Philadelphia Top Injury Lawyer Blog

Senator Charles Schumer has called for an investigation on the popular canvas shopping bags that have been offered by several grocery store chains in Philadelphia and throughout the US in recent years. The bags have been marketed as reusable environmentally friendly ways to carry groceries plastic free.

The investigation began this winter when Mr. Schumer became concerned about the levels of lead existing in the painted imprints that are often placed on the bags. Lead is known to cause lowered IQ in children and food contamination, a special concern given the bags frequent use for grocery shopping.

Senator Schumer is calling on the federal government to launch an investigation on the bags. Private investigative reports by the Tampa Tribune found "elevated levels of lead" in canvas bags offered by the Winn-Dixie, Wal-Mart, Sweetbay, Publix, and Target shopping chains. This situation is one of many concerning products manufactured in China which, due to poor quality, have been known to cause dangers to consumer health in recent years.

If you feel that your health has been put at risk by products, toys, or a home contaminated by high levels of lead, contact a Philadelphia injury lawyer to find out what you may be able to do about it. A Philadelphia injury lawyer will be able to help you understand your rights and help you to obtain any reward you may be entitled to.

In a horrendous case of medical malpractice in Philadelphia, one doctor and some members of his staff have been arrested and called in for interrogation while they await trial. Investigators are calling the office of Dr. David Gosnell in Philadelphia a "house of horrors." His practice, which has been in business for decades, has been said to illegally perform late term abortions as well as to have delivered live babied and then killed them by way of spinal injury. In addition, filthy office conditions and poor sanitation put women at risks of infection and disease.

Last week in the Philadelphia medical malpractice case that made national and even international headlines, Dr. Gosnell was charged with killing seven babies born alive and with the 2009 death of a 41-year-old refugee after a botched abortion at the clinic. Prosecutors have called the clinic an illegal drug mill by day and an illegal abortion clinic by night.

Regardless of suspicion of medical malpractice, Dr. Gosnell operated for years, becoming wealthy off of his horrendous alleged crimes. It is yet to be seen just what Dr. Gosnell and his staff members will be charged with. In the meantime sadly, several women are left with a lifetime of illness and heartache likely due to Dr. Gosnell's medical malpractice. If you or a loved one has been the victim of medical malpractice, contact a Philadelphia injury lawyer today. A Philadelphia injury lawyer will be essential in starting your fight for what you need to cover damages and medical bills.

A gas and water main break at the 6900 block of Torresdale Avenue in Philadelphia occurred last night around 7.19 p.m. and turned out to cause much more destruction than ever expected. The leak caused a 50 foot tall fireball to explode resulting in a three alarm fire. The blast set fire to at least two homes and several cars including a PGW truck. The horrific incident, according to one witness, caused homes in the neighborhood to shake and sknocked a man over who was standing next to him.

Several firefighters were injured in last night's gas explosion and sadly, the blast has left one 19 year old PGW worker dead. Several Philadelphia residents lost all of their belongings as a result of the leak and resulting fire and fire ball explosion. Those injured were treated at Torresdale Hospital. At least one victim was taken to the burn center having suffered serious burns. Fortunately several dozen residents as well as individuals who were working at nearby businesses were evacuated from the surround structures as soon as authorities were aware that the water main had been breached.

The cause of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania gas explosion is still underway while several alarmed residents are wondering just who is responsible for this tragedy. Similar incidents have been linked to a gas company's failure to accurately install, maintain, or replace gas mains. If you are the victim of this tragic accident or a similar accident in which you were injured, contact a Philadelphia injury lawyer or a Philadelphia accident lawyer right away.

Philadelphia police are still investigating a hit and run accident that tragically left one man dead. The incident occurred Monday morning around 4 a.m. near the intersection of Frankford Avenue and Benson Street in Northeast Philadelphia.

According to reports, a witness reported waking up to a very loud sound. When witness Brian Kabosius went downstairs to look outside and see what the noise was he found that the hit and run accident had occurred. Two women pulled over to help and were standing in the middle of the street trying to flag people down for assistance.

Kabosius ran inside to call 911. When police arrived to the scene the victim was unresponsive. According to the two women who witnessed the incident and pulled over to help, the victim was hit once by the original vehicle and then later hit again by another vehicle while he was down. The victim was pronounced dead at Aria Hospital in Torresdale, Pennsylvania shortly following the hit and run incident. Information about the victim has not yet been released.

As family and friends mourn the loss of the loss of the victim this morning, investigators are trying to piece together the case and find out who is responsible for these tragic events. Family members of those involved in any accident should contact a Philadelphia accident lawyer or a Philadelphia injury lawyer in order find out how to proceed in the case of an accident.

The justice department has recently agreed to pay out 2.3 million in medical malpractice damages to a couple who claimed their baby was inadequately taken care of at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center in Norfolk Virginia. The couple claimed that the inadequate care at the Medical Center caused their baby to be born with neurological damage that wouldn't have otherwise occurred.

According to reports, a federal judge approved the settlement between the Justice Department and claimants Scott and Michelle Holweger of Virginia Beach. The couple filed an original lawsuit for $15 million against the government last year. The government has not yet admitted wrongdoing in the settlement and continues to deny any malpractice. According to the settlement order, however, 1.57 million will be used to start a trust fund to care for the Holweger child. $54,000 is said to be going towards current medical bills for the child.

Cases of birth injury and medical malpractice occur in Philadelphia and around the country each day. While defendants may often be hesitant to admit blame, consulting an experienced Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyer or a Philadelphia birth injury lawyer can help you receive what you may be entitled to. It's important to contact these experienced attorneys right away.

Just a few months ago, a Megabus crash on Onondaga Lake Parkway left several passengers and a driver injured and proved fatal for four passengers. This tragic accident is still under question as four of the 28 passengers have filed personal injury lawsuits against the bus company.

According to reports, the passenger's lawsuits seek more than $50,000 each in compensation for damages including injuries suffered as a result of the crash. The Megabus involved in the crash was on its way from Philadelphia to Toronto. When the Megabus took a wrong turn in Syracuse, the bus crashed into a CSX railroad bridge on the Onondaga Lake Parkway.

Both the driver of the bus and the railroad company are being looked at by an Onondaga county grand jury for criminal charges. Lawsuits have been filed in the U.S. District Courts in New York and Pennsylvania as well as the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia. Megabus driver John Tomaszewski, 59, of New Jersey has been named as the defendant in one case. Investigation into whether Tomaszewski was properly trained and licensed to drive the bus is underway. Other defendants in the case include Megabus Philadelphia LLC, Megabus USA LLC, Megabus Northeast LLC, Coach USA Inc and Coach USA Northeast. A Philadelphia injury lawyer or Philadelphia accident lawyer can help if you have been injured in a crash involving a commercial vehicle.

A child welfare caseworker for the city of Philadelphia pronounced 2 month old Quasir Alexander and his twin brother "healthy and well" on December 21, even though, according to reports, Quasir weighed only a frail four pounds.

Quasir lived in a West Philadelphia homeless shelter with his mother and five siblings. Just two days after the visit, baby Quasir was pronounced dead from starvation and dehydration. The boy's mother, Tanya Williams, 32, of West Philadelphia, was charged Friday night with murder. Investigation into the Philadelphia caseworker assigned to Quasir is ongoing.

According to reports, District Attorney Seth Williams said Monday that the investigation will continue to look at whether the social worker assigned has failed to "perform their duties adequately or possibly even criminally." Later investigation revealed that Quasir has not eaten adequately for at least one month leading up until his death. Infants of Quasir's birth weight, 5 pounds, are expected to weight at least ten pounds at two months according to World Health Organization standards. Lutheran case workers and the staff at the homeless shelter are also being investigated in the infant's death.

This is an alarming case to mothers everywhere as well as the many Philadelphia residents who rely on Philadelphia case workers to properly oversee the welfare of family members. If you or a loved one has had to go through a tragedy involving personal injury or birth injury at the hands of state workers or medical professionals, contact a Philadelphia birth injury lawyer, or a Philadelphia injury lawyer today.

According to widely cited sources, 450,000+ Americans suffer from some form of spinal cord injury (a.k.a. SCI). 10,000 or so new cases of SCI develop every year, and more than 4 out of 5 victims are healthy young men between the ages of 16 and 30. This blog post will touch on the basic causes and consequences of SCI and connect you with a trustworthy and experienced Philadelphia injury lawyer who can answer your burning questions about how to get compensated for your SCI-related medical bills and how to deal with the overwhelming logistics (e.g. insurance forms) that you are struggling with.

Causes of SCI

Common causes included car, truck, and motorcycle accidents, violence and sports injuries, and falls. Diseases such as spina bifida, Friedreich's ataxia, and botched surgeries can also cause serious damage to the nerves running from the base of your brain down to your pelvic region.

Classifications of spinal cord injuries

A good rule of thumb is that the higher up on your spine the injury is, the more widespread your damage will be. So if you suffer an injury to your C1 vertebra in your neck, you might expect massive loss of function, including perhaps paraplegia or quadriplegia. If you suffer damage to your sacral vertebrae -- that's the lower part of your back -- you will still suffer serious effects but perhaps not as serious as you would get from cervical nerve damage.

There are essentially four regions of the spine: Cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and sacral. Sacral nerve damage is associated with loss of function and paralysis of your hands, diaphragm, head, wrists, biceps, neck, and triceps. Damage to the thoracic spine can cause function loss to the abdominal muscles and chest muscles. Lumbar injury can result in loss of function of leg muscles. And sacral damage can yield sexual dysfunction and problems with bowel and bladder control.

Spinal cord injuries can be classified as "incomplete" or "complete." These classifications are loose: essentially they refer to your level of voluntary control and sensation in specific regions. A complete injury means that you've totally lost sensation and control over the injured region. Incomplete means that you've only lost partial control. Obviously, this classification is in some sense artificial. Some complete injuries can actually reverse themselves. And incomplete SCI injuries range from minor and inconvenient to life altering and debilitating.

What to do now?

Your first priority should be to get the most appropriate medical, surgical and rehabilitative help you can, as quickly as you can. Unfortunately, nerve damage is very hard to reverse, and it can take a while for injuries to the spine to "show up" in the form of loss of function or side effects. Moreover, if you don't follow a rigorous and carefully structured rehabilitative plan, you could wind up exacerbating your injury (making it worse) and causing additional damage.

On the other hand, medical science is rapidly evolving, and physicians and clinicians are constantly trying out new breakthrough technologies and procedures to provide additional function and ease the pain of SCI.

In terms of getting compensation from liable parties who caused injury to you - such as a careless surgeon, a fatigued trucker, or an overly aggressive sports opponent - your best bet is to consult a Philadelphia accident lawyer or Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyer as quickly as possible. Or, if you are too sick and injured, delegate a relative to contact an attorney for you. If you lack good representation from the get go, you may accidentally say or do things that could impede your ability to collect much needed money to pay for your spinal rehabilitative surgery, time off of work, pain medications, and so forth.

Continue reading "Spinal Cord Injury Basics: What you need to know and how to get help" »

A Philadelphia injury lawyer will see many unfortunate cases of personal injury and possibly even death due to defective products and product recall during his career. Sometimes the very products that are meant to improve our health condition or save our lives fail us. Sometimes medical devices installed years ago or drugs that were taken years ago will go on to harm patients years later. This has been the case in the recall of the Kugel Hernia Mesh Patch in recent years.

From December 2005 to January 2006, maker of the Kugel Mesh Hernia Patches, Davol, recalled the patched issues due to memory recoil ring breaks. In certain patients, the breaks have been the cause of bowel perforation problems, memory recoil ring breaks that have migrated through the abdominal wall, bowel obstruction, and even death cause by septic shock, blood clotting. Patients were even at risk of acute heart attack due to surgery to repair bowel fistulas caused by perforation from the broken memory recoil ring.

In one December of 2006 in one lawsuit filed against Davol, maker of the patch, the plaintiff claimed problems of the surgical mesh patch resulted in severe pain. The plaintiff had to have bowel dissection surgery to remove the patch, which was found to result in chronically inflamed bowels.

Unfortunate medical malpractice or defective products personal injury cases occur in Philadelphia and across the country several times each year. Contact a Philadelphia injury lawyer if you or a love one has been affected by the Davol Hernia Mesh Patch or any other defective product.