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Recent Blog Posts
My Loved One Suffered a Broken Bone or Fracture in their Illinois Nursing Home. What Can I Do if I Suspect Abuse?
After a family has made the difficult, often heartbreaking decision to move a loved one into an Illinois nursing home, the family members of the nursing home resident may continue to face additional stress because they worry their loved one is not being properly cared for. Stories of nursing home neglect and abuse are widespread, and, unfortunately, incidents are common. Although accidents and injuries tend to happen more often to elderly people, if your loved one has suffered a broken bone or fracture in their nursing home, you may rightfully wonder if it was an accident or whether something like neglect or even physical abuse is going on.
What Causes Broken Bones and Fractures in Nursing Home Residents?
In addition to the clear dangers of physical abuse, more mundane behavior on the part of nursing home staff and supervisors may be responsible for residents’ injuries. Nursing home residents often suffer from weakness, frailty, and difficulty with independent movement. This places them at increased risk of falling and getting injured, especially if nursing home staff are not properly monitoring residents and offering support when necessary. Even minor accidents can result in serious injuries, and not every injury is a consequence of nursing home neglect. However, many behaviors can contribute to an increased rate of resident injuries, including:
I Did Not Know About a Drug’s Serious Side Effects. Can I Sue The Drug Company?
Drug companies in the United States often have significant incentives to market drugs without making potential users aware of the complete list of possible side effects. Because new drugs can be lucrative and often promise significant results, drug manufacturers may not do the necessary research to discover dangerous side effects or may attempt to hide them. Even drugs approved by the Federal Drug Administration frequently have serious side effects that are not discovered until after they are widely available. Other times, patients are victimized by drugs that are wrongly prescribed or administered. If you have suffered an injury because of a defective drug, consider speaking with an experienced Illinois drug injuries attorney.
Defective Drugs Can Cause Serious, Long-Lasting Injuries
When patients take drugs, they expect them to help manage injuries, pain, or other suffering. Unfortunately, however, sometimes defective drugs can worsen symptoms or present new ones. While side effects can vary widely, common serious side effects of defective drugs include:
An Illinois Emergency Room Failed to Diagnose or Treat Me Properly. What Are My Options?
Those who seek the aid of emergency room staff are in need of urgent, competent treatment from doctors and nurses who take the utmost care to ensure a patient gets treated and diagnosed according to the standard of care.
Unfortunately, medical practitioners do not always meet their duty in this regard, and patients often suffer tremendously when an illness is misdiagnosed or poorly treated because of an emergency room mistake. Because emergency rooms are often hectic places with stressed, overworked staff who do not have ongoing relationships with patients, failure to diagnose and improper treatment may be more common than in traditional doctors’ offices. In some cases, this may rise to the level of medical malpractice.
Common Emergency Room Errors
Medical mistakes have been pinpointed as the third leading cause of death in the United States, and research suggests that errors in emergency rooms are particularly common and occur in nearly every aspect of emergency care. Because staff are often switching between patients and changing shifts, small mistakes can quickly be exacerbated by poor communication or incorrect information. Other common mistakes include:
Do I Have Legal Options if I was Seriously Injured By a Chemical Spill?
Chemicals are everywhere in our environment. Even things that we use every day, like vinegar and baking soda, are chemicals or chemical compounds. Most of the chemicals in our environment pose no risk to us, even with daily exposure. Sometimes, however, we are exposed to dangerous chemicals without even knowing it.
Certain workplaces are known to carry the risk of exposure to toxic chemicals, but even places like your home, streets, and grocery stores may have strong chemicals present that are not always managed correctly. We may unintentionally ingest them, get them on our skin or eyes, or breathe them in. While certain chemical exposures are unavoidable, other times a chemical can get into inappropriate areas due to negligence, serious accidents, or poor management. If you have been injured by exposure to chemicals in the Winnebago County area, a skilled personal injury attorney may be able to help.
Is Illinois Daycare Understaffing Responsible for a Severe Allergic Reaction in My Child?
Children in Illinois daycares frequently have severe food allergies. Daycare staff must be made aware of these allergies and adequately train staff to recognize and respond to signs of an allergic reaction. Because allergic reactions can be life-threateningly severe, daycare staff and managers need to track, plan, and carefully prepare meals to avoid giving children foods to which they are allergic. But when a daycare is careless or understaffed, the risk of accidentally exposing a child to a dangerous allergen increases. If your child was given food to which they are allergic at their daycare, the daycare may be liable for any food allergy injury that resulted.
Inadequate Staffing Increases Risk of Allergen Exposure
A new 2021 law requires daycare and school employees to recognize and treat signs of anaphylactic shock. Ideally, a child in daycare will never be exposed to anything to which she is allergic, but this law is intended to save lives if a child is accidentally given unsafe food.
Can I Sue if My Spouse Was Injured or Killed By a Defective Airbag in Illinois?
Vehicle airbags are often subject to conditions that have the potential to deteriorate the condition of the airbags long before they are ever deployed in a car accident. Extreme temperature fluctuations, humidity, and other environmental conditions have the potential to degrade airbags and make them defective, less effective, or even dangerous.
The National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a major recall several years ago that involved tens of millions of vehicles that had airbags that could potentially explode and cause serious injury or death. While lives were undoubtedly saved by the recall, other lives in Illinois continue to be prematurely shortened or diminished in quality when a defective airbag deploys improperly.
How Should an Effective Airbag Work?
While airbags are not a foolproof method for preventing serious injury or death in a car accident, they are often effective in keeping a car accident victim’s face away from the steering column and dashboard. When a car is involved in a crash, a special sensor detects the impact and a carefully controlled system fills an airbag with gas that rapidly inflates the airbag at over 200 miles per hour, cushioning the impact of the crash and reducing damage to the head and body.
Help! I Slipped and Got Cut on Broken Glass at a Rockford Grocery Store. Can I Sue?
Hundreds of thousands of people in Illinois go grocery shopping every day without incident. But sometimes, what should have been a fast and easy trip to buy milk can turn into a nightmare scenario. Grocery stores that are not properly maintained and kept clean can quickly present a variety of hazards to unsuspecting customers, including slippery floors, loose electric wires, broken glass, and heavy falling objects.
The consequences of these conditions can leave customers with serious and long-lasting injuries that require extensive and ongoing medical care. If you have been injured in a Winnebago County retail store and want to know whether you may be able to pursue compensation under Illinois’ premises liability laws, read on.
Surgical Errors During Your Illinois C-Section Can Cause Serious Injuries
An Illinois mother may not be able to give birth vaginally to her infant for many reasons. The infant’s head may be too large, the infant may be in breech position, or the mother may suffer from serious health complications. Whatever the reason, a cesarean section or “c-section” can save the lives of the mother and the infant.
C-sections are on the rise, and many of them appear to have no necessary medical reason. C-section deliveries can be very risky because they involve complex surgical maneuvers in critical areas of a mother’s body. Even a seemingly minor surgical error or mistake can put the life of a mother or her infant at risk. If you have been injured because of a poorly conducted c-section, this blog may be helpful to you.
Is a C-Section Mistake Medical Negligence?
Doctors have a serious responsibility to practice medicine according to an established legal standard of care. Medicine is not always exact, and unavoidable mistakes can happen. But when a mistake is the result of a surgeon who fails to act reasonably or carefully and a patient is injured or killed, that surgeon may have committed medical malpractice.
What to Do If a “Never Event” Happens to You or a Loved One
Anyone going into surgery is understandably nervous. While the majority of surgeries are completed successfully, surgical errors do occur. Some surgical mistakes are so terrible, they should never happen. Unfortunately, these so-called “never events” can and do occur. One study reported that approximately 4000 never events occur each year in the United States. Often, these egregious surgical mistakes lead to catastrophic injuries and fatalities. If you or a loved one were a victim of a severe surgical error, contact a medical malpractice lawyer for help.
Surgical Mistakes Can Lead to Profound Suffering
No one expects surgeons, doctors, and other medical staff to be perfect, but we do expect a certain degree of competency. Unfortunately, medical professionals do not always meet these expectations.
Car Accidents Caused by Government Employees: Understanding Your Rights
Approximately 4.5 million people were injured in car accidents in 2019. Car accident victims are often faced with significant financial losses, including vehicle repair costs and medical bills. Many are unable to work while they recover from their injuries. Some suffer catastrophic injuries that leave them permanently disabled. Car accident victims may be able to recover financial compensation for their losses through an insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit.
However, not all car accident injury claims are the same. When a car accident is caused by a government employee, a government entity may ultimately be responsible for compensating the victim. Unfortunately, bringing a successful claim against the government can be even more challenging than bringing a claim against an insurance company. Claims against the local, state or federal government are subject to special rules and tight deadlines. If you or a loved one were injured in a wreck and a government worker is at fault, contact an experienced personal injury lawyer for help.
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