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Over the years, our Boston nursing home negligence law firm has blogged about the serious injuries that can result when a Massachusetts nursing home patient is subject to serious abuse or neglect. While such incidents are never the victim’s fault, we’ve talked about steps that family members can take beforehand to decrease the chances of placing their loved one in the hands of negligent nursing staff and caregivers.

Such preventive measures have included visiting the nursing home beforehand to check out the facilities, level of sanitary conditions, whether current patients seem happy there, and if staff seem competent at their job and appear to take a genuine interest in their patients. We’ve also talked about how important it was to visit the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services online to find out how the government has rated particular facility and how each nursing home under consideration compares with others in terms of health inspections, staffing, and other quality measures.

Now, the CMS is providing even more in-depth information for you to peruse when deciding where to place your loved one. Rather than having to submit a Freedom of Information act request or ask a nursing home for more specifics about why it received a particularly high or low rating, you can go to Nursing Home Compare online and choose to see the entire text of the report that nursing home inspectors have filed on a particular facility. This will hopefully provide families with even more information when deciding where their loved one should receive treatment/live.

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Toyota Motor Corp. has announced a global recall of 2.77 million autos globally because of water pump and steering issues. The recall affects its Prius hybrid vehicles that were manufactured between 2004 and 2011 and a number of Corolla compact vehicles made between 2000 and 2006.

The automaker says the safety issues have not caused any auto collisions. However, this recall is certainly no help to Toyota’s efforts to reestablish its reputation as the maker of safe, reliable vehicles after the major recalls of millions of vehicles it issued between 2009 and 2011 over serious defects linked to sudden unintended acceleration problems. Numerous wrongful death and auto defects lawsuits have since been filed.

Also, it was just last month that Toyota recalled 7.43 million cars because defective power window switches might cause the autos to catch fire. By the time the recall was announced, safety regulators had reported at least 161 auto fires and nine related injuries.

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Parking is a part of most people’s everyday work routine into which they probably don’t put much thought. While it may seem like a mundane part of one’s daily routine, the reality is that most people use parking lots several times a day without acknowledging the inherent safety risks until it is perhaps too late. Though parking lots are a breeding ground for all sorts of accidents, it is important for employers and employees to know their dangers in order to help prevent accidents from occurring.

The two most common and preventable accidents that occur in parking lots are security accidents and slip, trip or fall hazards.

The National Crime Victimization Survey, conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, reports that more than 1 in 10 property crimes occur in parking lots or garages. Other violent crimes occur in parking lots due to the nature of these spaces. Dark or unlit areas provide the perfect environment for crimes to occur, especially given that many people walk to their cars alone. Parked cars also provide hiding spots for predators who can crouch behind them and remain unseen for long periods of time.
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In Suffolk Superior Court, Brain Benoit, a 40-year-old Boston paramedic, received 73 indictments for allegedly stealing scores of sedatives and painkillers, including fentanyl and morphine, and tampering with over 100 vials of medication. Prosecutors say that he replaced the drugs he stole with other substances, such as vitamin B and saline, to avoid getting caught.

Last month, health officials estimated that about 64 people may have been exposed to infections due to Benoit’s alleged tampering and that seven of them had passed away for unrelated reasons, such as other injuries or a medical emergency. Now, however, prosecutors are saying that the number of patients that likely received the diluted drugs, is closer to 10. (Some of the drugs that were allegedly tampered with had broken seals or puncture holes.)

A contaminated medication can cause serious health issues, as we have recently witnessed with the fungal meningitis outbreak that is linked to tainted steroid shots originating from a compound pharmaceutical company in Framingham. Already, a number of Massachusetts drug injury lawsuits have been filed against the New England Compounding Center.

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Elaine Yeskie, 77, is suing the man accused of starting a fire at her home in 2009 for the, Massachusetts wrongful deaths of her husband and son. She wants Anthony P. Baye, who is awaiting trial on 48 charges involving 28 fires over three years to pay her monetary and punitive damages.

Yeskie lost her husband, Paul W. Yeskie Sr., and her son, Paul W. Yeskie Jr. after a fire was broke out in their residence on December 29, 2009. The following month, Bay, 27, was arrested in connection with allegedly starting over a dozen fires involving cars, homes, and other structures in his neighborhood.

In her Northampton wrongful death case, Yeski, who survived the fire, says that she experienced severe emotional distress from having to watch her son and husband die. She contends that their passing was because of Bay’s actions, which she describes as “malicious, willful, wanton, or reckless.”

Massachusetts Wrongful Death
Losing someone you love because of another person’s negligent or reckless behavior is devastating-not only for the loss but also due to the knowledge that your loved one might still be alive today were it not for someone else’s fatal mistake or intentionally bad behavior. Fortunately, there is a way to seek Northampton, Massachusetts wrongful death damages from that responsible party so that you can hold them accountable by seeking to make them pay you compensation for your loss, pain and suffering, and other resulting damages.

You have three years from the date of death or when knowledge of the cause of the death was (or should have been) found out to file your Massachusetts wrongful death case. Damages may include compensation for funeral/burial/cremation costs, lost income and benefits, the victims’ medical bills, and loss of companionship, love, support, and other losses.

Elaine Yeskie sues accused Northampton arsonist Anthony Baye for deaths of Paul Yeskie Sr. and Jr., Mass Live, October 12, 2012

Elaine Yeskie Sues Anthony Baye in Northampton Fires , Gazzette.Net, October 22, 2012

More Blog Posts:
$7.5M Massachusetts Wrongful Death Settlement in 2010 Norfolk Propane Blast Lawsuit Filed by Electrician’s Family, Boston Injury Lawyer Blog, July 9, 2012

Explosions and fire ravage Winthrop home, injuring family & damaging house, Boston Injury Lawyer Blog, February 23, 2012

Elderly Somerville Woman Dies After Clothes Ignite in Massachusetts Kitchen Fire, Boston Injury Lawyer Blog, February 19, 2012 Continue reading

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The CDC is reporting that the death toll in the ongoing fungal meningitis outbreak involving tainted steroid injections is now at 30, while the number of those afflicted is at 419 (those affected by related joint infections are also included in this number). The steroid shots were used for treating back pain, as well as joint problems.

According to the New York Times, doctors that have been treating patients afflicted in this outbreak are seeing certain worrying complications in some, including epidural abscess in the area of the spine where the shot was administered and arachnoiditis, involving spinal inflammation. In Massachusetts, please contact our Boston fungal meningitis law firm if you or someone you love became afflicted after receiving a methylprednisolone acetate injection.

The Boston Globe reports that right before the national outbreak erupted, the New England Compounding Center, which is based in Framingham, Massachusetts, had sent out a “Quality Assurance Report Card” to clients touting it’s labs’ cleanliness even though internal tests showed contamination that was widespread. Two of the three steroid lots involved in the outbreak were made during the period noted in the report card, which claims that the pharmacy’s “extensive” testing of products for microbial contaminants and sterility had a 100% success rate.

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The firework company Pyrotecnico has been suspended from operating in Massachusetts by State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan until July 4, 2013. The suspension occurred following the events of last July 4th, in which Pyrotecnico left unexploded firework shells in parks and playgrounds in the towns of Ayer, Hingham, Marion, Milford, Newton, Westford, Wilmington, Winchester, and Sharon.

The unexploded shells could potentially have been harmful to any passersby, many of whom were children. As this blog reported back in July, the shells were initially discovered after the company’s July 3 show in Stoughton, when a maintenance worker mowing a field accidentally set off one of the shells. Luckily, due to the swift actions of police officers who searched sites statewide and removed any shells that were discovered, no one was seriously injured. Coan explained that a child playing or even a town worker maintaining the premises could accidentally stumble upon the shell and become injured if it were to detonate. Coan called this “unacceptable.”
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Maxfield and Oberton, the manufacturer of Buckycubes and Buckyballs, says that it is discontinuing the popular magnet desk toy. The decision to stop selling this product comes in the wake of pressure from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which filed a lawsuit contending that the product is a danger to children.

The magnetic pieces are easy to separate from each other and small enough to easily swallow. The pieces can be hard to find once separated from the toy’s larger whole. Blood poisoning and fatalities can also result. Unfortunately, there continue to be other products in the marketplace that include small magnet pieces that pose the same problem as Buckyballs and Buckycubes. If your son or daughter sustained injuries from swallowing a small magnet, you may have grounds for filing a Boston child injury lawsuit.

Already a number of kids have ingested Buckyball magnets in the past few years, with some of them having to undergo extensive hospital stays and multiple surgeries. The magnets are so powerful that if a child were swallow more than one, they can be drawn toward each other in the body, potentially creating holes in the intestine. Doctors have compared a magnet-related ingestion injury injury to a “gunshot wound to the gut,” said Dr. Mark Gilger who is quoted on CNN. Even older kids have ended up swallowing Buckyball magnets, as some of them have pretended that the small pieces were fake tongue piercings.

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According to “Walking Safely, A Report to the Nation,” teenagers are now the most at risk group for becoming involved in a pedestrian accident. The study, from FedEx and Safe Kids Worldwide, looks at the trends in US child pedestrian fatalities and injuries over the last 15 years.

Per the report, while child pedestrian safety has improved overall-child pedestrian deaths have declined 53% and injuries by 44% since 1995-over 61 kids are still injured seriously enough in pedestrian accidents daily to warrant medical help. More than 500 child pedestrian deaths continue to happen each year. Also, while in 1995, the kids belonging to the the ages 5-9 group were the ones most likely to sustain pedestrian injuries, in 2012, it is teenagers, with the fatality rate among older teen pedestrians now double that of their younger counterparts. However, kids of all age continue to be at risk of serious injuries and death in a pedestrian accident. In Massachusetts, contact the Boston injury law firm of Altman & Altman, LLP today if your child was injured in any type of Massachusetts traffic crash.

Teen Pedestrian Accidents

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A bus owned by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) was traveling on Albany Street near the Boston Medical Center early this morning when a male passenger demanded to be let off. The bus driver refused, as it was not an authorized bus stop, which agitated the passenger. The passenger then punched the driver in the side of the head and jumped out of the emergency window exit. The driver was treated for his injuries by Boston EMS and police continue to search for the passenger.

Unfortunately, this is not the first assault against an MBTA employee this month. A MBTA operator was spat on at the beginning of the month at the intersection of Washington Street and Harvard Street in Charlestown. MBTA employees are not surprised by these assaults as there has statistically been a rise of assaults annually. Transit police gave a picture of the suspect to the press in hopes of finding and prosecuting him.

Another incident occurred on Dudley Street and Hamden Street, when passenger Carlos A. Ramirez-Rodrigue entered the bus and started to verbally fight with the driver. After yelling a number of obscenities, the MBTA operator asked Ramirez-Rodrigue to leave the bus. Ramirez-Rodrigue responded by repeatedly spitting in the direction of the driver as he left the bus, and when the door to the bus closed, he began to punch the door causing the door window to shatter. He was subsequently arrested for damaging MBTA property as well as two counts of assault and battery. Sadly, there have been many incidents like this one involving the endangerment of MBTA employees this year, including a death that occurred last August.
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