A friend was recently given the unfortunate burden of choosing a nursing home for a loved one and asked my advice. Questions about the quality of nursing homes often follow hospitalizations for injuries, as there is usually very little time to make a selection of a rehabilitation or nursing facility. The following are some tips for patients and/or their loved ones in researching and selecting a nursing or rehab facility:

-  When discharge from the hospital is set to take place with short notice, it may be important to ask the hospital administration for an appeal of the discharge, which will buy you some time to choose an appropriate facility.

-  The social worker at a hospital is often a good resource for information regarding local nursing homes. Be sure to question this person with regard to any concerns you may have.

-  Get in touch with your local area office on aging which can provide you a list of nursing homes in your area and can get you in contact with the nursing home ombudsman. The ombudsman can provide you with information regarding staffing, administration and any persistent problems that a nursing home may have.

-  Visit the facility you are considering, and do it more than once. Different visits at different times of the day will provide you with the opportunity to see the nursing home during different activity times like mealtimes and medication passes and social hours. These visits will provide you with an overall feel for the nursing home and an opportunity to interact with residents.

-  Look for residents in activity areas during your visits and see what they’re doing. This will provide you with a feel for how residents are treated and the amount of attention they get.

-  Check out the cafeteria and the food and drinks provided to the residents. See if the kitchen is clean and if the food looks appetizing and feel free to ask for a meal if you visit the facility at a meal time. Often times with the vulnerable elderly, malnutrition and dehydration can be common place. If a meal is unsavory, it makes these conditions all the more likely.

-  Consider the various odors throughout the facility. A good quality nursing home should be clean and odor free. While there will be occasion that there will be some odor permeating in the building, it should not be persistent.

-  Ask the prospective facility for copies of their most recent state inspections. These reports list recent violations by state inspectors. Once you’ve reviewed the reports, sit down with the administrator of the facility and question how the deficiencies have been corrected.

-  If at all possible, try to find a facility close to home. If you or a loved one is unable to stay at home, it helps the transition to know that you are at least in an area you are comfortable with and in an area where you will have visitors and may know some fellow residents.

-  Once a nursing facility is chosen, if you are a loved one, visit often. This will help you ensure that the patient’s care plan is being followed and that you are familiar with the staff involved in the patient’s care and are able to monitor that care appropriately. If you are the resident of the nursing home, be aware of your local ombudsman office and develop a relationship with both the director of nursing and the administrator at the facility. This will provide you with an outlet for any complaints or concerns you may have regarding the care being rendered.

Choosing a nursing home or an extended rehabilitation facility can be a very difficult task. If you follow these guidelines and become familiar with the nursing home residents bill of rights provided by Ohio law, you will gain peace of mind and hopefully have a quality experience.

As the end of summer approaches, we have an important holiday to celebrate. Labor Day is obviously important to what we do at GTBS in our work as attorneys for unions, injured workers and disabled individuals. But it really is a significant holiday for everyone in this state because the labor movement has had such an impact on who we are and how we work.

The New York Times has a great page set up with information about the history of Labor Day and the labor movement. You can see that the labor movement is still happening and that we all can play a role in getting better pay, better jobs and better working conditions for all of Ohio’s workers. Unions and workers struggle in this economy to fight for a living wage. Corporations and politicians struggle to preserve revenue at the peril of their work force. We have made strides, but it is an ongoing fight.

The City of Toledo offers a terrific Labor Day Parade every year. We look forward each September to our participation in the parade, as we show our pride in our union relationships and honor those who fight hard every day for fairness in the work place. This year, we are particularly excited about the parade as our founder Jack Gallon serves as the parade’s Grand Marshall of the parade on Monday, September 6, 2010. Jack has been a key player in the labor movement in Northwest Ohio, dedicating his career and his life to defending the rights of union members and working people. We all share his vision, and the vision of Ohio’s work force, for good jobs and fair treatment in the work place.

We hope to see you and your families at the parade this year!

 The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced that Asurion, of Smyrna, Tenn., is voluntarily recalling about 470,000 Counterfeit BlackBerry®-branded cell phone batteries in refurbished devices. The counterfeit batteries can overheat, posing burn and fire hazards.

This recall involves only BlackBerry®-branded batteries provided with refurbished Blackberry®-branded devices. The refurbished devices were sent to consumers by Asurion through a handset protection program. The batteries were used across virtually all models of refurbished BlackBerry devices distributed by Asurion prior to November 1, 2009. Genuine Blackberry-branded batteries are not included in this recall. No other Asurion or BlackBerry products are involved in this recall.

A recently released report states that medical errors and the complications that result from them cost the U.S. economy $19.5 billion in 2008. The study was reported on in the Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog, and found that medical errors were responsible for more than 2500 avoidable deaths and over 10 million lost days of work.

The study ranked the most common injuries, estimated to be resulting from error, by cost:

Bed sores – $3.9 billion

Post-operative infections – $3.7 billion

Device complications – $1.1 billion

Complications from failed spinal surgery – $1.1 billion

Hemorrhages – $960 million.

And those are just the economic costs. Oftentimes, the most devastating aspects of injury to a victim of medical errors are the non-economic aspects. These include the grief that comes with the loss of the loved one, or the inability to maintain normal functions of life, or chronic pain.

There are many patient safety resources available to assist patients and their families with being proactive in the administration of their health care. Hopefully, this study – among other similiar studies of recent years — will cause more legislative safeguards to be put into place on the national level in order to lessen not only the economic impact of this problem, but also the devastating effects that medical errors have on the lives of those injured.

As always, if you have an injury that you would like to discuss, please contact our office for a free consultation.

The Lucas County Dog Warden Citizen’s Advisory Committee has proposed a new ordinancewhich would expand regulations on dogs and their owners.  According to the chairman of the advisory committee, the goals of the proposed ordinance are to reduce dog bites by half, eliminate euthanasia based on dog breed, and penalize “irresponsible dog owners.” 

The proposed ordinance includes: 

• a 15-minute limit for chaining a dog outside unsupervised
• a prohibtion against chaining a dog within 500 feet of a school.
• An escalating scale of fines for unprovoked dog bites. Penalties would rise from $150 to $500 to $1,000, and could include mandatory pet ownership classes or community service with an animal welfare organization.
• New “level one” and “level two” threat classifications for dogs.
• Restrictions against leaving a dog unattended for more than 24 hours.
• Mandatory spay or neuter surgery at the owner’s expense for dogs caught running at large more than once.
• The ability to seize the dogs of owners deemed reckless.

The proposed ordinance is the most recent attempt by the City to curb dog-related violence.  A previous ordinance, which placed restrictions on “pit bulls” and “pit bull” mixes was declared unconstitutional by the Toledo Municipal Court in January.  The proposed ordinance would required approval from the Toledo City Council to become law.

What do you think of the proposed ordinance?  Do you know of anyone who has been bitten by a dog?

For the past six years, the courthouse doors in Michigan have been virtually padlocked for people injured in car collisions due to someone else’s negligence. No matter the circumstances, the 2004 case of Kreiner v Fischer said in effect that you could seek redress for your injury caused by someone else’s wrongdoing only if you were killed or maimed for life.

But now a  new, more consumer-oriented Michigan Supreme Court has righted the wrong of the Kreiner case. In McCormick v Carrier, the court held that a man who injured his ankle in an auto accident could seek monetary reimbursement from the at-fault driver since the injury, while not permanently debilitating, still affected his life for several months after the accident while he stayed off the affected ankle, underwent a lengthy physical therapy regimen, and missed work until the healing was complete. The McCormick decision recognized that the Kreiner decision was nothing more than judge-made law that constituted a radical departure from the specific language and overall intent of the Michigan No-Fault Act.

A recent article in The Crescent-News highlighted the dangerous nature of farm work.  There are hazards all over on a farm, from heavy equipment and chemicals to grain bins and silos.    The Centers for Disease Control states that agriculture ranks among the most hazardous industries, a fact with which GTB&S attorneys are all too familiar.  For example, in 2008 the fatality rate of farmers was 25.1 deaths per 100,000 workers. There were 456 farmers nationwide who died of work-related injuries in 2008. The leading cause of death, accounting for 96 deaths annually in the nation, was tractor overturns.  Other farmers were injured in falls, by heavy equipment, or were made ill by chemical exposure. 

According to Ohio State University’s Agriculture Safety and Health Program, there were 17 farm fatalities in 2008, the last year statistics are available. Approximately 245 farmers were killed from 1999-2008 in the state. While the majority of those deaths were for farmers ages 41-70 years old, more than 30 deaths were youths age 20 and younger.

The personal injury attorneys at GTB&S know the kind of devastation that results from farm accidents, so if you or someone you know has been injured let us know.    Agriculture is an important part of our local as well as national economies, so please be safe out there.

In response to new rules from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, popular retailer Pottery Barn has recalled 82,000 drop-side cribs according to a recently published story.  The potential safety hazard with drop-side cribs is that the drop-side rail can become partially detached, creating a gap between the rail and mattress where a baby might get caught or suffocate.  The new regulations outlaw the sale and resale drop-side cribs and also prohibit the use of drop-side cribs at motels, hotels, and child care facilities.  The drop-side crib has been in use for decades.  Pottery Barn is offering a free kit to immobilize the drop-side rail.

Sometimes defective products, like the drop-side crib can hide in plain sight because we get used to using them.  Have you ever been injured or gotten sick from a product that you think might be defective?   Our lawyers investigate these claims regularly and would be happy to answer your questions, so please contact us.

Remember the Chicken Little fable where a chicken runs around shouting hysterically that “the sky is falling” in the mistaken belief that disaster was imminent?

Recent news reports indicate that the Michigan Supreme Court last week struck down a pre-injury recreational  liability waiver signed by parents in a decision “that has consequences for businesses, schools, and other groups offering recreational activities for minors.”

That sounds scary, doesn’t it? It sounds like a major change in the law in Michigan that will now expose all non-profit and for-profit recreational activities in that state to a flood of lawsuits, henceforth threatening the very existence of such endeavors.

But wait…hold the phone: Michigan has never recognized the validity of such waivers. From the time that Michigan courts first ruled on this issue 133 years ago, its common law has consistently held that such waivers are invalid. Justice Diane Hathaway pointed out that “The fact is that pre-injury waivers have never been enforced or considered enforceable by the courts of this state. Despite the fact that Michigan does not enforce these waivers, children still play football, engage in sports activities and go to bounce parties, just as they do in other states that do not enforce pre-injury waivers.”

A  law review survey of states (17 J Legal Aspects of Sport 53 [2007]) indicates that such waivers are considered unenforceable in 27 other states besides Michigan; a primary rationale for their illegality is the protection of minors’ rights in contractual obligations—for example a contract signed by a minor has been considered voidable under the law in all states. Only 9 states have considered such pre-injury waivers to be valid.

So is the sky really falling in Michigan?

The catastrophe caused by the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico continues to spread oil and wreak havoc on the gulf waters of Louisiana, destroying lives and livelihoods of countless families, businesses and industries in Louisiana. And the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 limits the oil spill damage liability of BP for this destruction to $75 million for the entire incident.

But thankfully there are exceptions to this oil spill damage “cap.” One such exception is that those whose lives have been destroyed can pursue compensation for their harm under state law. Louisiana citizens are allowed to seek damage compensation under state law for the full value of their loss, as Louisiana has no damage cap in civil actions.

But what if Louisiana citizens had to seek compensation for their loss under Ohio law as it currently stands?

Ohio law does have damage caps in civil tort cases—the maximum amount of money that a person harmed through another’s wrongdoing can receive is capped at $350,000 for all intangible loss, regardless of the loss.

So if Ohio law were applied, how much in intangible damage compensation could go to a sole proprietor of a Louisiana shrimp boat business—for the evaporation of his livelihood, his life on the water, belonging to him and his family built around the business, his pride, accomplishments, joy, fulfillment—not to mention any potential ill effects from contact or exposure to petroleum-laden water, petroleum-laden mist and vapor in the air?

$350,000

He would get a grand total of $350,000 plus the net financial value of his business—for the life that he lived and loved, and that is now destroyed.

Same for all other Louisiana citizens who are:

Fishermen in the Gulf

Oyster farmers

People in Louisiana’s Gulf Tourism industry

Gulf Boat Operators and Tour Guides

Restauranteurs

The list goes on and on…

Makes one glad for these Louisiana citizens that they don’t have to seek redress for their harm under Ohio law, doesn’t it?

It’s this simple: If someone or some company by their carelessness is going to gamble with your life, then they should have to pay the full value if they destroy your life—period.

Contact your state representative or  state senator  and tell them how ridiculous and unfair you think Ohio’s damage cap for civil actions is.