Indiana Injury Lawyer Blog

At least three Japanese automakers are recalling as many 3.4 million vehicles around the world, because of the possibility that airbag systems in these automobiles could injure passengers.

The automobiles are being recalled by Toyota Motor Corp. Nissan Motor Corp. and Honda. This is believed to be the largest recall involving air bags manufactured by Japanese manufacturer, Takata. This company is one of the largest manufacturers of airbags and seat belts in the world.

According to the companies involved, the recall is linked to possible defects in the airbag for the front passenger seat that may cause the airbag to not inflate properly at the time of an accident. As a result of this failure, there is a serious risk that the airbag may catch fire, causing injuries to passengers. So far, there have been no reports of any injuries or fatalities linked to the defective airbags.

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The brightest point in the spotlight on diagnostic errors centers on major and significant errors like cancer misdiagnoses that occur in major hospitals. However, with all this focus on major diagnostic errors in hospitals, we seem to have missed out on the fact that that errors like these occur almost every day in primary health care clinics around the country. While they may not be major errors in the sense that they usually involve common and frequent conditions like bronchitis, but that doesn't change the fact that patients are put to great suffering and trauma as a result.

According to a new study that was published in JAMA Internal Medicine, primary care physicians are just as likely to make diagnostic errors as physicians in large hospitals. In fact, primary care physician-related errors usually encompass a wide range of common conditions, like urinary tract infections or anemia.

However, there has been very little research into the causes of errors that occur in primary care physician offices across the country. That’s partly because there's very little attention paid when a primary care physician makes a diagnostic error, leading to hospitalization for patients. In contrast, misdiagnosis in a hospital makes headlines and very often results in a medical malpractice lawsuit.

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The Indiana medical malpractice lawyers at our firm have earlier blogged about alarm fatigue and the risk of medical errors from this phenomenon. The Joint Commission recently issued an alert, warning hospitals to focus seriously on the very real risks of medical errors caused by alarm fatigue.

According to the Joint Commission, devices that come with alarms are used widely in US hospitals for a variety of purposes, and are indispensable in delivering safe care to patients. Doctors depend heavily on these devices to get the kind of information that they need to deliver the right kind of care to patients.

However, according to the Joint Commission alert, these devices also present a number of challenges for hospitals and healthcare workers, because they emit similar sounds. When the default settings are not changed, the alarm sounds will be very similar, and due to the multitude of such sounds emitting from every device in the hospital, medical personnel may neglect to respond to these alarms.

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The number of aging truck drivers across the country is likely to increase over the next few years as more truck drivers retire, amid a shortage of younger truck drivers to fill their vacant positions. Older drivers face numerous driving challenges, especially with flexibility and gross motor activities. A new study finds that exercise programs that specifically focus on range of motion and coordination, could help sharpen and hone driving skills.

The study was conducted on a group of senior motorists. Earlier, researchers found that these motorists faced challenges in three key driving areas. They found it difficult to look for blind spot rights behind their car by turning their upper bodies, turning their heads and necks to scan their driving environment while driving, and getting in and out of the car.

A group of seniors between the age of 60 and 74 was recruited as part of the controlled study, and they were armed with physical fitness programs that specifically focused on flexibility, range of motion, coordination and strength training. They exercised for approximately 20 minutes daily, and the exercise programs continued over 10 weeks. At the end of the fitness program, the seniors’ driving skills were gauged using a driving simulator, in lab tests as well as on special tests designed by the MIT AgeLab.

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Come spring, construction crews across Indiana get to work repairing and maintaining roadways and highways. Many of these crews will be assigned to highways across the state, and motorists are likely to come across more workers over the next few months as we move into summer.

Unfortunately, that also increases the risk of accidents in these construction work zones. The week between April 15 and 19 is being marked as National Work Zone Awareness Week, and the Indiana Department of Transportation has launched a special safety initiative to raise awareness about these risks. In addition, the Indiana Department of Labor has also launched an initiative to reduce the number of workers killed in transportation-related fatalities. That includes workers killed in these construction work zones.

According to estimates in 2012, three construction workers were killed in work zone in Indiana. But it’s not just workers who are at risk in these work zones. Many motorists driving through the zones are also at risk. In fact, motorists may be at a much higher risk of being killed in accidents, and account for a large majority of the construction fatalities. Ironically enough, most work zone accidents can be traced to motorist negligence or failure to look out for construction crews.

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Here’s a statistic that should make you immediately resolve to stay more alert and watchful for distracted motorists while driving. According to new statistics released by the federal administration, at any given moment in the day, as many as 660,000 Americans are using their cell phones to have conversations or send and read text messages while they are at the wheel of their cars or trucks.

The results of the survey were released by the US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in order to mark National Distracted Driving Awareness Month in April. According to the statistics which came from the 2011 National Occupant Protection Use Survey, the numbers of drivers using cell phones at the wheel remain mostly unchanged since 2010.

More than 6,000 respondents above the age of 16 were included in the survey. Approximately 50% of the motorists admitted that they would answer an incoming call on the cell phone even at the wheel. One in 4 drivers admitted that they were willing to place a call while driving on all, or most, or some of their trips.

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It’s fairly common for doctors, nurses and other medical professionals to use smart phones in the operating room (OR). They may check medication dosages or search for important medical information. However, sometimes, those cell phones are used for non-medical purposes and a nursing group says that when that happens, there's a serious risk of medical errors.

There are a number of reasons why doctors and nurses may use cell phones in a operating room. For instance, sometimes a doctor may need to text the patient's relatives for important information, or may need to look up information about the disease. There's no doubt that the use of smart phones is important in the OR.

However, in an increasing number of cases, doctors as well as nurses are using smart phones for non-medical reasons inside the operating room. According to a report by NPR, you can now find medical personnel chatting, looking at Facebook status updates, playing games, and performing a variety of other non-medical-related activities using their smart phones in the operating room.

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This is not the kind of behavior Americans should be aiming to be exceptional. A new study finds that American drivers are much more frequent users of cell phones and electronic communication devices while driving, compared to European drivers.

The survey compared cell phone use in the United States with drivers in several European countries. The study which was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that more American drivers reported using a cell phone while driving for conversation, compared to counterparts in at least 7 European countries.

As many as 69% of the American drivers admitted to having had a conversation on the cell phone while driving over the past month alone. In contrast, the percentage of European drivers who had a conversation while driving over the past month, ranged from just 21% in the United Kingdom, to 59% in Portugal.

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Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a serious condition that affects men and women alike. This sleep disorder is familiar to anyone who has shared a bed with a partner who snores heavily and stops breathing at night. Obstructive Sleep Apnea occurs when a person’s airway collapses, preventing much needed oxygen from reaching the lungs. Persons with severe sleep apnea may stop breathing up to 400 times in a night’s sleep causing the blood oxygen level to drop to dangerously low levels.

Several key factors contribute to a person’s risk of Obstructive Sleep Apnea. One of the leading indicators of a person’s risk of sleep apnea is the size of the person’s neck. Other factors include their age, a family history of OSA, the shape of their face and whether or not they use alcohol or smoke.

OSA can lead to high blood pressure, morning headaches, moodiness and depression. In addition, Obstructive Sleep Apnea places a person at risk for heart disease, diabetes and stroke. Perhaps most concerning for Indiana drivers who share the roads with drivers of large trucks, is the reality that people with sleep apnea can experience extreme daytime sleepiness and fatigue.

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It is well-known that your accident risk increases with the speed of your car. New research finds that those risks also increase with the pace of the music that you listen to while you're driving.

Those are the findings of a new study that was conducted by researchers at London Metropolitan University. The research found that music with a fast tempo and racy beats is much more likely to increase a person's accident risks, because it encourages behaviors like reckless driving and speeding.

The researchers put the subjects through a driving simulator. The meter was set to 500 miles, and the first half of the trip was completed in silence, with no music playing in the car. During the second half of the trip, the motorists listened to different types of music playing on the stereo.

The researchers found that different types of music seemed to affect a person's driving in different ways. Hip-hop music increased the risk of aggressive driving, while rock music increase speeding and distractions. Even classical music, which you would think encourages a person to drive safely, actually increases inconsistent and erratic driving.

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Indiana's drunk driving laws have failed to pass muster with the federal administration. The administration has announced that several states, including Indiana, will be penalized with a lack of federal funding for highway safety projects, as a result of their failure to pass stringent laws against intoxicated driving.

According to an assessment of the drunk driving laws passed by all states by the Federal Highway Administration, as many as two thirds of all states have lax drunk driving laws that do not make the cut. The federal administration believes that these states, including Indiana, have not complied with mandates to reduce the incidence of intoxicated driving.

In Indiana’s case, there were changes made to the drunk driving laws back in 2004, and under the new laws, the state no longer requires a person convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol to perform a certain number of hours of community service as an alternative to prison time. The federal administration is not happy with that changed law.

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Many children who suffer abdominal trauma every year may not need a CT scan, to diagnose the injury. In fact, putting children through an unnecessary CT scan actually exposes them to the risk of injuries from such unnecessary radiation.

It's no secret that children may be at a much higher risk of injury from excessive radiation, compared to adults. The problem is that a child's delicate body may be at a much higher risk of injury, even while receiving a normal dose of radiation during a CT scan. Therefore, it makes sense that children should not receive unnecessary CT scans, and that scans should not be recommended unless they are necessary.

Unfortunately, defensive medicine encourages CT scans and all kinds of other radiation-related diagnostic techniques to be used on children, even when these are not necessary. A study recently found that not every child who suffers an abdominal injury really needs a CT scan.

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