San Diego Injury Lawyer Blog

Last Thursday, a 67-year-old man was hospitalized for the injuries he suffered when his bicycle crashed in San Diego County's Linda Vista. He had been attempting to keep his hat on as the wind was blowing it off , according to police.

The scene of the accident was the 1700 block of Ulric Street at about 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday, according to San Diego police Officer Brad Ruff, who reported on the San Diego bike accident. The bicyclist's injuries included facial fractures, a skull fracture, a broken shoulder, a broken forearm, and a lacerated kidney. He is still expected to survive. Bicycle accidents can be common in San Diego but just as well prevented, by wearing helmets and exercising sound judgment while on the road.

If you or a loved one has ever been injured or killed in a San Diego bicycle accident, contact San Diego, CA bike accident lawyer Ross Jurewitz and the San Diego injury attorneys of the Jurewitz Law Group at (619) 233-5020. You may also contact these San Diego, CA personal injury lawyers online here.

For more information about the best bicycle accident attorneys in San Diego, CA, please visit our bicycle accident website full of helpful information. You can also request our free California injury book, The 10 Biggest Mistakes that can Destroy Your California Accident Case.

One of the secret and silent serious injuries one can suffer during an accident is a minor traumatic brain injury (MTBI). Notably, Natasha Richardson died following a closed head MTBI injury after striking her head while skiing. It was also speculated that pitchman Billy Mays' death was caused by MTBI due to falling objects from the overhead compartments in his plane.

MTBI is a very serious condition that can prove fatal if not quickly diagnosed and treated. To better inform San Diego residents, our website added this helpful information about minor traumatic brain injury (MTBI), including its' detection and treatment.

Did Billy Mays, the 50-year-old celebrity pitchman, die of a minor traumatic brain injury (MTBI) following a "hard" landing by a US Airways flight between Philadelphia and Tampa, Florida?

That is the question buzzing around the internet right now.

Mays had been flying home to Tampa after filming an OxiClean commercial in Philadelphia when the front tire of his US Airways flight exploded following the hard landing. Initially no serious injuries were reported and Mays posted on his Twitter feed about the hard landing saying it was par for the course with US Airways. After the landing, objects fell from the ceiling, although it is unclear what those objects were, and hit Mays in the head.

After landing, Mays told a local news crew about the hit to his head:

"All of a sudden as we hit," Mays said. "You know it was just the hardest hit. All the top...you know the things from the ceiling started dropping and it hit me on the head, but I got a hard head."

Mays was found dead at his home the next day by his wife, Deborah. Reportedly, Mays did not feel well when he went to bed later that night. No other major health problems have been disclosed.

Continue reading "Was Pitchman Billy Mays Killed by MTBI; Second Celebrity Head Injury Death After Natasha Richardson?" »

A 6th former National Football League player has been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries similar to what boxers suffer from multiple blows to the head.

Doctors at Boston University School of Medicine studied the brain of Tom McHale and determined that he suffered from traumatic brain injury before his death last May. McHale was 45 and played in the NFL from 1987-1995 for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

According to McHale's family, injuries from football and dealing with his pain led to a psychological downturn:

McHale played on N.F.L. offensive lines for nine seasons, most of them with the Buccaneers, before retiring and running several Tampa-area restaurants. According to his widow, Lisa, he developed such chronic pain in his shoulders and other joints that in 2005 he began taking improperly large doses of the painkiller OxyContin, which exacerbated his lethargy and depression and led him to take cocaine occasionally to offset those effects.

McHale spiraled downward, went through drug rehabilitation three times, and died on May 25, 2008, of a lethal — and deemed by the police, accidental — combination of oxycodone and cocaine. His death shocked many former teammates and players, several of whom remembered him as an intelligent and responsible man.

Doctors concluded that McHale's condition was the result of repetitive head trauma. In some cases, McHale's condition can lead to the onset of dementia.

In serious car accidents, people can be subjected to significant forces to their head and brain--not unlike what a boxer or football player experiences. In some cases this leads to concussions. In others, it leads to traumatic brain injuries. It's important to keep McHale's story in mind when we start to see possible signs of traumatic brain injury. In some cases, the injury can progress as severely as McHale's condition.