Traumatic brain injuries often result in lifelong consequences for Michigan residents who sustain them. These might include brain damage, cognitive impairment, headaches, blurred vision and even disability. Traumatic brain injuries have also been linked to suicide.
Last week, a study was published that found a link between traumatic brain injuries and suicidal thoughts. The researchers noted specificially that sustaining multiple TBIs is associated with an increased suicide risk.
Earlier this week we discussed the dog bite concerns of Consumers Energy. The utility is worried about its employees becoming victims of dog attacks while out in the field reading meters. The U.S. Postal Service also has an interest in preventing dog bites, and it issued a report Wednesday regarding its letter carriers suffering dog bite injuries. The post office's report actually comes just before National Dog Bite Prevention Week, which is May 19-25.
According to USPS, about 5,900 letter carriers were attacked by dogs in 2012. Thirty-three dog attacks took place in Detroit, making it the sixth most dangerous city for letter carriers last year.
Michigan's Consumers Energy is apparently becoming more worried about dog bites. The utility has announced that it is now going to begin requiring Michigan dog owners to either restrain or contain their dogs before it will send employees out to read their gas or electric meters, according to a recent news report by My Fox Detroit.
The company is making the change after experiencing an increase in the number of meter readers suffering dog bites out in the field.
Many Michigan residents who before this week may not have been aware of lap-band surgery may now know quite a bit about the surgical weight loss procedure. This is because this week New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced that he underwent this surgery in the winter. It made national news, in part because there is a lot of speculation about whether the popular governor will run for president.
Christie's surgery has also thrust the weight loss clinic that performed his procedure into the national spotlight. It has now been revealed that the clinic has had legal problems and in recent years has faced an investigation from New York authorities, at least six medical malpractice lawsuits and at least one wrongful death claim.
Many of the work-related accidents and injuries we write about in this Michigan Personal Injury Law Blog involve traditionally dangerous industries. For example, we hear a lot about accidents on construction sites and in factories and industrial workplaces. However, workplace injuries can happen anywhere. In fact, office workers often suffer repetitive stress injuries from tasks like typing.
A very unusual workplace accident took place near Battle Creek, Michigan, this week. A woman who works at the Binder Park Zoo was taken to the hospital after being stepped on by a giraffe Monday.
Late last month the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in 2011, 11.5 percent of workplace deaths involved workers who were employed by one company but working at another. These are generally temporary workers, who are employed by a staffing agency and sent to work at another company, as well as security guards and electricians.
Temporary workers are known to face significant safety risks on job sites, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced this week that it is going to ramp up efforts to protect these workers from workplace accidents.
We have discussed athletes suffering brain injuries quite a bit in this Michigan Personal Injury Law Blog. This is because the NFL, of course, has become the subject of many lawsuits recently related to players sustaining brain damage on the field, and there is also a growing public concern regarding the effects of concussions in high school sports. We have not written much about head injuries in college athletics, but of course athletes are often subject to such injuries at that level as well.
The NCAA has actually made some changes in recent years in order to keep college players safe from traumatic brain injuries, specifically in football. One change alone--moving the kickoff five yards closer--has resulted in a 50 percent reduction in concussions since the change was implemented last year. Another significant rule change has been to require players whose helmets come off to sit out for the next play. This change has apparently had a dramatic effect on the number of times helmets pop off.
When we write about dog bite cases in this Michigan Personal Injury blog, they typically involve minor to serious injuries. The truth is, however, that dog bites can lead to catastrophic injuries and even death--especially if the victim is a child. In 2011, 31 fatal dog attacks took place in the country, according to a news report. And, this week, a young girl died in Iowa after she sustained critical injuries when mauled by her babysitter's dog.
According to a news report, the 4-year-old girl was attacked Monday afternoon by an American Staffordshire terrier, also known as a pit bull, at her babysitter's house. She was flown by an air ambulance to a hospital but she passed away Tuesday.
A study published this week in the journal BMG Quality and Safety may be unnerving for some Michigan residents. Johns Hopkins University researchers found that errors in diagnosis represent the most serious and common type of error made by doctors in the U.S. According to the study, as many as 160,000 patients die or are injured as a result of diagnostic errors each year.
A diagnostic error is generally defined as a missed, incorrect or delayed diagnosis. Johns Hopkins researchers reviewed 350,000 successful medical malpractice claims spanning 25 years, and learned that diagnostic errors made up about 29 percent of claims. In more than 40 percent of those cases, a patient died due to a missed, late or delayed diagnosis.
We frequently write about the consequences of traumatic brain injuries in this Ann Arbor Personal Injury Law Blog. Brain injuries can result in long-term side-effects or even permanent disabilities, as well as overwhelming medical expenses. They can take place in car accidents, workplace accidents, construction accidents and even simple falls--any blow to the head can result in a TBI. These days, we often see news reports about athletes sustaining brain injuries and a recent study came up with an interesting theory about that.
One of the sports most often associated with TBI is ice hockey, in large part because hockey players often fight on the ice and this can result in heads crashing into the ice or Plexiglas walls. A recent study suggests that one reason hockey has become more and more violent in recent years is because the media encourages aggressive play.
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Ann Arbor, MI 48104
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Ypsilanti, MI 48197
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