Jacksonville Personal Injury Lawyer

Gov. Crist Supports Texting Ban This Legislative Session

Eddie Farah — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:04:32 GMT

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has come out with a Legislative wish list for 2010.

He clearly stated he is in favor of a ban on texting while driving this year, adding new momentum for the state Legislature to finally adopt some legislation when they meet in the spring.

At a Cabinet meeting the governor even prodded the head of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to also support a ban. But she stopped short of giving her full support. “We support limiting texting and driving” Julie Jones said.

For too long the cell phone industry has had its way with Floridians, but that is beginning to change. Jones told reporters that she senses there is a shifting intolerance in public opinion for texting, largely because of the number of fatal accidents.

While Florida has no officially tally on those who have died from texting while driving, the best estimate is that 15 were killed and 1,400 injured by distracted drivers in 2008. Those estimates are probably low since the Florida Highway Patrol is just beginning to note on accident reports when distractions contribute to an accident.

More than a dozen bills have been filed for consideration this March. Sen. Carey Baker, R-Eustis has filed two of them. “I think this year, something’s going to pass” he said.

Florida this year has a chance to join 14 states and the District of Columbia that already ban texting while driving. It's time for Floridians to move into this next year with a recognition and a resolve to make the roads safer for all of us.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

Making Health Care Easier and More Affordable

Eddie Farah — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:22:08 GMT

When you need to access health care in a hurry in Florida, you might not be thinking about cost comparisons like you would with food or toys.

But consider this. Shop for health care like you shop for anything when you want to save money – wisely. The state of Florida is making it a bit easier.

Many uninsured consumers of medical services in Florida may not know that under law they have the right to reliable and understandable information about their health care charges.

As of January 1, 2009, when the “Health Care Consumer’s Right to Information Act” took effect (SB 1488), consumers were entitled to be provided with a reasonable estimate of charges for any planned non emergency medical service from a health care provider.

The estimate is supposed to be written in lay language that anyone can understand, and should represent the average charge for that diagnosis or procedure. And for facilities not operated by the state, the bill requires them to provide the estimate of reasonably anticipated charges within seven days after the center confirms the individual is uninsured.

The law requires the facility to put a notice in the reception area concerning any discounts or charity discounts, under what condition they are available. A failure to do so subjects the facility to a $500 fine.

Also access the information on the state Web site (www.floridahealthfinder.gov) which lists undiscounted charges for no fewer than 150 of the most commonly performed adult and pediatric procedures.

Bottom line - Transparency in costs will help consumers shop more wisely for health care like consumer goods and lead to greater competition and incentive to keep costs down.

As reducing the cost of health care is on everyone’s mind, forcing transparency in the health care industry is one way we can lower our bills and keep everyone honest. #

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

Party House Mom Facing Two Counts of Manslaughter

Eddie Farah — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:01:09 GMT

Her lawyer had argued that Diane Katz Santarelli should not be charged with two counts of manslaughter after hosting an open house drinking party that preceded the death of two teens in an auto crash.

But Friday, St. Johns Circuit Judge Wendy W. Berger, refused to dismiss manslaughter charges against Santarelli, 51, saying her action “set in motion a chain of events” that ended January 11 with the deaths of Jesse Calvin Pitts, 18 and Taylor Rae Brennan, 17.

The two St. Johns County teens were leaving a party at the Santarelli home when friends say they were too drunk to get behind the wheel of a 1991 Ford Thunderbird. With Pitts driving, the car veered off State Road 13 near Orangedale and hit some trees, bursting into flames. Both teens died. Pitts’s blood alcohol level was 0.18, more than twice the legal limit.

Santarelli’s attorney says that allowing someone to leave your home intoxicated does not merit a manslaughter charge, and her defense will be that the kids arrived at her house already intoxicated.

But prosecutors say Santarelli allowed, provided, or encouraged minors to drink alcohol at the house party and smoke marijuana, and they say there were a number of parties held prior to this one with Ms. Santorelli present.

Florida Statute 856 says no person who controls a residence shall allow an open house party to take place where minors, under the age of 21, are consuming alcoholic beverages or drugs. Violators can face up to 6 months in prison, unless there is a death. The law imposes a duty of care on the social host to take some reasonable action to prevent anyone under the age of 21 from drinking.

Santarelli is facing two counts of manslaughter, four counts of hosting an open house party and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Her pre-trial date is scheduled for December 1. #

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

Florida Tops List For Pedestrian Deaths

Eddie Farah — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:53:48 GMT

A 42-year-old St. Augustine, Florida woman was killed Friday night after authorities say she walked in front of a moving car.

Glenadine Harding was crossing Florida 207 when she was hit by a Honda sedan about 6:20 p.m. The driver was identified as Jill E. Scott, 55 of St. Augustine.

In a separate accident about an hour later, a man was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries Friday night after he was hit by a car in Northwest Jacksonville at West Moncrief Road near Raines Avenue, waiting for the traffic to clear when he suddenly darted into traffic where he was hit.

Then on Tuesday, a pedestrian was struck and killed by an SUV at the rain-drenched intersection of North Main Street near 53^rd Street. The Times- Union reports the man’s relative identified him as 51-year old James “Jimbo” Hall who didn’t have a car and walked everywhere he went.

Florida has four of the five most treacherous metropolitan areas for walking and is the most dangerous state in the U.S. for pedestrians.

That is the conclusion of the Pedestrian Danger Index, used when assessing the risk of walking in urban areas. Orlando, Tampa, Miami, and Jacksonville, and their surrounding areas, were the top four hazardous cities, followed by Memphis. The top 10 is rounded out with Raleigh, Louisville, Houston, Birmingham and Atlanta.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, in 2005 there were 576 pedestrians killed in the state, nearly 8,000 crashes that injured pedestrians and 8,626 pedestrian crashes.

The milder weather of Florida weather encourages people to be outside at least nine months of the year in areas that seem to have automobile-oriented development and high-speed cars.

Nationwide 9,000 pedestrians were killed in collisions with cars in 2007 and 2008. At least 70,000 more were injured. Many of those killed were 15 or younger.

This sort of survey puts the burden on metropolitan planners to design communities where people can walk safely.

The safest metro cities that have taken strollers into consideration are Minneapolis-St. Paul, Boston, New York, Pittsburgh and Seattle. #

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

Number of Yaz and Yasmin Lawsuits Growing

Eddie Farah — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:10:56 GMT

In 2007, Susan Galinis of San Francisco was the happy mother of 3-year-old twins, until doctors put her on the Yaz birth control pill. Four weeks and one day later she suffered a stroke.

Today it’s obvious to see part of her skull has been removed. Doctors had to operate to accommodate the brain swelling following her stroke. Her IQ is 77. She has chronic pain and no short-term memory. Her twins have gone to counselling to deal with the differnt mother who returned from the hospital after six months.

Galinas has sued Bayer HealthCare. Her doctors told her it was Yaz that caused her stroke.

Anne Marie Eakins, 34, a history teacher and mother of two is also suing. She developed blood clots in both lungs in 2007 after starting Yaz. That resulted in partial loss of her right lung.

Yaz is the newest sister to drug, Yasmin, both made by Bayer. Ocella birth control is the generic version that is sold by Teva Pharmaceuticals.

All three oral contraceptives are among the most widely used and involve a combination of ethinyl estradiol with a new type of progestin, drospirenone that has been inked to health problems including strokes, heart attacks, deep vein thrombosis, gallbladder disease, pulmonary embolisms, and death.

Our firm is taking in a number of cases by women who have been hurt by these oral contraceptives which should be taken off the market. With six new cases being filed around the country every day and class action lawsuits being launched around the country, it won't be long before the drug is taken off the market.

Until then, women have to suffer.

The go-to drugs for women under the age of 35 generated sales of about $1.8 billion for Bayer last year. A multi-million dollar ad campaign promises the pill is a quality of life treatment that will improve acne and severe premenstrual depression. Bayer had to spend $20 million correcting those ads after the FDA said the company went well beyond what the drug approval.

Bayer stands behind its oral contraceptives and plans to defend itself vigorously against the rising number of lawsuits filed by lawyers and the women they represent, to hopefully soon bring the marketing of these dangerous oral contraceptives to an end.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

FDA Addresses Medical Errors And $4 Billion Pricetag

Eddie Farah — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:29:47 GMT

As we look at saving money on health care spending, Americans should consider drugs, specifically the huge cost of medical errors involving prescriptions.

Medication interactions, a mix-up in the pharmacy such as switching out the wrong prescription, an inability read a doctor’s handwriting, all can lead to drug dosage errors which cost us all about $4 billion a year, not to mention lives and injuries.

Now the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it is trying to identify the most serious threats to better understand and get a handle on the problem. Consider this- errors with medication happen often - about 1.5 million errors every year according to a two- year-old study by the Institute of Medicine.

A recent Hearst Newspaper group investigation, "Dead By Mistake" profiles many who lost their lives through medication errors.

It so astonishing that even the new FDA commissioner, Margaret Hamburg, who is a doctor, was stunned by the numbers. She announced a new plan called “Safe Use Initiative” by saying it “doesn’t require a new scientific discovery or a budget appropriation.”

In holding public hearing and gathering information from the public about that problem, the FDA would be wise to speak with personal injury attorneys.

Every week we hear of the adverse events that can occur from drugs, even when they are used as directed of prescribed. Consider Tylenol that can cause liver damage when taken in excess, and the devastating outcomes of drugs when they are not.

Public Citizen is onboard with this scrutiny of package labels, and inserts, and instructions given to dispensing pharmacists. Dr. Sidney Wolfe says that about 99.5 percent of pamphlets are missing critical information.

While medication is supposed to make us feel better and perhaps save lives, patients and doctors forget almost every medication eventually has a side effect. The presumption of safety needs to be challenged.

Instead of relying on a “Pill for every Ill” Americans need to remember that “safe medication” is an oxymoron. #

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

25-Year-Old Loses Life In I-95 Explorer Rollover

Eddie Farah — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:27:55 GMT

It seems like we are reporting on these Ford Explorer rollover deaths on a weekly basis. Now there has been another.

A 25-year-old Orange Park woman lost her life on I-95 Saturday.

The Florida Highway Patrol reports that Kathleen Lugo was heading south on Interstate 95 in Flagler County when she lost control of her 1999 Ford Explorer SUV and crashed Saturday afternoon around 3:15 p.m. Lugo reportedly tried to pass slow traffic and when she moved to the shoulder of the road she lost control and rolled several times. Not wearing her seat belt, Lugo was ejected from the Explorer and taken to Halifax Hospital where she was pronounced dead. No one else ws injured.

Our condolences go out to the family of this young woman who has left us all too soon.

In 2002, Ford installed a fully independent rear suspension in the Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer leading to more stability to the Explorer which has a high center of gravity and a tendancy to roll.

In 1999, Explorers involved in rollover had non-independent rear suspensions and many of the tires were found to be defective. And in May 2000, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) contacted Ford and Firestone about the incidence of tire failures and separating tread in Explorers, Mountaineers and the Mazda Navajos with Firestone tires.

An accident investigator will need to be involved in this case if there could be a cause of action concerning a faulty tire as well as any defects in the Explorer or in dropoff in the pavement along the side of the interstate which may have caused Lugo to lose control of the vehicle as there are still many unanswered questions here.

The one thing that is not unanswered is that seat belt use saves lives. It is now the law in Florida and young drivers have the worst record in using seat belts.

Fortunately in 2009, the second generation of Ford Explorers built from 1995 to 2005, had five among the seven top spots traded in the “Cash for Clunkers” program, with the 1998 model at the top of the list.

That’s little consolation to the family of Kathleen Lugo, but it may mean that one less person loses their lives in these notoriously unstable vehicles. #

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

Headphones, Pedestrians and Railroad Tracks Don't Mix

Eddie Farah — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:35:44 GMT

This is a very sad story to report out of Auburndale, Florida.

An 18-year-old high school student was walking along Amtrak train tracks wearing headphones and apparently didn’t hear an approaching train traveling from Miami to New York.

The conductor says he tried to alert Robert Lopez with no response. When the train got within 20 feet of Lopez, he tried to jump off the track, but it was too late. Lopez was pronounced dead at the scene.

Our condolences go out to his family for this very tragic and avoidable accident.

This is not an isolated incident.

Just last week, a 24-year-old man was struck and killed by a train in Litchfield, Minnesota. His headphones and music player were found at the scene.

In February, a 17-year-old teen was hit and killed by an Amtrak train near his Comstock Township home in Michigan. He was crossing the tracks diagonally with his back to the eastbound train and was also wearing headphones.

No matter where you are or what your are doing, it is illegal to trespass on a railroad right-of-way outside of the designated crossing areas.

In 2008, there were 2,395 grade crossing incidents nationwide.

In Florida, there were 26 pedestrian rail trespass deaths in 2008, one of the highest in the nation.

The Florida chapter of the nonprofit rail safety group, Operation Lifesaver has launched our state's public awareness campaign to bring a “Common Sense” message to the public and reduce the number of pedestrians fatalities at rail tracks. Whether texting, talking on the phone or wearing headphones, the best advice is stay away from tracks- its just common sense.

In order to attract attention of the 18-34 age range, most likely to be killed on the tracks, the campaign includes an interactive Web site, videos and internet ads. See: www.CommonSenseUseIt.com

Other than a public crossing area- if you use the tracks to fish, take an ATV, or walk, you are trespassing.

If you need to cross the track – do so only at public crossing designated areas. Look for the crossbuck sign. Forget the cellphones and headphones when you are near the train tracks.

Modern trains are quieter than they used to be. Be sure to look both ways before crossing. You can expect a train at any time. There is no way you will be able to outrun it. #

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

Missing Children and The Technology That May Find Them

Eddie Farah — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:28:46 GMT

According to federal statistics, there are about 115 child abductions by strangers every year in this country.

Unfortunately this week we had another in the Jacksonville area. The community of Orange Park is in shock following the abduction of 7-year-old Somer Thompson who was walking home from school. By Wednesday, two days after her abduction, her body was found discarded in a Georgia landfill.

Somer and her family are in our prayers. Nothing could be worse.

The first 24 hours after a child goes missing are crucial for finding her and entrepreneurs have been frantically working to come up with devices that allow us to track our children, similar to a way we track vehicles.

Many people think that microchips, put under the skin, help you find a child. But when put into our pets, they allow shelters to run a scanner and obtain information on the owner. They are not tracking devices.

The VeriChip Company makes VeriKid, used in Mexico where they put scanners in public places kidnapped children may be. VeriChip was primarily developed to hold a patient’s medical information and it does not contain a transmitter and is not satellite-enabled.

Wherify GPS Personal Locator combines GPS and digital wireless technologies to pinpoint a wearers position within a few feet. Parents can view satellite or street map or call an 800 number. Cost is $800 and $30 a month to monitor. Parents lock the bracelet onto the child’s wrist, which could be removed by a perpetrator.

Amber/AlertGPS is a small gadget that tells parents where their child is at all times. It features a button you child can push when they are in trouble sending out an SOS signal to five preselected people on their mobile phones and email addresses. The little square is placed in their pocket or backpack. It can also be used for speeding teenagers.

Again it's not cheap. At a cost of $379 with tracking plans ranging from $10 to $60 a month, it’s a little too costly for most parents.

GPS T80G Tracking Watch calls itself the world’s smallest watch. It contains a built-in GPS and looks like something a child would watch. It too comes with preset areas and sends out an SOS when the child leaves the area.

Lok8u is a real watch that tells time. If the watch is forcible removed from the child’s wrist an alert with location information is immediately sent to the parent’s cell phone. Parents can set up safe zones for the child. The cost is $200 with a $10 monthly monitoring fee.

There have always been bad people in the world and the community is on alert hoping and praying that this perpetrator is found soon. More than 1,000 tips have been called into investigators, but the identity of the bad guy is still a mystery.

Too bad he doesn't have a GPS device.

Maybe someday reliable and affordable technology can help us find missing children quickly. But today many parents are just relying on keeping them a little closer.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

Gardasil and Lou Gehrig's Disease - Two Cases

Eddie Farah — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:31:59 GMT

Researchers believe that two separate cases of Lou Gehrig’s Disease in young girls that progressed rapidly following the Gardasil injection may be related to the cervical cancer drug.

More than seven million young women and girls have been given Gardasil vaccine in a three-shot series to protect against two types of virus that cause cervical cancer and two that cause genital warts.

In both cases the young women died and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease progressed rapidly. Merck, the maker of Gardasil does not believe the events could have been caused by Gardasil.

Here’s what we do know. Jenny Tetlock was 14-years-old. Months after her third and final booster for Gardasil, she tripped in gym class. Soon both legs and her arms became weak. She began to limp and had trouble gripping objects and she felt pins and needles in her feet. Her muscled atrophied.

Her parents tell her story on their web site Jenny’s Journey hoping others may report similar cases to them so they can make sure the cases are registered with the federal government.

Within a year Jenny was paralyzed, a quadriplegic and used life support to help her breath. The degenerative disease did not harm her mind, which Web MD reports was as sharp as ever before she died.

Another girl, 20-years-old, saw her ALS progress the same way within four months of her first Gardasil shot. She died 28 months later.

The link between the symptoms and the shot is very suspicious to researcher Dr. Catherine Lomen-Hoerth at the ALS Center at University of California San Francisco Medical Center.

First the symptoms progressed very rapidly, more so than in a typical ALS patient. Both girls had an inflamed spinal cord she said to doctors at the American Neurological Association.

More work is to be done. Young ALS patients will be compared to these girls. The adverse events reports will be combed further to see if there are any young women who reported ALS symptoms following Gardasil. So far there are none reported.

Jenny’s parents, Phil and Barb, both college professors, are asking anyone who visits their Web site in their daughter’s honor to forward any cases of muscle paralysis following a Gardasil injection to their Web site so they can make sure that it is registered on the federal VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System) Web site. They fear cases are underreported since VAERS is not generally known or easy to navigate.

And one doctor says he will now ask his young ALS patients if they received the Gardasil vaccine. He didn’t think to ask before, he says.

Our sympathies go out to the friends and families of these two young women.

Jenny was 15 when she lost her battle with the rapidly degenerative neurological disease on March 15, 2009. #

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah