaths of 9 individuals.

April 29, 2009

Dementia Up in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes – Linked to Drops in Blood Sugar

by Robert Kreisman

A long term study of older patients with Type 2 diabetes found that those who had experienced even one episode of hypoglycemia, or life threatening drops in blood sugar, were at a higher risk for developing dementia than diabetic patients who had not experienced such an episode.

The findings to be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association are significant given the high rate of Type 2 diabetes patients in the world and the expectation that dementia rates will increase as the population ages.

“We’ve known for some time that patients with Type 2 diabetes are at greater risks of dementia and cognitive problems,” said Rachel A. Whitmer of the Division of Research at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California. “This adds to the evidence that balance of glycemic controls is important, and that trying to aim for a very low glycemic target might not be beneficial and it might even be harmful.” Ms. Whitmer is one of the authors of this article.

April 27, 2009

Chicago-Cook County Jury Duty – Democracy in Action in the Civil Justice System

by Robert Kreisman

Recently my wife was called to serve as a juror in a Chicago-Cook County jury case. Although she was ultimately not called, it reminded me that we must never take this process for granted.

The 7th amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives the right of trial by jury that no other country guarantees.

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Our civil justice system is derived from the English Magna Carter. Our Constitution is designed so that each case is tried by a group of one’s peers, in this case a representation of our Cook County community, that is responsible for judging what is right or wrong in each case.

As a civil justice attorney I am aware of the sacrifice each juror makes to this system, even if it is not voluntary. The jury system allows our country to continue to uphold the principles of freedom and individual rights established in the Constitution. Without jurors our legal system would be unable to function.

As a representative of the party with the burden of proof, the Plaintiff, I do my best to provide the jurors with a steady flow of evidence without overloading issues or repeating obvious evidence with cumulative witnesses. I appreciate that jurors are sacrificing their time and I would like to extend my thanks to all Cook County jurors for allowing our legal system to function smoothly.

April 24, 2009

Hospitals in Illinois and U.S. Report C. Difficile Bacteria Causes 350,000 Infections Each Year

by Robert Kreisman

Recently, a local Chicago doctor working in a Veterans Affairs Hospital recognized signs of clostridium difficile, also known as C. difficile, a contagious and potentially deadly bacteria that is difficult to track. The illness kills an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people annually with most of the cases occurring in health care settings.

The Chicago public health community has been sounding the alarm for years about the overuse of antibiotics and the emergence of “super-bug bacteria” that have developed an immunity to a wide number of antibiotics.

“One of the things that we consult consumers about is to make sure that an antibiotic is really necessary,” said Dr. Dale N. Gerding, an infectious disease specialist at the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University in Chicago. “There are many good reasons for taking an antibiotic, but an illness like sinusitis or bronchitis winds up being treated with antibiotics even though it will go away by itself anyway.”
C. difficile is not a new illness, but it appears to be spreading at an alarming rate. The rate of C. difficile infection among hospital patients doubled from 2001 to 2005. The rise in C. difficile cases around the world is linked with the growing use of all the antibiotics, particularly a class of drugs called fluoroquinolones, which came into widespread use around 2001. The use of acid-suppressing drugs, including proton pump inhibitors like Prilosec, also may be a risk factor.

April 20, 2009

Chicago Cubs Win World Series! (According to Sophisticated Simulators)

by Robert Kreisman

If the Chicago Cubs do win the 2009 World Series, it might have been predicted by a computer simulation which explores baseball strategies and their effect on the game’s outcome. In 1958 a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed a program to investigate whether the sacrifice bunt was a wise play. At the time the program required a huge IBM 704 mainframe to run.

Advances in technology have come so far that there is now a simulator available to the public called Diamond Mind that runs on only a laptop and can even consider the affects of wind on plays at individual ballparks. Other possible simulations include whether stealing a base would increase or decrease the chance of scoring, or if a sacrifice bunt gives your team an advantage. A computer program is ideal for working out these sort of problems that involve millions of fact items; the program smooths out the peeks and random valleys to come up with a reliable approximation.

Known among formal statisticians as the Monte Carlo method, the approach takes spectacularly complex phenomena like weather patterns and stock performance and allows their behavior to be approximated, if not determined.

April 17, 2009

Cervical Cancer Causing Virus Can Be Tested with New DNA Test as an Alternative to a Pap Smear

by Robert Kreisman

A new DNA test has been developed by Qiagen to identify the human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus found to be associated with cervical cancer. Scientists state that this new test is an improvement on current testing methods and might eventually replace the Pap smear test as a way to diagnose HPV.

Early diagnosis is key in fighting all types of cancer, including cervical cancer. In fact, the most common pitfall doctors fall into regarding patients with cancer is failing to diagnose cancer early enough to provide treatment. This new test could reduce the number of missed cervical cancer cases and improve cancer patients’ outcomes.

The optimism around this new DNA test is based on the results of an 8-year study of 130,000 women in Indian that was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study, financed by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, revealed that a single screening with the DNA tests met all the same standard as all other methods of early diagnosis of cancer.

Similarly, a study by the University of Chicago reports that a predictive model based on family history of breast or ovarian cancer can aid genetic counselors in diagnosing breast cancer in African women. Development of genetic testing for different ethnicities is important because research shows that genetic mutations vary among racial and ethnic groups.

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