Practice Areas

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• Medical Malpractice/ Doctor Mistakes
• Railroad Injury/ FELA
• Brain Damage/ Head Injuries
• Wrongful Death
• Slips, Trips & Falls
• Mass Transit (Airline, Train, Bus)
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HSInjury Blog

Car & Motorcycle Accidents

• Whiplash Pain from a Car Crash
• Tweeting and Driving Just as Dangerous as Texting and Driving
• Bike Accidents on the Rise in North Carolina

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Crashes Caused by Trucks

• Tractor Trailer Hits and Kills Driver on Side of Road in Hickory, North Carolina
• Car Crushed in Accident on I-77 in South Carolina
• Truck-Bus Crash Injured Six Young Children in Charlotte, NC

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Medical Malpractice/Doctor Mistakes

• Steps to Choosing a Nursing Home and How to Spot Nursing Home Abuse
• Former Goldsboro, North Carolina Based Mental Hospital Worker Admits To Beating Patient
• Granville Woman Sues Hospital For Negligence After Son’s Death

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Railroad Injury/FELA

• What is a Quiet Zone and How Does it Affect Railroad Crossing Safety?
• 500 People Killed Every Year in Preventable Rail Crossing Accidents
• Wrong Way Driver Causes Deadly I-264 Car Crash Killing Two

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Brain Damage/Head Injuries

• Workers Suffer Severe Head Trauma in Craven County, North Carolina Construction Accident
• Restaurant Ornament Falls on Customer, Causes Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
• Karr Completes Skateboarding Trip To Raise Brain Injury Awareness

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Wrongful Death

• Calypso, North Carolina Fatal Tractor-Trailer Crash Kills One Injures Five
• Triton Senior Dead another Injured as SUV Crashes into Dunn, North Carolina Walmart
• Wake County, North Carolina Woman Crushed as Oak Tree Falls on Home

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Slips, Trips & Falls

• Worker Hospitalized After Elevator Falls Several Floors in Farmville, North Carolina
• Settlement Obtained For NC Resident Suffering Restaurant Trip & Fall While Visiting Virginia

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Mass Transit (Airline, Train, Bus)

• Over 100 Plane Crashes in South Carolina Since 2005
• Amtrak Train Collides with Trailer Injures 13 in Mebane, North Carolina
• Sophia, North Carolina Truck Driver Airlifted After Train Wreck on Highway 311

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Dangerous Drugs/Product Recalls

• Reglan Lawsuits on the Rise
• Charlotte, North Carolina Based Family Dollar Stores Recalled 1.8 M Toy Dart Guns
• Is a Yaz/Yasmin Recall on the Horizon?

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All Serious Injuries

• Dudley, North Carolina Boy Suffers Dog Attack at Brogden Elementary Bus Stop
• Recommended Safety Tips for Preventing Bicycle Accident Injuries
• 16 Year Old Killed in Bicycling Wreck

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General

• Head-On Crash in Greenville, North Carolina Send Five to Hospital

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Greenville-Outer Banks-Rocky Mount NC Personal Injury Lawyer

• Tragic Plan Crash in SW Arkansas Kills All Four Aboard

Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Suffolk VA Personal Injury Lawyer

• Preventable Medical Malpractice: Revisiting the Dennis Quaid Medication/Hospital Error Case

Norfolk-Portsmouth-Hampton VA Personal Injury Lawyer

• Structured Settlements/Annuities: Information for Injury/Wrongful Death Family or Victims

Firm News

• Head Injury Survivor Dies In North Carolina Bicycle Accident
  Posted on 8/21/2010
• North Carolina Toddler Survives Shocking Head Injury From Pressure Was
  Posted on 8/20/2010
• North Carolina Toddler Survives Shocking Head Injury From Pressure Was
  Posted on 8/20/2010
• UNC Study: Former NFL Players Plagued By Cognitive Issues
  Posted on 8/19/2010
• Hydroplaning Leads to Two Serious Car Wrecks in North Carolina
  Posted on 8/16/2010

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Library

Car & Motorcycle Accidents

• The Insurance Company is Giving Me a Hard Time
• Rocky Mount Car Accident Lawyer Can Help Get the Compensation You Need
• When to Call a Greenville Car Accident Lawyer

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Crashes Caused by Trucks

• Trucks Accidents And Mechanical Failure
• Carolina Truck Accidents: Improperly Loaded Trucks
• Carolina Truck Accidents: Truck Driver Distractions

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Medical Malpractice/Doctor Mistakes

• US Government: Hospitals Need More Quality And Safety Control
• Carolina Medical Error: Cancerous Organ Transplants
• Carolina Medical Malpractice: A Focus On Nerve Damage

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Railroad Injury/FELA

• What I Have Learned about Railroad Worker Cancers and How Railroad Companies Fight Lawsuits by Workers
• Association of American Railroads Recommends Safety Measures and Injury Prevention for Hand Brake Operation
• Preventing Train-Car Accidents | Carolina Train And Railroad Accident Attorneys

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Brain Damage/Head Injuries

• Dangers Of Recumbent Bicycles – Less Height Means Less Visibility
• Anoxic Brain Injuries: Injuries From Oxygen Deprivation
• Possible Connection Between ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and Head Injuries

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Wrongful Death

• Client: "Never did I send an email or left a message in Rick's office that we did not get a speedy answer. The courtesy he extended to our family was unmatched by anyone in his profession."
• Fireworks Explosion in Ocracoke, North Carolina (NC) Kills Three
• Frequently Asked Questions About Salmonella Food Poisoning

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Mass Transit (Airline, Train, Bus)

• Man Loses One Leg and Sight in One Eye after Falling onto Tracks
• The FAA: Could They Prevent More Airplane Accidents?
• Boating Accidents In The Carolinas

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Dangerous Drugs/Product Recalls

• ABC Investigative Report Interviews Richard N. Shapiro and Firm Client on Accidental Deaths Caused By Fentanyl Pain Patches
• New Fentanyl-like Patch gets FDA approval, Potentially as Lethal as Original Dangerous Drug
• This article highlights the dangers of many prescription drugs which hit the open market. Over 32,000 people die every year due to complications and misuse of these medications. If you've suffered adverse side effects, please consider giving us a call for a free, confidential consultation at 1-800-752-0042.

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All Serious Injuries

• Why Clients Choose Our North Carolina Law Firm - Ethics, Experience, Distinction in the Legal Community, and Much More
• The pledge our North Carolina law firm makes to our clients is in writing and our staff is fully committed to following these guidelines
• Federal Fourth Circuit Court Decision Supports Contingency-Fee System for Lawyers

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Directories

• Camden County and Pasquotank County Court Information
• This is a directory of nursing homes in Elizabeth City, North Carolina (NC). We are not endorsing any of the health care providers in this directory. In addition, this is not a comprehensive list. If a health care provider would like to be added, please contact our firm at 1-800-752-0042.
• This is a directory of nursing homes in Rocky Mount, North Carolina (NC). We are not endorsing any of the health care providers in this directory. In addition, this is not a comprehensive list. If a health care provider would like to be added, please contact our firm at 1-800-752-0042.

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North & South Carolina Supreme Court Decisions

• Rowell v. Bowling, Jr. & New Hanover Regional Medical Center is a medical malpractice case and this decision focuses on whether or not the plaintiff's appeal that their complaint was not properly reviewed by a medical expert prior to trial should be affirmed
• Watts v. North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources is a tort claims case and this decision focuses on the defendant's admission of negligence and waiving their argument that no duty is owed to the plaintiff due to the public duty doctrine.
• Hughes v. Rivera-Ortiz and Callaway Associates is a medical malpractice case dealing with alleged sexual assault by Rivera-Ortiz (the defendant). This decision focuses on the plantiff's Rule 59 motion for new trial on damages and ratification of negligence by a medical clinic.

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Injury Case Actual Testimony Excerpts

• As experienced Virginia/Carolina injury lawyers often in court, we constantly receive testimony of experts and witnesses by deposition or during trial (Group 2)
• Testimony Excerpt - CSX Chief Medical Officer
• Testimony Excerpt - Dr. J. Leonard Goldner, Orthopedic Surgeon

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General

• Carolina Brain Injuries And Lifelong Memory Issues

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Carolina Accident Attorney Blog

Car & Motorcycle Accidents

Greenville-Outer Banks-Rocky Mount NC Personal Injury Lawyer

Tragic Plan Crash in SW Arkansas Kills All Four Aboard

Date: 08/01/2010


Authorities with the Federal Aviation Administration says four people are dead after a small plane crashed in southwest Arkansas. A spokesperson with the FAA reported that the single-engine airplane departed from DeQueen and was on its way to an airport in northern Arkansas, or perhaps southern Missouri with the four people on board. The FAA official said that all four occupants died when the airplane crashed close to Umpire in Howard County, this area is about 90 miles north of Texarkana.


According to Howard County Sheriff's department, the airplane went down about 9:30 a.m. in a very remote region described as wooded section within the Howard County Wildlife Management Area. The plane crash was reported by a Howard County resident that call the sheriff's office saying she heard a plane flying very low over here house and then heard a loud "thud" around 9:30 a.m..


Although we do not know the accident victims personally, our thoughts and prayers go out to all who know these folks in their time of grief. We are never ready when someone close to us or ones that we love die suddenly like this. Not only am I am an attorney specializing in injury law, I am also a pilot. Having this background I would like to offer you some possible reasons as to why this airplane accident might have happened.

Why Airplane Accidents Happen

The most common reasons for airplane crashes resulting in serious injury or death include:

• Pilot error-this includes bad decision making on the part of the pilot when it comes to things such as bad weather, landing or checking for air traffic
• Faulty equipment-it is up to the owner of the plane to ensure that the equipment on the plane is up to part before it is taken out
  
• Violations of FAA regulations-these regulations are in place to keep everyone in the air and on the ground safe and should be followed very closely
  
• Design or structural problems-this is often a problem with plane owners who choose to fix their own planes or built their own planes rather than hiring a professional
  
• Air traffic controller error
  
• Third party carrier negligence
  
• Maintenance or repair negligence
  
• Fueling error
Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jim Lewis

Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Suffolk VA Personal Injury Lawyer

Preventable Medical Malpractice: Revisiting the Dennis Quaid Medication/Hospital Error Case

Date: 08/09/2010


Many of us recall that Dennis and Kimberly Quaid went through a medical malpractice nightmare involving their twins back in 2007, but I was compelled to revisit what happened to the Quaid twins, and to discuss new ideas on how to prevent medical malpractice and nursing/hospital mistakes in the United States. A series of every category of medical malpractice error occurred in combination to nearly take the lives of Dennis and Kimberly Quaid's twin sons in 2007 very soon after their birth at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles.

The twins were supposed to be administered a routine anticoagulant called hep-­lock for a staph infection that both babies developed immediately after birth. This required nursing staff to set up an IV and administer antibiotics along with the hep-­lock to prevent blood clotting. Unfortunately, due to several hospital errors including nursing mistakes, the nurses administered at least two doses of heparin, an anticoagulant manufactured/sold by Baxter Healthcare, that is 1,000 stronger than hep-­lock (essentially hep-­lock is 10 units, and heparin is 10,000 units). When the Quaids returned to the hospital after getting a few hours of sleep, to check on their babies, they were met at the hospital by Risk Management personnel and lawyers-- the truth about the mistake had been concealed from them for at least eight hours if not longer. The massive overdose meant that the babies did not have their natural immunity to clot blood and even the slightest opening in their body caused blood to spurt out and on one occasion blood spurted from one of the baby twin's umbilical cords literally across the room onto the wall. Dennis and Kimberly Quaid went through almost two days of their babies' lives hanging in the balance before they slowly recovered and regained the ability to clot blood again. They recounted their stories in personal interviews aired on 60 Minutes about medical malpractice and their newfound mission to prevent medical errors in hospitals.

Medical malpractice affects all: Rich, poor.

While the Quaid twins were hanging on and trying to be stabilized, the Quaid's pediatrician advised Dennis and Kimberly Quaid that the mix up of the hospital/nursing staff with regard to heparin had also occurred within the last year in an Indianapolis hospital also. The manufacturer of both of the medications, Baxter, was aware that six infants had all been given their wrong medication (vials of heparin, rather than hep-lock vials also sold by Baxter) with the result that three babies at the Indianapolis hospital had died. Upon hearing this information, Dennis Quaid did further homework and was amazed to find out that Baxter, the pharmaceutical manufacturer, knew that heparin and hep-­lock medications (in bags or vials) were labeled similarly in appearance and blue text/color on the vials, and that a rushed nurse or medical staffer could easily mix them up.

Note the similar appearance of Heparin and Hep-lock when the Quaid twins were overdosed:



After Heparin re-labeling to distinguish Baxter Heparin vials by color:



However, Baxter had never issued any type of actual recall of the products and the similar blue color Heparin and Hep-lock medication labeled vials were at Cedars-Sinai Hospital when the mix up occurred there. Baxter had issued a written warning to hospitals but left the products as they were at hospitals around the U.S.A. Quaid not only decided to bring a medical malpractice lawsuit against Cedars-Sinai Hospital, but the Quaids were motivated to sue Baxter for a variety of errors that they claimed would have prevented the massive overdose to their baby twins-including a recall.

The Quaids settled with Cedars-Sinai Hospital and Dennis Quaid has stated that "we didn't want to sue the hospital because we need really good hospitals…. and as part of the settlement, Cedars spent millions – on electronic record keeping, bedside bar coding, computerized physician-order entry systems-to improve patient safety. I have to commend them for that." A hospital spokesperson, Simi Singer, also stated later "we began additional focused education on medication safety and have implemented additional procedures and protocols for our pharmacy and nursing staff." Subsequent analysis of what went wrong indicated that a medical staff person had sorted heparin and hep-­lock into the wrong drawers or storage locations, and then also nurses did not clearly check the vials before they were administered. Last, the Quaids still have a pending lawsuit that they are seeking to settle against Baxter for a variety of acts that the Quaids assert were negligent.

Dennis Quaid's mission is to improve the hospital, and nursing system to reduce or prevent human medical error. However, Quaid has stated that he is suing Baxter because Baxter did nothing to recall its products even after Baxter learned that babies died because of medication errors where nurses applied the wrong medication-both Heparin and Hep-lock were sold by Baxter in similar looking blue text small vials. In fact, Baxter spokespersons’ have publicly stated that Baxter changed the labels on heparin and hep-­lock after the Qaid twins overdose occurred to make them completely distinguishable. However, Baxter claims no recall was issued because there is a duty on the hospital staff to properly read labels and therefore Baxter is not legally responsible to the Quaids. Accordingly, Baxter denies any fault. Quaid has stated in interviews that he is astounded that regular consumer products such as dog food are recalled but no mandatory drug or pharmaceutical recalls are mandated in a situation such as what occurred with his twins. Also, Baxter is defending against the dangerous drug case seeking legal immunity because the FDA approved both Heparin and Hep-lock and their vial labeling. Baxter claims if it received FDA approval, the suit must be dismissed under a complicated but often raised corporate defense called “federal preemption” immunity.

As Quaid testified before the U.S. Congress in 2008, Baxter is defending his medical malpractice related lawsuit on the simple argument that its drug/medications were earlier approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and therefore Baxter is immune from answering for its labeling inadequacies. Quaid spoke out before Congress on the unfairness of this federal preemption/immunity defense to lawsuits that has been embraced by many federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court in an earlier lawsuit not involving Baxter or its medications but involving medical devices.

Quaid also attacked anti-consumer laws including one in California which set a cap or ceiling on the amount of damages a family could recover for medical malpractice. Many states, including Virginia, also have medical malpractice caps which set an artificially low recovery amount on medical malpractice lawsuits – singling such suits out for caps or ceilings where other types of negligence lawsuits have no such ceiling.

Quaid takes action to reform and prevent medical/nursing errors.

As of 2010, the Quaids' twins are doing fantastic according to their proud parents. Give Dennis Quaid credit for not standing by and remaining silent – instead he has become a patient advocate for prevention of medical and nursing errors. In 2008 the Quaids formed the Quaid Foundation which called for hospitals to adopt bedside bar coding, scans on patient's wristbands to match scans on medications and other improvements so that the wrong medication does not go to the wrong patient. Since that time, Quaid has teamed with Charles Denham, M.D., a leader in the patient safety movement who founded a nonprofit Texas institute called Texas Medical Institute of Technology (TMIT) which test systems and promotes healthcare safety. Quaid narrated a series of documentaries about preventing medical harm and hospital errors and malpractice. One of the documentaries is called "Chasing Zero: Winning the War on Healthcare Harm" which is available at www.safetyleaders.org and discusses medical error victims, interviews actual medical providers and nurses who have made mistakes and are calling for reforms.

One compelling story involves Julie Thao a nurse specializing in obstetrics with over 20 years of nursing practice. She made a tragic error involving an IV bag which looked identical to a different antibiotic bag which ended up being the cause of an overdose death to the mother, who was in labor, although the baby survived. This nursing error caused Thao to become suicidal but eventually she bounced back and was offered a position with TMIT and now she is a speaker around the country at healthcare safety conferences discussing how to improve the system and avoid medical malpractice errors, especially involving nurses and hospital workers. The TMIT Foundation/Institute has a new publication called The National Quality Forum Safe Practices For Better Healthcare which outlines 34 steps that can be taken to reduce medical malpractice and hospital errors. The ordeal that the Quaids went through absolutely emphasizes that medical malpractice picks on the rich and the poor with equally random victims. It can strike your family, it can strike the families of nurses, doctors, or any other person. However, if it takes a celebrity and movie star like Dennis Quaid (and his wife Kimberly) to focus the public on the need for improvements in the delivery of medical and hospitals services to the public, so be it.

To learn more about the Quaid's battle with medical malpractice laws, check out this article.

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm (VA-NC law offices ) edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as a pro bono service to consumers.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Rick Shapiro

Norfolk-Portsmouth-Hampton VA Personal Injury Lawyer

Structured Settlements/Annuities: Information for Injury/Wrongful Death Family or Victims

Date: 08/10/2010


Over many years I have represented personal injury victims with serious and catastrophic injuries, and I have represented families who suffered the loss of life/ wrongful death of a family member. In many cases, after months or years of representing the victim or family, when we are on the verge of settling the case (or have settled the case) the family members or victim are curious about whether some part of the major settlement should be placed into an annuity or structured settlement. While my job is to obtain maximum compensation for my injured client or a family of someone who has been wrongfully killed, I am not a financial broker or structured settlement professional.

Nonetheless, clients understand that I may not be a financial broker, but they still want basic advice on why they should consider a structured settlement and what advantages it may have over taking a simple lump sum settlement of all the settlement money at one time. After doing a quick internet search, it appears there isn’t much information from experienced injury attorneys on this subject and so I am offering this article as a basic guide for injury victims as well as for family members representing a minor or child who was been seriously injured. I hope this article assists in helping you understand some of the basic concepts of structured settlements.

What is a structured settlement or annuity? Answer: Once a case is actually settled for a monetary sum, the money is not received by your personal injury attorney in the law firm trust account but is instead directly sent to a bonded and rated financial company that agrees to provide a periodic stream of partial payments to the personal injury victim or the beneficiary. Clients often ask if the money can be monthly, quarterly or at some other periodic payment schedule and the answer is yes, that can be agreed upon prior to setting up the structured settlement or annuity. Is there anything in it for the injury attorney? No, the personal injury attorney gets no financial interest in whether the family or victim sets up a structured settlement for their settlement money. As a matter of fact, ethics regulations for attorneys in every state prohibit an attorney from getting any interest in the client’s lawsuit besides what is stated in the fee or retainer agreement. Injury attorneys simply want to help clients in managing their major settlement funds in a wise and prudent way. We would hate to successfully settle our client’s case, and then see them throw their money into a ponzi scheme or bad investment. How do the companies that provide structured settlement or annuity services get paid? Just like a regular financial broker that invests your money in stocks or bonds, any financial broker that sets up a structured settlement or annuity is normally paid a percentage commission by the fund in which they place your money or your family’s proceeds of the settlement—you do not pay them out of your settlement proceeds yourself. If you would like a disclosure from the financial broker of exactly what percentage they will make on their commission, you can ask the broker for the information but understand that they are not working for free and that this is a common commission that all brokers make on placing money in such funds. Why would we not take our major injury settlement or wrongful death settlement recovery all in a lump sum right away? Under longstanding Internal Revenue Service (IRS) laws and regulations, when a personal injury victim receives their final settlement monies, or when the estate in a wrongful death case receives the settlement, the money recovered is not normally taxed (there are exceptions, which are unusual and not covered here). The reason a personal injury settlement or recovery is not taxed is that it is considered getting back money that was lost, that is, it is considered getting back to zero or baseline. The victim or family is considered to have lost the wages, earnings, earning capacity, pain, suffering or permanent impairment of the victim and the recovery gets that person back to square one. This means, that there is no taxable event on a person or estate’s tax return for putting the settlement money in the bank account (the IRS wants the income listed as such a recovery, and your tax professional or the IRS website can direct you how to list the recovery on your tax forms). This is contrasted with something like a state lottery recovery which is taxed on receipt because it is considered a gain or windfall and is taxed immediately. However, what an experienced injury attorney explains to their client is that even though there is no taxable event on getting the hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank, as soon as that money gets in your bank, any interest you earn on the recovery then starts being taxed on a monthly or annual basis. Where there is a major recovery of money that will sit in an estate or family bank account for months and years, this means that you will be taxed on the interest earnings of the recovery/settlement money. This is the point of doing a structured settlement or annuity. Any amount of money over what will be necessary for monthly living expenses or other requirements could conceivably be placed in a structured settlement and under the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rules. The growth of the money-- if invested in an annuity or structured settlement at the time of settlement, will not be taxed on the growth of the money. In other words, a qualified structured settlement or annuity is one of the only legal ways to have a personal injury settlement fund grow, tax free, for months or years while you really don’t need the use of that money for living expenses or personal consumption activities. No, you cannot set up such an annuity or structured settlement after you get your settlement proceeds and protect the interest income from taxation. To give you an example let’s assume that the settlement of the personal injury proceeds to a victim is $600,000.00. Because of losses the victim or client may need to place $200,000.00 of the proceeds right into their bank account for monthly and other personal expenses simply to get by on a month-to-month basis for the near term. However, $400,000.00 of the $600,000.00 settlement could be directed into a structured settlement at the time the settlement occurs and before the money goes to the personal injury attorney or enters the attorney’s trust account. If the structured settlement is set up in a legal fashion and does not hit the victim’s bank account or the personal injury attorney bank account, the IRS allows the growth of the money to not be subject to taxation. All of the specifics of how the incomes will be paid and how this works are outlined in spreadsheets to a person who is setting up a structured settlement or annuity. The financial broker provides scenarios, and payout plans designed by you and your broker before the money is placed in the fund or funds. Often, each of our personal injury clients have different needs or desires and the financial broker setting up the annuity can give printouts of every different formula that can be imagined of monthly payments, increased quarterly or annual payments and variations. Who should do a structured settlement? There are various types of personal injury settlements that should be considered for structured settlements or annuities and they include any case in which a minor or child suffers serious injuries and by law, will not be able to receive the funds until age 18 or later. If the settlement is considerable, a structured settlement is appropriate. In cases of paralysis, paralyzing injuries, traumatic brain injury/brain damage, or amputation of an arm, leg, finger or thumb, that results in a substantial settlement, a structured settlement should be contemplated depending upon the significance of the recovery. Also, in wrongful death case recoveries where there is a surviving husband or wife or family members that are minors, depending upon the amount of the recovery, a structured settlement should be considered. The purpose of this article is just to explain basic information about structured settlements and annuities for personal injury victims or surviving family members and is not to give specific legal advice.
About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm (VA-NC law offices ) edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as a pro bono service to consumers. PAOriginally posted at InjuryBoard by Rick Shapiro

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