Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog

November 30, 2012

Pay Attention to Dangerous Toys This Holiday Season

Now that Thanksgiving is over and Christmas, Hanukkah and the New Year are fast approaching it is a good time to remember that holiday joy should also be tempered with a measure of caution. Earlier this month the US Public Interest Research Group released its annual survey of dangerous toys, Trouble in Toyland. It is a reminder that parents need to take care during the coming weeks to ensure that unsafe products do not threaten their families.

The issue here is not so much the common dangers that any responsible parent is always aware of – choking hazards, for example (though, to be clear, these remain very real). Rather it is with manufacturing problems that parents may not immediately be able to see, but which pose a risk of death or serious injury to unsuspecting children.

Trouble in Toyland notes that “toys with high levels of toxic substances are still on store shelves, as well as toys with lead content above the 100 parts per million limit.” It also expresses particular concern about toys containing “small powerful magnets that pose a dangerous threat to children if swallowed.”

November 27, 2012

Bed Rail Product Safety Questioned in Newspaper Article

by Matthew D. Kaplan

An article published yesterday in the New York Times raises serious questions about product safety issues concerning bed rails, and is worth our notice here in Oregon. The paper’s reporting is built around the shocking revelation that the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Food and Drug Administration have both “known for more than a decade about deaths from bed rails but had done little to crack down on the companies that make them.”

Even the fact that two government agencies had so much evidence raising questions about these dangerous products came to light only after a woman whose mother died in a bed rail accident launched a persistent letter-writing campaign. The woman became concerned about safety issues after her 81-year old mother died when she was “apparently strangled after getting her neck caught in side rails used to prevent her from rolling out of bed” at the nursing home where she lived.

The newspaper reports that data compiled by the CPSC documented 150 adult deaths, mainly among senior citizens, as a result of bed rails between 2003 and mid-2012. “Over the same time period, 36,000 mostly older adults – about 4,000 a year – were treated in emergency rooms with bed rail injuries,” the Times adds.

November 21, 2012

Government Raises Safety Questions Concerning ‘5-Hour Energy’

by Matthew D. Kaplan

We’ve all seen the tiny red and yellow bottles in the supermarket. Most of us have seen the TV commercials too: 5-Hour Energy bills itself as an afternoon pick-me-up for flagging office workers, and as time-efficient replacement for a late commuter’s morning coffee.

According to an investigation by the New York Times, however, information compiled by the federal government raises important questions about the safety of 5-Hour Energy and similar products. “Since 2009, 5-Hour Energy has been mentioned in some 90 filings with the FDA, including more than 30 that involved serious or life-threatening injuries like heart attacks, convulsions and, in one case, a spontaneous abortion” the newspaper reports.

The paper notes that the mention of a product in an FDA filing does not necessarily mean that the product is connected with a particular incident – only that a connection is possible or suspected. Still, the Times reports that 13 fatality reports mention 5-Hour Energy and that the government, as a result, is concerned. The Times adds that the regulatory world concerning energy drinks is often confusing because some are treated as beverages while others (including 5-Hour Energy) are classified as dietary supplements. Each category has different rules regarding both labeling and whether and how adverse events need to be reported to the government. The article quotes an FDA official saying that the reports are prompting a closer examination by the Agency.

November 18, 2012

Investigation of Oregon Child Party Bus Death Continues

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Following up a story I originally wrote about last month, there are new developments in the death of an 11-year-old Portland girl in a September accident involving a party bus.

According to The Oregonian the girl died when her skull was crushed as she “tumbled out of an emergency window on the bus when it careened around a corner… at Southwest First Avenue and Harrison Street.” She is reported to have been sitting atop a horseshoe-shaped couch in the back of the bus at the time of the fatal Portland bus accident. “The bus was full of kids on their way to a birthday party but no adults were in the back,” the newspaper reports.

As troubling as this lack of adult supervision is the revelation that the bus itself lacked the proper safety inspection permit and was being operated by a man who was not licensed to drive this type of vehicle, according to The Oregonian. This image of a company putting immediate profits ahead of safety is chilling not only for any parent considering whether to let a child attend a party involving this sort of bus but, frankly, for any adult who might be thinking of hiring a party bus for a special celebration. The fact that a window that was supposed to function as an emergency exit flew open so easily is a reminder of how essential the required government safety inspections are.

November 13, 2012

Oregon Pedestrian Deaths Rise Sharply

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Figures published recently in The Oregonian paint a distressing picture of the safety situation for pedestrians here in Oregon. Citing data compiled by the Oregon Department of Transportation the paper reports that “pedestrian deaths in Oregon are up 23 percent over last year.”

With the death in late October of a 58-year-old man on the Hawthorne Bridge the total number of Oregon pedestrian deaths for 2012 reached 48. “That matches the total for all of 2011,” the paper reports, citing an ODOT spokeswoman. The victim of this latest fatal Oregon car accident involving a pedestrian was struck by an eastbound car as he crossed from one side of the bridge to the other. He had been using the bridge to watch his wife compete in a rowing race.

The sharp rise in pedestrian fatalities is especially surprising since bicycle-related deaths have fallen over the same period. The Oregonian reports that bicycle deaths have dropped 41 percent: seven this year compared to 12 during the same period in 2011.

November 6, 2012

Albany Man’s Ordeal Celebrates Medical Technology, but Raises Workplace Questions

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Last week The Oregonian reported on the ordeal of an Albany man, a story that is both inspiring and, in some ways, troubling. The paper reports that the man, a 40-year-old machine operator at a lumber mill, was scheduled to be released from Legacy Emanuel Medical Center after nearly 10 days of treatment following an accident in which his right arm was severed while he worked on a lumber company’s processing line.

Quick action by both co-workers and doctors allowed his arm to be reattached following hours of delicate surgery. One colleague provided critical first aid. Another had the presence of mind to ensure that medics took the severed arm with them as the accident victim was transported to the hospital. Once there, according to the chief surgeon on the trauma team handling the case, the fact that the cut was, in his words, “fairly clean” made the daunting task of reattachment more achievable.

The same doctor told reporters that he expects the machine operator “to eventually regain some sensation and make at least a partial recovery,” the newspaper reports.

October 31, 2012

Rethinking Youth Sports: A Neurosurgeon’s Plea

by Matthew D. Kaplan

In a recent article in the New York Times Dr. Robert C. Cantu, a professor of neurosurgery at Boston University, issued a thoughtful, yet passionate, call for parents and school officials to rethink the way we approach youth sports here in the United States.

Writing that he meets with some 1,500 concussion patients each year, Dr. Cantu lays out the case for lowering the degree and intensity of contact that younger children experience across a range of sports. “In light of what we now know about concussions and the brains of children,” he writes, “many sports should be fine-tuned.” Dr. Cantu writes that children under 14 are fundamentally more vulnerable than older teenagers or adults. “A child’s brain and head are disproportionately large for the rest of the body,” he notes. “And a child’s weak neck cannot brace for a hit the way an adult’s can. (Think of a bobblehead doll.)”

He begins the piece by focusing on football, where he believes tackling should be eliminated for children under 14, but emphasizes that head trauma, concussions and brain injuries are all more common in other sports than is popularly believed. His piece goes on to propose rule changes in soccer, ice hockey, baseball, softball, field hockey and girls’ lacrosse – many of which are not activities most of us think of as contact sports.

October 29, 2012

Standing Up to the Chamber – Standing Up for Oregonians’ Rights

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Last week the US Chamber of Commerce held its annual Legal Reform Summit – an event designed to scare Americans into believing that our courts are out of control. The American Association of Justice took this opportunity to set the record straight, posting an online slide show designed to educate Oregonians and other Americans about the Chamber’s excesses.

Titled “Top 10 Ways the US chamber Hurts Americans” the presentation highlights both the Chamber’s hypocrisy – its denunciation of “bailouts” even as it sought them for its largest corporate members – and the broader damage it does to the nation at large as one of the leading promoters of climate change denial.

This is an embedded Microsoft Office presentation, powered by Office Web Apps.

October 24, 2012

Washington’s New Focus on TBI Sports Injuries

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A lengthy article published this week in Washington’s Kitsap Sun looks at the issue of traumatic brain injuries – particularly concussions – among young athletes. As the paper notes, “the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates more than 3.5 million concussions – defined as traumatic brain injuries – occur each year on ball fields and (in) sports venues across the country.”

The article focuses on the Zackery Lystedt law, a measure enacted in Washington in 2009 that prevents high school age and younger athletes “with suspected concussions from returning to the playing field without authorization from a licensed health care provider.” The law is named after a junior-high football player who suffered permanent brain damage and disability as a result of a 2006 game. The paper notes that “return-to-play legislation modeled after the Lystedt Law has since been adopted in 39 other states.”

According to SafeKids.org, Oregon’s own youth sports-focused TBI legislation, enacted about the same time as the Washington Law, offers some key safeguards but does not go nearly as far. A important difference is that Washington teens must be pulled from a game or practice if there is reason to believe that they may have suffered a concussion. Here in Oregon removing the athlete from competition or practice only becomes mandatory once they exhibit symptoms of a possible traumatic brain injury. Once an athlete has been pulled from the field both states require written clearance from a medical professional before the player can return to practices or competitions.

October 22, 2012

Oregon Car Crash Spotlights Importance of Safety Devices

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Television station KOIN, citing the Oregon State Police, reports on a two-vehicle head-on Oregon car crash over the weekend near Rainier, Oregon on the Columbia River, north of Portland.

The station reports that at about 10:30pm last Friday a pick-up truck traveling “southbound on Highway 30 near milepost 44” collided in a head-on motor vehicle accident with a northbound passenger car. The Oregon crash took place as the truck moved over into the left lane to pass another vehicle. The driver and four of the five people traveling in the car were injured, KOIN reports.

Where this becomes an important lesson for all drivers is when we look more closely at the injuries. The driver of the pick-up truck, a 37-year-old St. Helens man, is reported to have been taken to a Portland-area hospital in critical condition. In the car, the driver, a woman from Longview, Washington, was also injured along with three of her four passengers. Unlike the man in the pick-up truck, however, the injuries to the people in the car are described as “non-life threatening.” In fact, one of the car’s passengers – a two-year-old – was not hurt at all.