Indiana Injury Lawyer Blog

This Halloween, thousands of people across Indiana may have a heightened risk of suffering serious eye injuries from the use of decorative contact lenses.

The Indiana Attorney General and the Indiana Optometric Association are joining hands to warn consumers about the risks from using these decorative contact lenses. Come Halloween, demand for these lenses will increase substantially, as people use ghoulish and scary contact lenses to complete their Halloween costumes. However, users must know that indiscriminate and improper use of these contact lenses could increase their risk of suffering a number of injuries, including corneal ulcers, abrasion, and corneal infections. Indiana optometrists are also warning about the risk of infections when people share contact lenses with each other. Some of these infections and eye injuries can be serious enough to lead to blindness.

Continue reading "Optometrists Warn of Eye Injuries from Using Decorative Contact Lenses" »

Regular assessment of the need to continue central line insertion and maintenance of lines can help reduce the risk of infection to pediatric patients in the ICU. According to results from a study that has just been published in the journal Pediatrics, when ICUs follow practices that are designed specifically for pediatric patients, they have a much higher chance of being successful in reducing infection rates.

The use of these pediatric-specific instructions has helped reduce the number of pediatric infectious in several hospitals. The rate of such infections fell from 5.2 per 1000 central line days to 2.3 per 1000 central line days at 29 participating hospitals. The reduction in such infections saved more than 100 lives, and $31 million in health care costs.

Continue reading "Regular Assessment, Central line Maintenance Can Reduce Pediatric ICU Infections" »

While there has been some progress in the reduction of hospital-acquired infections, the increasing incidence of infections at outpatient clinics has been a source of concern to Indiana medical malpractice attorneys. Now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has launched a campaign to reduce infection rates at outpatient oncology clinics.

These outpatient clinics have become a much preferred source of healthcare for cancer patients, not just for diagnostics, but also for medical and surgical services. There are a number of advantages that outpatient oncology clinics offer. For one thing, they offer cheaper healthcare than hospitals. They are also much more convenient. However, in recent months, there have been a number of incidences of infection outbreaks in these outpatient oncology clinics.

Continue reading "CDC Launches Campaign to Prevent Infections in Outpatient Oncology Clinics" »

Indiana's new law banning texting while driving for motorists is based on the high accident risks involving such practices. However, those accident risks may be much more dangerous than Indiana personal injury lawyers have known. A new study finds that a motorist's reaction times may be much higher when he's texting while driving, than early studies have shown.

According to the study by the Texas Transportation Institute, a person's reaction time is between 3 and 4 seconds if he is texting while driving. When the same person is not texting while driving, his reaction time is between 1 and 2 seconds. That is a serious disparity, and indicates an almost 100% increase in reaction times. In the real world on a busy roadway, those delayed reaction times could prove deadly. A car traveling at 55 mph could travel the length of a football field in that period of time.

Continue reading "Texting While Driving Much More Dangerous Than Feared " »