Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog

February 29, 2016

Oregon Legislature Moves Forward Bill to Protect Children & Sexual Assault Victims

Last Friday the Oregon Senate unanimously approved “a bill aimed at ensuring that sexual assault evidence is submitted for lab testing in a timely manner and not left untouched on police evidence shelves,” according to a report in The Oregonian. The bill is named for a teenage Northeast Portland girl who was raped and murdered across the street from her home in 2001.

Melissa’s Bill, as it is known, focuses on untested sexual assault kits because of the discovery that “sexual assault kits from at least two other young teens raped by the girl’s killer four years earlier sat on the Portland Police Bureau’s evidence shelves” and were not tested until a connection was drawn between them and the 2001 case. According to the newspaper the girl’s parents hoped that their child’s death would at least lead to a change in police procedures, and to more timely testing of rape and assault kits. When a newspaper investigation revealed that despite the passage of more than a decade little had changed Melissa’s parents went to the legislature.

As described by the paper the bill will require that, beginning next January 1, “each police agency in Oregon shall adopt written policies and procedures concerning the collection, submission for testing and retention of the kits. Under the bill police must pick up the kits within seven days after a hospital alerts them about a kit’s existence and submit them to the state crime lab for testing within 14 days of receipt. All kits must be stored for 60 years.”

February 27, 2016

Jeep Recall Issues Lead to Wrongful Death Lawsuit

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A California family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in response to a vehicle fire caused by a rear-end collision. The accident claimed the life of the family’s father early last year.

According to CBS Los Angeles the fatal accident took place in Ontario, California, east of LA, in January of 2015. The man was traveling in “a model year 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee.” Within seconds of a rear-end collision “the Jeep burst into flames,” according to the TV station’s report.

At the heart of the case are questions about dangerous products and their design flaws. The model year of the vehicle is one of the most important elements of this tragic case. As the TV station reports, “in June of 2013 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration asked Chrysler to recall earlier model years, specifically Grand Cherokees built between 1993 and 1998 due to concerns about gas tanks catching on fire. But there were no recalls for later model years between 1999 and 2004.” This is significant because those years include models in which the gas tank is positioned directly behind the rear axle – a location that significantly increases the chances of a vehicle fire in the event of even a minor rear-end collision.

February 24, 2016

Hoverboard Dangers Lead Retailers to Drop the Product

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Is there any example of a hot consumer product becoming toxic quite as quickly as the hoverboard? The Oregonian reported this week that retailing giant Amazon “recently pulled the item from its marketplaces” barely three months after hoverboards were the ‘must-have’ gift of the holiday season.

The reason for the change of heart is well-known. As dangerous products go it is hard to imagine any recent consumer item whose fortunes have reversed quite so quickly. Over the course of 2015 the gyroscope-powered toys went from a rare curiosity to a pop-culture phenomenon. Then, just as sales were hitting stratospheric heights, reports – and dramatic videos – emerged of the devices spontaneously bursting into flames (this, as The Oregonian notes, is in addition to “other risks to the public as evidenced from plenty of video compilations prominently featuring people falling off of them.”).

Now, only weeks later, “the obscenely popular holiday gadget was silently and unceremoniously dropped from all Amazon’s electronics pages… the U.S. government recently declared the gadgets an “imminent hazard” and… locally, the University of Oregon banned hoverboards in January, going so far as to supply students with fireproof storage for any of the errant gadgets.”

February 21, 2016

Warning About Portland Glass Factories Raises Industrial Accident Concerns

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A recent announcement that two Portland glass factories may have contaminated their surrounding area is a pointed reminder of how Oregon industrial accidents need not be dramatic and violent. Sometimes a problem can develop slowly over time and be just as potentially deadly.

According to a recent article in The Oregonian, state public health officials warned earlier this month that “vegetables grown close to Bullseye Glass in Southeast Portland and Uroboros Glass in North Portland could contain harmful levels of chromium, arsenic and cadmium. They asked physicians to advise patients not to eat them until more is known.” The advice extends to homes and gardens within a half-mile of both factories. The paper notes that state environmental officials are currently conducting tests in the area around both factories. These include both the collection of soil samples in the affected area and taking urine samples from people who live in the area.

The first priority is clearly the health of the people who live near these factories, but as the investigation moves forward officials can and should look closely at how the alleged contamination was able to happen in the first place. Distressingly, the newspaper reports that the test results will “only cover cancer cases over a five year period. The factories have been there for 40.” It is important that the investigation not stop there.

February 17, 2016

Recreational Marijuana Raises Issues of Injuries to Children

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A story in The Oregonian this week is especially timely as the legislature considers changes to the ways in which legal recreational marijuana and its derivatives are treated in our state, and serious issues these, in turn, raise concerning injuries to children.

The newspaper recounts how an eight-year-old Klamath Falls boy became sick after eating a marijuana-infused cookie that he found on the ground. The boy’s mother told the paper that after returning from a family trip to a local quarry. “He pulled his chest and made motions that suggested he was choking. He had trouble keeping his eyes open,” the paper reports. It then quotes the mother saying “he said everything looked like a cartoon… He said he was vibrating all over.” A trip to the ER followed, along with five hours of treatment and observations. The boy is now fine.

The broader fallout from this incident may continue for some time, however, and is likely to resonate in the halls of the Oregon legislature in Salem. As The Oregonian notes, “the incident comes as Oregon public health officials and marijuana industry representatives debate the appropriate serving size for marijuana edibles.” Regulators have proposed serving size and concentration levels that are only half of what is allowed by Colorado and Washington “in part to protect novices and children who accidently eat the products.” This particular instance is a case in point: a single cookie contained two adult-size portions of marijuana’s active ingredient, a chemical compound known as THC. Many people unfamiliar with pot cookies or brownies may not be aware that unlike the ordinary versions of the same product one is not supposed to eat the entire thing.

February 12, 2016

New MRI Machine at OHSU Will Help Doctors Performing Brain Surgery on Children

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Last week’s announcement that OHSU’s children’s hospital has acquired a state-of-the-art MRI unit for use during operations is excellent news for Oregon families that may someday be faced with traumatic brain injuries or other injuries to children requiring sensitive surgery.

According to a recent account in The Oregonian the $2 million machine and its accompanying $19 million surgical suite are significant because this type of MRI can be used during operations in the operating theater itself, in contrast to traditional MRI units which are housed separately and can only be used before or after surgery. “The MRI travels overhead on rails and then retracts after the pictures are taken, allowing surgeons to see what’s going on while they’re operating,” the paper reports. The machine is scheduled to go into service next month.

This is significant because, as OHSU’s head of neurological surgery tells the paper: “Brain surgery often succeeds or fails by a millimeter, but during surgery the brain can shift by 10 times that much.”

February 10, 2016

Oregon Legislature Moves Forward with Needed Foster Care Reforms

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Following up my blog last month about the scandal and abuses at the Give Us This Day foster care center I am pleased to report that the Oregon legislature is making progress to address the important issue of injuries to children in Oregon’s foster care system.

As reported recently by The Oregonian, the Senate’s Human Services Committee has unanimously approved SB 1515 under which “Oregon’s foster care officials would have to produce public reports listing confirmed findings of abuse and neglect every three months.” The drive for this legislation was spurred by the scandal at the now-shuttered Give Us This Day facility which, the newspaper writes, is accused of misusing more than $2 million of public funds even as it “tolerated more than a decade of child abuse.”

The key thing to remember is that this scandal is not about one particular center, but, rather, about the entire way foster care is handled by the government here in Oregon and how much insight the public ought to be able to have into both the state’s actions and the providers with whom it works.

February 5, 2016

Safety Issues Around Takata Airbags Continue to Grow

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The scandal surrounding defective auto airbags manufactured by the Japanese company Takata got worse this week. According to a story just published by the New York Times “Honda Motor Co. said Friday that it would recall 5.7 million cars worldwide in the latest round of recalls involving Takata Corp. air bag inflators that can explode and hurl shrapnel into the vehicle.”

The paper reports that about 2.2 million of those vehicles are here in the United States. That’s on top of the 24 million units from Honda and other companies that were already on the recall list in the United States alone – and tens of millions more worldwide. It is a scandal that has only grown over the last year. According to the Times 11 deaths and at least 139 injuries have been inked to the shrapnel-laden airbags..

The latest recall notices came just days after senators Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut “called on the Obama administration in a letter to force the recall of every Takata airbag that uses a propellant that contains a compound called ammonium nitrate, which can degrade over time and become unstable,” according to a separate Times article published earlier in the week.

February 3, 2016

Oregon injuries to children alleged in youth correctional center lawsuit

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A lawsuit alleging sexual abuse at a state youth correctional facility is calling attention to the responsibility Oregon and other states have to protect young people placed in their care. According to a recent article in The Oregonian a man in his early 40s has filed a suit in Marion County court alleging that “as a teenager in 1991 he was repeatedly coaxed into a laundry room and a bathroom and then sexually abused by two female staff members at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn.”

This case caught my eye because it is a powerful reminder that injuries to, and sexual abuse of, children can and should be addressed by our justice system even if a significant amount of time has passed. According to the paper the victim, identified in the suit only as “John Doe” had not “reported the MacLaren employees to police or others, the suit says, because he didn’t see the behavior for what it was.” No person who has suffered in this way should be denied justice solely because they were too afraid to come forward at the time the offense was committed. Therefore it is heartening to see this case proceeding despite the passage of nearly 25 years.

Even more importantly, “the suit states that sexual abuse at the youth prison in the 1990s wasn’t just isolated to Doe. The suit claims that the two women abused at least three other boys – and that one of the women ended up marrying a youth offender after the two had a sexual relationship at MacLaren. The lawsuit faults the Oregon Youth Authority for allegedly ‘fostering’ an atmosphere where sexual abuse of youths was known and ignored or condoned.”

January 26, 2016

Oregon-focused Study Highlights Dangers Surrounding Home Birth

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A harrowing story in the magazine Pacific Standard highlights how loosely regulated midwife-supervised births often are, and the tragic consequences that can result. As the article’s sub-head notes: “in 30 states, Certified Professional Midwives are licensed to practice medicine with virtually no medical training.” This, in turn, can lead to serious injuries to children and even, as in this case, to deaths.

The article focuses on the experience of a Nevada couple whose baby died a few minutes after being born. As it lays out in detail, the warning signs about this particular pregnancy were clear for any trained professional to see. The problem was that by hiring a midwife in a state with particularly lax regulation the parents were left getting advice from someone fundamentally unqualified. “Had (the baby) been born in a hospital under the care of a nurse-midwife or physician, he almost certainly would have lived,” the magazine concludes.

The article goes on to note that it was only after matters had gone too far that the parents discovered that the ‘supervising physician’ listed by the midwife had never met her, and that the woman in question had moved to Nevada to evade a license suspension in California.