How Does Neglect Differ from Abuse?

Finding out whether your parent, relative or friend has been the victim of nursing home neglect is vital for their wellbeing. Sadly, many elderly people are in such a vulnerable state that they cannot attend to their own needs. Unfortunately, they are also in no shape to deal with nursing home staff that is neglecting them.

What Is Nursing Home Neglect?

The New York Justice Center defines neglect as “the failure to provide supervision, or adequate food, clothing, shelter, health care; or access to an educational entitlement.”

Elder neglect is typically a more subtle behavior than abuse. With abuse, you envision an elderly person being shoved, pushed, physically struck or verbally abused or financially exploited. Neglect is an omission rather than a commission.

Nursing Home Neglect Examples

The failure to provide an elderly person with timely medical care is a prime example and one of the most egregious forms of neglect. In some instances, this can even be life threatening. An example would be an elderly person who experiences a stroke and cannot get out of bed. This occurs in the morning but the nursing home staff does not discover the person until dinnertime. Even then, they wait until the next day for a doctor to examine the individual. This would be gross neglect.

Other examples include failing to provide regular care such as the following:

• Bathing services
• Adequate food
• Adequate fluids
• Clothing that protects the person against weather elements
• Supervision by staff and medical professionals
• Safe shelter
• Residents with bedsores

An understaffed nursing home may neglect its residents for the sole reason that staff are stretched too thin to offer proper and regular care.

If your loved one appears to be the victim of nursing home neglect, find out about their legal rights. At Sackstein Sackstein & Lee, LLP, we offer a free initial consultation to discuss nursing home neglect and whether grounds exist for pursuing a lawsuit.

Is a Property Owner Liable for Your Assault Injuries?

Negligent security is a category of law that falls under premises liability. It refers to the property owner’s negligence in maintaining secure grounds.

When violent acts or crimes harm someone on an owner’s property, there may be a legal basis for a lawsuit against the property owner. In these types of cases, the civil lawsuit would hold the property owner accountable for damages resulting from the negligent security.

What Are Examples of Negligent Security?

Many property owners take security measures to prevent criminal assaults from occurring on their grounds. A lack of security measures may in some cases establish grounds of negligence. Security measures frequently include:

• Security guards that patrol the area
• Gated and locked entry areas
• Fenced in parking lots
• Locked doors or buzzer systems for entry
• Security cameras with broad views of the area
• A security warning system
• Well lit parking lots and stairwells

What Types of Establishments Must Take Security Precautions?

Lack of security in the following types of facilities can make the property owner and their agent liable for criminal assaults:

• Hotels, resorts, convention centers
• College dormitories and grounds of universities and public or private schools
• Apartments and gated communities
• Nightclubs, restaurants and bars
• Recreational centers, sports stadiums and concert venues
• Casinos and racetracks
• Hospitals, mental heath institutions and medical clinics
• Nursing homes and assisted living facilities
• Banks and ATM areas
• Mass transit stations for trains, subways and buses
• Office buildings and parking lots
• Movie theaters
• Shopping malls

What Should You Do If Assaulted?

1. If you are in a public or private area and someone mugs, attacks or assaults you, you should seek medical assistance first, especially if seriously injured.
2. You should call the police and report the incident. Having the assault on record helps the police to investigate, track down and arrest the assailant. It also documents the injury that occurred on the property.
3. If you believe the criminal act occurred as a result of negligent security, you should contact a lawyer as soon as possible. Aside from the fact that the person assaulting you could be held liable for damages, the property owner may also be liable.

Sackstein Sackstein & Lee, LLP has experience handling this type of case. We offer a free consultation to evaluate your circumstances and whether grounds exist for pursuing legal action.

Progress Being Made in RSD/CPRS Treatment

In many cases, CPRS has been difficult to treat. Hearing that the FDA has deemed a drug a “breakthrough therapy” for CPRS treatment is encouraging.

RSC (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy) is an older name for the condition that today is called CRPS, which stands for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. CPRS impairs the sympathetic nervous system and results in continuous, severe pain that goes beyond what is normal for the initial injury. This syndrome causes inflammation and produces symptoms in the skin, nerves, blood vessels and bones. It can also lead to short-term memory loss, spasms and various other symptoms.

While doctors do not know what causes CRPS, they do know it can manifest after an injury or surgery.

What Treatment Is Available for CPRS?

In 2016, the FDA categorized a CPRS treatment drug that was in clinical trial stages as a “breakthrough therapy.” The name of the drug is neridronic acid. Amiogen Pharma, which is an Italian drug manufacturer, discovered it. It is developing the drug jointly with Grünenthal, a German pharmaceutical company.

According to the Pain News Network, the FDA gave the drug a “Breakthrough Therapy” designation as a result of its Phase II clinical trial results. Treating CPRS patients with neridronic acid significantly reduced the pain and symptoms of CRPS.

Currently, there are no FDA approved treatments for CPRS. However, the FDA gave this drug both fast track and orphan drug designations. An orphan drug is a pharmaceutical drug being developed to treat a rare medical condition. Orphan disease is the term for a rare medical condition. The drug is currently in the Phase III trial stage. Once approved for the market, the Phase IV research trial begins where researchers evaluate long-term effects.

Individuals who meet the neridronic clinical trial requirements can participate in the clinical trial and receive treatments.

Are You or a Loved One a Victim of CPRS?

If medical malpractice was related to your CPRS condition, you may have recourse to recover compensation for injury. Compensation can help you offset the costly medical expenses involved with treating your condition.

At Sackstein Sackstein & Lee, LLP, we offer a free initial consultation to discuss CPRS and legal action to protect your rights.

Hit and run Accidents Are Common in the Bronx

In September of 2018, major media networks reported three fatal hit-and-run accidents in the Bronx:

• September 3. A car near the intersection of the Cross Bronx Expressway and Rosedale Avenue in Parkchester hit a 66-year-old man around 2:30 a.m. The driver fled from the scene. The man was lying on the ground and other three other cars struck him as well. All three drivers remained at the scene and the police arrested two of them for driving with suspended licenses. (New York Post)
• September 25. A pedestrian, identified as Yun Ko of Queens was struck in a hit and run accident. The victim was a 62-year-old male. After being discovered, he was rushed to the hospital where was pronounced dead. (Eyewitness News ABC)
• September 30. A BMW driver caused a three-car collision in the Bronx and then afterward fled on foot to a cemetery close by. The BMW driver was traveling southbound on Jerome Avenue and crossed over the double lines into the northbound lane. His car sideswiped a Honda SUV that a 70-year-old woman was driving. He accelerated, still heading northbound and hit a Toyota, which flipped and entered the path of another Honda SUV driver, a 59-year-old woman, and the Toyota smashed into the passenger door. A 59-year-old man died in the crash. Police arrested the BMW driver for leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, criminal possession of a controlled substance and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. (New York Daily News and NBC New York)

A hit and run accident is an accident where a driver involved in the collision knowingly fails to stop and provide information: name, driver’s license number, etc. to the injured party, a witness or law enforcement officers or if unable to stop fails to report the accident to authorities as soon as possible.

Under New York law it is illegal to leave the scene of an accident where serious injury or death has occurred.

In many instances, the driver fleeing an accident scene is also at fault for causing the accident.

At Sackstein Sackstein & Lee, LLP, we offer a free initial consultation to discuss serious injury or death of a loved one in hit and run accidents.

Why Hit and Run Accidents Can Be So Devastating

A hit and run accident leaves the injured victim abandoned at the scene of the accident. While any serious car accident is a traumatic experience, being left without anyone to render assistance can make you feel helpless. In many cases, severely injured victims are unconscious and unable to move their cars or otherwise get off the road. The inability to move to a safe location can leave them open to further injury. Vehicles, pedestrians or bicyclists who are left vulnerable are often subject to further impact by other cars.

Traumatic Hit and Run Accidents that Occurred in Queens over the Past Few Months

Unfortunately, a number of hit and run accidents occur in Queens every year and are reported by the media. Several recent hit and run accidents in Queens include:

• August 14, 2018. A driver’s car hit an 11-year-old boy on August 14, 2018, and the accident was caught on video. The boy was riding a bike and had just turned the corner at the intersection of Healy Avenue and Dickens Street in Queens when the car slammed into him causing him to fly high up into the air and land on the pavement. Police located the vehicle based on its make, year and shattered windshield and then arrested the driver and charged him with leaving the scene of an accident and reckless endangerment. The child was hospitalized and was expected to recover. The accident occurred on his 11th birthday. (reported by CBS New York)
• September 28, 2018. Law enforcement is searching for a driver that struck a 70-year-old woman. The driver fled the scene of the accident on Sept 28. The accident occurred at Linden Boulevard and 169th Street around 7:00 a.m. as the woman was attempting to cross the intersection outside of a crosswalk. She suffered head trauma and hip trauma as a result of the accident and was pronounced dead after arriving at Jamaica Hospital. [reported by Jamaica, Queens ABC 7 (WABC)]

If you or a loved one has been injured or a loved one has died as a result of a hit and run accident, seek legal counsel as soon as possible. At Sackstein Sackstein & Lee, LLP , we offer a free initial consultation to discuss the injury and legal options that are available.

What Systems Should Hospital Staff Follow to Monitor Medical Conditions?

Monitoring a medical condition in a patient requires following set medical standards and guidelines that have been established to ensure that treatment is working and that a patient is recovering.

Medical schools at universities and hospitals that oversee surgery and treatment devise policies and protocols to prevent medical conditions from worsening or from occurring in the first place.

Study Reveals Failure to Monitor Infection and Ventilator Use

Columbia University conducted research that was published in the American Journal of Infection Control. The study reviewed infection control efforts at U.S. hospitals and was the most comprehensive study done in 30 years.

Infection control efforts are a specific type of patient monitoring. The study found that even intensive care units were lax in complying with policies. This was particularly shocking since ICUs are more prone to monitoring the devices they use than other areas of hospitals. Use of central lines, urinary catheters and ventilators is common in ICUs.

Study Findings

Best practices for preventing infections includes using checklists that help medical staff prevent bloodstream infections and avoid pneumonia in ventilator patients.

Note: Improperly inserted, utilized and maintained catheters can transmit deadly infections to the bloodstream.
Note: One straightforward and easily monitored item on a ventilator checklist is keeping patients elevated in bed, with the head higher than the feet. This one simple method can help prevent pneumonia.

The study found:

• Checklists were followed about 50% of the time.
• If hospitals would use, electronic monitoring systems and staff who are certified in infection control, they would improve policy compliance.

Statistical Facts

• Health care-related infections kill an estimated 100,000 Americans per year
• Such costs result in an estimated $33 billion in excess medical expenses
• Only one third of ICUs have an electronic surveillance system to track compliance with infection-prevention policies at the clinician level
• More than 33% of hospitals failed to employ a full-time clinician certified in infection prevention to supervise compliance
• More than 90% of ICUs had checklists for sterile insertion but policies were followed about 50% of the time.
• ICU’s followed their checklists 50% of the time when using ventilators

If you suspect that a failure to monitor a patient’s medical condition resulted in serious harm or death, consult with an experienced attorney. At Sackstein Sackstein & Lee, LLP, we offer a free initial consultation to discuss concerns about medical malpractice.

Symptoms of Birth Hypoxia or Asphyxia that Parents Should Be Aware of

Birth hypoxia and asphyxia both refer to lack of oxygen to the brain in a fetus. This can occur right before, during or immediately after birth.

Seattle Children’s Research Foundation explains that a baby’s cells do not function properly when deprived of oxygen and nutrients. Oxygen deprivation can result in waste products building up in the cells, which causes damage.

What Factors Determine the Degree of Harm?

Factors that determine the extent of harm include:

• The length of time the baby was deprived of oxygen
• How low the baby’s oxygen level is
• The speed with which the baby receives proper treatment

When hypoxia or asphyxia is mild, babies can fully recover. When it is severe, a baby may suffer from permanent injury, affecting the baby’s brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, bowels or other organs.

What Can Cause Asphyxia or Hypoxia?

The following can result in these medical conditions:

• Airways blocked in the baby
• Baby’s airway is not properly formed
• Too little oxygen in the mother’s blood prior to delivery
• Difficulties with the placenta prematurely separating from the womb
• A long or difficult delivery
• Umbilical cord problems during delivery
• High or low blood pressure in the mother
• Anemia in the baby where the baby’s blood cells do not carry enough oxygen

What You Should Look for

When suffering from asphyxia or hypoxia, a baby could be manifesting the following symptoms:

• Not breathing or very weak breathing
• Abnormal breathing
• Poor blood circulation
• Lack of energy (lethargy)
• Low blood pressure
• Not urinating
• Blood clotting abnormalities
• Skin color is bluish, gray or lighter than normal
• Low heart rate
• Poor muscle tone
• Weak reflexes
• Too much acid in the baby’s blood (acidosis)
• The baby’s first stool shows evidence of amniotic fluid stain
• Seizures

If you suspect that medical malpractice might have been a factor in your child’s care, consult with an experienced medical malpractice attorney. At Sackstein Sackstein & Lee, LLP , we offer a free initial consultation to discuss your concerns.

Why Are Falls from Heights So Significant in New York City?

New York takes construction accidents involving falls from heights very seriously. In fact, the NY State Legislature passed the Scaffold Law (NY Labor Law 240) more than a century ago based on its safety concerns.

Despite complaints about the Scaffold Law from general contractors and companies involved in the New York construction industry, numerous statistics support the fact that the law exists for very good reasons.

Statistics that Support the Existence of the Scaffold Law

According to the NYC Health report entitled “Fatal Injuries Among NYC Construction Workers,” construction workers comprise about five percent of the total workforce in New York City. However, they make up 27 percent of work-related injury fatalities.

Frequently Asked Questions Related to Construction Worker Fatalities

The answers to the following questions are statistics taken from the period of 2007 to 2014.

How many construction workers die due to work-related injuries every year in NYC?

An average of 20 construction worker job-related deaths occurred every year.

What was the main cause of fatal construction worker injuries?

More than half (58%) of unintentional fatal injuries resulted from falls.

The highest percentage of falls occurred from scaffolds (25%).

The second highest percentage of falls occurred from ladders (16%).

The third highest percentage of falls occurred from roofs (11%).

To what extent did OSHA violations contribute to work-related fatalities?

At least one serious safety violation was cited in more than 90% of the OSHA fatality investigations. A serious safety violation is one that could result in serious physical harm or death.

What were the most common OSHA violations?

The most common OSHA violations occurred in this order: lack of training, lack of fall protection, scaffolds violations, stairs and ladders violations, electrical equipment violations, protective equipment violations, etc.

What are examples of fall protection violations?

Not meeting the requirements for guardrails or a properly anchored harness are prime examples.

Have you suffered from serious physical injuries or lost a loved one due to a fall from height?

Find out what legal recourse is available to you. At Sackstein Sackstein & Lee, LLP , we offer a free initial consultation to discuss your injuries and evaluate the prospects of suing for damages.  

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August 25–26, 2018: the SUMAQ Peruvian Food Festival in Nassau County on Long Island

This year, Sackstein Sackstein & Lee, LLP takes pride in being the lead sponsor of the SUMAQ Peruvian Food Festival. Our attorneys and staff are very committed to serving the people where we work and live, and we strongly believe in the principle of giving back to our communities.

For more than three decades, our attorneys have had a prominent standing throughout the New York City area, and we have offices in Garden City, Flushing, Brooklyn and Queens. It has been our pleasure to assist numerous clients and their families. We primarily focus our practice on personal injury law, which involves helping individuals who have been injured as a result of someone else’s negligence recover compensation for pain and suffering, disability income and other related damages.

What is the SUMAQ Peruvian Food Festival?

SUMAQ is a word that translates as “delicious,” and it is from the language of Quechua, spoken by indigenous peoples of Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile and Colombia.

The Peruvian Food Festival is being held both indoors and outside the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City on August 25 and 26, and is New York's largest outdoor Peruvian food festival. Through a variety of activities, the festival celebrates Peruvian cuisine and culture. Renowned Peruvian chefs will be preparing their gourmet dishes. Their experience is extensive and they boast impressive accomplishments such as being winners on the Food Network Channel show Chopped, learning culinary skills under top Peruvian chefs in world class restaurants and refining their regional dishes to high levels of mastery.

In addition to the delicious Peruvian cuisine, artisans and crafters will display their artwork, and you can see traditional dancing and colorful costumes worn in Peru.

Come and enjoy the celebration!

Can Injured workers and families who have lost their loved ones pursue lawsuits?

By December of 2017, a construction site at 61 Ninth Avenue in Chelsea had been repeatedly cited for construction code violations.

On December 18, a 54 year-old construction worker was standing on the sidewalk when an anchoring bracket came loose. Scaffolding from 10 stories above him plummeted to the ground, striking him on the head. The worker’s body lay sprawled on the ground. He was unconscious, suffering from a debilitating head trauma. Paramedics rushed the worker to the hospital, but he died an hour later.

Worst of all, the accident was completely preventable. The New York Daily News reported that for seven months, since May 2017, inspectors had visited the work site and cited the general contractor for multiple violations, many of which dealt with scaffold issues.

What recourse do families have under New York law for fatal construction accidents caused by falling objects?

New York Labor Law 240, also referred to as the “Scaffold Law,” offers legal protection to construction workers who suffer injury and families who lose loved ones in height-related accidents. The general contractor and property owner are strictly liable and can be held accountable for injuries that occur due to unsafe work conditions. This not only applies to workers who fall from heights, but also for workers who suffer injury from falling objects and debris when working under a scaffold, ladder or roof.

Failure to tie down materials, replace worn out parts, failure to install guardrails or to ensure workers have hard hats or other safety equipment when involved with work done at heights are in violation of Labor Law 240.

Compensation can help offset financial burdens

Construction workers take risks daily at construction sites. Their families trust they will come home safely, but when the worst happens, the shock and loss can be overwhelming. Even so, there is no need to suffer economic hardship. You can recover compensation for medical costs, future lost income and other related expenses.

At Sackstein Sackstein & Lee, LLPhttps://sacksteinlaw.com, we offer a free initial consultation to discuss construction site injuries and death, and the prospects of taking legal action.