This drunken driving case nearly ended a nine-year-old girl’s life. She is paralyzed from the chest down and in a wheelchair. Her life is no longer what it used to be. That has not stopped the plucky young lady from writing a letter to the man who shattered her life. She is certain her words will get his attention.

Once used to wrestling with her four brothers, the nine-year-old girl still holds on to her dream of being able to help others one day. She holds on to that thought, that even though she cannot walk now, it does not mean she can’t help others heal if she fights hard enough to be able to walk one day.

This story started on the day of her eighth birthday. She and some of the women in her family had gone out on the town for haircuts and manicures. It was an exciting day. They were headed home later, talking about the birthday girl’s cake and what they would do with the rest of the day, when a car slammed into them. The driver had a blood alcohol content at three times the legal limit. He was driving while impaired.

The young girl wanted to see if the 28-year-old driver had learned a lesson from what he did, and whether or not he was sorry. She read her letter to him out loud in the packed court room, bringing tears to everyone’s eyes, including the drunken driver who had left her paralyzed from the chest down.  He was sentenced to jail for ten years; the girl hopes that when he gets out, he will remember his actions and how they harmed someone else and changed her life forever.

This accident seriously injured not just the nine-year-old girl, but put her family in a position of extreme financial jeopardy. The girl’s hospital bills and rehabilitation now, and in the future, are phenomenal. The only way for the family to recover some of the money would be to file a personal injury lawsuit, as this court case was held in the criminal courts. A successful claim would help them recover medical bills, lost wages, and rehabilitation costs among other things, as they struggle to care for their daughter.

Will she ever walk again? With a spirit like that, she likely will. Even at the young age of 9, she has more pluck and courage than many other people in a similar situation.

For anyone that has been in an accident such as this, do not wait to talk to a personal injury lawyer about compensation. While there may be criminal proceedings, that does not bar you from launching a civil action when the criminal trial is completed. In fact, a criminal conviction bolsters the civil action, and the two can go hand-in-hand. The criminal case is to protect the public from that kind of behavior. The civil case is for compensation.

When in doubt about what to do, always call a seasoned Nashua injury lawyer and get the straight scoop. It’s your life. You matter, and your lawyer will go to the mat for you.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

The parents were expecting a healthy baby. What they got, instead, was a dead baby, thanks to an incompetent OB-GYN who attempted to pull the child from the birth canal, and in the process, detached the baby’s head from its spine.

At trial, the evidence demonstrated that the doctor separated the baby’s head from its neck during the delivery process, then pushed the child back into the mother’s womb and did an emergency C-section to hide his negligence. A totally horrific, horrendously negligent action, carried out by a doctor who had urged the mother to have a vaginal delivery, when her regular doctor indicated their baby boy would need to be delivered by C-section, as his stomach was far too large for a normal birth.

When the mother-to-be went into labor 28-weeks into a 40-week pregnancy, she was rushed to a hospital. The doctor at the hospital refused to do a C-section and refused to deliver the baby unless she attempted a vaginal delivery. The woman gave her consent to a trial vaginal delivery, but under protest and duress.

As the baby was proceeding down the birth canal, his head breached, but due to his large stomach, he became stuck. The doctor started to pull the baby out by applying traction. At that point, he separated the baby’s head from his cervical spine. The amount of blood that shot out of the newborn’s neck was clearly visible to the parents. At that juncture, the doctor shoved the boy’s head and body back into the mother and rushed to do a C-section, at which time he started making the incision into the mother before she was under anesthesia.

You would think this case could not get much worse, but it does. When the surgery was completed he had the nerve to hand over the baby to the mother, while trying to hide the fact his head was detached from his body. How he thought that was going to fly is baffling. It’s not rocket science that the parents talked to an experienced medical malpractice lawyer and filed a lawsuit against both doctors and the medical group that initially treated the woman during her pregnancy.

The wrongful death, medical negligence case will likely be successful in court, as the behavior in this case by the doctor was totally egregious. There were no doubt witnesses, beside the parents, who saw the doctor tear the baby’s head off in the delivery room and quickly attempt to put the baby back into the mother. It’s just completely unfathomable that any doctor that did something like that would not be found liable.

While not all medical malpractice cases are like this one, it does point out that to get justice you must have the services of an experienced Manchester medical malpractice lawyer. They are your voice, your warrior for justice and they will not stop until you get the compensation you deserve.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

This is one of those stories that sets you to thinking, “What if?” Drunken driving is almost as prevalent as the common cold, and like a common cold, it has the potential to turn into something else over time. Take this case, for instance. It is one that still resonates with grief and loss, even two years after the fact. The only good thing is that there is a measure of healing involved for the man who killed a family’s son, for the family who lost their son, and for the officer that attended the final chapter of a young man’s life.

It was November, 2010, when four friends were heading back home after a concert, with the designated driver behind the wheel. While heading north on the highway, the four were rammed by a 22-year-old Air Force airman doing an estimated 78 mph. He had opted to drive while under the influence. His decision killed a 21-year-old passenger in the car. The man’s family decided to file a wrongful death lawsuit, not for revenge, but to seek an accounting of responsibility.

The airman’s blood alcohol content was 0.183; he pled guilty to drunken driving, involuntary manslaughter, and three counts of aggravated battery. While on his way out of court to start serving a six-year sentence, he was told by the mother of the dead young man that they forgave him. The family wanted to focus on healing, and not anger. As a step toward healing, the family started a website asking people to perform seven acts of kindness. The detective who was present at the scene of that horrible accident made his first act of kindness: a presentation for schools and colleges about the accident. In sharing the horror of death caused by a drunken driver, a lesson was presented to those who watch.

However, the officer felt that something was missing from the presentation: the convicted drunken driver. Over time, the officer made the effort to get to know the driver: when he is released from prison in 2016, they plan to make the presentation together. It is, in part, a story about faith and healing, about redemption and about the horror of what drinking and driving does. It’s not a hearts-and-flowers presentation. It is factual and graphic. It carries the message that people need to be responsible and do not drink and drive. It hits home, and that is what it is intended to do. Don’t drink and drive. It may be the last time you do.

Not all stories involving a drunken driver end up like this one. Some situations leave families seething with anger and a thirst for revenge. The point is drunken drivers affect all of us in some way or another. It’s time to stop the carnage.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

The whole point of texting and driving is to keep in touch with others. The irony is that we used to be able to do that just fine with a phone used at home or at work. There is no need to chat while driving. Nothing — repeat nothing — is important enough to risk your own life and the lives of others by texting while driving. It appears Oklahoma may be getting with the ban texting while driving movement by dedicating an entire week to this issue.

In fact, there is a new rally cry, or war cry if you will, that calls for stopping texting, to stop the horrific wrecks that happen as a result of this dangerous driving habit. Think about these figures for a moment before blowing off the notion that this article does not apply to you, or anyone else you may know. On average, a texting driver glances down at their phone for five seconds for every text sent or read. Let’s say their speed is 40 mph. In those five seconds, they will travel at least 300 feet, which is the length of a football field. Those five seconds of inattention kill. It’s been proven, time and time again. When does it stop?

Nationwide statistics show that more than 3,000 people died, and just about half a million were injured, as a result of accidents caused by distracted drivers. These figures don’t include the close calls, the near misses when someone manages to avoid an accident, and discovers when they look at the other driver, that they have a cell phone in their hand – or worse yet – they were texting themselves when driving.

There are 39 states that currently ban texting while driving in some form or another, but there are still a few states, and Oklahoma is one of them, that don’t have a single sentence in their laws relating to distracted driving. For some reason, although the idea seems to garner support, the law never comes to pass, and people keep on dying for no good reason, other than they wanted to make sure their friends knew about a party that night.

Of interest is the groundswell of youth speaking out about the dangers of texting and driving. In Oklahoma alone, just about 94 percent of teens want a law banning distracted driving, and close to 84 percent of adults agree. So where is the law? It seems those that live in Oklahoma have a deep down dislike of the government telling them what to do, and they aren’t the only state where people hold similar views.

Those good citizens have a right to feel that way. Personal liberty is a precious thing, and it may be that instead of implementing more new laws on top of the existing laws, it is time to consider that current laws against driving while distracted are sufficient as they stand. The government may need to step back and find a happy medium to make the situation work.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

The year was 2008. The woman in this case consulted with a plastic surgeon about the process required for reconstructive surgery, following a bilateral mastectomy. In May, the surgery was completed, once the woman had the bilateral mastectomies done.

During the follow-up process, when the woman wanted to discuss after surgical care, treatment and any other procedures that may be required, she was informed that the doctor was no longer in practice, due to an undisclosed illness. Baffled by this information, as the doctor had not seemed ill when she consulted with him prior to surgery, nor after her operation, she attempted to find out more.

What she discovered rocked her world. The doctor was evidently no longer practicing, as his medical license had been suspended as a result of several charges laid against him for refusing or failing to turn over patient medical records, and for falsifying medical records. Realizing that she needed to get her medical records, since he was no longer in practice, and she still needed care, she began the process of attempting to obtain them. While the physician’s office promised she would get them, they were never sent to her.

The woman went to another surgeon in 2010, who discovered the first doctor had not installed the devices she had chosen in 2008, and had assumed had been placed during surgery. This shocking discovery led to a second surgery to get things right. Then again, in 2011, another operation was required to complete the process.

The medical negligence suit states the first surgeon caused her unending pain and anxiety, severe emotional distress, extensive scarring, additional medical expenses relating to the two further reconstructive surgeries and lost income. The suit was filed against the doctor’s estate, as he had died in 2010, and his wife was named as his executrix.

Has this woman got a case? Most certainly. The horror show she went through to have reconstructive surgery done properly was indeed a three-ring circus. The fact that the first surgeon did not install the correct devices required for reconstruction after a bilateral mastectomy was egregious. But for his negligence, the woman would not have spent two extra years in and out of hospital getting the first botched surgery rectified.

Think you have been a victim of medical malpractice? Contact a Keene medical malpractice lawyer for advice.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

Those with connectivity in their vehicles swear their productivity has increased and that they can multi-task and drive at the same time. These are often the same people that the police and EMS crews have to pull out of their wrecked cars with the Jaws of Life. They are often the same individuals who are either seriously injured or killed in an auto accident. It is a no brainer that someone cannot drive, text, talk, adjust equipment, send faxes or watch a computer screen without serious consequences.

Been lucky so far, and nothing has happened to you? While that is good news, it does not mean that you are not at risk. Nor does it mean that another driver, doing the same thing you are, will not slam into you and leave you badly injured. For safety’s sake, for the sake of your own life, and the lives of people you don’t know, who also have families, do not use mobile technology while you are driving.

All of our technology is addictive. We did just fine without any of it. Now we think we can’t live without “all” of it. As an injury lawyer, I see lots of needless suffering caused by distracted people. It is a good practice for all of us to spend some time away from our computers and iPhones to see that we can manage just fine without being connected all the time. It seems like we are always on high alert waiting for the next message. It is good for us to take a step back from all of it.

Don’t think this is an issue? The average American spends over two hours in their car every day. The rest of the day is typically spent “communicating” with everyone by updating a Facebook place, posting a Tweet on Twitter, visiting a Google+ site, texting or whatever else comes to mind during the day. Technology is terrific, but know when and where to use it. If you only spend about two hours a day in the car, why not do it without being connected to multiple social media sites? Your safety is far more important than what you want to eat for supper, or what your golf score was that day.

What is the obsession with being out of touch for a short period of time? We never used to have mobile devices in our vehicles, and there were far less accidents. But, people sputter, the devices are so useful! True, but they can be useful in a safe environment, like an office or at home. There is no need to text and drive. If you don’t think this applies to you, then research the number of people who have died doing just that. If you don’t want to be a statistic, ditch the technology while driving.

The end results of technology in use prior to a driver meeting another car or semi head-on is awful. If you could see that, and listen to the family’s distress and grief, you would never use a cellphone, smartphone, tablet or anything else in your vehicle again, ever. Get smart.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

The day started out like any normal day, except that this family was going on a special trip to introduce the 8-year-old to the local science center. The man dropped off his wife and child in the parking, planning to park the car and join them so they could enter the building together. As the man backed up his car, he ran over his wife and son. The little boy died as a result of his injuries. The wife was admitted to hospital in serious condition, but is expected to survive.

How could the man back his car over his wife and child? Couldn’t he see them out the rearview window or by using his side mirror? Running over someone behind your car is far easier than you may think, as there is a problem that most drivers are unaware of – there is a blind spot or zone behind the car. Most drivers know about the blind spot on either side of their vehicles, but few are aware of the danger zone behind them. Every vehicle has a blind spot; what many do not know is that the blind area may range from 10 feet (for a sedan) up to 30 feet (for a pick-up truck).

Each year, hundreds of kids are taken to hospital emergency rooms as a result of pedestrian-versus-vehicle accidents, just like this horrific one. Additionally, the statistics on this type of accident are not complete, as they are usually underestimated due to being under-reported. They go under-reported for a variety of reasons, including accidents where the child was injured, but did not go to hospital, or were treated at a walk-in clinic or their own doctor’s office, or they were seen at an emergency room, but were treated and sent home without being admitted to the hospital.

Back-over incidents do not happen as frequently as other forms of auto accidents, but they can be just as fatal, as this case demonstrates. They also result in more severe crush injuries than other kinds of car-versus-pedestrian accidents.

If back-over incidences are happing with such frequency, why hasn’t anyone done something about it? The good news is that someone “has” done something about it. KidsAndCars.org successfully lobbied the government to make it mandatory that cars made in 2014 come equipped with back-up cameras. The added visibility is a step in the right direction and many personal injury attorneys applaud the organization for their advocacy. No lawyer wants to deal with a wrongful death lawsuit of a child who died under the wheels of a car as it backed up over them, because the driver, whether they are related to the child or not, did not see them.

Stay safe. Keep your children safe.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

Being involved in a personal injury accident is bad enough without discovering later that your identity was stolen as a result of it. Yes, humanity has sunk that low that some scammers and con artists are now causing accidents with the intention of stealing your identity. Best advice? Do not give your personal information out to anyone except your insurance company or the police after an accident.

The natural response of a driver just involved in a car accident is to immediately exchange personal information with the other person, which often includes phone numbers, home addresses and insurance details. They may also consider contacting a Manchester personal injury lawyer, particularly if the accident was the result of another’s negligence. However, even just the basic information offered to a stranger is often enough to have your identity stolen.

This has actually become such a problem that the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) now strongly recommends that anyone in an accident only provide their first and last name, along with the phone number and the name of their insurer. The added caution is to never provide your driver’s license number to a stranger. While this makes infinite sense, it is a sad commentary on the world today that people need to be on their guard against tricks like this.

Identity theft is one of the most popular crimes today, and as the technology around us grows and gets more sophisticated, it becomes easier to steal our most personal essence – our identities. From hacking computers, stealing cell phones and hacking Facebook, to staged car accidents – the world has become a place to be on guard. Makes one wonder what happened to the “old” days.

By just getting some of your preliminary information, it is too easy nowadays to get into credit reports, access your credit cards, insurance, medical information, work address and even banking information. Keep in mind that it is not just your personal information stolen. Staged accidents are a way to defraud insurance companies as well as consumers. After all, it is your rates that go up with each accident – real or staged. You then pay twice for the anxiety, inconvenience and injuries – once by losing your identity and the second time by having to pay higher insurance rates due to successful accident scams.

There are over 5 million car accidents every year, and with identity theft being so popular, there is a good chance some of the wrecks were intentional to fish for the other driver’s personal information. NAIC points out that after an accident, no one pays much attention to what is going on around them and since many are also in shock, they usually hand out more information than they should without thinking. Just provide enough information to complete an accident report for the police, and don’t offer anything else until you speak to your Manchester personal injury lawyer.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

There are a lot of stories about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is one of them. It’s the story about a 2-year-old boy who started his day happy and laughing, ready to go for a ride with his dad to daycare.

When his dad picked him up at the end of the day, they made their way home. Suddenly, the man heard tires squealing and saw a white pickup truck heading towards them. He slammed on the brakes of his Saturn SL2. The impact came next, and it was horrific. He asked witnesses who came over to help to get his toddler from the back seat. No one could find him.

When they did find him, he was in the trunk. The force of the impact slammed him through the seat and back wall of the truck. He was not breathing, and a bystander administered CPR. When paramedics arrived, they revived him and took him to the hospital, where a medical team treated him and found he was paralyzed from the neck down.

This accident happened on a stretch of road well noted for accidents like this one. In this case, two other drivers imbued with road rage were chasing one another at high speeds. Both were in the oncoming lanes heading towards the small Saturn. After the wreck, both drivers denied they were in an argument, but eyewitness reports say one of the drivers appeared to have braked suddenly, causing the other one to rear-end him. The first driver lost it, and the chase was on.

But for two idiots who should have known better, a little boy’s life was left in ruins. He won’t be able to play with other kids or hold a book to read. That is a high price to pay for someone else’s short-sighted stupidity.

Need a competent and experienced Nashua injury lawyer? If you have been in an accident and sustained serious injuries, a Nashua injury lawyer is your road to justice.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

When you head to the shopping mall, the last thing you expect to see is a pickup truck driving down the middle of the mall. Dallas, Texas was treated to just such an adventure recently, when a 35-year-old nude dude, wearing only a smile, drove his truck inside a mall and ended up trying on clothes.

On his way down the mall, he took out several free-standing portable kiosks before stopping inside a sporting goods store, where he got dressed in clothing on display in the store, including socks and a new pair of Nike Jordan sneaks.

One eyewitness told police the man drove up, smacked into the door of the store, backed up and hit it again, this time with more force, and then continued into the store. The store wasn’t open for business, but that didn’t stop the man, who plowed through the security gate.

The man was arrested inside the store and then taken by paramedics to the hospital for a medical evaluation. The sneakers were recovered at the scene and returned to the store, but the man kept the rest of the clothes on. The police said no one wanted to see him in the buff.

No one seems to have any idea what prompted the man to pull this stunt, but the officers on site did mention they had received a domestic disturbance call earlier in the morning, and that the nude man was a suspect in that fight. It is not certain if he went “shopping” while under the influence of something, but police are investigating the incident.

The damage to the mall is in the thousands of dollars. The driver is being held without bail and facing multiple charges of burglary, reckless endangerment, vandalism and indecent exposure. Ego damage? Too embarrassing to rate. It is just lucky that no one was hurt.

Been involved in an unusual car accident? Need an experienced Manchester injury lawyer to speak up for your rights? If you want justice and compensation for injuries sustained in a car accident, only a Manchester injury lawyer can get the case to court.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

“It is no secret that Accutane has serious side effects, side effects both doctors and the durg makers are aware of. Nonetheless, it continues to be prescribed,” said Charlie Donahue, a Manchester injury and medical malpractice lawyer with offices in Keene, New Hampshire. “This drug is the basis of thousands of lawsuits across the country, with one plaintiff recently receiving $25 million for his inflammatory bowel disease.”

Inflammatory bowel disease is one of the most severe side effects of taking Accutane, but it was not until 2009 that the drug maker, Hoffman-LaRoche, yanked it from the market. But it was too late. The company was inundated with lawsuits and up to its ears in litigation costs and payouts. Prescribing doctors and the drug company were named as defendants. For the physicians, they faced medical negligence suits for knowingly prescribing this horrific drug. For the drug company, they faced personal injury lawsuits for the damage their drug had done in the lives of many individuals.

This drug is responsible for causing Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, diseases that manifest themselves with inflammation, abdominal cramping, irritation of the gastrointestinal organs, bleeding ulcers, perianal disease, bowel cancer, fistulas, intestinal blockages and ruptured bowel. The pain and discomfort of these side effects is unbelievable. There is no cure for inflammatory bowel disease.

“We go to the doctor to treat acne and are given a prescription for a drug that could severely harm or kill us. The doctor knows about the side effects but writes a script for it anyhow. Medical negligence? Yes. Worth talking to a medical malpractice lawyer? Yes, emphatically so,” said Donahue. “Even the doctor is capable of reading warning labels, as ineffective as they may be. And if the patient does not want to sue their doctor, there may be a case for suing the drug maker.”

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warn Americans they should not buy Accutane or its generic companion, Isotretinoin, over the Internet. “While that is a nice touch, they should be warning them not to buy it – period,” Donahue said.

If you suspect you have an issue with a drug that was prescribed to you, don’t wait, thinking the symptoms may subside. Contact a lawyer and find out your rights.

To learn more, visit http://www.donahuelawfirm.com.

This story is so perverse you may have to read it twice to understand how anyone could do what this one individual did – hire doctors to fix abortions gone wrong in his clinic. It’s a chilling tale, and one that should make you think twice about using abortion clinics. Regardless of how you feel about abortion, it is an area where there is malpractice as well.

“MH” is in charge of an abortion facility, and in the past, hired abortionists with histories of medical malpractice charges. Recently, MH came under fire from pro-life advocates to do something about the doctors with medical negligence histories. He fired them but then hired two more doctors with similar histories to replace them. Their duties would be to provide emergency care to women injured at MH’s clinic.

MH does not have hospital privileges and requires a written exemption from the state Department of Health to keep his clinic open. He is also required to have signed contracts with other doctors who have hospital privileges to ensure that any of his patients who sustain complications from an abortion get the emergency care they need.

One of the doctors fired from MH’s clinic had been disciplined by the State of Kentucky for being responsible for the death of a wanted baby as the result of his negligence. The physician was banned from practicing obstetrics in Kentucky, at which point he moved to Ohio. Ohio publically reprimanded the man once they discovered his Kentucky history and found out he was attempting to pass himself off as board certified in obstetrics and gynecology.

The two replacements MH hired apparently have serious issues as well, mostly with medical negligence and incompetence, and other clinics where they have worked have been sued for medical malpractice. The lawsuits include a wrongful death suit. These histories alone should bar them from offering emergency medical care to women with life-threatening complications as a result of an abortion. To put women needing emergency care in the hands of doctors with histories of medical negligence simply defies logic.

To say this story makes you wonder what is wrong with people is an understatement. Women in the hands of doctors who do not know what they are doing exposes them to not only life-altering injuries but the risk of death. Where does behavior and ethics like this stop?

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

There is genuine medical malpractice, and then there is questionable medical malpractice. The key to defining this lies in what the definition is or should be. This story is disturbing, as it goes too far overboard and leaves one wondering what one earth people will sue over next.

Evidently, a Christian doctor has been severely reprimanded for sharing his beliefs with a patient. The warning will be put on his record for five years. Five years for sharing a belief in God with a patient? While it seems too off-the-wall to possibly be true, it is true.

Apparently the committee investigating the complaint found that the doctor’s actions did not meet the standards required by a doctor, which begs the question, “Just what standards are required by a doctor?” That he or she be a card carrying atheist, shun religion and ignore a patient’s moral and religious dilemmas, when faith may be what they are lacking?

The good doctor, in practice for over 28 years, was investigated when a patient complained that he had discussed the benefits of Christianity with him. This same patient refused to give evidence at the hearing into the doctor’s so-called breach of acceptable standards.

Being that this was fundamentally a human rights issue, as well as an out of proportion reaction to defining medical malpractice, the doctor spoke with the Human Rights Commission, who represented him at his hearing, arguing he could not possibly get a fair hearing when the complainant was not present. Amazingly, the committee of the doctor’s peers ruled it was fine for the patient to anonymously testify over the phone. So much for a fair hearing. The defense had no chance to evaluate the patient’s responses.

According to the patient, who had a private medical consultation with the doctor, he was offered no other medical options and instead was told that believing in Jesus was the only way that his suffering would be relieved. According to the doctor, he did provide medical options for the patient but mentioned his strong faith in the Lord because he felt it may help his patient. He also said he asked the patient if he could discuss his faith with him and said he received permission to do so.

It is a key point in this kangaroo court hearing that the doctor asked the patient if he minded talking about religion and the patient was open to it. If the patient had said he was not interested, that would be different. Broaching the subject of Christianity or any other faith is fine, if the patient agrees. If not, it’s a bad idea.

Ultimately, the committee decided it liked the patient’s evidence more than what the doctor was stating under oath, a resolution to this situation that did not sit well with the doctor. Faced with a sullied reputation and a reprimand to remain on his file for five years, the doctor indicated he would ask for a judicial review of the committee’s decision and how it handled the matter.

This kind of stuff makes lawyers crazy. The committee was acting in a high-handed manner and was likely pushing the envelope of legality by permitting the patient to testify in secret and denying the doctor’s defense team a chance to question him and assess the evidence. This is hardly medical negligence, and if the world is coming to a place where a doctor sharing his faith with a patient amounts to medical malpractice, that doesn’t bode well for anyone.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

Senate Bill 406 suggests there is another alternative for patients and their families who sustain injuries or die as a result of a medical procedure, of securing timely settlement under the auspices of an early offer program. New Hampshire would be the first to try the program that would see patients getting a settlement within 90-days. This is something a Nashua medical malpractice lawyer does not support in any way, as every patient that is the victim of medical malpractice is entitled to their day in court and to have their case presented to a jury.

The idea behind this early offer program is that a settlement would consist of reimbursement for lost wages, money for medical bills and another payment calculated on how severe the medical malpractice incident happens to be. For example, the payment may range from $1,700 for a minor injury to $117,500 for more serious injuries or death. Program participation would be entirely voluntary on the part of the patient, and the process taken care of by the state Insurance Department.

There are two schools of thought on this program. Those who support the program feel it will significantly reduce the time, cost and anxiety involved in medical malpractice cases, which take, on average about four years to be resolved in New Hampshire. Those who do not support this program think the bill curries favor with hospitals and insurance companies. It requires a patient who is not happy with the early offer settlement to be held to an even higher burden of proof than required in a lawsuit. This is something an experienced Nashua medical malpractice lawyer condemns wholeheartedly as taking more rights away from victims and trying to silence their voices.

The payout prices are almost a giveaway that hospitals and insurance companies will benefit more from this bill than patients. If a medical malpractice case went to court, it is certain the jury would award more than $117,500 for a death, which is why it makes perfect sense that the bill, as it stands, is backed by insurance companies and hospitals, but slammed by trial attorneys who think this bill is a very bad idea.

An experienced Nashua medical malpractice lawyer can see immediately that the bill has the dismaying potential to let medical professionals low-ball settlement offers, then jam the patient who turns one down, into going to court and facing a tedious uphill battle for true justice. Could patients play the system and request an early offer to see what they would get versus what they may get in court? Possibly. However, considering the minimum and maximum amounts in the bill at the moment, it is not likely the patient would do worse than that in court.

This bill is horrifically close to being passed and the evidence supporting its passage is fabricated, skewed and misleading. It is interesting that those who loudly espouse small government, as being better, turn around and attempt to implement big government controls through legislation. The smallest and most local decision making body in medical malpractice cases needs to be a jury.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

This medical malpractice case is so different there are almost no words to describe the outcome. The details of the story are indelicately blunt and to the point, as there is no other way to relate what happened, other than to put the whole story right out there. For a Manchester medical malpractice lawyer, cases such as this do not happen often, but when they do, the client is treated with respect and dignity, with the aim being to obtain the maximum compensation the person deserves.

A former Florida resident, since deported back to his country of origin, will testify via Skype for the jury to hear his story. The man lived and worked in the state for over 40 years, held down a job in the medical supply business and paid all his taxes as required. He worked hard, loved well, and paid his dues.

He chose to have elective surgery when he was 60-years-old, to deal with erectile dysfunction. This meant implanting a plastic straw in his penis to allow him to have intimate relations with his wife. His health had prevented him from doing so for a number of years. The man didn’t want a bigger penis. He just wanted to restore his ability to have an erection.

The surgery was a success, but the patient developed a small infection. It morphed into gangrene and he required a life-saving amputation; the amputation of his penis. He now pees through a tube and relations with his wife are out of the question. He filed a medical malpractice lawsuit, which stated the anesthesiologist ought to have known the man was not in top form for the original surgery. With high blood pressure and diabetes, he would have a long road to recovery, even with a relatively simple operation like placing a plastic straw.

The lawsuit named the anesthesiologist and the penile implant specialist. The specialist settled out of court. The anesthesiologist suggested this was a frivolous lawsuit and just a case of bad luck. The plaintiff’s point of view is markedly different when it comes to the definition of what constitutes ‘frivolous.’ His whole life has been turned upside down, and he will never be able to have sexual relations again or stand to urinate.

Will this plaintiff win his case? The chances are good, as the surgeon already settled out of court, which is a fair indication that the man’s lawyer thought the plaintiff had a good case to prove. However, it may make sense for the surgeon to be sued and to settle, but make less sense to a jury that an anesthesiologist is named for the loss of the man’s penis.

The anesthesiologist was not operating, did not place the straw, did not have anything to do with the subsequent infection, nor the final amputation.  And that is the crux of the current case; whether or not the jury will hold that an anesthesiologist can be held liable for the man losing his penis.

Each medical malpractice case is different, and each one is incredibly complex and convoluted. Negligence needs to be present, meaning the doctor’s actions and care was below the accepted standard practiced by others in the same field. While negligence appears to be present here, it is questionable whether or not the anesthesiologist had a part to play in the amputation at a later date.

If you feel you have been a victim of medical malpractice, reach out to an experienced Manchester medical malpractice lawyer. Find out if you have a case and how to go about filing a lawsuit.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

This case is the one of the nightmarish ones. You go to a hospital for an operation and someone leaves a foreign body inside the operating site. If you are lucky, they catch it and it is removed. Not that it makes the mistake any easier to swallow when you have to have two operations instead of one and that your doctor messed up big time.

This wrongful death lawsuit was filed after the death of a man who went to hospital experiencing pain, and other symptoms, as a result of acute diverticulitis of the sigmoid portion of his colon. He needed surgery. The hospital was happy to oblige and he had his operation. He subsequently died a few days later, much to the bafflement of the surgeon and hospital staff that had transferred him to another area hospital to treat his declining medical condition. It turned out the surgeon had left a laparotomy pad inside the man. Despite emergency surgery upon finding the pad, intensive care and specialized treatment, the man died.

The lawsuit stated the hospital and the surgeon failed to keep track of their surgical instruments, laparotomy pads, sponges and other devices used in the initial surgery. A medical expert, retained by the plaintiff in this suit, indicated the care the deceased received did not meet the accepted standard expected at the hospital, and expected by other patients in similar circumstances. Clearly, if the surgeon leaves a foreign object behind in someone they operated on, this is a major mistake. That mistake caused this man’s death due to abdominal sepsis. It doesn’t get any more straightforward than that.

While there are rarely open and shut cases in wrongful death and/or medical malpractice lawsuits, this case comes close. It is obvious that but for the negligence of the surgeon, the man would still be alive today. If you feel you have been the victim of medical malpractice, and lived to tell about it, do not waste any time in contacting a Manchester personal injury lawyer about the case.

If you leave your doubts on the shelf too long, you may face losing the right to file a lawsuit, because you have missed the deadline for filing under the state statute of limitations. Medical malpractice/wrongful death lawsuits are no walk in the park, but some of them are clear enough on the evidence that they will not take as long as they could to settle or come to a resolution. Discuss your situation with a Manchester personal injury lawyer, and find out where you stand.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

You might not think this type of accident could possibly happen to you. Unfortunately, it can and it does, way more often than you would think. This case outlines in heart rending detail how a woman asleep on her couch, at home, where she should be safe, was killed by a drunk driver.

The 57-year-old woman who died in this horrific crash was killed in the early hours of a Friday morning, by a drunk driver slamming into the side of her house. You have to know that if the car went right through the wall and into the living room, it was going fast. The police said that half of the small home collapsed due to the high speed impact. The driver, a 23-year-old woman, sustained serious injuries, and was taken to the nearest hospital and arrested on suspicion of DWI, and causing a death.

There may be further charges pending, as an eyewitness indicated there may have been a chase or some kind of drag race going on, prior to the impact. Some neighbors say they saw two cars racing side-by-side just before the wreck, which may also indicate there was road rage in play. No matter what they saw, the outcome was devastating for the family of the dead woman.

The initial police report of the incident indicated the 23-year-old woman and a 19-year-old male passenger were heading west on the street, with another vehicle either pacing or chasing them. Evidently, the second car turned south, and the woman driver attempted to turn south as well. She was unable to make the turn, losing control of her car, hitting a fire hydrant and careening into the living room. The fire hydrant was hit with such force it ended up on the other side of the house from where the car went through the wall. In other words, it sailed right through the house, from side to side, landing on the grass outside.

In all likelihood, the family of the deceased woman will want to speak to a wrongful death lawyer. Do they have a case? Yes. The driver in this case was drunk, negligent, driving recklessly, carelessly and aggressively and her actions were the direct cause of the death of an innocent woman, found under the car when the police arrived.

If you have been in a situation like this one, do not hesitate to reach out to a Nashua personal injury lawyer. You will need to know your rights, what will happen as you move forward, how the justice system works, and what to expect if your Nashua personal injury lawyer takes the case to court.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

Unusual things happen when a collision occurs. In this case though, not many people had ever heard of a missing driver. When he was found, no one could explain how he got to be where he was in the river, downstream from his vehicle on a bridge. The police have no idea how he died – yet.

Apparently, after the collision, and during the scene being worked by EMTs and the police, they determined there was a missing driver that should have been in or near his Ford F150. The crash happened on a Monday and the man’s body was not found until the following day, about a mile downstream from the bridge where the accident happened, and this was no ordinary accident either.

The best accident reconstructionists have been able to determine is that it was likely slippery road conditions that caused the man’s truck to slam into a guard rail on the bridge. That was the beginning of a series of other crashes. It looked like the man’s truck had come to rest across both eastbound lanes of the highway. What followed was a driver in a 2007 Nissan that once he saw the truck in the middle of the road attempted to swerve to miss it. However, his car hit the bridge and perhaps the truck in the middle of the road.

Mere minutes after the second crash, another truck hit the Nissan, followed by a freightliner semi pulling a box trailer. It slammed into the Nissan and the first man’s truck, shoving both vehicles to the east side of the bridge. By the time rescue crews got to the scene, those present knew a driver was missing. The question was, what happened to him and where did he go?

The initial findings of the investigation were that the missing man, whose name was found on his vehicle registration, was ejected after hitting the bridge, or that he was hit by another car after getting out of the truck, and tossed over the bridge. The driver of the second vehicle involved in this wreck said he did not see anyone at the scene after he crashed into the truck. This may mean the man was ejected on impact.

What a truly bizarre event. How would this accident shape up legally for those involved? It needs to be determined if the first driver was speeding, driving while distracted or driving too fast for road conditions – meaning he was negligent. From there on out, each person who hit his truck, or another vehicle because his truck was in the middle of the road, would have a personal injury case to file.

The lesson here? Accidents are not always what they seem to be, and by the time this one is put to bed, there may be other revelations that will affect any cases filed. If you have been in a situation similar to this, do not hesitate to call an experienced Brattleboro personal injury lawyer. Damage recovery for your injuries will depend on the Brattleboro personal injury lawyer doing their job, and sorting out the messy details. They know what needs to be done to get justice.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

When someone goes to the hospital, they expect they will come home in one piece and with all of their mental faculties. What happened in this reported case is just shocking. The woman went to her local teaching hospital in 2006 because she was suffering from unexplained, painful headaches accompanied by other odd symptoms. She was 35-years-old at the time.

Tests revealed she was suffering from a non-bleeding brain aneurysm, which a surgeon operated on, inserting coils into it. The surgery and the insertion went well, but for one major and ultimately catastrophic detail. The team operating on her punctured an artery in her brain. From that moment forward, things went very wrong as a result of many medical errors.

The woman was on a blood-thinner, and after her surgery she had signs of a stroke. A nurse, watching this behavior noted it, but kept giving her the medication. This was a negligent move, and by the time the doctors figured out what was going on, it was too late to do much to help her. Her brain was filled with blood and there was catastrophic damage that paralyzed her on one side, affected her sight and created a whole new collection of medical issues, all of which could not be reversed. In other words, her life would never be the same again, and she would need permanent, around-the-clock care.

Since her surgery, she has been in and out of the hospital numerous times for a variety of infections, is in constant pain and unable to care for her children. Her husband quit work to care for her and the children were placed with relatives. The life the woman once lived no longer existed thanks to medical malpractice of the highest order.

Do you think this is a case to cap medical malpractice damages? Think about that because this could happen to you, and if you live in a state where medical malpractice damage awards are capped, you would be hard pressed to get enough money to live out the rest of your life and get the care you need.
The nurse who kept giving the woman Heparin settled out of court for $1 million and the $23 million she was also awarded will help provide her 24/7 care. It’s a sad case and the devastation it caused will never fade. If you think you have been the victim of medical negligence, do not wait to call a Manchester medical malpractice lawyer. They are specially trained to help you get justice and an award that is fair and equitable.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

Who would have thought that a hospital would tell a mother in active labor to go home? It seems to be an unthinkable thing to do, but it actually happened. Not surprisingly, the woman filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the hospital.

The woman went to her local hospital in 2009 with severe pelvic pain. Evidently, for whatever reasons, other than negligence, she was told to go home. She was not screened to see if she had started labor and she was not stabilized. By the time she arrived home, she was in agony and shortly thereafter, went into full blown labor. She delivered her baby at home with the help of two EMTs.

The lawsuit claims that due to the delay in delivery, her baby was harmed and she is seeking damages for mental anguish, medical expenses, loss of consortium, physical impairment and pain and suffering. Does this case stand a chance of winning? It may. However, that would largely depend on the nature of the harm caused to the baby and to the mother. More to the point is if the baby was delivered at home, with the help of EMTs, and suffered harm, why were they not named in the lawsuit as well?

While this is a touch and go case, as what hospital in their right mind discharges a woman in active labor, there are other facets to also consider. For instance, loss of consortium would be a typical result of delivering a baby, but were there some specific damages done during delivery that made it impossible to have intercourse? Again, this would have more to do with the people who delivered the child, and not the hospital.

As you can see, not all medical malpractice cases are clear cut and black and white. Then there is also the question of delaying the delivery. Was the delivery delayed? Or did it progress on its own timeline? Was she expecting to be induced or deliver naturally? If she expected to be induced, she would view the situation as delayed delivery. If the baby was on its own timetable, it would have come later, as it did.

What and who caused the actual harm, and what that harm is, are the key determining factors in this lawsuit, and frankly, it could go either way depending on what medical experts weigh in during the trial. The thing with medical malpractice lawsuits is that not all bad outcomes with a doctor are necessarily medical negligence. There is a fine line there that a good Nashua medical malpractice lawyer will outline for you if you feel you have been the victim of a medical professional.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

Recently, an interesting report was released to the public dealing with U.S. medical malpractice insurance, and the fact that it was tied directly to the structure of health care delivery. This should be of interest to many Americans, as very few of us escape dealing with a doctor over the course of our lives. Evidently, from the research conducted, the future health and success of the medical malpractice insurance market depends on how health care will be delivered.

Maybe that’s not so far-fetched come to think of it. Everyone knows health care is in turmoil and trying to pay for medical care can just about bankrupt anyone who gets a bill and tries to pay it.

The Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act will favor physicians operating in an Accountable Care Organization (ACO). This move is anticipated to have a significant impact on the medical malpractice insurance market immediately and likely in the long-term too. This is largely because hospitals are more aggressively trying to absorb independent solo or smaller doctor’s practices and their patient base with an eye on creating bigger ACOs for themselves.

The bigger the ACO, the more money there is to be made. Along with that though comes the sure knowledge that the bigger an organization, the greater the chance for screw-ups and medical malpractice lawsuits. That’s a virtual given as the bigger businesses get, the less they seem to be able to communicate properly or accurately. Once again, patient safety and welfare will be at risk.

How will this affect the medical malpractice insurance market? Larger malpractice insurance companies should survive, as they have the customer base to support change, but smaller insurers may go the way of ghost towns. If that does happen, look for the larger companies to acquire the smaller ones. Bigger insurance companies may offer lower prices on health insurance policies or they may not because they would have a market monopoly and can do what they please.

Changes are necessary for the affordability of health care in the United States. However, change is not always welcome to patients or doctors for that matter. No matter what does happen though, medical malpractice insurers will always be around. It’s too lucrative a market to miss out on, which just goes to point out that when it comes to insurance companies, their bottom line is making money and not caring for their customers.

If they did care for their customers, they would not work tirelessly to reduce, diminish or deny valid claims by finding obscure loopholes in policies. If customers truly understood what really drives an insurance company, meaning their motive to be in business, they would be rightfully horrified. What will the future bring? Who knows, but if you need insurance, get it now while you can as the prices are somewhat competitive.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

There is over-prescribing, as in a bit too much for the body weight and age of a person. Usually, there is no harm done and the dose is adjusted. However, there is over-prescribing, as in way too much to be tolerated by just about anyone. The results? Severe reactions or death. In this case, there was a death.

This is a story about an endocrinologist who, for some unknown reason, handed a man a prescription for thyroid medication, but it was not what would be considered a normal dose. It was several times higher than what is typically recommended by the drug maker. So what happened?

Patient X took a trip to see an endocrinologist about problems he was having. She diagnosed him with thyroid problems, and handed him a prescription for thyroid medication. On the surface this is a normal enough thing, but when the man got home, he noticed the dose prescribed was several times higher than usually recommended. He took it anyway. What patient wouldn’t think to not take it? The doctor handed it out, so it must be right.

Never assume that a medication with an oddly high dose is the correct amount to take. Call the pharmacist, check online or get a second opinion. It’s your health, which raises another interesting question. What was the drug store doing handing over a really high dose of thyroid medications to a patient without checking with the doctor or having a discussion with the patient?

The man died of a massive health attack within a few days after starting to take the medication. His family spoke to a personal injury lawyer about filing a wrongful death lawsuit. Eventually, an arbitrator handed down a $1.2 million award in this case. The reason? The doctor had committed medical malpractice by over-prescribing the man’s thyroid medication. Did you know that this kind of medical error is far too common, and that lawyers handling medical malpractice cases see this type of case a lot? That should make you want to double check any and all medicines you get.

During the course of the arbitration process between the parties it was pointed out, and rightfully so, that even the doctor should follow the drug maker’s instructions to figure out what dose is right for a patient. That is what they are trained to do; do no harm by being cautious and using common sense. Every medication has age and weight guidelines to be used while also factoring in pre-existing conditions and the patient’s medical history. It looks like the doctor did not bother to check any of that and that Patient X became one of the 20,000-plus deaths chalked up to drug overdosing in 2011.

All medications have age and weight recommendations on the label, and while they may not be accurate for some people, the dose would still be low enough to adjust it to the right level without killing the patient. No one in their right mind would double or triple a dose of a medication without gradually increasing it within the accepted parameters of patient safety. What this doctor was thinking is a complete mystery to the deceased’s family, their lawyer and the arbitrator, which accounts for the $1.2 million award.

If you have ever been overdosed, for whatever reason, and have suffered some untenable results, speak to a qualified Brattleboro medical malpractice lawyer. Do not wait until the statute of limitations has run out, or you will not be able to file a lawsuit. While you are discussing your case with a Brattleboro medical malpractice lawyer, ask him to explain what does and does not constitute medical malpractice. Many people think every bad outcome with a doctor is medical negligence. It is not. Know the difference.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

This story will make your blood run cold. It is about a deceased doctor in Connecticut who allegedly sexually abused hundreds of children, right under the noses of the hospital administration where he worked. This case has been in the works for a few years while negotiations were launched. Currently, the hospital is staring down the prospect of settling 17 lawsuits related to this doctor’s actions.

The former deceased employee was Dr. George Reardon, their former chief endocrinologist, accused of using a growth study to take pictures of more than 500 naked children over a 30 year period. The only reason this abuse came to light was because the people who bought Reardon’s old home found close to 60,000 pornographic pictures sealed behind a false wall.

According to the case records, the man practiced at the Hartford facility of the St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center. According to the hospital’s insurance company, what they dub an incident should fall under medical malpractice coverage and not general liability coverage. If a judge agrees, this will save the insurance company millions of dollars. In other words, to avoid paying out too much, the insurance company is trying to put this horrid case into another category, instead of where it likely belongs.

There are 17 settlements that should be in the final stages of being formalized. None of the amounts involved in these cases have been revealed, and it is not expected that any further settlements of the 48 remaining cases will be available for the public to read. The remaining cases are not able to proceed until a judge rules on the insurance company’s contention that they should pay restitution out of a different liability fund.

Insurance companies exist for two reasons: to stay in business and make money from those they insure. If they have to pay out more on a claim than they get from the insured individual, they lose money. Losing money means they could go out of business. To save money, insurance companies rely on a formula called the four D’s of handling claims: “diminish, dismiss, deny and delay”, no matter how valid they may be. In this case, they are trying to deny the claims are medical malpractice to save money and delay settlements by going to court.

To be honest, this is one of those cases that speaks for itself, and no amount of fudging where the payments come from is going to change that. If the insurance company just paid out under the medical malpractice category, the issue would be put to rest. However, in the name of money, they want the rest of the victims to wait until they find out if they can swing a different opinion so they don’t have to pay what they should owe. That’s disturbing and borders on unethical.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

There are some days where it is not even safe to have a nap on the couch in your living room. You never know what might come through the wall. Consider this reported case of an 8-year-old, having a nap on the living room sofa, when a car came off the highway and slammed into the house. It smashed into a wall, just mere inches from the young girl’s head.

It is an awful story, but unfortunately, a typical one; one that is played out in hundreds of other locations across America. The cause of this bizarre accident and near miss? Speeding and not paying attention to the posted limit in the area by the house. The 18-year-old that was driving at the time of the accident was ripping through a 45 mph zone, doing between 70 and 80 mph. Speed limits are posted for a reason. Evidently the teen thought they did not apply to him.

But there is more to this story. Not only did the car plow through the wall of the house trailer, it first smacked into the family’s truck, shoving it a good 25 to 30 feet, and then launched itself onto the porch and rammed through the wall. The home’s owner, a trained paramedic, frantically searched for his daughter before finding her safe on the couch just inches from the car. He then offered aid to the passenger in the car and the driver. They were transported to local hospitals for care.

If the truck had not been in the way and slowed the car down, it would have plowed clear through the mobile home and could have seriously injured or killed the three family members inside. According to the home owner, the stretch of road in front of their house seems to be a common area where drivers speed.

End results? Two injured people in the car, a wrecked mobile home and one scared little girl. The passenger in the car definitely has a cause of action to seek compensation for her injuries as the driver was careless and reckless, not to mention negligent. Should it turn out that the car went out of control because of a mechanical failure that would be another issue altogether. In this instance, it was confirmed the driver was speeding.

Pay attention to the rules of the road, because when you don’t, you won’t like the consequences, and the aftermath of a crash may haunt you for the rest of your life. Negligence is the cause of more than 100,000 traffic fatalities every year. If you do not want to become a statistic or seriously injure or kill another person, smarten up and drive safely.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

When people see someone run a red light and actually manage to squeak through the intersection and not get involved in a crash, they just think the person is lucky. Stop and think about what could have happened, and you will realize what red light cameras also capture – the ugly aftermath of a possibly fatal crash. People who go through red lights are not always lucky enough to keep on going. They often wind up seriously injured or death. They may also end up killing or injuring others.

If you want to see some really disturbing footage of red light runners and the havoc they create, try visiting this link to a YouTube video that clearly demonstrates the ramifications of running a red light sober or not. While it may be hard to watch, it points out how deadly those unexpected, “where did that guy come from” kind of accidents can be. (http://oldnortheast.patch.com/articles/red-light-cameras-record-car-crashes#youtube_video-8774535)

While you do not see the victims of these crashes, you can imagine what the consequences might be particularly when you look at the high impact wrecks. This footage was filmed in Florida but it could just as easily have been filmed at any intersection, in any town, city, county, village or municipality in America. The fact is that thousands of people die and more than 100,000 are badly injured in collisions involving a red-light runner.

The intent of red light cameras is to help save lives. Judging from the video footage that did not happen, but the point is that red light cameras are there to catch those who run lights by capturing their license plate number. A summons is issued later. Those are the runners that made it through the intersection without getting creamed. The ones that don’t make it are the ones occupying hospital beds later and calling their insurance company, if they have insurance.

Typically, although red light runners still abound, cities that use them find there is up to a 24 percent reduction in traffic fatalities. The revenue from catching those who go through a red light is often quite staggering. For instance, in the state of Florida, the cameras generate at least $3 million in revenue, dispersed to their general fund, brain and spinal cord research and into a trauma center trust fund.

Three million? That should shock everyone that reads this statistic. Just think how many red light runners that represents that made it through the intersection alive; some of whom will go and do it all over again, and maybe not be so lucky another time. The bottom line? Do not run red lights. You may not live to tell the story.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

If you are going to practice medicine, then it is a good idea to get it right or make every attempt to do so by taking some action. In this case, the initial doctor took no action and because of that failure to diagnose, a 42-year old former police officer died for no good reason.

The story went like this. The former cop, who was 35-years-old when he first went to a doctor in 2004, went because he had a variety of gastric complaints and rectal bleeding. The rectal bleeding alone should have prompted the first doctor to order a colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy to check for rectal cancer. The doctor did no such thing. Instead, he ordered a series of upper G.I. films for his stomach issues. An upper G.I. will not find cancer in the colon.

The ex-officer moved to another state in 2006 and found another doctor. When he went to see him, he repeated his complaints about rectal bleeding. His doctor immediately ordered the right tests and they revealed he had Stage 4 colon cancer that was incurable. At the age of 42-years-old, the man was told he had less than a year to live.

Knowing his family would be in difficult financial straits, and that he would need extra and extraordinary care until he died, he filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the first doctor who failed to diagnose him in 2004. His claim pointed out that by failing to diagnose his condition, the doctor handed him a death sentence. When this case went to court, the jury agreed with the plaintiff, and found the first doctor negligent and that negligence directly caused the plaintiff’s pending death.

The jury handed down a $2.5 million verdict for pain and suffering, medical expenses and decreased life expectancy; a verdict that was reduced to $1.25 million thanks to medical malpractice caps. In other words, the victim was raped twice: once by the doctor who failed to diagnose his condition because he did not do the proper tests when he should have, and twice thanks to medical malpractice caps that limit damage awards in cases like this.

Medical malpractice caps do what? They take money away from a devastated injury victim so the insurance company gets to write a smaller claim to close the file. Tort reform is not about helping medical malpractice victims find justice. It is about ensuring the doctors do not pay for their mistakes or take responsibility for their errors and the insurance companies can keep more money and to heck with the innocent victims.

It is also about not trusting juries to make a righteous and fair decision about the case in front of them. You have to trust juries to do their job. It is rare to have a runaway jury, as most strive to get an equitable balance in their decisions.

What kind of a justice system is that? Do you think the reduced amount was adequate to compensate the man for his premature death, his pain, suffering, and medical bills and end of life care? If you were in the same situation, would you be happy with the state raping you for your just compensation to keep big insurance in business?

This kind of case is something that a plaintiff would need to discuss with an experienced Manchester medical malpractice lawyer. Make sure you promptly look into what your legal rights are to bring a lawsuit for medical negligence. A Manchester medical malpractice lawyer’s job is to help victims get as much compensation as they can for their future.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

It was not that long ago that Illinois decided to post doctor disciplinary records online, and let the public know about their profiles and convictions. The public loves it, and it has had more than 750,000 visitors since it went live in October 2011. However, there is a word of caution necessary here, and that is that some profiles are missing important information.

Close to 85 percent of the medical health professionals on the site, including chiropractors and doctors, have their information up there for the world to see and read. This information includes if they paid on a medical malpractice claim within the last five years, if they were convicted of a felony or Class A misdemeanor, or were fired. The state wants to eventually increase the time period to 10 years to provide a broader picture of the medical practitioner’s history.

While this sounds like good information to know, particularly if you want to see a certain doctor, you should be aware that all the profiles are not complete. An example is one chiropractor that did not have the information on his profile about his 2007 conviction for battery of a patient. In other words, if the system is self-reporting and on a doctor’s honor, it appears there may be some holes the size of a truck in it. On the other hand, should the system be mandatory, that may well change how things are reported.

Health care institutions and insurance companies are bound to report actions taken against doctors or payments they made for medical malpractice. However, criminal convictions are another can of worms. Not many choose to report those on a voluntary basis, even though it is required by law, and trying to search the hundreds of county courts for conviction records is a mind-numbing task.

The good news is that too has changed, as Illinois has once again taken a side on the issue and passed a new state law that all health professionals convicted of battery of patients, forcible felonies or sex crimes, should have their licenses revoked permanently. This hard-nosed attitude has prosecutors and state regulators talking to one another on a more regular basis.

New Hampshire could surely use something similar, don’t you think? A registry like this would be extremely beneficial for a Manchester medical malpractice lawyer building a case for a client. It would save time and man hours tracking it down.
Even though patients would make use of such a tool, its potential for a Manchester medical malpractice lawyer is significant. If a lawyer can help his client by using information that is readily available, he saves the client money, and the case may move forward even faster. What is discovered online might not be admissible at trial, but it is helpful to know who you are dealing with, and ultimately, the information may be used as leverage in negotiating a settlement.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

Although many people think that a plaintiff always wins a medical malpractice suit that is not always the case. For this reason, if you think you have a medical malpractice case, get an honest opinion from a Manchester medical malpractice lawyer about your chances of success. The advice is free, and you will find out right away if the case may not be worth pursuing, or conversely, if the case is worth pursuing.

What many do not understand is that a bad result with a medical professional does not necessarily mean there was medical malpractice. A Manchester medical malpractice lawyer is able to explain the differences, should there be a question about your situation. It is always smart to speak to an experienced lawyer though, to get the peace of mind in knowing if there is a case or not.

This story is about a woman in the third trimester of pregnancy. She went to a local chiropractor complaining of lower back pain. The doctor suggested a pelvic adjustment.

As a result of that pelvic adjustment, the plaintiff filed a lawsuit, alleging that her now chronic pain was caused by the doctor. Was it? Or was there a pre-existing medical condition? Those two questions were put to the trial jury, and they found that the doctor had been negligent in the care of the plaintiff in 2007. But that was not the reason why she had chronic pain. In other words, the verdict was for the defendant and the plaintiff did not receive compensation of any kind.

During the course of the trial, it was revealed that the plaintiff had difficulties with lower back pain that happened to the woman even before the pelvic adjustment she received just seven weeks before giving birth. In fact, her lower back pain and joint pain had been treated since the plaintiff was five years old, which makes one wonder whether or not the chiropractic treatments were the cause of the continuing pain.

For two years prior to her appointment with the doctor in this case, she had been for treatments 19 times for a variety of symptoms, including back pain, neurological difficulties, fatigue, depression and flank pain. On consideration of the evidence, the jury felt the pain was not caused by the doctor’s treatment; this was despite the plaintiff’s expert suggesting the chiropractor should not have done a high force adjustment on a patient who was seven months pregnant.

In the final analysis, the jury made up their minds on how they viewed the facts and evidence in the case. In this instance, the jury felt the doctor did not cause the woman’s chronic pain and chose to believe the evidence of the defendant’s expert witness. Often this is what happens at medical malpractice trials – dueling expert witnesses give their opinions for the jury to pick and choose who they believe. Who is right? Who is wrong? Or is the answer somewhere in the middle?

Without the expert legal counsel of a Manchester medical malpractice attorney, a case like this could be very confusing for the plaintiff. They may think they have a case, and indeed, in this story, the plaintiff’s lawyer thought she had a case as well. But when the jury considered the evidence, as in other medical malpractice cases, the opposing side made an impact.

A skilled attorney knows what plays to a jury and what does not. He is also responsible for fully explaining what the trial process is all about. Seek the experienced legal advice you will need if you need a Manchester medical malpractice lawyer. He will outline your rights and what to expect as you move forward. He will also let you know why some medical errors are not medical negligence.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

Americans have been discussing the tort reform debate for a number of years, and, as always, it is a debate that infuriates many. There are those in favor of tort reform and those against it. The main thing is this – if you are involved in a personal injury case that leaves you with catastrophic injuries and you need medical care for the rest of your life, you suddenly understand how important it is that damages are not capped. In other words, if you expect to be able to pay for your care, you better hope the state you live in does not have a medical malpractice cap.

Is this a simple issue? No. Is it an issue that is unfair to the victims of medical malpractice? Yes. Victims of medical malpractice get hurt twice – once by the doctor, and the second time by the justice system. What possible rationale can there be for the justice system to go along with politicians and rubber stamp a damage cap that, in essence, tells a victim to shut up and live with their injuries because the justice system will not award them any more than they have to according to which cap is in place in a state.

Unfortunately, it is all about money and politics, which is actually the same thing. Supposedly, tort reform saves money on insurance premiums for doctors and reduces the amount of money paid out on insurance claims. See the picture here? Who wants to save money? The insurance companies. They do not care if someone is so severely injured by a doctor that they need lifelong care, so long as they can deny, dismiss or diminish a claim. And what does the victim do? Face the rest of their life, which may have become a living hell, trying to handle their medical care and wondering how to pay for it.

Just to make a point here, it is big insurance money that is pounding into people’s minds that verdicts are too big. They try to outshine in the debate so that every juror thinks an injury victim is trying to take advantage of the system. What happens is that regular, hard working and truthful injury victims could get shortchanged. Leave it to the jurors to decide on an award. There is no need to place a cap if we trust the wisdom of the jurors. They oftentimes have a much better sense of justice than the politicians.

The bottom line? Medical malpractice caps do very little in the way of making health care more affordable. The truth is victims are not getting the compensation they need, and a doctor’s liability is reduced, as they do not face a high premium for negligence. Put another way, doctors can practice and commit medical malpractice with little accountability for their actions.

Another truth that many people do not realize is that the risk of a medical malpractice lawsuit is already taken into account in the existing malpractice insurance system. Doctors are rated on an experience ranking scale that calculates how much of a premium they need to pay. This means less risky doctors pay lower premiums.

Medical malpractice caps get rid of incentives for insurance companies to deal with this issue in a realistic manner, meaning they do not have to pay out what a lawsuit may actually be worth based on the level of negligence involved in a case. What is wrong with that picture? Plaintiffs are getting the short end of the stick because insurance companies want to save money and politicians want to keep the insurance industry voting for them. Whatever happened to the concept of taking responsibility for mistakes? It seems to have died an ugly death when it comes to medical malpractice.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

This case was ultimately settled out of court, a sign that usually means the defendants just want the suit to go away and stop causing them trouble. Often, this also means the plaintiff has a good case and the other side realizes it. In this case, the plaintiff’s husband was hospitalized in September 2005 for a cardiac catheterization and percutaneous cardiology intervention.

Of note is the fact that evidence in this case indicated the hospital appeared to be allowing elective percutaneous cardiology intervention without cardio-thoracic surgical coverage or availability. At this point, you may well wonder what they were thinking of offering a high-risk surgical procedure like that without the proper staff or equipment.

The hospital also failed to have a transfer medi-vac helicopter with a balloon pump on board for patients like the plaintiff’s husband. The lawsuit stated that if the hospital had not fraudulently misrepresented their capabilities to treat her husband, he would still be alive. His surgery proceeded without the proper staff and equipment and subsequently there were unforeseen complications; complications no one could deal with as there was no cardio-thoracic surgeon around.

The plaintiff was in excruciating, permanent pain, was disabled, had enormous medical bills and was unable to perform his usual daily chores, attend to his affairs or carry out other duties. His quality of life, what was left of it, was awful and his family suffered with him as they watched him struggle to deal with his situation.

Medical malpractice? Yes, most definitely and egregious as well. What hospital in their right minds would say they could perform a surgery for this type of risky procedure when they did not have the staff or proper equipment? It is not much wonder the defense made a settlement offer to deal with this case. If they had gone to court, the chances are the plaintiff would have been won a fairly high jury award.

Have you been the victim of medical malpractice? Did you have a similar experience and are suffering because of a medical professional’s negligence? It is time to make a phone call to a skilled Manchester medical malpractice lawyer.
Medical malpractice cases need an experienced Manchester medical malpractice attorney taking them to court. He knows what to do, when to do it and what the outcome should be in cases like this. In the state of New Hampshire, there are no punitive damages when a case like this goes to court. However, a case with these kinds of facts would most certainly be in line for a large compensatory verdict.

Keep one thing in mind. Not all bad medical outcomes are necessarily classified as medical malpractice. This is why it is best to discuss your potential case with a Manchester medical malpractice personal injury lawyer. Know your rights – the quality of your life may depend on it.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer and handles injury cases across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

This reported case is completely egregious and the unfortunate victim went through way too much because of this doctor’s medical negligence. Imagine a surgeon not double checking what needed to be taken out before they performed spinal surgery.

The jury in this case was astounded that the doctor did not take the extra care needed to ensure the patient got the surgery he came to the hospital for in the first place. Instead, the plaintiff awoke to find out that the surgeon had removed the wrong spinal disc. The surgeon had failed to sign, mark, X-ray and verify what needed to be done on which vertebrae. The Texas jury felt the doctor was in the wrong and awarded the plaintiff $134,000.

Shockingly, operating on the wrong level of the spine is far more common than you would think. In fact, spine surgeons have the second highest number of medical malpractice cases, coming up close to OB/GYN doctors. In this case, the plaintiff filed a medical negligence lawsuit stating that his surgeon went ahead and removed the thoracic spinal disc above the T6-T7 disc that he was not supposed to remove. On discovering the error, the surgeon did not charge the plaintiff for the first surgery and also reduced the bill for his second surgery on the right disc.

This is the right thing to do, but what do you do when someone you trust does something so totally wrong that it causes you pain and suffering, lost wages, mental anguish, loss of consortium, loss of household services, and extra costs associated with the second surgery? You file a lawsuit, because someone had to take responsibility for the error and the ensuing damage.

Frankly, it was also likely that the plaintiff filed his lawsuit because of the reasons the doctor cited for making the mistake, and those were that the man was 6 feet 2 inches tall, and so the MRI was not clear and the herniation on the right disc was hidden from the surgeon’s view.

If you stop to think about those reasons for a moment, you will likely come to the same conclusion that the court did – that the surgeon was negligent and looking to point a finger at anyone else but at him. It does not take much effort to figure out that if the imaging film is not clear, you do not proceed until you get a clear one, or that if a disc was hidden from the doctor’s view, then you find a way to make that view clear enough to do the right surgery. As for the height of the patient, the surgeon knew that before operating, and should have taken the extra care needed. He unfortunately did not.

It is good to know though, that there are now several programs in the United States to prevent wrong-site surgery. One is called SMaX, short for “Sign, Mark, and X-ray” program. It marks the exact site for a spinal surgery with a radio opaque indicator and uses a checklist for patient and procedure verification.

Have you been the victim of medical malpractice? Then make your first call for information to an experienced Brattleboro medical malpractice lawyer. If you want justice, someone who will fight for your rights and make sure you get the verdict you deserve, a Brattleboro medical malpractice attorney is the answer.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer and handles injury cases across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

Florida has had a medical malpractice cap in place for at least eight years since it brought in a limit of $1 million for pain and suffering damages in medical negligence cases. The family of a deceased Florida woman is challenging that cap due to their case involving medical malpractice.

This story involves a 20-year-old woman who received prenatal care in 2005 from the USAF family practice department. Her pregnancy was normal until the last trimester when she was diagnosed with hypertension and preeclampsia. Things went from bad to worse from this point on.

When she was diagnosed with high blood pressure and severe preeclampsia, labor had to be induced immediately. Rather than sending the woman to the ob-gyn department, the family practice area kept providing medical care. She was eventually transferred to a medical center where she experienced full-fledged contractions. This weakened over time and an obstetrician was called to perform a C-section.

When the doctor arrived, the woman had resumed normal labor and they let her deliver vaginally. She lost an enormous volume of blood that her family became concerned about it. Health care providers said it was normal and the woman was stable. The placenta was not delivered and the family practice doctors would not extract it. The doctor was called at 2:35 a.m. and removed the placenta within five minutes. At this point, the woman’s blood pressure had dropped rapidly and was fatally low for more than two hours, as the nursing staff did not tell the doctors about the pressure drop.

The obstetrician also repaired vaginal tearing, which took about an hour. The nurse assisting him indicated the woman’s vital signs were stable, but neglected to tell him her blood pressure was dropping even further. The doctor exclusively relied on the nurse’s readings and did not check for himself. The doctor ordered an immediate blood count and transfusion if needed. The family practice department ordered a blood test 40 minutes later. Another 40 minutes passed before a nurse went to take blood from the woman, who by that time had died. She had suffered severe shock and had gone into cardiac arrest.

In other words, the woman was in need of prompt medical care to save her life but instead was left for more than an hour before anyone checked on her. She never regained consciousness and was taken off life support in February of 2006.

Her family sued and won a $3 million judgment, with $2 million earmarked as damages for pain and suffering. But, because Florida has a cap on non-economic damages, the award was reduced by half. The family is now appealing to the Florida Supreme Court, stating the cap violates the state constitution. At issue here is the very real conundrum of what to do in situations like this when medical negligence is so egregious that there needs to be non-economic damages to prove a point.

Someone needs to be held responsible for the medical malpractice. In this case it is even worse when you consider a baby has no mother and a young woman has lost her life because she was not monitored properly in the hospital for a life-threatening condition.

Limiting jury awards in cases like this does not reduce doctor medical malpractice liability premiums, nor does it ensure quality medical care for everyone because there is a cap in place. It is arbitrary and unfair to penalize seriously harmed victims in order to save money and shift liability off the shoulders of a negligent medical professional. To put it more bluntly, why do victims of medical negligence have to suffer further for the mistakes of medical professionals? Something is wrong with this picture.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

A new university will offer clinical and non-clinical risk management courses, and teach doctors how to avoid medical malpractice lawsuits. These are not just any old courses. They are put together and written by the school of medicine faculty at Harvard, Stanford and other very prominent universities.

While this new university is being launched in Florida, there may be potential for this innovative approach to be implemented in other jurisdictions and states. The MedMal Direct Insurance Company of Jacksonville, Florida launched the college in September and calls it the MedMal Direct University. This unique concept to reduce the cost of medical malpractice will utilize many practices to prevent medical malpractice. This could end up being a better tactic than tort reform, which is a whole other issue.

Every course this new university offers 2.0 AMA PRA Category 1TM credit hours and a doctor can take the courses online at any time of the day or night. All doctors need is a computer and the desire to learn more about managing the risk of medical malpractice in their careers. This is a great idea and it will likely benefit other insurance companies and states to see how it works at www.MedMalDirectUniversity.org.

Will this be a good tool for medical malpractice lawyers? No doubt it will and perhaps there is room for expansion further down the road. The fact is that medical malpractice is rampant in the U.S. for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that the system is overloaded with sick people and there are not enough doctors to keep up with the demand. It is thus not a big surprise why the price of medical care increases every year.

Doctors are human and they all have a breaking point. Dealing with sick and injured people all day, every day, including weekends (on call) and holidays takes its toll. If there was a way to reduce the likelihood of medical malpractice happening, it would be a welcome break for not only the medical community at large but patients as well. By educating themselves about the risks of medical malpractice, how to manage those risks and reduce or eliminate them, a doctor’s accuracy rate can improve. Thus, the risk of being sued for medical negligence decreases.

The online MedMal Direct University aims to identify and then eliminate the causes of medical malpractice as an error starts to happen. In other words, it will work to decrease the frequency and severity of medical malpractice lawsuits. In turn, this will reduce the emotional and financial costs that medical malpractice creates when a patient feels they have been a victim of medical negligence.

It is no secret that all over the U.S., there are continual calls for reducing the costs of health care delivery. Part of that would be reducing the number of medical malpractice lawsuits filed. The more doctors educate themselves about how to avoid a medical malpractice lawsuit, the more patients benefit. The more patients that benefit from wise medical choices and management, the fewer lawsuits are filed.

Solutions like this make far more sense than medical malpractice caps that victimize injured patients twice, and leave them financially unable to care for themselves because the jury award was cut. It would also improve physician accountability and case management.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

This medical malpractice case brought by the deceased’s family alleges a delayed necrotic bowel diagnosis caused the death of their mother. The lawsuit was filed by the executor of the estate, the woman’s oldest son. At this point, it appears the hospital in the region she died is attempting to negotiate an out-of-court settlement with the assistance of private mediation. If this is not successful, then the matter is slated for a court hearing in 2013.

The story begins when the 72-year-old woman was admitted to the Lakes Region General Hospital in Laconia, New Hampshire with what ultimately turned out to be a necrotic bowel. The suit contends that a delay by the doctors in diagnosing this fatal condition resulted in the untimely and preventable death of the family’s matriarch. She died November 9, 1990 after the family asked that she be taken off life support. There six defendants named in the lawsuit include four doctors, the hospital and a family practice clinic.

The suit in part suggests that the deceased received substandard care that caused the woman’s death and that the septic bowl should have, without question, been identified and diagnosed far earlier by the four doctors caring for her. The defendants suggest they are not at fault and that treatments were appropriate and met accepted standards.

Obviously this is a contentious case and both sides are entrenched in their points of view. The main thing that needs to be proved in a medical negligence case is that the doctor had a duty to care for a patient, that he breached that duty, and that because he breached that duty, the patient was seriously harmed or died. In other words, there is a direct causal connection between the substandard medical care and an injury or death.

Will this case be successful? It is likely even though it has taken this long to get close to justice in the form of a negotiated, out-of-court settlement or court hearing in 2013. Sometimes, justice delayed is justice denied, but that remains to be seen depending on how the negotiations go. Certainly the facts of this case are compelling.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

The idea that there is not a deadline to file a medical negligence lawsuit is an interesting concept. This is good for a plaintiff to say the least; but not so wonderful for the medical health professional if they had committed medical negligence.

A lower court in Ohio overturned a law that mandated a four-year deadline for medical malpractice claims. It is not clear if the Supreme Court of Ohio will review the lower court’s decision or not, but they are certainly being asked to do so by a large number of people, including a panicked Ohio State Medical Association. They insist that the lower court’s ruling will expose doctors to the never-ending risk of negligence claims.

If you happen to be a victim of medical negligence, this might appeal to you for the simple reason that you may not think to file a case right away if you are not sure your bad medical result really was medical malpractice. You might not take action on your situation until you have finally decided to speak to a personal injury lawyer and find out that what happened to you is actionable in court.

The case that started this stampede of worried doctors was an appellate court decision, Ruther v. Kaiser. The court allowed a family’s lawsuit to proceed even in light of the fact that the alleged negligence happened 10 years ago. The state medical association felt differently and filed a friend-of-the-court brief stating how the ruling would directly impact every medical health provider and hospital. They asserted that it would be hard to plan for the future due to the possibility of unknown medical claims that could pop up at any time.

The actual legal question here has to do with something referred to as the statute of repose, which works hand-in-hand with the statute of limitations to enforce deadlines for filing claims. In Ohio, their statute of limitations gives a plaintiff one year to file after learning they are a victim of medical malpractice. The statue of repose says if the plaintiff has not found out about an alleged injury or medical negligence after four years, they cannot sue.

The key point to note in the Ohio case is that the plaintiff had a unique situation. Lab tests over multiple years showed he was not informed of the likelihood that he had liver cancer. When he found out, it was too late to do anything about treatment as he was in Stage IV cancer, and subsequently died. The courts indicated that had the doctor informed him about his lab results, the patient may have had a chance to get the proper treatment.

If you happen to have a claim in Ohio it is not wise to count on this case as precedent. It is always best to act promptly and consult Ohio counsel, or ask a New Hampshire injury lawyer with connections in Ohio to do it for you. Do not wait too long and blow the statute of limitations guidelines, no matter what they are.

This is an interesting precedent though, and if it finds favor in other jurisdictions, we may see medical malpractice lawsuits years after the actual negligent act. Is this a good thing – it certainly would be for the victims.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

There are some moments that are best forgotten. In particular, those moments when you are not paying attention to the traffic around you and cause a nasty accident can haunt you for years to come. It is even worse if you happen to be a cop and are the at-fault party. There is no living that one down back at the station. This reported case will be under investigation until the responding officers are able to figure out what went wrong.

This was a two car wreck, and both of the drivers were badly injured enough that they needed to be taken to the hospital by the emergency first responders. Both were also listed in serious condition. No one saw this one coming, not even the police officer in the cruiser involved in the accident. At least, that is what it appears from the information in the accident report.

The details, while still a bit sketchy, point to a 27-year-old woman driving on the highway who slowed down to make a left-hand turn onto a street. At that very moment, she was t-boned by the police cruiser that was being driven by the 33-year-old officer. The wreck shut down the highway while accident scene investigators tried to determine what happened.

There are two things going on here, and we can only speculate the order of events. Either the woman made an illegal left-hand turn in front of the cop car, or the cop car was not paying attention to where he was going. He may have been speeding to a call, in which case he was hopefully using his lights and siren. Or he may have been on the radio or reaching for something on the front seat. Similar scenarios may apply to the woman as well. She may not have looked before turning, was on her cell phone, reached for a coffee on the dashboard or was chatting with someone in the car.

The bottom line is that both victims may choose to file personal injury lawsuits in order to recover compensation for their injuries. If nothing else, this accident shows how bizarre personal injury accidents can be and how each driver involved may end up suing the other person. Depending on which state an accident happens in, there may also be fault apportioned by a percentage when the case gets to court.

Whatever you do, do not try to settle matters like this by dealing with the insurance company directly. Their only goal is to reduce, diminish, defer or deny your claim. They would rather keep the insurance money than give it away to a victim.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

For now, the information in these black boxes is not voluntarily available to plaintiffs and defendants or insurance companies. However, this is about to change in 2013. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will mandate that all vehicles with a black box must record the same data in the same format by 2013, and there has to be a tool available to access this data.

Event data recorders have been around a long time. In fact, since the 1970s they have been used in airplane crash investigations. These boxes provide all sorts of critical information that will help investigators, and soon lawyers, get the kind of information they need for a lawsuit.

Attorneys will have access to a real treasure trove of information that includes the speed of the vehicle just before impact, if the driver applied the brakes, seatbelt use and any changes in forward speed, for example. The data recorder takes a system snapshot of a lot more than that, and will provide vital information for lawsuits. In other words, car wreck lawsuits and concerns about owner privacy will take center stage in 2013 and beyond.

There are 13 states that have chosen to pass a law that requires an owner’s permission to download the black box data. However, this raises some questions. For instance, who is the owner when the accident happened – is it the registered person, the one that holds the title, or the main driver? Additionally, if a driver refuses to provide black box information, is that considered an obstruction of justice and impeding an investigation.

There are other issues that many people would not be aware of, and the biggest one concerns the destruction of data, either intentionally or unintentionally. Computer errors, malfunctioning, and product negligence could come into play. The legal term for data and evidence that goes missing or is compromised is called spoliation.

Evidently, the black box only stores information for roughly six to eight weeks of normal use, or conversely, what the industry refers to as 200 ignition cycles. That means if the vehicle is sold, destroyed or there are more than eight weeks of use, the data may be lost.

Those considerations aside, these black boxes will have a valuable role to play in determining liability for an accident.
They will also clearly show whether or not the injuries alleged are the result of the accident and match the science of how the accident happened. Currently, if a case goes to court, the determination of injuries is typically done by testimony by the doctor treating the injured victim. With the advent of access to black box information, you may expect to see motions being made by insurance adjusters and lawyers, to preserve evidence.

One thing is certain – litigating car accident cases and other vehicle crashes will get a lot easier with black box information. After all, the black box does not lie and trying to beat it would be difficult, if not impossible.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

We have all heard about cellphones causing car accidents, but until recently many only guessed that other gadgets also caused wrecks. It turns out our assumptions were right. A new study from the Governors Highway Safety Association clearly points out that cellphones and other gadgets account for at least 25 percent of all U.S. car accidents.

Just what defines a gadget? These days that could be a GPS unit to the latest in tech travel toys or a laptop running movies to a video screen on the driver’s dashboard. What is wrong with people that they cannot just get drive but must be entertained by numerous devices? Why do people insist on having all these distractions even when it puts them at risk for an accident or worse? A tech fan with gadgets galore will be the first person to get flustered when ran into by another driver who was distracted.

Car accidents are serious events and may cause catastrophic injuries. Driving is a privilege and not a right, yet people treat it like it is not a big deal. It certainly can change your life when you slam into someone in the middle of an intersection because you were too involved in texting a friend about the lunch menu to pay attention to where you were going.

Unless there is a way to change people’s attitudes, the study and its consequences might not alter people’s habits. Laws do have some effect in the short term, but over the long haul they typically lose their impact as people get lackadaisical about them and figure they will not get caught. And, even though they might not get caught, they might just wind up dead instead.

There are more accident cases every year and it is always painful to know that many of them may have been avoided but for the negligent actions of another driver who was not thinking. For yourself and others, drive with care and pay attention – leave the gadgets for later.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

The process of killing a bill that someone dislikes at a political level is not unusual. What is different here is that the doctor owns a medical malpractice insurance firm that would have been regulated by the new law if it had passed. Further investigation into the situation shows that if the bill had passed, the doctor’s company would have had to significantly hike its cash surplus and rewrite their policies for charging customers. In other words, it would have forced them to try and find new monies, face new tax liabilities and may have made them less competitive in the insurance marketplace. These are not great things for someone in business to make money, but what about someone who is a doctor and politician?

While the doctor insists he did not have much influence on how the bill was dealt with, it comes off sounding rather weak in retrospect. He sticks to his guns on opposing the bill, despite how painfully evident it is that he is in direct conflict with his personal business interests. And politicians wonder why people do not believe a word they say?

What should have happened in this case? The man should have excused himself from any involvement with the bill in any manner, and even more so when there was money at stake. The fact is that he did not even have any business talking about it either given his direct interest in the outcome of the proposed bill’s passage. In that state, lawmakers have flexible discretion over how they influence legislation, provided they disclose any conflicts and are not directly affected by the outcome. This is certainly not the case with the doctor-senator- medical malpractice insurance company owner.

And the reason for the proposed medical malpractice insurance bill – to avoid a crisis similar to one that hit the state a few years back when a large funeral service provider took off with payments made for future funerals. It was a financial nightmare and taxpayers had to pick up the tab. It is pure speculation that the same thing would have happened in the medical malpractice insurance industry. But then again, who is to say it could not happen?

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

The Archives of Internal Medicine recently released a study that shows that when it comes to communicating with one another, primary care doctors and medical specialists fail. This can put patients at risk of a serious medical error.
The study took an interesting route to analyze information. It wanted to know how primary care doctors and specialists viewed the quality of information sharing between them. The results were not flattering to either side, and involved a lack of accurate, timely information about patient medical histories, whether or not there were any chronic conditions, and missing lab reports.

When two doctors are involved in treating a patient, if they do not talk to one another in a clear and relevant manner the patient gets stuck with a lower quality of treatment. Neither treatment may work or one treatment may negate the other. Unless doctors talk to one another with patient safety in mind, mistakes will happen.

The data showed that at least 70 percent of primary care doctors send in-depth medical histories and include explanations for their reasons to refer to a specialist. If that is the case, it is odd to note that 35 percent of specialists say they do not receive that kind of information. Whether they really do not get it or do not read it is the unanswered question.

Ultimately, if this huge gap in communication is indeed common, then the specialist is at a huge disadvantage in treating a referred patient. It would be like trying to treat a patient with no clue about prior tests (which may account for several tests for the same thing), comorbid conditions, or drug allergies, for example. To say that this lack of information would have an impact on the choice of treatments is a major understatement. It may even mean a specialist will choose a path of treatment that is detrimental to the long-term health of the patient.

While medical errors can and do happen, the significant lack of vital information given is medical malpractice in and of itself. What doctor would not want to find out more information about a patient when they are treating them? Evidently, there are more doctors and specialists than we might imagine who do not go the extra mile to ask pertinent questions about referred patients.

Are you a victim of a bad outcome with a doctor or specialist? Do not wait until it is too late to do something about it. Call an experienced New Hampshire injury lawyer and find out what you need to know to move forward with your life. It is the best call you will ever make. Those who commit medical malpractice must be held responsible for their actions. Doctors and specialists need to be accountable to those they treat. Remember that when you call an expert New Hampshire injury lawyer.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

This reported case was one that hit home for many of the first responders and other rescue personnel at the scene of the crash. Many of those people had kids.

A 6-year-old was killed in this head-on crash, while on her way to be a flower girl in a wedding. You cannot imagine the grief this case caused for everyone involved. It is a poignant and tragic story.

It was a Saturday, and the excited young girl, who was to be the flower girl at a wedding, was on her way to the church for the ceremony. They were on the highway in their 2009 Honda, when suddenly a 1994 Jeep Cherokee crossed the center line and hit them head-on. These kinds of collisions are never pretty, and this one was no exception. In the car with the 6-year-old were two other people; the 22-year-old driver and a 13-year-old girl. The driver and 13-year-old made it out alive, with serious injuries. The 6-year-old was dead at the scene.

When EMS crews arrived, they took survivors to the nearest hospital. The driver of the Jeep, a 39-year-old man, sustained non-life threatening injuries. Since there was no clear reason why the driver of the Jeep veered over into the oncoming path of the Honda, the police will be conducting a full investigation.

You can safely bet that the police will want to know just what the Jeep driver was doing prior to the impact. Was he on the phone? Texting? Driving while distracted? Was he under the influence of a drug or alcohol? Was his vehicle steering defective? While none of the answers to these questions will ever bring the 6-year-old girl back, they will indicate what went so terribly wrong that day. They will also indicate if criminal charges may be laid or not.

Whether criminal charges are laid or not, will not stop the family filing a wrongful death lawsuit for the 6-year-old and two personal injury lawsuits for the survivors. Wrongful death lawsuits, more often than not, particularly in car crash cases, involve insurance money, meaning the family will need the expert advice and counsel of an experienced New Hampshire personal injury lawyer.

They family has lost someone very dear to them. Moving forward with their lives will be excruciatingly painful emotionally, mentally and financially. Each state has a different set of laws when it comes to wrongful death lawsuits, so check with a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer as to what applies in New Hampshire.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

This should never have happened, but it did, and the day was saved by an observant mom. This reported case happened in Colorado, when the mother went to the pharmacy to pick up what she thought was Motrin flu medication for her 2-year-old toddler.

When she got to the store, she went to the pharmacy section, and was given a bag with her child’s name on it, and handed more printed information on Motrin. When she got home and was about to give her son the medication, she noted that the bottle was smaller than what she was used to seeing. She had used Motrin before, and the bottle she had in her hand did not look quite right.

It turned out that the store had given her a drug called levetiracetam; a powerful anticonvulsant drug with mega side effects, including fever, a drop in white blood cell count and hallucinations. This epilepsy drug is not intended for any child under the age of four.

The mother called the store and spoke to the pharmacy manager about this potentially deadly error. The manager drove to her house with the correct medication and apologized profusely for the pharmacist’s error; indicating the person would be disciplined. Could he explain what happened in this case? Evidently he could not, and there would be an in-store investigation to find out what went wrong with their exiting safety check system for dispensing drugs.

As a mother, this is not something you ever want to happen to your child. In fact, you do not ever want it to happen to you either. Getting the wrong drug or even the wrong dose is an error that could result in serious injury to a patient, or death. We trust our pharmacists to provide us with the right medication in the right dose.

If something bad happens, and someone is hurt, this is referred to as medical malpractice – pharmacist malpractice to be precise. And yes, you can certainly file a personal injury lawsuit, or a wrongful death lawsuit, if you or someone else in your family has been hurt. You will need to contact an experienced New Hampshire personal injury lawyer in order to file your lawsuit.

Cases that involve medical/pharmacist malpractice can take a while to be resolved, but with the right New Hampshire personal injury lawyer on your side, your case will be handled expeditiously. You can count on that.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

This case was utterly devastating for the victim. He went to work as usual at a carpet foam-cutting company and expected that his day would be like it usually was – and it was, until his accident. The 44-year old man was a contract worker who worked with a machine used to cut blocks of carpeting foam. It was a fairly easy job, but at times the machine would get jammed or not work quite right.

No one is sure what happened that day, but the end result of this man’s accident left him a virtual eunuch. He was removing foam core from what was referred to as a peeling machine; something he was not trained to run. When he took the foam out of the machine, it kicked into gear and the sharp steel blade sliced off his penis and testicles, as it did a large amount of damage to the rest of his lower torso.

Emergency response crews got there fast and got the man to hospital for treatment. The U.S. OSHA ultimately cited the company for 10 violations of workplace safety, not the least of which was the removal of the protective guard from the peeling machine; something that would have protected the man from being injured.

As it turns out, the supervisors at this same company had asked the man to run the machine, despite the fact that they knew he had no training or experience with it. The personal injury lawsuit mentioned all of this and the case is getting ready to go to court in the near future. It remains a horrific example of the things that can go wrong in a workplace when you least expect it.

Unfortunately, in New Hampshire and in other states, a worker is not able to sue an employer if the employer provides worker’s compensation. In other words, the worker may only collect benefits from worker’s compensation and cannot sue his boss. Given the circumstances of this case, there would need to be an expert engineer hired to testify about this case. It would definitely be something worth looking into for the victim.

“Even though the worker probably can’t sue his employer, because of the workers’ comp immunity issue, the worker isn’t up the creek without a paddle. He has the option to sue for product liability; an unreasonably defective product. This is not the same thing as negligence, but I can outline the differences to you should you find yourself in a similar situation after sustaining injuries in the workplace,” Donahue said.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

These types of accidents do not happen every day, which is a good thing, but when they do, they rock the fabric of the community and gravely upset the family. This young boy, a 10-year-old who rode the bus to school, missed his ride one day. It usually picked him up from in front of his house.

Not wanting to be left standing there and be late for or miss school, the young fifth grader took off across an open field to try and catch up with the bus as it made its loop to come back. He figured he could get the driver’s attention and hop on the bus and all would be well.

What happened instead was that the boy started running beside the bus as it was moving, lost his footing and fell under the two rear wheels. The boy was found bleeding in the street when the police got to the scene. He was dead before he reached the hospital. Eyewitnesses expressed their inability to understand how the driver could not have seen the boy.

When you read about cases like this and you have kids, you immediately want to know if they are OK and you may even give some thought to the school bus arrangements you have for your children. This is one of those things that could literally happen to anyone. Life is tricky at times and nasty at others and when things do go wrong, they sometimes go catastrophically wrong, like in this case.

Nothing will make this situation right for the parents. They have lost someone very dear to them and it will be tough to move forward emotionally, mentally and financially. They will most likely wait until the results of the investigation are released before speaking to a personal injury lawyer about filing a wrongful death lawsuit. It is the one thing they can do to make sure this never happens again to any other young child.

Each state has a different set of laws, so it is best to check with your New Hampshire injury lawyer to find out what applies in New Hampshire. Your New Hampshire injury lawyer knows what you are going through and is there every step of the way for you. Your lawyer understands how tough filing a wrongful death lawsuit is for everyone in the family.

He will help you to understand what is needed to file a wrongful death lawsuit by taking the time to outline the state’s requirements for filing. For example, that the death was caused wholly or in part by the defendant’s conduct; the defendant was negligent or strictly liable for the death; there is surviving relatives and financial damage has resulted from the death. These factors are part and parcel of the conversation you will have with your New Hampshire injury lawyer if you wish to file a wrongful death lawsuit.

Charlie Donahue is a <a href=”http://www.donahuelawfirm.com”>New Hampshire personal injury</a> lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about <a href=”http://www.donahuelawfirm.com”>New Hampshire injury attorney</a>, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

It is always a shocking thing to read about the death of yet another young adult or teen when you open your morning paper, listen to the news over coffee or watch the daily TV recap in the early evening. More often than not, teens are killed in auto accidents; accidents caused because someone figured that speeding or driving and boozing was cool and nothing would happen to them.

Unfortunately, booze and speed combined are the leading cause of death in the 15- to 25-year-old crowd. Consider a recent death collision that took the life of a 17-year-old and left a 21-year-old with life-altering injuries. This ugly accident happened when the 21-year-old driver lost control of his BMW. He was speeding and trying to pass another car.

The car hit a fire hydrant, went airborne and landed in a snow bank, leaving the 17-year-old passenger in critical condition. He was taken to hospital, where he died upon admission. The driver was taken to the same hospital and although seriously injured, was listed in satisfactory condition.

The family has a legitimate and good faith wrongful death claim. While it may be distasteful and perhaps crass for them to think about trying to compensate that which can never be compensated, if there is a way their financial burdens may be eased after this devastating loss, talking to a wrongful death attorney is the right place to start.

For wrongful death cases as a result of an auto accident, contact a skilled New Hampshire injury lawyer; one who works only for you and who will chase down justice, because that is what you deserve. Your New Hampshire injury lawyer is a tough nut with decades of experience to make sure your wrongful death lawsuit results in a fair and equitable outcome.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

This is a rather disturbing case that involved a police officer shooting and killing a woman in a park more than three years ago. This wrongful death case was settled just recently for $500,000. While we were not involved in it, it is a good example of the many guises in which wrongful death may occur.

It was 2007 and 1:30 in the morning when a police officer shot and killed a 38-year-old woman in a park. The police records indicated that they had been called out to deal with a report of a woman who was supposedly threatening passengers on a bus with a butcher knife.

When the officer on duty got to the scene, he located the woman in the park and his report says that she lunged at him while holding the knife. He shot her several times. The woman’s young son filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the police, stating that his mother had turned her back to the officer with the intention of running or walking away from him when he opened fire.

If that were the case, then the officer would not have had a “reasonable” purpose to shoot and kill his mother. She was hit five times — twice in the back, once in the arm and twice in the chest. In addition to her older son, she left behind two minor children. The interesting thing about this case is how it was resolved. Once the case was before a jury and the evidence heard, the city’s lawyer negotiated the $500,000 settlement. It is hard to justify a shooting when the person was shot in the back.

The Internal Affairs Bureau cleared the officer that killed the woman and the shooting was classified as justified. Again, there are a number of different ways to play this case out, but the facts speak for themselves and you can pretty much draw your own conclusions.

Wrongful death lawsuits are about getting financial compensation for those left behind to carry on. They have already lost a loved one; they should not have to lose out financially as well.

If you have been in a situation like this and need legal counsel, contact an experienced New Hampshire injury lawyer with a track record in dealing with wrongful death cases. You need to know how to move forward, what to expect and how long it will take to get your case resolved. A good New Hampshire injury lawyer has those answers.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

This recently published case is very disturbing and involves a doctor being sued for the wrongful death of a teen. The teen had been told he could go ahead and play sports, but the boy collapsed during a soccer game. As the facts of the case emerged, it turned out the doctor had not told the boy’s parents he had a potentially dangerous heart condition. Cases like this are often used in trials later to point out case similarities and to use the decision of the courts as a reference.

After being examined in 2006, the 19-year-old was told he had a heart murmur. The doctor said he was good to play sports. The doctor even sent the boy’s parents a letter in 2006 that said he could play sports. But, for some reason, the doctor also did not tell them that tests had indicated a thickening of the heart muscle – a potential life-threatening condition. There was no mention of any further tests made in the letter. What parent would not think the doctor would know best?

The boy played for his school soccer team and graduated in 2007. He then went to college, where he played sports for a further two years. In 2009, the young man was playing a recreational soccer game when he collapsed and died later in the hospital. The cause of death was thickening of the heart muscle, also referred to as hypertropic cardiomyopathy.

In cases like this, the boy’s parents had a right to be told about any serious tests to allow them to make the right kind of decisions about his treatment. In this instance, that did not happen. The case will be tried by jury and will be seeking damages for the doctor’s egregious oversight in not informing the parents of the boy’s significantly serious heart condition.

If you have been in a similar situation, you will want justice and you will want to make a point about the dangers of not informing people about serious test results.  This is where you will want to talk to a New Hampshire injury lawyer and find out what your rights are and what a wrongful death lawsuit means in terms of compensation and closure.

Wrongful death lawsuits are not about revenge. They are about the economics of carrying on a life into the future after the death of a loved family member. It is things like that you will need to discuss with a New Hampshire injury lawyer.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

On the surface, you would think that a car insurance company would be objective and only worried about your best interests. After all, you are their customer, you have been paying premiums for years and now, you need help getting an accident claim sorted out. You expect they will help you. Stop right there and make a call to your New Hampshire injury lawyer. Insurance companies may be objective in a biased sort of way, but they certainly do not exist to make your life easier if you have a claim.

In fact, insurance companies are a business – full stop. They exist to make money. If they pay out top dollar for your accident and injuries and top dollar for everyone else’s accident and injuries, they will not be in business for long. Hence why, when you get an accident claim that should pay out a fair price, you get the run around, the stall, the twisted approach to handling a claim by putting words in your mouth, the fabrications built on partial truths to make you blurt out things they can use against you and a ridiculously low offer.

Insurance companies may be objective, but it is with a bias towards keeping the claim payments down to a dull roar, as low as they can go, and get away with it. Objectivity is present in gathering evidence. That makes sense. How they go about gathering evidence is hardly objective, if that so called objectivity includes taping phone calls and using portions of the call out of context to reduce your claim or deny it.

If you have made it this far in a claim with your insurance company and are fed right up, this is the point you need to get the big guns involved. Call your New Hampshire injury lawyer and get things moving. Insurance companies do not mess with personal injury lawyers because they know they could land in court and pay out a big bunch of money.

While the facts may speak for themselves and any right thinking reasonable man would “get it” when they read the facts, this does not cut it with insurance companies who want to get the file closed fast and cheap. Facts sometimes get bent to suit their side of the equation and not yours; the injured victim.

Do not let an insurance company bully you into a fast and early chump change settlement. Talk to an experienced New Hampshire injury lawyer and find out what fair really means.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

There are a number of really shocking cases that I’ve heard about in my time as a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer and this one really takes the cake. It involves a botched brain surgery, performed on the wrong side of the head. For the life of me, I can’t understand how intelligent doctors could operate on the wrong side of a patient’s head, but there you have it.

The patient in question, a 49-year-old woman, first went to the ER at her local hospital, complaining of severe headaches. The attending radiologist spotted a serious leak from an artery in her brain. Unfortunately, he was unable to stop the source of the bleeding and the patient was transferred to an OR for emergency surgery.

The neurosurgeon started the surgery on the right side of the patient’s head without asking the radiologist which side the leak was on. As you may have already guessed, the aneurysm was on the left side of the brain, not the right. Because the surgery was delayed, while the surgeon was trying to figure out which side was which, the patient suffered catastrophic brain damage and died about a year and a half after the procedure.

The enormity of something like this just shakes one’s faith in the medical profession. This is not to say that all doctors make wrongheaded mistakes like this, as for the most part, the medical profession does an enviable job under adverse conditions, and does it well. The point here is that something this important, as in which side is the aneurysm on, needs to be understood before surgery starts. The very fact that the doctor did not ask which side it was on is frightening and is a classic case of medical negligence.

In this day and age, when checks and balances are supposed to be in place to avoid these kinds of situations, it is discouraging to note that things like this still happen. The bottom line is that doctors are responsible to follow protocol, take care, use extra caution and check and double check before they cut.

Wrong site surgery should never happen, but if it does, and you have been a victim of medical malpractice, then you need to discuss your situation with a qualified and experienced New Hampshire personal injury lawyer. If you want compensation, the kind of compensation you truly deserve, it will only happen when your legal counsel goes to bat for you.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

Just when you thought you had heard the last of product recalls for a while, along comes a medical product recall that directly affects many of America’s seniors; the DePuy ASR hip system. It has turned out to be a defective hip implant, costing those who have received it further surgery and more pain. If you have experience with this product, you might want to talk to a skilled New Hampshire personal injury lawyer to find out what you can do about it.

These faulty hip implants first hit the medical marketplace in 2003 and were hailed as being newer and better. They were indeed newer, but better? That turned out to be the wrong assumption. The hip implant was built to use a ball and socket joint crafted completely out of metal. While this may sound like they would be more durable, the metal grinding on metal left chromium and cobalt chips inside the recipient’s body. The chips entered the bloodstream or congregated around the bones and embedded themselves into other body tissues. None of this is good news, medically speaking.

The one key issue here is that the maker of these hip implants, DePuy, knew their hip implant was not functioning properly a long time prior to it being taken off the market in August 2010. In fact, they removed it from the market in Australia in 2009, but kept selling it in the U.S. It was not until 2010 that it was recalled. Money before people’s health concerns? That would be a good guess and a corporate shame.

But, back to the conundrum of the hip implant and its removal. How do you recall a medical device already in a consumer’s body? In this instance, the company will pay for hip revision surgery and then keep the defective item. You can see where this may be going, can’t you? The removal of evidence makes it harder for other patients who may want to file lawsuits later with the help of their New Hampshire personal injury lawyer.

You could choose to call their help line if you like, but you might not be happy with the results. It is being answered by an insurance adjuster, whose job it is to reduce claims, not encourage people to file a lawsuit for what their injuries are really worth. To make a long story short, you can file a DePuy lawsuit in every state in the Union. Just talk to experienced legal counsel about your situation and if they can handle your case they will. If they can’t, you will be referred. Justice has a way of catching up with negligent manufacturers like Johnson & Johnson.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

This can’t be said often enough; “Speed kills.” It is a fact of life and we have seen it, heard about it and perhaps even been affected by speeding vehicles on the highways. It’s a no brainer to point out that speeding puts other people’s lives in danger.

The thing is that most people, when they think of speeding, tend to think it is just car drivers that put the pedal to the metal. It is not just car drivers. It is 18-wheelers, ATVs, motorcycles and yes, even buses. Ask any skilled New Hampshire personal injury lawyer how many vehicle accident cases they see every year. The answer may shock you.

Stop and think about this one for a bit. A speeding bus driver, perhaps in a hurry to get to the end of his long day and a boring route, may be carrying a large number of passengers. All it takes for the driver to lose control is one moment of inattention. That one moment could cause unimaginable harm to those on or near the bus. It may even cause death.

Is the boredom of the route and the desire to be someplace else worth harming a lot of people? The answer is a resounding no. The people on the bus have the right to expect they will be safe from harm and the risks involved with speeding are unjustified. If the passengers are harmed because the driver was distracted and had a heavy foot, they deserve justice for their injuries by filing a lawsuit with the representation of their New Hampshire personal injury lawyer. It’s as simple as that.

What are the other reasons for speeding? Statistics show that bus drivers, like truckers, have schedules to meet and in trying to meet the sometimes unrealistic demands, get frustrated and stressed. That makes for an antsy driver who works their internal aggression out by speeding. Often times, they are not really aware of their speed, because they are simply not paying attention. In other words, they are negligent.

Furthermore, not only does speed have the potential to kill, it heightens the impact and ratchets up the potential for more serious injuries. It means the speeding vehicle often can’t stop for a red light or stop sign and to put it bluntly, those who speed don’t have the same kind of control over their vehicle as someone who is driving according to the rules of the road.

If you have been in an accident with a speeding bus, and survived, but with serious injuries, take your case to a seasoned New Hampshire personal injury lawyer to see justice done and compensation won for your injuries. It is your right.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

Whether you know it or not, there are far more defective seat belts on the road than you might think. Since this is one of the most important safety features in a vehicle, having a defective seat belt is not in your best interests. It may be the death of you.

The startling thing is that many of the car makers have known about these seat belt defects for years and have kept silent about them; a fact that may find its way into the courtroom when a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer is representing a client.

The whole idea of wearing a seat belt is to keep you in your seat and stop you from making a second collision inside the car. The first impact is when you get hit by another vehicle and the second is when you are flung forward in your seat. Without a seat belt, chances are your next view will be through the windshield; a view you may not live to see again. Being ejected from a car during a crash is quite often fatal, but if it isn’t, the injuries sustained tend to be catastrophic and life-altering.

What causes seat belts to fail? That’s the $64,000 question. Largely, when seat belts fail to protect their passengers, it is due to defective belt design. In some instances, even a small amount of force will cause the latch to separate and the forward momentum of the body renders the seat belt ineffective.

When they’re working properly, seat belts are the most crucial safety feature in an automobile. Unfortunately, there are way too many vehicles on the road today with defective seat belts. Over the years, there have been numerous reports of torn webbing. When the belt is ripped or torn in half during a collision, the end result isn’t pretty.

Normally, if the seat belts are up to the stringent safety requirements that manufacturers are required to live up to, the material and the webbing should be designed to withstand a major force without tearing. When manufacturers cut corners, use cheaper materials or webbing and don’t test their end products that well, you have a potential disaster on wheels just waiting to happen. Often, when handling a car wreck case where the driver was ejected, it’s evidence like this that a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer will present in court.

Another common seat belt defect is referred to as retractor failure. If the retractor fails to lock properly, the webbing reels out and makes the seat belt slack. This slack can mean the difference between being held securely in your seat during an accident and catastrophic or fatal injuries.

Retractor failure can be a design or manufacturing defect and any savvy New Hampshire personal injury lawyer will know what to look for in cases like this. It’s eminently reasonable to ask why someone was badly injured in a car wreck if they were wearing a seat belt; a belt supposedly designed to save lives, not take them.

One glaring example of a failed direct drive retractor is something called skip-lock that happens when the retractor lock bar doesn’t lock the webbing into place with the root of the tooth. Shockingly, the auto industry says this does not happen. On the contrary, it has been well documented and this fact also appears in General Motor’s internal research projects.

If you have been in an accident and your seat belt gave away, talk to a skilled New Hampshire personal injury lawyer and find out what your options and rights are to claim compensation. You have every right to expect your seat belt to work and if it doesn’t, someone is responsible for your injuries.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

“Who hasn’t fallen at one time or another, picked themselves up, dusted off their hands and clothing, made a small joke and got on with their day? It’s easy to do. You maybe miss a step on the way up or down a flight of stairs or you didn’t see the coffee spill on the mall promenade. Falling hard, as the result of a slip, can cause untold problems either immediately or later, as we’re not made to slam into hard surfaces and not sustain some kind of injury,” said Charlie Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States.

A person trips on an exposed brick in the sidewalk in front of a store. While a fall may not seem like a big deal when it happens, with the passage of time it might turn out that the kneecap that hit the pavement like a ton of hammers is cracked, impeding movement and causing agonizing pain. It’s time to talk to a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer about recovering damages to pay medical bills, which are likely going to be high as a result of surgery, therapy, medications and other tests.

What started out as a simple tumble has now taken on the proportions of a colossal uphill battle with the owner of the store whose sidewalk was uneven. “The owner knew about the brick, but had not gotten around to fixing it. That is unfortunate, however, it is his responsibility to fix it; to keep his premises safe for a person who comes onto his property. That includes the sidewalk in front of the store. Rather than argue with the owner, take your case to a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer and leave it in their capable hands. That’s their job; to get you justice from those who were negligent,” Donahue said.

It’s also the lawyer’s job to obtain a fair and equitable settlement that will cover the bills that accumulate during time off work as a result of medical treatments, tests, etc. Financially speaking, victims in many slip and fall cases have a hard road to hoe because they are losing money from being off work. That means not being paid or being paid a reduced amount, and in today’s economy, this may spell disaster for an injured plaintiff.

“If you want financial compensation to cope with your injuries, then you will need a personal injury lawyer to go to bat for you. Whether you tripped over an uneven brick or slipped on a slick puddle of coffee, the responsible party ought to have liability insurance that will pay your medical bills and time off work. Trying to secure a settlement on your own usually doesn’t work. That’s my job, my only job, and I don’t get paid until you do. If you have questions, give my office a call,” Donahue said.

To learn more, visit http://www.donahuelawfirm.com.

“What causes whiplash? Usually car accidents take the lead for the highest number of cases. However, they are certainly not the only way to wind up with whiplash. That can happen to anyone riding a bicycle, skiing, taking a spin on a motorcycle, riding a horse or even on skateboards. It gives one pause for thought, doesn’t it?” asked Charlie Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States.

Take the case of a young man – henceforth referred to as Mike – who was skateboarding down a familiar trail one day, when all of a sudden he realized there were construction barriers up at the end of the trail. He hadn’t expected them to be there, because they weren’t there the last time he’d skated. Unable to stop his high-speed trajectory, Mike plowed into a metal barrier and did a complete, full stop-on-a-dime body stop with the metal bar in his mid-section. His head whipped forward and then backwards in a snapping motion and he crumpled to the ground. Did Mike suffer whiplash?

“Yes, he sure did, and it will take him a long time to recover. He first had just a dull ache in his neck, which rapidly progressed to shooting pains down his shoulders. A passerby took him to hospital where he was diagnosed with whiplash. It was thankfully a relatively mild case given his accident, but whiplash doesn’t differentiate grades when it comes to pain,” Donahue said.

One of the worst examples of whiplash is shaken baby syndrome. Cases like this make ER personnel and the police very angry. Things like that should not happen to kids. They deserve only the best in life. Being shaken violently usually happens to a small child, most often five years old or younger, when a caretaker wants them to be quiet. Believe it or not, this shaking action creates the same type of sudden acceleration/deceleration that a car wreck does.

“Let’s just say this isn’t pretty and the kids really go through a lot of agony,” Donahue said.

Whiplash symptoms may include blurred vision, memory loss, headaches, stiff neck and shoulders, difficulty turning either right or left, shooting pains down the torso, mood swings, the inability to concentrate and irritability. “Whiplash isn’t a lot of fun for the victim and what’s worse is that many insurance companies figure that if they can’t see it, then it’s not as bad as the victim is making out. In other words, they’ll try just about anything to reduce or deny a whiplash accident claim. This is one of the reasons you will want an experienced New Hampshire personal injury lawyer in your corner; to get justice,” Donahue said.

“Don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because you feel OK the day of the accident, that you are OK. Many whiplash symptoms don’t show up right away. If you don’t deal with it when it makes itself known, you run the risk of having pain for the rest of your life, time off work and pricey medical bills. If you’ve been in a car wreck or hurt on a skateboard, give me a call. We’ll talk,” Donahue said.

To learn more, visit http://www.donahuelawfirm.com.

This unfortunate case deeply affected the life of a woman who was managing well on her own, until a doctor messed her up by failing to diagnose a brain infection. For the most part, most medical practitioners do an exemplary job under tough conditions, but bad things do happen. When they do, they need to be talked about.

In this California case, the initial verdict was $9 million for the lifelong care of the victim. On appeal, the courts upheld the original verdict, as they should have, given the details of this case. As a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer, I’ve seen many medical malpractice lawsuits similar in nature and they are never easy for the victims.

The plaintiff in this case had hydrocephalus since childhood and had a peritoneal shunt implanted in her head to drain fluid from her brain. Despite that, she was highly functional and could take care of herself and even work. She was a patient of a particular facility, as provided for under her health care plan.

In 2003, she was having headaches and was taken to the facility by a family member and was handed some Tylenol. Several days later, her symptoms were worse and she was taken to an ER, where a doctor said shunt infection needed to be ruled out. Based on that initial concern, the woman was transferred to another hospital, where another doctor examined her and called for a neurosurgical consult.

The hospital doctor, for some unknown reason, did not write down the woman’s symptoms and did not mention the patient had been sent to him to rule out brain shunt infection. As a net result of lack of information, the neurosurgeon didn’t look at any other records from other physicians and didn’t test for infection. He then left for a vacation. The patient got worse over the following weeks, prompting another doctor to raise concerns about an infection. No one listened. In fact, no one would admit her to the ER until she fell out of her wheelchair.

The woman was finally diagnosed with a brain infection and the shunt was removed. Unfortunately, the patient was partially paralyzed, had difficulty sitting, couldn’t walk, presented with slurred speech, was in constant pain and had to be fed by others. The prognosis was permanent, life altering damage that would mean constant medical care for the rest of the patient’s life.

Medical malpractice comes in many forms. None of the cases however, are justified in the minds of the victims, and none of them are justified in the eyes of the law. If you have been in a situation like this or feel you have been a victim of medical malpractice, contact a skilled New Hampshire personal injury lawyer and find out your rights.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

If you think that convicted rapists and those who have served time for assault with a deadly weapon would never be allowed to perform in-home caretaker duties, think again. This is reality in California, and may make its way across the nation. There are approximately 210 caregivers and applicants to be in-home aides eligible to work in California, despite the violence in their pasts.

How does something like this happen? It came about thanks to a court ruling earlier in the year that said only specific types of child or elder abuse or fraud would disqualify someone from being a caregiver in California’s Home Supportive Services – a program designed to offer an alternative to nursing homes for low-income residents. That ruling meant that felons convicted of some very violent crimes have been allowed to provide care. As a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer, I handle nursing home abuse cases and I would hate to see this kind of thing happen here.

This glitch has not gone over very well with program administrators or law enforcement, which strongly urges that the rules be changed. To date, the legislature has done precisely zip in response to those calls for change. Oddly enough, or perhaps predictably, there are two schools of thought on felons working in-home care. The first is that it’s fine to do that, because their background shouldn’t necessarily disqualify them from taking care of the elderly. Frankly, the very idea of a convicted rapist taking care of someone’s grandfather or grandmother is downright scary.

The second line of thought is that there is no way that those with a violent criminal past should be allowed to care for the elderly, in any way, shape or form. To say that this is a contentious area would be a major understatement. Is there something to be said for the theory that once convicted does not a future criminal make? Perhaps so, and the majority of those with records may only be one time offenders. But then again, they may not, and can you really bet on that?

For those who suggest this is an area that isn’t black and white and instead should be regarded as having various shades of gray, perhaps the best question to ask them is if they would be comfortable with a violent ex-criminal taking care of a loved elderly relative. The answer would no doubt be quite telling. This isn’t to say that it isn’t possible for convicts to turn their lives around, but really, take a look at the recidivism rate and make up your own mind.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

Having a baby is not exactly stress or danger free, no matter what anyone tells you. Good labor or not, there is still the possibility of complications arising at any given point from start to delivery finish. The main thing is, it’s not just the baby that’s at risk during a birth; it’s the mother as well. While equipment such as forceps and vacuums may assist in the birth, if they are not used correctly, the mother may sustain damage to her womb or the baby may suffer any one of a number of birth injuries ranging from shoulder dystocia to cerebral palsy.

One of the more dangerous tools often used in delivery rooms is the forceps. In the hands of a skilled doctor, they make an enormous difference in the delivery. In the hands of an unskilled doctor, or one that is careless or negligent, the baby could sustain facial nerve injuries, or worse. Going through a delivery where various tools are necessary is downright frightening given the variety of things that could happen.

“Even though modern medicine has made giant leaps and bounds when it comes to the birthing process for the child and mother, mistakes still cause injuries. There is no way around that. If forceps are used incorrectly, the mother may sustain tissue tears in her womb and/or painful vaginal lacerations. Yes, the human body is a marvel at minimizing damage to itself, but when you toss in the intervention of another human armed with tools, the playing field isn’t level any longer,” said Charlie Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States.

Forceps injuries usually occur if the doctor clenched the child’s face too tightly. If that happens, the forceps can impair the main facial nerve, the one that is responsible for motor functions in the eyes and lips. If the doctor’s mistake or negligence is serious enough, a botched forceps delivery can lead to facial paralysis and a permanent disability or disfigurement.

Head bruising is another injury that may result from the pressure of forceps or a tight passage through the vaginal canal. Generally speaking, a cephalohematoma fades over time, but it is also possible that this in an indication of a skull fracture that could turn into something far worse.

“If you suspect your child’s injuries are due to medical malpractice at the time of birth, give me a call. We’ll talk about your rights and how to defend them,” said New Hampshire personal injury lawyer Charlie Donahue.

To learn more, visit http://www.donahuelawfirm.com.

Most physicians and surgeons do a really good job and have hundreds of happy patients. However, doctors are humans and humans do make mistakes now and then. If the error is small, it’s forgivable and forgotten. If the error severely injures someone or his or her life, this is medical malpractice with negligence and it is grounds for a lawsuit.

“Take the case of a woman that we read about who had a partial knee replacement and the doctor never took an X-ray of her knee to see if the hardware was in the right spot until after the surgery. Despite what the X-rays showed, that there was some question about the placement of the hardware, nothing was done about it and the patient was waved on to go to physiotherapy,” said Charlie Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States.

As time passed, the patient kept having severe problems with pain that would not quit. In desperation, the woman finally went to an orthopedist to find out what was wrong. He took an X-ray to see what was going on in the knee and lo and behold, it showed the hardware was in the wrong place. That meant the patient needed corrective surgery, less than three months after first having the initial operation.

“To say that the woman was not a happy camper would be an understatement, largely because while she initially went for a partial knee replacement, she now needed a total knee replacement,” New Hampshire personal injury lawyer Donahue said. The first partial knee replacement was intended to last for 10 to 12 years. However, because the first doctor didn’t do his job correctly and place the hardware in the right location, the woman needed surgery earlier than expected under general anesthesia.

In this case, the first surgeon didn’t do his job. He didn’t take an X-ray until the operation was over and then, even when he did take an X-ray and was questioning if the knee hardware was properly placed, he chose to do nothing about what he saw in the X-ray and sent the patient to physiotherapy. Ultimately, the agony she went through initially was a result of medical negligence.

“Does this lady have a viable medical malpractice case? Yes, and she should be able to recover medical expenses for both surgeries, pain and suffering, medications, therapy and other related costs. When things go wrong with your doctor and you wind up hurting, call me. I’d be pleased to assess your case, discuss your rights and outline how medical malpractice cases proceed,” Donahue said. “It’s your life, your body and your future. You depended on a doctor that let you down and changed how you will live the rest of your life. Things like this need to be talked about.”

To learn more, visit http://www.donahuelawfirm.com.

Product recalls seem to be becoming as common as the “common” cold. Not a day goes by that something isn’t yanked off the shelves or recalled back to its maker for something that isn’t right. Whether that “something that isn’t right” is tainted food, a defective baby product, a gas smoker, a vehicle with a leaking fuel tank or a product with a chemical in it that mimics Viagra, the world of manufacturing seems to be running amok.

What happened to responsibility? What happened to protecting consumers from dangerous goods? What happened to making a quality product that lasted a long time and was safe to use? If you’re thinking “money happened,” you’d be right. Unfortunately, in the great unseemly rush to get products to market to make money, there are corners cut, sub-standard materials used, designs not closely inspected for problems and insufficient product testing, labeling or warnings.

These days, that old saying about the buyer needing to beware is far truer than we’d like to contemplate. What options does a consumer seriously harmed by a defective product have? They have a legal recourse. To initiate that, talk to a skilled lawyer who has experience in situations like this. It doesn’t matter what type of defective product you ran afoul of, if you have been injured (or in severe cases, you lost a loved one) you need to know your rights and how to file a claim for compensation for damages.

Take the recent recall of infant and toddler hammocks, made in Malaysia. They were recalled because the hammock could tilt, trapping the baby against the fabric or mattress pad and posing a strangulation hazard. Then there was the recall of Char-Broil vertical gas smokers, made in China. Gas built up inside the smoker, causing the door to explode open. There were some nasty injuries as a result of that defect. The list doesn’t stop there. There was also a major recall of MasXtreme supplement single blister packs because they potentially contained a chemical similar to Viagra. There are a lot of probable personal injury cases waiting to be filed in just those three recent examples.

The thing with product recalls is that if the items hit the marketplace before anyone begins to understand that there is a problem – and this tends to happen quite a lot – and by the time the recall is announced, someone, somewhere has bought the product. They bought the product not knowing they may have a disaster on their hands when they unknowingly use it. While the recall is nice and the right thing to do, it doesn’t always solve the problem, nor does it absolve the manufacturer of product liability.

For those who have unwittingly bought a defective product that causes seriously injuries, even though they thought that it would be safe, it’s time to take what’s left of the product and call a lawyer.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

This case is another that could have easily been prevented. It’s another situation where a patient was given an accidental overdose of morphine. If the doctor had been paying attention to what he was doing, this victim would not have suffered brain damage. The case happened just recently in Baltimore. A 57-year-old woman had foot surgery to repair a tendon. After the operation, she went to a nursing facility for recovery.

Less than six hours after surgery, the podiatrist who did the surgery ordered 50 mg of morphine when she should have ordered 50 mg of Demerol for the woman’s pain. The error wasn’t discovered until the next day and by then the woman had suffered brain damage. The case went to verdict and the jury awarded $2 million for pain and suffering and $1.1 million for medical costs. The punitive damages are still pending.

The jury found the nursing facility 90 percent responsible for the medication error. Her podiatrist was assessed at 10 percent for writing the wrong prescription in the first place. While that may seem a bit skewed, since the initial medication error was committed by the podiatrist, the jury felt the nursing facility should have discovered the error before they administered the medication. What makes this case even worse is the fact that the pharmacist who filled the prescription warned the facility that the dose was too strong.

Despite being warned that the dose was too high, the nurses on duty had to go get extra morphine from an emergency office supply to top up the woman’s dose to the 50 mg. They could only initially find 20 mg. This ghastly series of errors, one compounding the other, gave an innocent woman brain damage. Morphine overdoses need medical attention immediately, and that didn’t happen in this instance.

The shocking thing here is that being medical professionals, the doctor and the nursing facility RNs would know that morphine dulls the brain’s pain perception center. Overdosing may cause confusion, a weak pulse, extreme drowsiness, clammy and cold to the touch skin, faint or very shallow breathing or cessation of breathing. In other words, an overdose of morphine can stop someone’s breathing. That could have happened in this case as well, but instead, the woman suffered brain damage. While her family is grateful she is still alive, they wonder at what cost?

This case could quite well have been a wrongful death, and the fact that it wasn’t is a small miracle. If you have been in a similar situation, speak to a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer about filing a personal injury lawsuit. Find out your rights, how to proceed in an overdose case and what you may expect when the case goes to settlement or verdict.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

When people think of negligence happening in a medical setting, they quite often think that when something goes awry, it is because the doctor or the nurse did something wrong. It’s not just nurses and doctors that may cause harm to patients. Certified Nursing Aides (CNA) are just as capable of causing harm if they don’t perform their duties correctly.

“A CNA is an assistant to an RN in clinics and hospital settings. They are part of the front line of caregivers who work with the patients, and they are responsible for moving and feeding patients, grooming them and bathing them – the basic care. While performing those duties, they are working very closely with the person and if they don’t take care, they may cause irreparable harm,” said Charlie Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States.

In many states, CNAs only need a high school diploma or GED plus a six to 12 week certificate course. The program they complete is often through a community college or a medical facility. Despite the short course, a CNA may begin employment right after graduation and work hands-on, directly with patients; all this without prior experience.

While the CNAs are not responsible for patient treatments or even for formulating a diagnosis, they are still handling some very delicate and seriously ill patients. One wrong move could cause injury or death. This is most applicable in intensive care units or in nursing homes where handling patients carefully is of the utmost importance.

“Moving people around is a large part of a CNAs job, and if they are handling people with brittle bones, this could be problematic if they treat them carelessly or roughly. CNA medical negligence or malpractice may also involve not responding to a patient’s call for help or not observing sanitary requirements by washing up often and changing gloves between patients,” Donahue said.

“If you have been in a situation like this, or a loved one has, give me a call, I’d be happy to discuss the potential case with you. You should certainly know what your rights are and what will happen if you choose to file a lawsuit,” said Donahue, the New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene.

To learn more, visit http://www.donahuelawfirm.com.

Some people figure it’s not worth going out of their way to hire a lawyer to chase after someone whose dog took a chunk out of their arm or another part of their anatomy. The bite may seem minor, they might think no one files a lawsuit over a dog bite or they may even think asking for damages just because a dog bit them is silly. Think again. Dog bites are on the increase in the U.S., and those who are bitten are not in the minority any longer.

“Furthermore, consider the facts of what may happen when you get bitten,” said Charlie Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. “That huge hole you have in your hand, head or foot could become infected and will definitely require stitches, if not plastic surgery, later. If you have diabetes, cancer or another type of immunodeficiency syndrome, your system may not be strong enough to fight an infection. All these things cost money to fix, meaning you should file a claim to recover your medical expenses.”

Dog attacks are far more frequent than we would like to think. After all, many of us have furry friends in the house, next door and down the street, and we relate to them like family, because in many ways they are members of the family. The thing is, dogs are still pack animals and instinctively have a hierarchy in their homes and when they are out with their humans. The owner is the pack leader, and the dog will take action if someone threatens the pack leader.

“While you might not know this, dog bites are actually one of the most common types of personal injury lawsuits in the US. For example, statistics show that just about 2 percent of the population gets bitten every year. If you do the math, that is close to 4.7 million people,” Donahue said. Furthermore, there are at least 25 people killed every year because a dog attacked them. “And, yes, fatal attacks are on the rise as well. For instance, in the 1990s, fatal attacks averaged out at 17 per year. In 2009, 30 people died. This is not exactly good news,” he said.

“Why are dog attacks more frequent now than they used to be? It has to do with the fact they are the most favored pet in the US. Over 40 percent of households in the nation have a dog, which means close to 75 million dogs reside across the country. That’s a huge potential for situations where man (or child) meets dog and dog bites man. In fact, just about 77 percent of all bites are due to dogs that are family or belong to friends, and nearly half of those attacks happen at home,” said Donahue, the New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene.

“Still don’t think a dog bite is that serious or that one will happen to you? Consider this: one in six attacks are usually serious enough to land you in the hospital and you will likely wind up with disabilities or chronic long-term injuries. If this has happened to you, call me, you deserve compensation for situations like that,” he said.

To learn more, visit http://www.donahuelawfirm.com.

Have you ever taken the time to check out the statistics on nursing homes in the United States? For instance, did you know that there are at least 18,000 nursing homes across the nation, with a total patient population of over 1.6 million? Staggering numbers, aren’t they? Some people think these are the silent elder majority tucked away out of sight and out of mind, left to count the days until their death. Others think that if they put grandma or grandpa in a home, he or she won’t be such a nuisance anymore.

Thankfully, others worry a lot about placing their relatives in a nursing care home because they care, and they want the best for their loved ones. They also know they will be the next ones to need a nursing home at some point. There is nothing like an “about to be personal” experience that motivates people to get angry about elder abuse in nursing homes. Whatever the reasons for people speaking out, more are realizing that this type of abuse is in no way acceptable. We wouldn’t want it to happen to us, so why would we want it to happen to our relatives?

Do you think your relative is being abused at his or her nursing home? Do not wait to second-guess your intuition. Call a dedicated and highly skilled New Hampshire personal injury lawyer and get the situation investigated. Time is of the essence in abuse cases given the age and condition of some of the elderly people in nursing homes. They don’t have the stamina, mental capacity, ability or comprehension, in some cases, to deal with abuse or even realize what is going on.

It’s absolutely disgusting to think that our special citizens, those who have gone before us and created this great country of ours, are subjected to unspeakable acts of abuse. Take the case of a 74-year-old California woman, for example. She was bright and cheery and still very capable, but needed skilled nursing for her diabetes. She was placed in a nursing home only to be chemically restrained because the staff thought she was a nuisance for speaking her mind. During one session of chemical restraint, the woman choked on her own vomit, ending a life that still had value not only to her, but to her family.

Nursing homes are supposed to be facilities where our seniors get the care they need in a manner that affords them dignity, caring and compassion. They are not intended to be places where our seniors are neglected, abused, ignored and shunned – treated like they are second-class citizens. It is up to every one of us to do something about nursing home abuse. Speak up and speak out; someone’s life may depend on it.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

For the most part, many of us would say that doctors do a good job of taking care of us. Sure, we might have the odd occasion when they made a minor mistake and gave you a medication that didn’t agree with you or said you had the flu when you had a sinus infection. Things happen, right? You shrug it off and chalk it up to the “doc” being human and simply making a small mistake.

While it’s true that things do happen, for the most part they aren’t things that register on a person’s medical malpractice meter – meaning that many patients don’t even realize they may have been a victim of medical malpractice unless they find themselves in a real bind and something very bad happens. For instance, if something went wrong during the birth of your baby.

When doctors make mistakes that harm others and drastically alter their lives forever, they need to take responsibility for their actions. The bottom line is that if a severe injury or death happens as a direct result of negligence on the part of the doctor (or other health care provider), you have the right to file a claim for medical malpractice. This holds true even more when it comes to birth injuries.

Unfortunately, even parents whose child has been injured at birth may hesitate to file a medical malpractice lawsuit with a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer because they are uncertain if they have a case, think the doctors will cover up for each other, think that no one will listen to them and that they won’t win their case because med mal litigation is difficult and at times very tricky to prove. While all those concerns are valid, hiring the right med mal attorney will make all the difference in the world. They are in your corner, defending your rights and making sure you get justice.

When it comes to birth injuries, they may occur prior to, during or just after the actual birth. Injuries may range from skin irritation to nerve damage and from broken bones to brain injuries, perhaps leading to something like cerebral palsy. In some cases, the bad outcome of this medical event (birth) is not considered to be medical malpractice, and your New Hampshire personal injury lawyer will explain the difference to you if your case is not medical malpractice.

What many people don’t realize is that birth injuries don’t just refer to injuries sustained by the baby, but also include injuries to the mother, such as tissue and nerve damage, etc. Since the mother is also part of the equation when it comes to birth injuries, and may also be harmed, this certainly complicates the case. Most med mal cases require expert witnesses to testify that the doctor who caused the harm was not acting in a manner that others in the same position would act. In other words, the health care provider was not providing the accepted standard of care during delivery.

If you are in a situation like this, contact a seasoned New Hampshire personal injury lawyer immediately and find out what your rights are, what the definition of negligence is as it applies to your birth injury case, how a case of this nature may proceed and what is involved in taking something like this to trial.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

“Just when you thought it was safe on the streets and you could go for a walk, you find out that negligent drivers can cause you a whole world of hurt and even kill you. Even with crosswalks and all the laws in the world on the books, there are over 64,000 walkers hit by negligent drivers every year – 5,000 of those hit died,” explained Charlie Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States.

The depressing thing about pedestrian accidents is that people who hit someone who is out for a walk are not paying attention to the law, not paying attention to where they are going, and not paying attention to what is around them. They may be under the influence, driving while distracted, texting, talking on a cell phone or feeding the dog in the passenger’s seat a treat. The reasons why they hit a pedestrian aren’t as relevant as the damage done to the person who was hit.

“Statistically speaking, pedestrian/car accidents are generally caused by several things, not all at the same time, but these are the prevalent ones: speeding which reduces the driver’s reaction time, defects present in their vehicles (tires, transmission, U-joints, steady bearings, steering wheel, brakes), terrible road conditions (icy, construction) and poor visibility (low lighting or no lighting). If you can’t see where you are going and hit a pedestrian, you’re still liable for the damages,” added Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer.

Are drivers always at fault in pedestrian versus car accidents? The answer to that question is “No,” drivers are not always at fault. On the rare occasion, the pedestrian may be the proximate cause of the accident. As odd as it may sound, there have been cases where a pedestrian was walking under the influence and wandered right out in front of a car. And even though many pedestrians don’t like crosswalks and may prefer to jaywalk, those who don’t use the crosswalk safely may end up being hit.

“The thing is that over 50% of pedestrian versus car accidents are fatal for the walker. If they do live to tell their story, they may have some incredibly serious life-altering injuries. If you’re been in an accident like this, give me a call. I will assess your case and see what we can do,” suggested Donahue.

To learn more, visit http://www.donahuelawfirm.com.

The number of elderly people who are being admitted to nursing homes and long-term care facilities is increasing every year, and has since 1994. Stop and think about that for a minute then do some research on the Internet to try and figure out how many nursing homes are in the US today.

“Just to save you some time, there are over 16,100 nursing homes in the US today with an occupancy rate of 86%. All that translates into 1.7 million beds. Anyway you look at it, that is a lot of people in nursing homes being cared for by people they don’t know. You will likely get a better picture of why nursing home abuse is so prevalent these days when you consider those numbers, which doesn’t make it acceptable at all, but more understandable, “commented Charlie Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States.

“What are the reasons why more of our elderly are being admitted to homes these days? Mostly, it’s a combination of factors that involve low income, not enough family support and their age; we tend to live longer these days,” added Donahue. Interestingly enough, recent stats show that nursing home occupancy has dropped; most likely to the increase in the number of assisted care facilities and community living homes for the elderly.

With more options available for the elderly, it’s wise to check out every possible avenue before placing a loved one in one of these homes. It takes an enormous amount of research into what is available and what to expect when your family member is admitted. Knowing these things in advance will help in the selection process, but keep in mind that many seniors don’t take kindly to being put into a home, as it takes away their independence.

“Consider how you would feel if your freedom and everything that was familiar to you was suddenly taken away. It gives you a whole new point of view on nursing home placements,” commented Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene.

Before choosing a home, check what they offer their residents. Are there games, social activities, outings and other events; things in which a family member would like to participate? What kind of nursing home does your relative need? There are different kinds of homes with different facilities.

“An example would be if your loved one has Alzheimer’s and wanders, then you would need a home with a lockdown unit. On the other hand, make darn good and certain that when your loved one is assessed before they are placed into a home, that someone does ‘not’ assess them as needing lockdown when they do ‘not’ need that kind of care. Placing your senior into a locked down facility when they don’t need one is extremely upsetting,” Donahue said.

Always visit the homes to see what they look like, talk to the staff and the administrator and take a look around at the residents. “Try to arrive at meal time, as you will get a whole lot of information about how the home treats their residents when you see them at lunch or supper. You might also want to ask a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer with experience handling nursing home negligence lawsuits if the home you are considering has ever been sued for nursing home abuse. Better you know that right up front than find it out later when it’s too late to undo the damage,” suggested Donahue.

“If for any reason you suspect your relative is being abused at their nursing home, get in touch with me right away. Together we’ll take a look at what’s going on and do something about it. There is ‘no’ excuse that makes elder abuse acceptable,” Donahue insisted.

To learn more, visit http://www.donahuelawfirm.com.

To the person who was on the receiving end of the wrong diagnosis or misdiagnosis, often a mistake is a mistake, no matter what you call it. In reality, these are two different things. A wrong diagnosis is a total miss that may result in serious consequences because the real sickness is not dealt with and it continues on its course, possibly causing death.

On the other hand, misdiagnosis is like being half right but for the wrong reasons. Misdiagnosis may include a wrong diagnosis, an incomplete diagnosis, or an improper or incorrect medical intervention or treatment. I see this quite a lot in the course of my practice as a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer.

You don’t have to look too far to find statistics about how many wrongful deaths there are every year in the US as the result of misdiagnosis. Would you believe this type of error accounts for approximately 44,000 to 98,000 deaths? And that is just deaths, there are also at least one million injuries caused by the same thing.

By now you’re likely wondering how on earth a doctor could wrongly diagnose or miss diagnosing someone accurately. The simple answer is that they are human, and being human means they may be inexperienced, are trying something new or experimental, or there is a communication problem with the patient.

These aren’t the only problems that dog the medical field when it comes to making a diagnosis, or not, as the case may be. Count in sleep deprivation, lousy handwriting, poor nurse to doctor ratios, and giving a patient two or more medications that don’t mix well.

You could likely make up your own list if you have had any experience with being misdiagnosed or wrongly diagnosed. It happens, and sometimes, no harm, no foul, but when bad things happen, it needs to be dealt with promptly by talking to a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer.

Think about going to the hospital to get well and then the worst thing happens; you get a whole lot worse and no one seems to know why. Or, you are given treatments or medications that make your condition even more awful to bear. Add into this mixture the real possibility of wrong surgeries, wrong medications and other things too horrid to think about and you have a recipe for disaster or death. Did you know that over 180,000 people die every year due to medical errors? That’s something to think about, isn’t it?

If you have been wrongly diagnosed or misdiagnosed and lived to tell about it, you might want to consult with a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer to find out what you can do to address your losses.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

You go to the doctor because you don’t feel well and get a prescription to deal with whatever your problem happens to be. So far, so good. But, what happens when the prescription “you” get isn’t what the doctor ordered? And that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to things that may go wrong when having a prescription filled. Ask a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer about this and you’d be surprised what the answer may be.

How many people do you know who check their prescriptions when they get them? If you’re like most people, you just assume that what you have in the bag is what you’re supposed to take; you also assume that the doctor ordered the right thing for you, in the right amount and that it’s safe to take with your other medications, etc. Some of these assumptions may be deadly.

Prescription mistakes can happen either with the doctor, with the pharmacist or with them both. That revelation likely won’t make your day, but it’s important to know. At any given time the doctor may give the patient the wrong drug to take; in doing that, it’s a prescription error. If the doctor gives the wrong dosage, that is also a prescription error, but the thing is, it’s not “only” the doctor that makes mistakes. And if you suspect you have gotten the wrong prescription, it’s wise to consult with a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer.

There are many different kinds of errors that may happen when it comes to prescriptions and drugs; for example, medications that were improperly prescribed without checking the patient’s “other” medications for interactions. While the doctor may not always be totally tuned in to what other drugs you are taking, simply because they don’t always remember, the pharmacist has your complete drug history at the click of a mouse. There are no excuses to miss a potential drug reaction, and yet it happens.

Improperly labeled drugs are another nightmare in the making and if the pharmacist isn’t on the ball, the unthinkable could happen. If the order for drugs for the patient is filled incorrectly, things may go awry. If the pharmacist or his assistant isn’t totally familiar with all the abbreviations used in dispensing drugs, this could result in an overdose. And, if the doctor’s handwriting isn’t easily legible, that may end up with a dose of drugs that is either too high or too low, or the wrong drug entirely.

If you’re racing for your medicine cabinet, good for you. It’s wise to check what you are taking just to make sure you have the right stuff. However, having said that, the time to double check and ask questions is at the doctor’s office and then again at the pharmacy. It’s “your” life and health; you have a right to ask. Think about this for a minute – there are roughly 7,000 deaths a year in the US caused by prescription errors. That number includes innocent children, as well as adults – one in eighteen to be exact.

If you have been a victim of a prescription error, you’d want to discuss your situation with a qualified and dedicated New Hampshire personal injury lawyer. You need to know what your legal rights are and what compensation you may be able to recoup.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

“If you’ve spent any time lately reading the news, you’ll know that more and more defective products are hitting the market every day. Lately, many of them have been children’s products; cribs, wicker storage containers, blinds, jewelry, toys with small moving parts that break easily, and on and on the list goes. It’s downright scary for parents,” observed Charlie Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States.

If it were only the odd product that was defective, people wouldn’t feel like they are under siege. Unfortunately, the products have included just about everything from cars to drills, from bicycles to kitchen knives and from barbeques to furniture. Where does it end? Clearly, the makers of the products in question didn’t take the time to properly design or inspect the final product. They were in too much of a hurry to rush the item to market and make money.

“Interesting that they hold that philosophy about wanting to make money fast,” commented New Hampshire personal injury lawyer Donahue, “when you consider that one defective product recall could cost the company thousands and thousands of dollars, damage their reputation, and tank their market share for a long time.”

Stalking the public in the disguise of a product that should be good for what ails you are defective drugs, tainted food and over the counter medications. These products hold the potential to be even more deadly because they pack a terrific wallop physically – including death. In terms of what is on the market today that consumers may trust, use and feel confident that it won’t hurt them, well, that list is exceedingly short if not non-existent.

“If something you bought, ate, drank or used harmed you through no fault of your own, you may have the right to sue the maker of that item. You definitely need to speak to an experienced New Hampshire personal injury lawyer about this though. Generally speaking, no matter what the reason is why a company put out a defective product, they are most commonly held liable for the harm their product caused and have to pay for medical bills, lost wages and other things like pain and suffering,” Donahue detailed.

To learn more, visit http://www.donahuelawfirm.com.

“Let me give you a quick example of something that could happen to anyone with a dog. Say you are out walking your Pit Bull and a jogger comes by, but trips over the dog’s leash and falls. Ghost, your dog, barks a couple of times because when the jogger fell, he yanked Ghost’s leash hard, causing him to choke,” explained Charlie Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States.

“Ghost, the very soul of discretion and joviality, took the incident in good humor and wagged his tail happily. The jogger on the other hand later claimed he’d fallen because Ghost lunged at him. Are you covered by the liability portion of your renter’s, condo or homeowner’s insurance? Maybe,” said Donahue.

The first question that a lot of people ask is why aren’t they covered? “Usually the answer has to do with the insurance company holding the policy for your residence. Many companies are not willing to provide liability coverage for a dog if they feel it has a history of past transgressions or they don’t like the breed. In this instance, the Pit Bull has a bad rep and the insurance company wouldn’t want to take that risk,” remarked Donahue.

Research shows that many carriers won’t write a residential insurance policy if the person applying has a dog (any breed) with a history of biting. Others carriers will issue a policy, but with an exclusion; the exclusion being any injuries caused by dangerous breeds such as wolf hybrids, Pit Bulls, Dobermans, Akitas, Boxers and other dogs with an attitude. In other words, it’s darn hard to find an insurance company that will include dog bite liability coverage in a residential insurance policy.

“This isn’t to say that you can’t find it, it’s just hard to find. It’s definitely something you need to know about if you happen to own one of the breeds insurance companies aren’t very fond of for various reasons. If all else fails, you might find an independent that could help you out,” Donahue suggested.

There are a number of people who conveniently forget to answer questions about their dog’s history or breed when they apply for insurance or are dealing with a renewal form. For some reason they figure avoiding the issue and the truth won’t make any difference later. Unfortunately, things just don’t work that way and if the carrier gets wind of the fact that an insured withheld information that would have disqualified them in the beginning, they will cancel the policy.

“That isn’t the only thing that could happen if you choose not to tell the company you have a dog. If they find out later when they are defending a dog related claim, they would have clear grounds to refuse to hire an attorney to defend a court action or pay a claim or adverse judgment,” outlined Donahue.

“Think you could handle a lawsuit on your own? You might want to give that some serious thought first, because it’s a proven fact that dog bites comprised about one-third of all homeowner claims, costing insurers a cool $356 million in 2007 alone. Add to that the fact that your average dog bite claim may run to about $25,000, a figure that creeps up every year. And, over 4.7 million people get bitten every year with close to 1 million needing medical attention,” Donahue added.

In a nutshell, there are other options for dog owners who have breeds that come with a questionable history, but the policy pricing tends to be fairly high. Foregoing insurance if the dog is known to have its moments isn’t a wise move. The choice is ultimately up to the owner, but having insurance is likely to be far less costly than a personal injury lawsuit settlement.

To learn more, visit http://www.donahuelawfirm.com.

Most people prefer to have their baby in a hospital, simply because they feel safer being right there where there is medical care on hand; doctors to help if there is a problem. And in most instances, things go just fine due to the outstanding care our medical professionals offer. I have the utmost respect for those who work in this tough field but sometimes bad things happen, and we need to talk about those things when they do happen.

Sure, there may be lots of fancy, high-tech equipment around when you give birth, but the question is does everyone know how and when to use it? If they don’t, this isn’t something you want to find out about later and the hard way, and this isn’t something you want to find yourself talking to a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer about either.

There’s a whole team of people usually involved in the birth of a child; everyone from radiologists to pharmacists, surgeons to neo-natal nurses and anesthesiologists to obstetricians. They are on hand to give the new arrival the right kind of care. They should know what they are doing, as they’ve had years of intensive, exhaustive and comprehensive training to do their jobs.

Medical professionals are people though and people make mistakes. When that happens during the birth of your baby, the consequences may alter both of your lives forever. This is what is called medical negligence; negligence on the part of someone who should know better due to their training. If any one of the medical team drops the ball at delivery by not recognizing fetal distress, improperly using forceps to deliver, giving the wrong medication or not identifying the need for a C-section early enough, there may be drastic consequences. And if there are, this is the time to discuss your case with a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer.

It’s not just the personnel who are major factors in the birth of your child; it’s also the various equipment used to deliver the baby. Imaging tools and x-rays need to be used with low emissions for baby’s safety, all tools need to be sterilized and sanitized to prevent infections, and everyone that is supposed to be able to use the equipment needs to actually know how to use it properly. While this might sound like a big job to fill, it is the medical professional’s job to do just that – do their job properly, with due care and caution, with expertise and knowledge and do no harm to the mother or baby.

Needless to say, this area of the law is complex and if you find yourself faced with the possibility that your child was injured at birth due to negligence, then you will want to speak to a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer immediately. Don’t wait or you may run afoul of the Statute of Limitations.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

Most of us have been in a car accident or two or three over our lifetime. There are very few people, other than those who don’t drive, who can say they have never caused an accident or been in one. The interesting question when it comes to car accidents is, “Are car accidents really accidents or are they the result of just plain stupidity?”

Over the years that I have practiced personal injury law, I’ve seen an awful lot of things that would try the patience of a Saint. The things that people do in their cars just boggles the imagination. In fact, some of those things are so astounding it makes me wonder “why” people would do them in a moving vehicle in the first place. Cars don’t drive themselves and if you don’t control them, they control you.

Certainly people don’t get into a potentially deadly machine with the intention of getting into a crash. However, one wonders if they at times leave their brain cells in neutral while driving. While “you” may be a safe driver, that doesn’t mean the “other” person is, and that they aren’t doing something they shouldn’t either.

The examples I am going to mention in this article are cases that I have either handled or have heard about, and some of them will make you wonder how some of these people got driver’s licenses.

There was the case of the big rig driver who was watching an X-rated movie on his laptop computer while driving. He struck and killed a young mother and her child. There was one case involving a 20-year-old driver who was heading home after a long day at work. For some reason he decided to text while driving at highway speeds. He never saw the big rig that hit him head-on.

There was also the case of a teenager eating on his way back to school and trying to drive at the same time. He ran a red light and creamed the side of a TV news van, putting the driver into hospital. Along these same lines was the instance where a woman was trying to get a shoe off the floor of the driver’s side mat when she hit another vehicle and sent in into the oncoming lane of traffic. That vehicle flipped several times and killed all the occupants.

One of the more graphic cases I’ve ever heard about was the biker who zig zagged past a big rig and then abruptly cut back in front of him and jammed on the brakes because there was another car in the road. The trucker had no place else to go and couldn’t stop in time.

Think when you’re driving. It could save someone’s life, including your own.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

“The kind of pain people who have been burned endure is beyond comprehension for most people. While many see the visible scars, what isn’t seen is the mental anguish and trauma that the person endured at the time of the accident and is still enduring later,” explained Charlie Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury attorney who works out of Keene.

It’s not just the scars that cause concern. It’s the very real fear that the victim faces dangerous infections and damage to their skin so severe they may never be the same again. Many times the burns are disfiguring and the emotional anguish this causes is intensified by the pain of many surgeries and skin grafts. “The treatment for badly burned victims is excruciating, usually long-term and extremely expensive,” said Donahue.

Unfortunately, burns are much more common than we would like to think. In fact, statistics show that roughly 175,000 people head to ERs across the nation after being burned. The shocking news is that more than 16,000 of those cases have to be admitted because their burns are so severe. Remember this as well: burns are not just external and may affect a person’s lungs and airways due to inhaling gases and hot fumes.

Burn injuries can and do happen just about anywhere. “Often they are a by-product of a motor vehicle accident, but they may also happen in the workplace. If they do happen in the workplace, they are generally considered to be workers’ compensation cases. As a matter of fact, there are a number of ways a worker may be injured on the job, ranging from workplace fires to radiation, from inhaling smoke or toxic fumes to poorly wired or insulated electrics, and from thermal burns from hot liquids to burns from hot machinery,” Donahue outlined.

There are three kinds of burns that vary in their degree of severity. This mostly relates to how deep the burn is and how it affects your skin tissue. There are superficial burns that affect the surface of a victim’s skin and often don’t blister. The next type of burn is referred to as a partial thickness burn that damages the skin and underlying layers. For example, shallow damage to the dermis means the skin is pale pink and usually blisters. Deeper burns usually turn up red and blotchy looking.

Full thickness burns are those that are the result of all layers of a person’s skin being severely damaged. The skin often turns black, deep brown or white and it is leathery and waxy to the touch.

“These burns don’t hurt as much as the others for the simple reason that the nerves have usually been destroyed. These injuries have a tendency to be fatal,” New Hampshire personal injury lawyer Charlie Donahue added.

“The bottom line here is that if you have been burned on the job, you will likely be dealing with workers’ compensation. If you get the runaround from them over your injury, then that’s what I am here for. I make sure you get your claim settled – no ifs, ands or buts,” offered Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury attorney with a track record for succeeding on behalf of his clients.

To learn more, visit http://www.donahuelawfirm.com.

“This is one of those accidents that seem to come out of nowhere and leave the victims wondering what hit them,” said Charlie Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. “Cases involving hit and runs, like this one I heard about, are always difficult for the victims, especially when the perpetrator leaves the scene,” he added.

Evidently what happened in this particular case is that an unidentified car made a left turn in front of a northbound vehicle being driven by teenager, York Lewis (names have been changed to protect the victims). Lewis lost control of his Mitsubishi, swerved across the median and crashed head-on into a southbound Ford Expedition. The vehicle continued, and then also hit a Toyota that was traveling behind the Ford Expedition.

When EMS crews arrived at the scene of the grisly accident, they had to pronounce the driver of the Ford Expedition, as he had died as a result of his injuries sustained in the accident. The other victims, including the seriously injured Ford driver’s daughter, were taken to the nearest medical facility for treatment. The driver of the Mitsubishi was badly hurt as well and taken to another center for assistance. The third victim, with minor injuries was treated and released.

Evidently, eyewitnesses indicated that the cause of this horrific smash-up may have been street racing. Unfortunately, no one was able to get a clear look at, description or license plate number of the driver that left the scene of the accident. “When the police do find the driver of that mystery car, it’s likely he will be charged. When he is found, there will be several victims wanting to recover compensation for their injuries and for the wrongful death of the father driving the Ford Explorer,” indicated New Hampshire personal injury lawyer Charlie Donahue.

“This case cries for justice, and with some good police work, justice is what these families will get when all is said and done. If you have been in a situation like this, in a car accident that caused you or a family member serious harm or death, give me a call and I will let you know what your rights are and what to expect if you wish to file a personal injury lawsuit. That is what I do and that is what I am good at – fighting for your rights and for justice,” stated Charlie Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer who works long and hard to make the legal system work for those who need his help.

To learn more, visit http://www.donahuelawfirm.com.

In this particular case that Charlie Donahue heard about, a 68-year-old nursing home resident was raped by a 46-year-old woman. The charges were indecent assault and battery and two counts of rape. How on Earth did this happen, you ask? It never should have taken place. Never should have happened. Never should be repeated. It is beyond shocking.

Apparently a nursing home aide, Heather Monto (names have been changed to protect the victim), was assisting a home resident to have a shower and during the shower used her fingers and another unknown object to sexually assault the elderly woman. The woman had enough courage to report the abuse to another nurse and the facility had the integrity to call the police. Evidently, the assaults had been going on for several months. The elderly woman’s family also wanted to contact a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer to find out their rights.

Incidents like this are becoming way too common in assisted living facilities in the US. The worst thing is that the residents are often too old, frail, scared or vulnerable to be able to fight back and far too concerned for their welfare to report what is going on to others.

Any assault, molestation, rape or abuse that takes place in a nursing home facility is a crime – period. If you suspect something like this has happened to a family member, you may have solid grounds to file a nursing home negligence lawsuit. This kind of behavior on the part of nursing home staff is unacceptable and must be stopped in its tracks. You can make a difference and do something by taking your suspicions to an experienced New Hampshire personal injury lawyer.

The facts are that a nursing home or assisted living facility is duty-bound to offer their patients professional nursing care and to make sure none of those being looked after come to any harm – physical, emotional or psychological. Those who run these homes also have a duty to watch the staff and ensure things like this never happen and if they do, to handle them swiftly and expeditiously to keep residents from further harm.

When we need to place a loved one in a long-term care home, we do so because we hope they will get the care they need, and that they will be respected and treated with kindness and dignity. When this does not happen, the shock and grief are almost unbearable. If you think something bad is happening to your family member in a nursing home, then do the right thing and speak to a seasoned attorney. The cycle of abuse has to stop, and it will stop with you and your New Hampshire personal injury lawyer leading the charge.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

If you spend any time reading, watching or listening to the news, one of the first things that will strike you is that there are an awful lot of defective product recalls. Think drop-side cribs for the risk of strangulation; Mt. Vikos Brand Manouri – Sheep & Goat’s Milk Cheese because it has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes; chopper-style bicycles because the bicycle stem on the handlebars can crack and cause the rider to lose control, posing a risk of serious fall and injury; and 2004 Chopper Bulldog, Ridgeback, Mastiff, Boxer and Pitbull motorcycles because of a loose connection between the harness connector and the harness controller, increasing the risk of a crash.

This list is endless and so is the potential for harm to consumers already using these and other defective products. It’s not much wonder why there seems to be an increase in the number of defective product claims these days. One thing is for sure, if you have a product like this on your hands, talk to a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer quickly and find out what your rights are and what you may do to recover compensation for any personal injuries.

A defective product claim happens when someone is hurt because of a faulty or hazardous product. Anyone who has been badly hurt, or even killed, because of a defective product, has the right to file a claim for compensation for their personal injuries, or someone may file a personal injury wrongful death claim on behalf of a deceased person. This area of the law holds a variety of people responsible for product harm – distributors of the product, manufacturers, retailers and developers. In other words, there are really three major categories of defective product claims.

The first area is referred to as design defect claims and this means that the defect in the product in question is inside or an integral part of the item. The second area relates to production defect claim which refers to an item or merchandise that became flawed at some point during its production.

And finally, there are advertising and marketing deficiency lawsuits. These suits relate to a product being put on the market without having the proper caution labels or recommendations for use; having partial warning labels or instructions; or having the wrong warning label or wrong information with a particular item. Any one of these three areas or all three may be used in a defective product lawsuit filed by a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer.

In any of the above circumstances, it’s best to talk to an experienced lawyer simply because you can’t handle a claim like this on your own. In addition, defective product law does tend to be applied a bit differently in each state and you need to know what is applicable in your state before assuming you have a “good to go” case.

If you’re not sure you have a case, but are sure you got hurt badly using a product, it’s a smart idea to contact the nearest New Hampshire personal injury lawyer and explain what happened to you. If you have a case, you’ll know about it quickly.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

“Certainly, the truth can indeed be stranger than fiction and this is one instance where that is the case. I heard about this lawsuit thanks to another personal injury lawyer. It involves a woman who filed for damages against a dentist after she contracted the human papilloma virus, referred to as a sexually transmitted disease,” recounted Charlie Donahue who is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States.

Despite an appeal in 2008, the dentist lost once again and the high court ordered him to pay his victim $1.5 million for infecting her. Evidently the dentist elected not to tell one of his patients to take precautions when they had intercourse to protect her from contracting anything. The man even went so far as to claim he didn’t have any diseases, and that since he had been tested for STDs, he’d not had relations with anyone.

“As things progressed, the two did have intercourse and one year later the woman had an abnormal pap smear. The guilty dentist admitted he’d had sex in the time between his STD test and when he and the woman had intercourse. He had also been active with others while seeing this woman,” said Donahue.

To compound the problem, the dentist also said the other woman he’d slept with showed the same symptoms. The woman who filed the lawsuit claimed that because he gave her HPV, it will, for the rest of her life, affect her health and any relationships she may have. The court awarded $700,000 in compensatory damages and $800,000 in punitive damages.

“The dentist had the unmitigated gall to file a countersuit for libel, slander and malicious prosecution. That’s a frivolous suit that will haunt him in front of the jury, which will already be none too pleased with his actions. That was a terrible strategy, not to mention being dishonest,” added Donahue.

Personal injuries may be more than just physical wounds such as broken bones, bruises, cuts, fractures, scarring, burns or traumatic brain injury. Personal injury lawsuits have everything to do with harm that is negligently inflicted on another. This case speaks for itself. If you have been in a situation similar to this, you might want to speak to a veteran New Hampshire personal injury lawyer, who will do right by you,” said Donahue.

To learn more, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

“I heard about this particular case, and it raises some very serious questions about the drugs on board EMS ambulances. While this instance was reported in Georgia, the ramifications could apply across the US, even down to a local ambulance service provider,” insisted Donahue.

“It was time for state inspections for ambulance crews and the results of the inspection in one county were quite disturbing. At least two of the local ambulances had expired drugs on board; drugs that are commonly used to save lives. For instance calcium chloride, the drug used to kick start a failing heart and EpiPen, used for people with severe allergies who are going into or have gone into anaphylactic shock,” recounted Charlie Donahue who is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States.

Granted, not all drugs that reach their expiry date have gone “bad,” and in fact the shelf life of some of the drugs is a great deal longer. However, expiry dates are stamped on them for a reason; a “what-if something happened if we gave someone an expired drug and it harmed them” kind of reason. “More to the point, if anyone should have up-to-date drugs, it should be paramedic crews. That is mandated by law,” stated Donahue.

Unfortunately, one ambulance had nine expired drugs and another was found with two expired drugs. This was not only a breach of safety regulations, but a potential accident looking for a place to happen. There are a lot of people today that are drug sensitive. If they’d been administered an expired drug and the result was serious personal injury or death, the fault would lie with the paramedics and the ambulance company.

The scary part is that all paramedics in this particular county (and quite likely in other locations as well) are obligated to verify that all on board meds have “not” gone past their expiry dates. In fact, all drugs were/are to be checked the first day of every month and daily before responding to any calls. “Granted that an expired drug doesn’t go bad immediately, the point remains the same: having expired drugs on an emergency vehicle is simple not a safe option. The consequences could spell disaster for some unsuspecting person in need of medical assistance,” Donahue outlined.

Cases like this are tough ones because it is only the luck of the draw that uncovers the fact that there may be a potential serious issue. “A more difficult thing to comprehend is someone not doing their job and checking the on rig medications, as required by law. If you think something like this may have happened to you, you might want to check in with a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer to find out what your rights are, and if it is possible to file a lawsuit what your next step should be,” added Donahue.

To learn more, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

I’ve been practicing personal injury law in New Hampshire for over 27 years, and I’ve seen a lot of interesting cases and a lot of lives thrown into chaos. This case was interesting to me when I read about it, because it has a variety of elements that will make it a difficult case in the long run for the families of the two dead women who lost their lives in a bus crash.

In this instance, the young son of one of the deceased women filed a wrongful death suit against the driver of a tour bus and the tour bus company itself. The crash in question took place in 2009. The deceased was 52-years-old at the time of the wreck. She and several other people were on the bus that had taken them to a casino, when all of a sudden it went out of control, crossed the median and flipped over on its side in a ditch. Two passengers were killed and 20 others were seriously injured.

The woman’s son, who was 17 at the time of the wreck, filed the wrongful death suit when he turned 18 and is seeking compensation for the death of his mother. The suit argues that the driver of the bus failed to control it and was reckless and negligent in driving it, causing it to crash. The suit further alleges that the driver was unfit to be driving that day and that the bus tour company was negligent in entrusting their bus to his care.

The bus line company filed a countersuit asking to have the case dismissed, as they state the driver had a medical emergency that he didn’t cause to happen, and thus under the rule of law in the state where the accident took place (Minnesota), the crash was a “sudden, unforeseen medical emergency” and state law precludes any liability on the part of the defendants in those circumstances. They added the driver was fit to drive at the time of the crash.

The interesting thing here is that the driver alleges he lost consciousness because he had a rapid onset of an undiagnosed condition. This makes me consider something about human nature. If he lost consciousness then, due to a medical condition, chances are he had done that before and had not informed his employer because it hadn’t happened at work – yet. Certainly the case would bear closer scrutiny, but there are some warning flags for a personal injury attorney that would make me dig deeply into the bus driver’s medical condition.

Every personal injury case is different, and while things may look one way on the surface, what you find later may be something entirely different. Never take an accident at face value. Talk to a skilled New Hampshire personal injury attorney and find out if there is more than meets the eye in “your” personal injury accident.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

Being a New Hampshire personal injury attorney, I often have the chance to read about other cases that involve things like car crashes, motorcycle accidents, slip and falls, and medical malpractice and wrongful death. This one case stood out for me because it seemed senseless. It involved a rollover that killed one and injured four others, including a toddler.

This was a single vehicle crash and from the looks of the police report, it happened when a silver Infiniti was heading east on the highway, when the driver tried to pass a slower vehicle on the left. Just as the passing Infiniti got to the midway point in passing, the driver saw another oncoming car, swerved right suddenly and hit the right shoulder, causing the vehicle to flip over and land on its roof in the ditch.

When EMS crews arrived they immediately took the backseat passenger, a 60-year-old man, to the local hospital. He was dead on arrival. The driver, a 32-year-old man, his wife and two kids (2 and 12) were taken to the hospital by other rescue teams. Thankfully, although badly shaken up and sporting a variety of crash related injuries, they were all treated and released. Narcotics were found on the 60-year-old man who died in the hospital. There will be a full investigation.

The presence of narcotics raises a lot of unanswered questions, and it’s a good bet the local police will be running tests on the driver of the car to check for drugs and other substances. No one knows for sure if the man in the back seat was related in any way to the driver and his wife, or was a friend.

This would raise the issue of whether the man’s family could file a wrongful death lawsuit for the negligence of the 32-year-old driver for attempting to pass while it was not safe. If the investigation shows negligence, a civil suit can be expected. There may also be a chance of a criminal investigation. In circumstances like this, you sometimes you get both. “Frankly, it looks like someone screwed up, because passing while unsafe to do so is negligence, plain and simple, and this case screams for a civil suit,” added Donahue.

Like many personal injury car crashes, sometimes things look one way on the surface, and yet on further investigation, they turn out to be something else. If you have been involved in a car accident or other vehicle crash, and you suspect drugs may have been involved on the part of the other driver, you might want to speak to a seasoned New Hampshire personal injury lawyer; one whose only job is to help injury victims.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

Consider the hypothetical case of a 19-year-old high school senior who was killed on Valentine’s Day 2008. His passenger and girlfriend was also severely injured; injuries that completely altered her life from the day of the impact. She remains in a wheelchair and is hoping to recover enough mobility to attend a university. Three other people who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time were also victims of this tragic accident; an accident that should never have happened.

“The young man and his girlfriend were on their way to a Valentine’s party at a friend’s place that ill-fated evening. They were minding their own business and discussing the party, when out of the blue a 22-year-old man driving a smaller car, crossed the double yellow line, pulled next to the young man’s vehicle, and swerved in the direction of the driver’s door,” explained Charlie Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury attorney.

This action caused the young man to boot his vehicle into high drive to get away from the second vehicle. Unfortunately, he lost control of his car, hit another vehicle and was ejected through the windshield. He was pronounced dead at the scene by attending paramedics.

“Aside from the criminal charges laid in this case (vehicular homicide and 5 counts of reckless conduct), the wrongful death lawsuit alleges that the driver who swerved into the young man’s vehicle was driving his auto in a careless and negligent manner. The criminal matter will proceed later this year. The civil lawsuit was tried first. Often, it is easier to prove a case in civil court because the burden of proof is different,” outlined Donahue.

Under circumstances like this particular hypothetical case or in other instances where someone has lost their life as the result of the negligence of another, they may be able to file a wrongful death lawsuit. “Don’t wait to speak to a highly skilled personal injury attorney, as the statute of limitations needs to be strictly observed in order to even be able to file a lawsuit. Nothing is more important to the family who lost a relative than being able to find ‘justice’ for the wrongful death of a family member,” added Donahue.

To learn more, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

It’s hard to make blanket statements about child sexual abuse when it comes to the actual statistics. This is largely because the government lumps physical and sexual abuse together and survivors who blissfully “forgot” their abuse, tended to not report it until much later in life; meaning they were not counted in the final numbers evaluation.

Nonetheless, what those statistics show is that almost 62% of girls and 31% of boys are sexually abused by the age of 18 years old. Those figures are frightening, despicable, shocking and evil. Sexual abuse of a child is not acceptable – period.

Sometimes parents are not sure what sexual abuse is and may not understand what is going on in their homes and/or family. They may not know that child sexual abuse is both an abuse of the child sexually and about the abuse of power. It is considered by some to be violence that isn’t always accompanied by force.
Sexual abuse is a myriad of things and that includes words, sounds and exposing a child to sexual acts or sights but not directly involving the child. Sexual abuse may be overt and covert at the same time, or put another way, it may be blatant and/or hidden; a cauldron of unacceptable and immoral behavior.

Behavior of this nature needs to be stopped, and often the best place to stop it is before it happens. Oddly enough, most of the prevention that society talks about today is “not” before the deed is done, but “after” it has been found out. While it may be dealt with after the fact, this does not deal with the fact that it should never have happened in the first place.

“In the many years of practice I’ve had in this area, I’ve found that a great many parents override their child’s natural instincts when it comes to people. For instance, making the child ‘like’ Uncle Mike and not listening or paying attention when the child doesn’t want to spend time with him,” indicated Charlie Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury attorney.

“Discounting the child’s sense of what is right for ‘them’ is asking for trouble. Hitting the child for ‘not’ liking uncle doesn’t work either. The reality is, the kid doesn’t like uncle for a really good reason and that is usually that they ‘feel’ uncle is bad. Kids have good inner radar, we ought to listen to them,” said Donahue.

The facts speak loudly and clearly; sexual abuse is not perpetrated by the stranger with a beard. The predator is usually someone related to the child or a friend of someone in the family or associated with the family. In any situation like this, it is critical to speak to a compassionate and skilled personal injury attorney.

“Sexual abuse ‘does’ happen at home. A good personal injury attorney knows this and can assist the victims in dealing with a court process. Don’t wait, don’t guess, don’t assume and most of all, listen to what the child is saying. They only tell what they feel. It is then our responsibility to protect them,” stated Donahue.

To learn more, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

When you make the decision to place a relative in a nursing home, you don’t do it just because you “can.” You do it because they need care you can’t provide. You trust the nursing home management and staff will treat your relative with the same care and dignity that you would. In many instances, you would be right; in others, you would be in for the shock of your life.

Consider the case of Betsy Penny(names have been changed to protect the victims), so doped with pain medications she didn’t need and that her family didn’t want give to her, that she could no longer recognize her sister or other family members that came to visit her. Penny herself barely recalls the ugly details of the nursing home she lived in for a year, but she does remember how frightened she was all the time.

When Penny entered the home in 2006 at the age of 73, she was able to walk and talk. Eleven months later her family took her out because by then she was strapped into a wheelchair and wasn’t aware of anything going on around her. Her family is positive she would be dead today if they had not removed her. It took Penny over four months to recover from the effects of all the unnecessary drugs she was given daily to make her compliant and complacent.

There were other signals that all was not well at the nursing home in which Penny lived. Residents were so heavily drugged their heads were planted in the middle of their meals and Penny’s room smelled strongly of urine. Respect and dignity were totally absent.

Penny recalls the time she broke her hip and instead of getting protective bracing for the bed, they told her to sleep on the floor. The final straw was when a nurse gave Penny an insulin dose that just about put her in a coma. Penny is and was not diabetic, and had no need to use or any reason to be given insulin. Her family had enough and took her home.

Not only had the family had it with the nursing home, they were angry that other seniors were being treated the same way Penny was handled. They filed a nursing home malpractice lawsuit, yet to be resolved, but they are determined to stick to their guns and put an end to nursing home abuse. This may be a tough case, as the owner of the nursing home at the time Penny was a resident there was charged with felony health care fraud.

It also looks like the new owners have a string of charges and fines totaling $900,000 filed against them for Medicare and Medicaid fraud – specifically failing to provide proper/adequate care for residents of “their” nursing homes. Kind of makes one wonder about how the residents will be treated by the new owners.

Let’s be perfectly clear about something here; nursing home abuse is “not” acceptable in any way, shape or form. It is ugly, destructive, treats valuable human beings like garbage and needs to stop – right now. If you have suspicions about a nursing home your relative may be in, have proof abuse is stalking the hallways of the home, call a dedicated and skilled nursing home abuse lawyer. These cases are critically important for more than one reason. They are about making a nursing home environment safer for seniors and about putting a stop to this violence and abuse for the next generation to follow; and that generation would be us.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.

When growing up, there was a whole lot of time spent in the kitchen gathered around the oven, waiting for those hot chocolate chip cookies to come out. Impatience defined that brief 15 minute period while the cookies spread with the heat and went golden brown. There was nothing better than homemade cookies.

Along comes the 21st century and time is in short supply, so short we have taken to cutting corners when it comes to baking at home. For example, Nestlé’s refrigerated cookie dough that lets anyone cut off cookie sized chunks, slap them on a cookie sheet and when the timer dings, they’re done. Nice and crumbly and delicious. That’s the way the cookie crumbles.

It’s no longer applicable with refrigerated cookie dough, since a lot of people are eating the dough rather than baking the cookies. While that might save time, it evidently may also cause them to be severely ill with E. coli 0157:H7. This strain of E. coli has some particularly nasty symptoms and has, over the last year, laid at least 72 people in 30 states flat out. What a world. We can’t even trust the cookie dough in the fridge. What’s worse is that Nestlé’s still hasn’t figured out “why” their dough is contaminated. Hardly a statement to instill consumer confidence.

Nestlé’s has cried “Mea culpa” and yanked its most recent batch of cookie dough out of circulation. Meaning, when they were doing routine testing at their main plant in early January 2010, they found two samples testing positive for E. coli. Dough produced before and after the contaminated cookie run was destroyed. Luckily, none of “that” batch was shipped. However, this recent move didn’t do much for the 72 folks who became deathly ill after eating “other” batches of tainted cookie dough. The company needs to be held accountable for their dangerous product and its affect on unsuspecting consumers.

While their proactive move in January to using heat-treated flour in their dough should make the product safer, the question is, what about the people who got sick earlier? Using the heat-treated flour will also mean a shortage of cookie dough on the market until March, when the new formulation hits the shelves.

So, why didn’t Nestlé’s do something about this earlier? Looks like the bottom line is that they had to reformulate their cookie recipes to make them still taste homemade and have the same cookie crumble texture. By all reports, they succeeded, and the new dough should be just dandy fine. The people who were violently ill will likely not be buying anymore refrigerated cookie dough; heat-treated flour or not. Consumers who have lived through wave after wave of dangerous product recalls, including Tylenol twice, are also jaded enough to revert to home cooking once more. It’s safer.

Right now, the company suggests that consumers don’t eat raw cookie dough and that they bake the cookies first. While the warning is welcome, it’s too late, and not everyone will be aware of the dangers even with the product warning. If you’ve eaten raw cookie dough and paid the price of becoming severely ill, or have a dangerous product horror story, you need to speak to a dangerous products lawyer who knows how to hold the culprits accountable. Find a people lawyer who will tell it like it is, not tell you what you want to hear.

Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.