Recent Blog Posts
Teaching Children to Avoid Dog Bites
Summer is here and that means more people enjoying outdoor activities. Children are out of school and neighborhood streets are busy with activity. It also means more people, both children and adults, are at a greater risk of being bitten by a dog.
According to statistics from the Center of Disease Control (CDC), every year almost 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs. Half of those dog-bite victims are children. One in five victims has to seek medical treatment for the bites they receive. Almost 450,000 children need medical attention for the bites they get. In one year alone, 27,000 dog bite victims get bitten by dogs so badly they require reconstructive surgery.
Children between the ages of 5 and 9 years old are most at risk of receiving injuries from a dog bite. And men are more likely than women to be victims of dog bites.
Contrary to what most people think, there is no specific breed of dog that is more apt to bite than others. Any dog has the capacity of suddenly biting. It’s important for everyone to know how to behave around an unfamiliar dog, and it is especially critical to teach children how to react to a strange dog. The CDC offers these tips to share with children:
Survey Reveals Half of Homeless had Past Traumatic Brain Injury
Physicians at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto conducted a survey of homeless men and discovered that almost half of them had suffered some kind of past traumatic brain injury (TBI).
A traumatic brain injury can have devastating, life-long effects. There can be an alteration in moods, resulting in either reduction in motivation or an increase in aggression. There can be damage to a person’s cognitive capacity, such as the inability to make decisions. Recognizing appropriate and inappropriate social behavior may also be affected.
The researchers for this study questioned 111 men between the ages of 27 and 81 from a local homeless shelter. The definition the study used for homelessness was “living at a shelter within the last seven days and not having a home of one’s own.” Although the men were randomly chosen, there were criteria they needed to meet in order to participate. They had to be able to speak English; they had to be able to give their consent to participate; they could not have any severe mental illness which would pose a safety risk for the researchers. The majority of participants had issues with chronic alcoholism.
NHTSA Launches New Tire Safety Campaign
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently announced their newest safety campaign, TireWise. The campaign’s goal is to educate both consumers and tire retailers to the importance of choosing and maintaining the vehicle tires.
According to statistics from the NHTSA, there are 11,000 tire-related vehicle accidents every year. Two hundred people die each year from those tire-related crashes.
Topics covered in the TireWise campaign include:
- How to select the correct size, type and rating for your vehicle;
- How to perform a monthly tire pressure check, which the NHTSA says is “critical” to tire safety;
- How to monthly checks for wear and tear to the tread of your tires;
- How to check and deal with aging of tires, such what causes tire to age and break down, how to extend the life of your tires and when it’s time to replace them;
Accidents Caused by Road Debris Kill Over 400 People Each Year
A report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) last year revealed that 400 people are killed every year in vehicle accidents caused by road debris that falls from unsecured loads being carried by non-commercial vehicles. Another 10,000 people were injured in road debris accidents.
GAO compiled the report based on data collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), however the agency points out in its report that the number of fatalities may actually be higher because of issues with road debris accident reporting. In the past, the NHTSA did not categorize whether or not the road debris in vehicle accidents was caused by human error or whether or not it was cause by nature (i.e. a tree that has fallen).
Another issue in reporting is the differences in state laws and how it applies to road debris that comes from non-commercial vehicles.
New Study Suggest Feeding Tubes May Cause Bed Sores
According to a recent study, gastric feeding tubes prescribed for patients who suffer from dementia may actually increase the risk of pressure ulcers, also called bed sores.
Many dementia patients eventually have a difficult time eating. Swallowing especially can be affected by the disease, which can lead to aspiration pneumonia. As a result, doctors frequently prescribed the insertion of gastric feeding tubes. The tube is inserted in a small incision that is made in a patient’s abdomen and that is how the patient receives nutrition.
Gastric feeding tubes cause many dementia patients to become agitated. As a result, it often becomes necessary to restrain and sedate them. With the patient now restrained in bed for the majority of time, the risk of bed sores greatly increases. The study revealed that 35.6 percent of patients, who did not initially have bed sores before a feeding tube was inserted, developed a stage 2 bed sore (or worse) with the feeding tube. Fewer than 20 percent of patients who did not have feeding tubes developed bed sores.
Summer Deadliest Driving Time for Teens
Each year, the summer is the deadliest season for teen drivers. When Memorial Day arrives, it starts a period known as the 100 deadliest days for teen drivers, because when school is out and the weather is nice, car accidents are most common in this age group.
In 2012, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, approximately 1,000 people were killed in car accidents caused by teens. This data comes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Of the 1,000 people killed, 88 percent of the victims were teenagers.
The main cause of teen accidents is distracted driving. Data from distraction.gov shows that 10 percent of drivers under the age of 20 who were involved in a fatal accident were distracted when the accident occured.
A major issue with teens behind the wheel is that texting while driving is not the only cause of distractions. The National Safety Council released a study that says the risk of an accident increases by 44 percent when a teen has passengers in the vehicle with them.
What Makes Drivers Angry?
Have you ever wondered what it is that makes drivers so angry on the roads? Expedia has put together a study that explains what makes drivers so angry at each other, and these habits can lead to car accidents. Whether you are traveling for school, work or vacation; angry drivers are on the road.
Expedia surveyed 1,001 driving adults in the United States and found that 69 percent of them ranked distracted drivers as the number-one most annoying behavior on the roads today. Texting while driving is banned in multiple states, but it can be hard to enforce.
The second-most annoying behavior was tailgating or following too close. This category received 60 percent of the votes from those surveyed. The next category, with 54 percent of the vote, was drivers who eat, read or apply makeup while driving.
FDA Cuts Lunesta Dosage in Half Because of Drug’s Lingering Morning Effects
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced that it is requiring the makers of the sleeping aid Lunesta to change the recommended starting dose on the product. Studies have shown that there may be high enough levels of the drug left in patients the morning after that could possibly impair any activity that requires alertness and focus, such as driving. This side effect may be present even in patients who feel as if they are fully awake.
Currently, the recommended starting dose is two milligrams. But the FDA has ordered manufacturer Sunovion Pharmaceuticals to change the labels and the patient medication guide to now reflect a recommended starting dose of one milligram. If needed, then the dosage may gradually be increased.
According to a study conducted by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), approximately nine million people in the U.S. take a prescription sleeping aid to help fall asleep. Last year alone, nearly 55 million sleeping aid prescriptions were dispensed by pharmacies across the country. Two of the most popular drugs prescribed are Lunesta (eszopiclone) and Ambien (zolpidem).
Thousands of Children Injured in Shopping Cart Accidents Every Year
A study by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) revealed that more than 24,000 children are injured in shopping cart accidents every year. Almost 21,000 of those injured are children under the age of 5 years old. Almost 80 percent of the injuries children receive are to their head and face.
The study looked at emergency room statistics from 2008 to 2012. During that time, over 107,000 children younger than 5 years old were treated for injuries sustained from a shopping cart. Sixty percent of those children were 1 and 2 years of age.
The study used the following definitions to describe what the hazard was with the shopping cart that caused the injuries:
- Fall – The child fell from the cart when no other “hazard” was involved. This includes the child falling out of the cart when standing up, or falling while trying to climb out of the cart;
Study Finds Most Pediatric Medical Devices Approved Without Testing on Children
A new study reveals that the majority of medical devices approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use on children have only been tested on adults 18 years or older, with no testing done on children.
The study was conducted by researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, with the results published in Pediatrics. Researchers examined pediatric medical devices that were approved by the FDA between the years 2008 and 2011. There were 25 devices that have been approved for patients 21 years old or younger. Eleven of those devices hadn’t been tested on anyone under the age of 21 years old. And only four of those devices had actually been tested on people less than 18 years of age. To compound the problem, only three of the devices were approved to be used on anyone under the age of 18 years old. The other 22 devices were only approved by the FDA to be used on patients between the ages of 18 to 21 years of age, however these devices are routinely used physicians “off-label” in teenagers and young children since there are no alternative devices that have been approved for those age groups. The study also revealed that despite the FDA adding stipulations to the approval requiring the manufacturers to hold post-market testing, they only required three of these companies to include children in those tests. None of these tests have been completed. In a statement, one of the study’s authors wrote, “Children are not simply ‘small adults,’ and a device found to be safe and effective in adults may have a very different safety and effectiveness profile when used in a pediatric population. Without this data, it is difficult for clinicians and parents to make informed treatment decisions that weigh the risks and benefits of a particular treatment.” If you or someone in your family has been injured by the improper use of a medical device, or the use of a defective or unsafe device, contact an experienced New Braunfels personal injury attorney to find out what compensation you may be entitled to for pain and loss.
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