Posted October 29, 2009

BySusan Kimball, wcsh6.com

FALMOUTH (NEWS CENTER) — There are an estimated fourteen thousand cases of elder abuse in Maine every year. And most of them go unreported.

At a seminar in Falmouth on Wednesday, experts talked about the problem. Former Maine Attorney General Steve Rowe says that in most cases it’s a family member or caretaker who is physically, emotionally, psychologically or sexually abusing their elderly relative.

Financial exploitation is also a huge problem.  Rowe says when it comes to the elderly it’s everybody’s business to be involved.

“We all have a responsibility to intervene. We need to know our neighbor. If we have an elderly person who lives next door we need to know that person’s habits and if we see a change we need to get involved,” said Rowe.

All too often, those being abused won’t report it. They may be too afraid or too ashamed to come forward. Or they may be so dependent upon the abuser that they see no way out.

But there is plenty of help available.  Calling 1-877-ELDERS-1 will connect you to the Area Agency On Aging in your county. Adult Protective Services can be reached at 1-800-624-8404–that is the agency’s 24 hour hotline.

Legal Services for the Elderly can also offer assistance. The number there is 1-800-750-5353.

Sexual Assault Agencies can be reached by calling 1-800-871-7741. And Domestic Violence agencies, at 1-800-537-6066.

Published on October 30, 2009

by EU News Network

WASHINGTON, DC

The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a voluntary recall of Arctic Cat snowmobiles due to a fire hazard.

 
About 3,000 Model Year 2009 Arctic Cat Z1 Turbo, Z1 Turbo Sno Pro and TZ1 Turbo snowmobiles have the potential to leak oil, which can pose a fire hazard, the commission said in a statement.

 
The company has received 33 reports of oil leaks, eight of them including fires, the commission said.

 
The snowmobiles were sold nationwide from June 2008 through July 2009 for $12,500 to $14,300.

 
Consumers were advised to stop using the snowmobiles and contact an Arctic Cat dealership to schedule a free repair.

Consumers can call 800-279-6851 for information.

Posted October 29, 2009

By Dave Altimari, The Hartford Courant

Atwilda Brown died trying to pour herself a cup of hot chocolate.

As the 80-year-old woman reached across the electric stove to grab a teapot full of hot water in her East Windsor kitchen on a Saturday night in February 2005, the sleeve of her chenille robe brushed against the burner and caught fire.

She ran to her bedroom furiously trying to put out the flames engulfing her robe as her disabled husband looked on. But by the time she threw the robe to the floor it was too late. More than 35 percent of her arms and back were burned and she died a few weeks later after being transferred to the Bridgeport Burn Center.

Brown is one of at least nine people across the country to die of burns suffered when their robes, sold by the Blair Corp. of Warren, Pa., caught fire, according to federal officials.

Brown’s daughter filed a wrongful death lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Hartford this week, blaming the company for making robes made of flammable material from Pakistan without doing the proper testing, and designing a garment that turned into a fire trap when ignited.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, which already has recalled Blair’s chenille full-length robes like the one Brown was wearing, expanded the recall late last week to include any chenille tops and jackets made by the same Pakistani manufacturer and sold by Blair. In all, more than 300,000 garments have now been recalled.

“This robe is highly flammable, flames travel quickly up the robe,” CPSC spokesman Scott Wolfson said last week. “It is a deadly risk to women.”

Blair Corp. refused comment on the lawsuit.

Atwilda Brown’s robe, with a matching pair of slippers, arrived in late January 2005 and was the latest in a long line of garments she had purchased from Blair, a company known to market clothing to older women.

She stayed home the night of the fire to care for her husband rather than go to their daughter Sharon’s 60th birthday party in Beacon Falls.  

“For years I carried around this guilt because we didn’t have the party closer to where my mother lived,” Sharon Davis said in an interview Wednesday.

The fire puzzled the family from the beginning.

“We never could figure out what happened,” Davis said. “It was an electric stove and my mother was a vibrant woman who could take care of herself.”

It wasn’t until four years later that Davis got a clue to what happened — courtesy of the Blair Corp. The company sent a recall letter, dated in April of this year, to Atwilda Brown, warning her that the robe she bought in January 2005 was highly flammable.

“I was so angry to learn what had really happened and to discover that it really shouldn’t have happened,” Davis said. “You trust when you buy a piece of clothing from someplace that it is safe. Unfortunately, my mother ordered the wrong item from Blair’s and she died because of it.”

There have been two other Blair recalls of chenille products since that one in April. Glastonbury attorney Bruce Raymond of Raymond and Bennett, who is representing Davis, said that number of recalls strung together so quickly, particularly for clothing, is highly unusual.

Raymond said that not only is the material highly flammable, which he said the company already knew, but also the design of the robe was faulty.

“They picked one of the most flammable materials, there was lax quality control on all these garments being tested as required, they had wide cuffs which easily could catch on fire and there were seven buttons down the front that needed to be unbuttoned before a person could take it off over their heads,” Raymond said.

The lawsuit seeks $30 million. A representative of a New York public relations firm hired by Blair Corp. to represent it during the recall said Wednesday that the company would not comment on the Connecticut lawsuit.

Following the latest recall announcement, Blair CEO Shelley Nandkeolyar issued a statement: “We strongly encourage anyone still in possession of a recalled robe to call our consumer hot line at (877) 392-7095 and return it immediately. In addition to our outreach to get these robes out of the hands of consumers, we are redoubling our efforts to ensure the products we sell are safe.”

Davis said she hopes the lawsuit also will warn others.

“No amount of money can ever bring back the loved ones that people have lost but it is the only recourse we have,” Davis said. “Our absolute goal is awareness. We don’t know how many people may not be aware that these clothes are dangerous and that there is a real problem here.”

Posted October 28, 2009

By Mark Millican, the Daily Citizen

An alleged “history” of gas leaks and problems associated with galvanized piping at the Dalton Housing Authority complex on Underwood Street may form the basis of a wrongful death lawsuit following two deaths in an explosion and fire there, an attorney said Tuesday.

Jeffery Chad Nations, 34, of apartment 410, Underwood Court, died two days after the Aug. 22 explosion that rocked the residential neighborhood in east Dalton. His mother, Martha Sue Nations, 56, of the same address, died on Sept. 27. Both were in the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta when they died.

Since the explosion, several investigators have scoured the scene, including from the DHA’s insurance company, local and state fire agencies, and an examiner hired by Nations family attorney Genevieve Frazier.

Frazier said she has interviewed neighbors of the family at Underwood Court and two former employees in the city maintenance department and found there is a history of complaints about gas leaks and “problems” with the piping.

“Witnesses say the fire department came in and said there were problems with the galvanized piping, problems with rusting,” she said. “The rusting also affects the smell of the gas, and can pull in chemicals (with the gas). My understanding is that the fire department recommended the piping be replaced and it was not.”

Dalton Fire Chief Bruce Satterfield said he is “familiar” with some of the statements coming from Frazier and witnesses she’s interviewed since he has received two Open Records Act requests for information.

“I’ve looked back and found one instance — it was sometime between 2004 and 2006, I can’t remember exactly because I don’t have the records right in front of me — where there was a gas leak (at the housing complex), but it was not in that same (apartment) facility,” he said. “We shut the gas off at the facility, contacted Dalton Utilities, which locks the gas out, and turned it over to the housing authority maintenance crew for repair. Dalton Utilities must see that (the piping) is fixed before they’ll turn the gas back on.”

Satterfield disputed the statement that the fire department had recommended that gas pipes be replaced.

“We have found no evidence or knowledge where this department — through our records management system, nor through our two code enforcement officers — ever told the housing authority that pipes needed to be replaced in the entire facility,” he said.

Satterfield said he believed Frazier was “testing the waters” with the records requests to get at the veracity of the witness statements.

“We have shut other apartments down before due to gas or electric problems,” he added. “It’s all documented, and we always check to see they’re back up to code before the gas or electricity is turned back on.”

The department is still waiting on “expert documentation” as to the cause of the explosion from James Dido, a mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer Joe Nemeth, he said.

Satterfield asked the members of the Public Safety Commission on Tuesday whether legal fees would be paid by the city or come out of his fire department budget. City attorney Jim Bisson said an “ad litem notice” — which state law requires before a government entity can be sued — has been filed, and that the city had responded.

“I have no idea what the fees are at this point, or who will bear the charges,” he said. “We do have an insurance carrier and they have been notified.”

Satterfield said the legal fees were around $500, stemming largely from the records requests, and that the invoice had been mistakenly sent to his department.

“They sent me the bill, but the city is named in the (ad litem filing of the) lawsuit,” he said.

City finance director Cindy Jackson said the legal bill would likely go through the administrative budget.

Posted October 24, 2009

By ANDREW STRICKLER, newsday.com

A dozen New York City firefighters were hurt – including a seriously injured driver who was trapped in an overturned vehicle – when two trucks rushing to a gas leak collided in a Brooklyn intersection Saturday morning, officials said.

Witnesses described a deafening collision between Engine Company No. 236 and Ladder Company No. 107 at the corner of Ashford Street and Hegeman Avenue in the East New York neighborhood.

The 9:43 a.m. crash caused the ladder truck to flip on its side and slide into a tree, trapping the hurt driver inside for about two hours as dozens of emergency personnel worked to free him. The engine ended up over a curb and onto a front lawn.

Everett Groves, 63, the superintendent of a building at the intersection, said he was outside when he heard sirens.

“I see this engine coming this way, I mean flying . . . horns blowing,” he said. He described the engine, which was headed west on Hegeman Avenue, hitting the rear of the ladder truck, which was headed north on Ashford.

“The impact was tremendous,” he said. “You know the impact had to be something to hit that truck off the ground.”

All 12 firefighters on the two trucks required medical attention. Four were seriously hurt, and eight had less serious injuries, according to an FDNY spokesman.

The driver of the ladder truck, identified as firefighter Robert Puppa, remained trapped until about noon, and Lt. Kevin Washington, a 27-year veteran, suffered an unspecified skeletal injury, possibly a broken leg, fire officials said.

Both were in serious condition at The Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center.

Other firefighters were taken to Kings County Hospital Center and Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. They were still there late Saturday, a department spokesman said. An NYPD spokesman said the investigation was continuing.

Mark Brown, 46, an electrician who was walking to a supermarket at the time, said the engine “slammed on the brakes” but was not able to stop in time. “It was not a yield,” he said.

FDNY spokesman Jim Long said both trucks were responding with sirens and lights to a gas leak emergency in the 700 block of Warwick Street, one block west of the crash site.

Long said the gas leak was legitimate but could not immediately say who responded.

Station houses for Engine Company 236 and Ladder Company 107 are about a mile from each other and within a mile and a half of the crash site.

Firefighters at the ladder company’s station house on Lincoln Avenue refused to comment.

Posted October 25, 2009\

By Gary Taylor, Orlando Sentinel

One teenager was killed and six others injured early Saturday in a single-vehicle accident on E. Michigan Street at Center Avenue in Orlando.

Brandon Wesley Wise, 17, of Orlando, is the 22nd person to die in a traffic crash in Orlando this year, Orlando police Sgt. Barb Jones said this morning.

Wise was the driver of a 1997 Jeep sport utility vehicle involved in the crash that occurred about 1:20 a.m., Jones said.

Wise was eastbound on Michigan in the left through lane when he attempted a left turn onto Center at a high rate of speed, Jones said. The SUV overturned and came to rest in the parking lot of a business at the intersection. Wise, who was wearing a seat belt, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Passengers in the vehicle all suffered minor injuries. Jones identified them as Pablo Rodriguez, 15; Emily Aleman, 16; Kassandra Lopez, 16; Bianca Rodriguez, 16; Alexander Ortiz, 17; and Sabastian Viloria, 16, all of Orlando.

Posted on October 23, 2009

By Ben Schmidt, freep.com

A former Michigan soldier who lost his hand after an explosion while trying to disarm a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2004 won a $4.3 million verdict today against the U.S. Army in a disability discrimination civil case.

“He proved that the Army created a hostile work environment for him because of his disability.” said Royal Oak attorney Kevin Carlson who won the case along with attorney Joseph Golden.

The attorneys represented James McKelvey, 38, of Macomb Township, who said in a discrimination lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit that a boss and coworker derided him as “the cripple, ” refused to provide him with computer equipment and door handles to accommodate his disabilities, excluded him from meetings and told him to stay in his office cubicle for months on end.

He said superiors also objected to him parking in a handicapped space at the Warren tank arsenal even though he had a state permit.

McKelvey was medically retired from the Army in December 2005. Two months later, he landed a civilian job as a weapons specialist at the Army’s Warren arsenal.

From the outset, he said, coworkers and supervisors harassed and ridiculed him. When he complained, he said, the treatment worsened. Eventually, he was told that if he didn’t like the way he was being treated, he should find a new job, he said.

McKelvey grew up near Ludington and joined the Army after high school. He spent 11 years on active duty as a bomb disposal expert.

After his discharge in 2001, he became an Oakland County sheriff’s deputy assigned to the jail and joined the National Guard.

In late 2003 he wound up in Iraq after his Guard unit was activated. He was severely injured in February 2004, when an explosion caused him to lose his right hand, mangled his left hand, damaged his vision and left him with a significant loss of lung capacity.

He woke up several weeks later and spent 11 months recovering at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where President George W. Bush presented him with a Purple Heart.

The trial lasted two weeks in U.S. District Court in Ann Arbor and ended today after two days of deliberations.

“Mr. McKelvey was an expert in defusing weapons of mass destruction and even with the need for his skills to protect us all, he was subjected to the most vile and vulgar insults and behavior with the full knowledge of his supervisors until he was forced to resign,” Golden said. “Mr. McKelvey survived his wounds in Iraq and asked only to move on with his life. This is not how we should be treating war heroes.”

By Brian Skoloff

Associated Press

Posted August 21, 2009

A pregnant woman was mistakenly given a drug that quickens labor. She and the father are now suing because their baby is brain-damaged as they struggle to pay medical bills that have topped $3.5 million.

WEST PALM BEACH — A hospital mistakenly gave a pregnant woman a drug commonly used to speed up labor, causing her to give birth two months early and severely injuring the baby, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

The suit was filed against St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach; its owner, Dallas, Texas-based Tenet Healthcare; and several nurses, doctors and pharmacists.

The plaintiffs, Tesome Sampson and Frank Guy, claim medical bills for their brain-damaged baby have now topped $3.5 million. The lawsuit claims St. Mary’s and the other defendants were negligent in administering the wrong drug. It seeks unspecified damages.

In a statement, the hospital acknowledged the error and said steps have been taken to keep it from happening again.

“On Sept. 4, 2008, a patient came to St. Mary’s in extremely premature labor. Due to a medication error, the patient was given medication to speed up her labor instead of medication that attempts to stop premature labor. Ultimately, the baby was born and suffered brain damage,” the statement said. “This was an unfortunate error that occurred despite the safeguards we have in place. . . . We apologized to the family for this deeply regrettable error.”

The couple’s attorney, David Kelley, said Sampson was admitted to St. Mary’s on Aug. 25, 2008, when she was 24 weeks pregnant. Doctors put her on bed rest to avoid early delivery.

Ten days later, Kelley said, she was given the wrong drug. The medication, Prostin E2, is approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration for the termination of pregnancies and for expelling uterine contents after a fetus dies and is often used to speed up labor.

A few hours after being given the drug, Kelley said the woman suffered severe cramps and was told she needed to have a bowel movement. She was given a portable toilet, and delivered the baby into the container, according to the lawsuit.

The baby girl was two months premature. She is now hospitalized with “profound brain damage,” Kelley said. “This is the most horrific case I’ve handled,” he added. “It is absolutely outrageous and I think requires a criminal investigation.”

Posted October 22, 2009 by courierpost.com

MOUNT VERNON, Ind. — A 9-year-old boy was killed and two people with him were hurt Wednesday night in an ATV accident in Posey County.

Authorities say the boy and a 12-year-old girl were passengers on an ATV driven by Phillip E. Gross on Maier Road south of Mount Vernon.

Shortly before 7 p.m., Gross lost control of the vehicle after striking a dog that had run into the roadway, Sheriff’s Deputy Dan Montgomery said in a statement.

All three occupants were thrown from the vehicle. The ATV then landed on Gross and the 9-year-old boy.

The boy was taken to St. Mary’s Medical Center by helicopter, but was pronounced dead shortly after arriving.

The 12-year-old girl was taken by ambulance to Deaconess Hospital, where she was treated and released.

Gross was taken by ambulance to St. Mary’s, where he was listed in stable condition this morning.

Authorities have not yet released the names of the juveniles or specified whether the three occupants are family members.

In addition to the sheriff’s office, Posey County EMS, Point Township Fire Department, Black Township Fire and Rescue and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources all responded to the wreck.

Published October 21, 2009 by newsinferno.com

A patient who received a radiation overdose from a CT brain scan at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has filed a class action lawsuit against the hospital. The lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, also names GE Healthcare as a defendant.

Last week, we reported that officials at Cedars-Sinai confirmed that 206 patients mistakenly received eight times the regular dose of radiation during CT brain scans, which are used to diagnose strokes. The machine at Cedars-Sinai had been set at the higher level since February 2008,, but the mistake had not been detected for 18 months. According to the Medical Center, the overdoses were discovered in August, when a patient reported hair loss.

It is not yet known what led to the overdoses at Cedars-Sinai. They may have been the result a device malfunction, or appropriate procedures may not have been followed. In an alert posted on its Web site, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) said it was concerned that the radiation overdosing may reflect more widespread problems with CT quality assurance programs, and that the problem could go undetected and unreported, putting patients at increased risk for long-term radiation effects. The agency advised every facility performing CT imaging to review its CT protocols and be aware of the dose indices normally displayed on the control panel.

The Cedars-Sinai radiation overdose class action lawsuit includes all individuals who received a CT brain perfusion scan at Cedars Sinai Medical Center from February 2008 through August 2009. It also includes anyone who received such a scan that utilized CT image machines manufactured by GE Healthcare, Inc. and GE Healthcare Technologies at any medical facility during the two year period preceding the suit.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Trevor Rees, one of the 206 patients subjected to a radiation overdose at Cedars-Sinai. Rees received his CT scan in December 2008, and experienced hair loss in the weeks following the procedure, as well as red and flaky skin on his face and scalp. However, the lawsuit claims he only heard of the botched CT scans at Cedars-Sinai through media reports. Rees did receive a phone call from hospital officials last month, but says he was only asked if he had experienced any side effects following his scan. Rees claims he was not told the real reason for the call.

The lawsuit claims Cedars-Sinai staff and the scanner’s manufacturer, General Electric Healthcare, were negligent in performing the scans. The suit also alleges medical malpractice, product liability and breach of warranty. It seeks general and economic damages.