Burn injuries are not to be taken lightly. Burn injuries differ in severity and required medical treatment so it will be best to educate yourself on the different types of burns you can get. We frequently represent people that have suffered from burn injuries in San Diego accidents.
For more information, call our San Diego personal injury law office for a free consultation.
A 56-year old man was badly bitten in a San Diego County dog bite attack on February 16, 2010, by a pair of aggressive dogs, one of which has a history of biting. This dog bite accident took place in a West Escondido gated community.
The victim, Tom Atkinson, said he was finishing a jog on Rock View Glen in the Emerald Heights development when he noticed two loose pit-bull mix dogs growling at a neighbor and his leashed dog. He joined the neighbor and fought off the dogs. However, as Atkinson continued up the street, the dogs turned around and charged. He was bitten several times by the pair of animals, leaving him with one bad bite to the forearm that required stitches to close the wound and another deep bite to the thigh.
One of the dogs was impounded by a San Diego County Animal Control Officer but was later released to the owner, who promised to keep it on a 10-day quarantine. The other dog also was allowed to stay with the owner but was not quarantined. There may be an administrative hearing to determine whether the dogs are potentially dangerous under the law.
Our office wishes for a speedy recovery for Tom Atkinson. We are indeed glad more serious harm was not done! Some of you may know from prior posts that I am not a fan of breed specific dog laws, particularly those that target Rottweilers or Pit Bulls. While these breeds are most commonly involved in dog bite attacks, it is my own belief that these attacks are the fault of poor owners who are attracted to owning these breeds due to their menacing appearance and strong physiques. Certainly, if you own either of these breeds, you must be a strong and dominant owner—more so than if you own another, less physically imposing breed. Dogs are pack animals and will submit to a pack leader that it respects. Respect, for dogs, comes from an owner who has strong mental discipline and will discipline their pet when it gets out of line.
In this case, how could the owners of these dogs allow them to run free in this neighborhood? This is particularly true of the owner of the dog with the prior bite history. This is completely inexcusable. It is bad enough that Mr. Atkinson was attacked and severely wounded. However, what would have happened—as we normally see in these cases—if these dogs would have attacked a child? Typically, the result is massive traumatic injury and perhaps even death for the child who cannot defend itself against such strong animals. Dog owners must always be responsible, but even more so when they own potentially lethal breeds.
The Oklahoma legislature is currently considering a tort reform bill that would require people wishing to file a civil lawsuit for professional negligence (medical malpractice, accounting malpractice, legal malpractice, etc.) to obtain and attach an affidavit that the person has consulted with a qualified expert who has reviewed the facts of the case. The bill addresses all professional negligence but there can be no doubt that its’ main goal is to reduce the number of medical malpractice lawsuits by prohibiting lawsuits without expert support.
The affidavit must include a statement that the expert has provided a written opinion to support the allegation of professional negligence. If the affidavit is not filed, the lawsuit may be dismissed.
The bill, House Bill 1570, is similar to a bill vetoed by Oklahoma’s governor last year. Six states, including Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New York, and Pennsylvania, already require expert certification before filing a professional negligence lawsuit. The cost of having an expert review medical records and provide a written opinion can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 in most cases. The news story cites an example where an expert charged a medical malpractice victim $12,000 for his pre-litigation expert opinion.
The NewsOK.com news story prompted me to post a provocative tweet on Twitter, which then received several comments from Walter Olson of the legal reform website Overlawyered.com and Chris Davis of the Seattle personal injury law firm, the Davis Law Group.
My original opinion was that the Oklahoma expert certification bill is actually a good tort reform idea because it only requires an injured person to obtain a supporting expert opinion prior to filing suit–something any good and responsible medical malpractice attorney do. To prevail in a claim of medical malpractice, the person alleging the injury must prove that the doctor breached the professional standard of care for their field and that this breach actually caused the injury. To do this, an expert witness in the same field as the defendant doctor must be hired to review the medical records of the injured patient. While the bill places a burden on the injured patient’s right to access to the courts, it merely requires what careful and prudent medical malpractice lawyers already do.
On the other hand, is the Oklahoma legislature ignoring a second equally obvious method of expert certification which would further reduce the waste caused by “frivolous” lawsuits.
In response to my original Twitter post, Chris Davis suggests that the Oklahoma legislature also require defendant doctors obtain expert certification that they did not breach the professional standard of care. In other words, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Mr. Davis points out, rightly so, that a great deal of time, money, and resources are wasted in litigation fighting “frivolous defenses” created by the defendant to muddy the waters at trial. Remember, the injured patient bears the burden of proof at trial. It is a tried and true defense tactic to “throw mud” at trial–to raise irrelevant but upsetting facts–in the hopes the jury will be so confused that they will find for the defendant doctor. Much of the discovery process is spent trying to eliminate as many of these frivolous defenses as possible.
By eliminating the frivolous defense of claiming that the defendant doctor did not commit malpractice–perhaps along with an attorneys’ fees and cost penalty against the doctor if a jury found that the doctor had indeed committed malpractice–the scope of disputed issues would be greatly eliminated, saving litigation costs and judicial resources.
Perhaps the Oklahoma legislature should be encouraged to go one step further in its’ tort reform efforts.
According to a recent study conducted by Insurance.com, 44% of lawyers and judges — a higher percentage than any other profession — reported to insurance companies while comparison shopping for auto insurance that they had been involved in a prior driving accident. This is the highest accident rate amongst any profession included in this survey. The findings were published in a list entitled Top 10 Most Dangerous Drivers by Profession.
This is a higher rate of accidents than those reported by interstate truck drivers, financial professionals, waiters, or government workers. According to Insurance.com Vice President Sam Belden, the higher rate of auto accidents months lawyers and judges as well as financial professionals, who came in second, is because these professions demand multitasking, have higher stress, and require professionals to be focused on multiple tasks at the same time. According to Belden, this leads to more accidents.
However, government workers came in third. This profession is not typically known for high-pressure schedules and its workers are typically just as prone to multitasking as lawyers or judges.
The safest drivers, according to the study, were athletes and homemakers. Belden believes that homemakers are very safe drivers because they tend to take your time while driving and use greater caution because they’re typically driving with their children in their vehicles. In addition, homemakers and athletes also tend not to drive during rush hour when most car accidents occur.
The brain is a very important organ in our body. It is also very fragile and subject to injury when we strike our head in an accident or we suffer a skull fracture, so people need to do everything in their power to ensure that no damage comes to their brain. The personal injury attorneys take on brain injury claims every year. We have been representing brain injury clients for several years and we can help you and your friends and family if they ever suffer a brain injury following an injury accident.
For more information about how our office can help you with your brain injury case, please contact us for a free consultation.
A Chula Vista woman was sent to jail recently after pleading guilty to committing medical malpractice by performing abortions without a medical license. Bertha Bugarin plead guilty to nine counts of practicing medicine without a license, one felony count of grand theft, and one misdemeanor count of “dispensing dangerous drugs” to her patients at her Chula Vista clinic where she claimed to be a doctor.
The arrest and prosecution of Bugarin occurred after Michael Varga, a Chula Vista Police officer assigned to the department’s Special Investigations Unit, interviewed women about abortions they had received at Clinica Medica Para La Mujer de Hoy, a storefront clinic located on Broadway in Chula Vista that catered to low-income, Spanish-speaking women.
Varga’s investigation led to identifying Bugarin as the leader of an illegal medical facility and abortion clinic. Bugarin, the investigation found, was a layperson who claimed to be the owner and manager of the Chula Vista cash only clinic, as well as five other similar clinics in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
James Folsom, 68 of San Diego, faces 26 felony counts for medical malpractice by selling illegal medical devices in San Diego that he claimed would treat a variety of medical conditions through the passage of electrical currents. He faces 140 years in prison and $500,000 in fines if convicted, according to this news story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Since 1997, Folsom sold approximately 9,000 devices, such as NatureTronics, AstroPulse, BioSolutions, Energy Wellness, and Global Wellness to both retail and wholesale consumers generating more than $8 million in revenue for himself in the process. Assistant U.S. Attorney Melanie Pierson said that this is the largest case involving illegal medical devices in the 20 years that she has worked as a federal prosecutor in San Diego County.
Folsom is an ex-business partner to a Fallbrook woman named Kimberly Bailey who sold similar devices until convicted in 2002 for planning the torture and murder of another man who was her business partner and lover.
The device sold by Folsom is made up of a small black box with dials, a digital screen, and wires leading to a pair of stainless steel cylinders or metal plates. The box is plugged into an electrical socket, and a patient holds the cylinders or stands on the plates. According to Folsom’s marketing, the device destroys diseased cells in the body with the use of electrical frequencies.
Prosecutors also allege that Folsom conducted business under false names and the United States Food and Drug Administration states that the device was never approved for use as a medical device in the United States.
The results of a new study by researchers from Boston’s Harvard Medical School have shown that those who were the victims of abuse during childhood have a higher likelihood that portions of the brain will be underdeveloped. The study, released by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that a variety of abusive tactics used against children led to underdevelopment of the brain due to severe stress.
The study used 193 adults who were between the ages of 18 and 25 years old and interviewed them concerning whether they had ever been subject to abuse. Researchers then scanned their brains via an MRI machine to see if they were altered in any way. Affected patients reported suffering from a variety of abusive techniques ranging from “parental verbal aggression” to “harsh corporal punishment.”
Specifically, the study found that childhood abuse victims had an average of 5.8% to 6.5% less volume in important parts of the hippocampus. The hippocampus plays an important role in memory and emotional processing, but results from the study did not reach a conclusion on what the effects were of having an underdeveloped one, although there may be a connection to the higher degree of mental illness found in those who have suffered child abuse. As the hippocampus is still developing during childhood, major stress at that time can lead to its improper formation.
Any form of child abuse can result in devastating physical and psychological effects for a child. If you believe your child has been abused by another, you have the right to seek compensation from those responsible. The child abuse lawyers in San Diego are dedicated to helping you and your child in any way we can and winning the compensation you both deserve. For more information, call us today for a free consultation from our experienced legal team.
A 35-year old jogger was killed on February 16, 2010, in a San Diego pedestrian accident when she darted into the path of an oncoming car while running with her husband and their two dogs in the East County neighborhood of Lakeside, according to authorities. The woman apparently failed to see the northbound late-model Ford Mustang when she crossed the 9400 block of Los Coches Road in the Winter Gardens area shortly before 9 a.m.
The motorist, an El Cajon woman in her early 50s, told investigators she did not see the jogger until she ran directly in front of her car.
Our office wishes to convey our sincere prayers and condolences to the family and friends of the deceased. We urge the joggers in San Diego County to be more careful. It is better advised to jog in parks rather than on roads when possible. But if you are jogging on roadways, please look out for motorists who may not expect to see you run across intersections. And please, motorists, keep an eye out for the unexpected—including pedestrians, joggers, and bicyclists.
A 36-year old woman was severely injured in an Orange County truck accident as a commercial truck tractor went off a residential street in Garden Grove and hit several trees, a fence, concrete planters and a block wall before coming to a stop. This truck accident took place on February 12, 2010 around 11 a.m. The injured woman, Olga Quiroz, was standing in her yard when she was struck and dragged under the truck. Quiroz was taken to a local hospital with lacerations, fractures, and other injuries to her legs.
The truck driver, William Davis, 44, of Orange, was uninjured, and evaluated to have been driving under the influence of alcohol and was later arrested on suspicion of felony DUI. Davis has also been linked to a non-injury hit and run traffic collision that happened about 45 minutes before at Euclid Avenue and Trask Street.
Our office wishes for a speedy recovery for Olga Quiroz. It has to be said that drivers need to be extremely careful while driving in residential areas. Also, driving under influence can lead to fatal consequences.