Indiana Injury Lawyer Blog

A jury has awarded a total of $212 million in damages to a man who claims that he was left with a permanent brain injury as a result of using Botox injections. The lawsuit is a massive verdict against Allergan, the maker of Botox.

The 67-year-old man had started receiving Botox injections in order to treat writer’s cramp and hand tremors. He soon developed an autoimmune reaction to the drug, which left him with a massive brain injury. Since the brain damage, the man can no longer perform any routine activities or take care of himself. He's totally dependent on help from caregivers. He filed a lawsuit against Allergan, claiming that the company was aware of the side effects of Botox injections, but failed to warn patients.

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For Indiana product liability lawyers, this is a decision that could not have come too soon. After months of consideration, the Consumer Product Safety Commission this week announced tough new crib safety rules, including a complete ban on drop side cribs, as well as requirements for tougher and more durable crib hardware.

The decision comes after immense pressure by child safety groups, parents and Indiana product liability attorneys who have been concerned about the dozens of deaths and hundreds of crib-related suffocation incidents. There have been at least 32 confirmed reports of infants dying in their cribs from suffocation, entrapment or falls. Besides these, there have been hundreds of incidents reported from around the country, where children nearly suffocated to death after being trapped in the space created by the detached drop side. In these cases, the children were fortunate enough to be rescued by their parents and caregivers.

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Cerebral palsy takes a substantial emotional toll not just on the children who suffer from this condition, but also their families. A new study conducted by Canadian researchers illustrates this often devastating toll.

The study, the first into the impact of the condition on families of school age children, was conducted by researchers from the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy at McGill University in Montréal. They were specifically looking at the effect of cerebral palsy on the families of school-age children suffering from the condition. The researchers surveyed parents of 95 children aged between six and 12 years, and suffering from cerebral palsy. As they evaluated the questionnaires, the researchers found that 45% of the parents described themselves as being “highly stressed,” while 11% describe themselves as being “defensive.” Approximately 50% of the patients said that their children's cerebral palsy had adversely affected their time, emotional condition, and family activities. However, the families confirmed that the children's illness had not disturbed the cohesion of the family as a unit.

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If efforts to develop a test that will determine the presence of brain injury through biomarkers are successful, we could soon have a simple blood test that doctors at any kind of facility could use to determine the presence of a brain injury.

Currently, procedures for the diagnosis of brain injury are fairly restricted. Doctors can diagnose injury by taking a patient's blood pressure and other vitals, and administering memory and concentration tests. However, the chances of a missed diagnosis are always too high for Indiana personal injury lawyers to tolerate. A delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis, can radically impact a person's chances of completely recovering from the brain injury.

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Failure to wear helmets, protective boots and other protective gear, failure to dress in protective clothing or reflective clothing that's visible to other motorists around you, and failure to take a safety training program - motorcyclists are failing on several counts, as a new Consumer Reports study shows us.

There was very little good news in the survey, but plenty of enthusiasm to go around. The study found that seven out of every ten riders believed that they were experienced motorcyclists, and had been licensed motorcyclists for the past five years at least. However, at least 10 of these admitted to having been involved in accidents over the last five years, and 50% said these were single vehicle crashes. One of the reasons contributing to these crashes could be that just half of the motorcyclists said they had taken a motorcycle safety course before they began riding.

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Last week, a safety group handed out its annual report card for highway safety. Indiana received a mediocre rating for the strength and effectiveness of its highway safety laws. Coming as it does during the first month of a brand new year, Indiana personal injury lawyers hope that the government takes seriously the issues brought up by the report card and its recommendations.

The report by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety called Road Map to State Highway Safety Laws, rated all states based on the kind of highway safety laws they have in place to minimize accidents, prevent fatalities and reduce injuries. Fifteen basic and essential highway safety laws relating to teen driving, drunk driving, adult occupant protection and other aspects of highway safety were taken as bench marks.

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