The women filed separate medical malpractice lawsuits against Dr. Paolo Bolognese in Queens County Supreme Court in October. The plaintiffs — from Georgia, Virginia and New Mexico — were all diagnosed with Chiari malformation. The rare, painful condition consists of brain tissue extending into the spine.

Bolognese, who specializes in Chiari malformation, performed surgeries on the three women. According to the complaints, he made such serious errors that the patients developed post-surgery complications such as spinal cords cysts, difficulty moving, impaired bladder function and sleep problems.

The lawsuit alleged Bolognese improperly placed hardware during the surgery of one plaintiff, while he dissected the neck muscles of another. The third woman claimed he failed to close her wound properly and ignored her subsequent complaints about excruciating pain.

As the case proceeded, prosecutors discovered the surgeon has been sued for medical negligence at least 20 times during his medical career. Bolognese who now practices at Neurological Surgery in Rockville Centre co-founded the North Shore University Hospital’s Chiari Institute. He was temporarily suspended by the institute for allegedly failing to operate on a patient who was anesthetized for brain surgery.

However, several former patients have spoken up in Bolognese’s defense. One woman said she “woke up feeling much better” after a 10-hour surgery the neurosurgeon performed on her. She said Bolognese’s decision to specialize in Chiari malformation makes him an easy target.

Medical professionals facing legal action for misconduct should contact an experienced attorney to challenge the accusations head-on. Medical malpractice can put one’s medical license and career on the line. Brill Legal Group has successfully represented physicians, nurses and other medical professionals facing criminal charges or disciplinary hearings.

Jon Cruz, 33, paid minors to send him sexually explicit images between July 2014 and December 2015. Investigators said he had multiple conversations with at least five victims in New Mexico and New York. He used mobile apps and social media such as Instagram to solicit lewd photos in exchange for money.

According to authorities, the Manhattan resident used a former student’s photo as his Facebook profile picture to lure teenage boys. Investigators recovered 40 naked pictures of underage victims on Cruz’s home computer. They also discovered that the former teacher used a school computer to carry out the crimes.

In March 2015 Cruz resigned from the high school, which is one of the most competitive in the city. He enjoyed popularity at the school as a speech and debate coach recognized for taking the school team to the national level with his leadership.

As part of the plea, the prosecution agreed to recommend a sentence ranging from 11 to 14 years. However, Cruz may still end up serving more time in prison. He will be sentenced on January 27.

Rather than bore you with technical requirements when assessing whether your loved one needs care, you should consider whether the individual has a diagnosis or receives medical treatment that limits the individual’s ability to manage his/her own care or maintain himself or herself in their home independently. If he/she is unable to manage care independently, your loved one may need additional services – whether provided in home, or in a facility.

To meet the nursing home level of care requirement, the individual who needs assistance must be unable to manage three Activities of Daily Living (ADL). ADLs include: feeding, bathing, dressing, walking, transferring, and continence.  Many of our clients may have sufficient needs, but are still able to manage their ADLs. As a result, a nursing home is not a suitable placement.

When individuals are able to manage the majority of their ADLs, but are unable to perform Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL), such as cooking, driving, shopping, managing finances, managing medication, cleaning, etc., we recommend less restrictive care options. Many clients who have some impairment can sufficiently live independently, or remain in their home with minimal assistance. Other clients may need to be placed into a more structured environment for more intensive oversight.

Whether your loved one needs immediate care, is in a financial crisis, or whether your loved one should start planning in light of possible long-term care needs down the road, we can help assess care options and financing.

Ask Kit Kat – The Lowly Vole

Hook Law Center:  Kit Kat, what can you tell us about voles?

Kit Kat:  Well, it turns out a lot. I’ve written previously on moles and mice, but the prairie vole it turns out has a lot to offer, too, in the way of contributing to scientific research and its applicability to humans. Researchers at the University of Virginia have chosen them as research subjects, because they are a lot like humans with regard to mating and parenting. The prairie vole breeds year round and can have as many as 4 pups per litter. They are found in the central part of the United States from New Mexico to Ohio and West Virginia. They are small and never weigh more than 3 ounces!

Anyway, there is a relatively new field in science call behavioral epigenetics in which cell changes from environmental factors are examined. The cell itself does not really change, but how it reacts can change depending on things that happen to it. Additionally, some scientists believe that these cell reactions can be passed down to future generations. ‘Offspring of low-care parents (voles) become low-care parents themselves, and this alters the epigenome of the next generation of offspring,’ says Kelly Wroblewski (UVA Grad ’20). It happens through a process called methylation, in which the effectiveness of the gene is reduced. In the case of prairie voles, they found that voles with parents who spent little time with them had more trouble bonding with potential mates and their own offspring. The implication for humans is that offspring of parents with mental health weaknesses such as depression or victims of trauma could be pass their impaired coping mechanisms down through the generations.

More research needs to be done, but it is intriguing that this humble creature is very useful to humans in their quest to understand how emotions and their resulting behaviors can be passed down to offspring, just as much as a predisposition to acquire certain physical ailments.

(“What can voles tell us about ourselves,” UVA Magazine, Fall 2016, p. 45)

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Hook Law Center encourages you to share this newsletter with anyone who is interested in issues pertaining to the elderly, the disabled and their advocates. The information in this newsletter may be copied and distributed, without charge and without permission, but with appropriate citation to Hook Law Center, P.C. If you are interested in a free subscription to the Hook Law Center News, then please telephone us at 757-399-7506, e-mail us at mail@hooklawcenter.com or fax us at 757-397-1267.The post Determining the Appropriate Level of Care first appeared on SEONewsWire.net.]]> http://www.seonewswire.net/2015/01/in-2015-more-states-allow-drivers-licenses-for-unregistered-immigrants/ Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:17:33 +0000 http://www.seonewswire.net/?p=14145 Even without a clear resolution to federal immigration reform issues, many states are offering undocumented immigrants more rights and more paperwork. For illegal immigrants, driver’s licenses matter more than most paperwork for everyday living. More and more immigrants are receiving…

In 2012, the rate of pedestrian fatalities in Texas was 1.83 per 100,000 population — meaning that nearly two out of every 100,000 Texans were struck and killed by a motor vehicle in 2012.

This figure makes Texas the 10th most dangerous state for pedestrians. 

Experts agree that infrastructure is a key element in pedestrian safety, and the American Society of Civil Engineers claims that in 2012, nearly 40 percent of Texas roadways were in poor or mediocre condition.

When asked about the recent data from the NHTSA, officials from the Texas Department of Transportation pointed to unsafe and distracted driving as the key issue. Robert Archuleta, a transportation official with the New Mexico Department of Transportation, also told reporters he believed cell phone use while driving — particularly texting — was a significant factor.

The NHTSA noted that the number of pedestrians killed nationwide has been rising steadily since 2009, even while the number of overall traffic fatalities has generally decreased.

According to the NHTSA data, pedestrians are most likely to be killed or injured by motor vehicles between 3:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. — when children are coming home from school and adults are coming home from work. However, there is also a spike in pedestrian fatalities between midnight and 3:00 a.m. on weekends. Data suggests that this spike could be due to an increase in nightlife coupled with low visibility.

The other states rounding out the top ten most dangerous states are Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, North Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, New Mexico and Delaware.

At The Hale Law Firm, we have helped thousands of clients successfully prosecute their personal injury claims including auto accidents, wrongful death, dangerous products, brain injuries, burn injuries, and defective medical devices. Clients depend on their personal injury lawyers for guidance and legal advice across a broad range of personal injury accidents. To learn more, visit http://www.hale911.com/ or call 972.351.0000.

Reporter Jan Hoffman tells the story of 96-year-old Eryetha Mayberry, an Oklahoma City nursing home resident with dementia. Mayberry’s daughter, Doris Racher, noticed that a few of her mother’s belongings had gone missing from her room at the nursing home. She thought it might be another resident with dementia who often wandered into Mayberry’s room.

Racher bought a tiny hidden camera disguised as an alarm clock and placed it on her mother’s nightstand. No further thefts occurred for some weeks, and Racher nearly forgot about the camera. But she eventually decided to go through the recordings anyway. What she saw shocked her.

A nursing home aide was seen stuffing latex gloves into Mayberry’s mouth while another teased her, tapping on her head and laughing at her. They hoisted her from her wheelchair and flung her on the bed, whereupon one gave her rough chest compressions, Hoffman reports. Mayberry died soon after.

In the wake of that incident, on November 1, 2012, Oklahoma became the third state – following Texas and New Mexico – to explicitly allow residents in long-term care facilities to place surveillance cameras in their rooms. In the past two years, lawmakers in at least five states have proposed similar laws.

Most such efforts have been stymied by concerns of privacy rights raised by employee unions and facility owners, but families of residents nevertheless are using the so-called “granny cams” in increasing numbers.

Even government agencies are using them. The New York state attorney general’s office has used the cameras for years in patient neglect and abuse cases. The office recently demonstrated its methods to investigators from other states at a national conference.

In June, 2012, Ohio state attorney general Mike DeWine announced that cameras had been placed in residents’ rooms – with permission from their families – at unspecified facilities throughout the state. DeWine has since moved to shutter a facility in Zanesville, where he says cameras caught an aide repeatedly leaving food beside a resident who was completely unable to feed himself.

But surveillance raises legal and ethical questions. For instance, residents often have roommates, who have the right not to be monitored. Maryland law says cameras must be fixed and pointed directly at the intended resident. Facilities that permit cameras often require families who use them to post a notice to that effect on the resident’s door.

A family’s decision to place a camera in their loved one’s room must be weighed carefully, but in all cases, families should watch carefully for signs of abuse.

If you need to speak with a Tampa nursing home abuse lawyer, Call Joyce & Reyes at 1.888.771.1529 or visit more of http://www.joyceandreyespa.com/.

A 10-inch liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) pipeline in Milford, Texas ruptured on Thursday, November 14, 2013 when a construction crew accidentally drilled into it. Flames and smoke towered into the air and could be seen from several miles away.

No injuries were reported, but nearby homes and schools were evacuated and several roads were closed. Milford has a population of around 700 and is located some 50 miles south of Dallas.

Chevron Corporation owns the pipeline in question. Later that day, the corporation reported that the flow of gas to the pipeline had been shut off, but that the residual burn continued. A larger LPG pipeline that runs near and parallel to the ruptured line was still flowing. Chevron said that its continued operation would keep the line cooler, decreasing the risk that it might rupture as well.

The following day, air quality tests appeared normal. Residents were allowed to return to their homes briefly to gather possessions, but were not allowed to return permanently at that time.

The line is part of a 2,300-mile system called the West Texas LPG Pipeline Limited Partnership, which transports liquefied gas products from New Mexico to a processing plant in Mont Belvieu, Texas.

Pipeline explosions continue to present a threat to life and property across America; the vast majority of pipelines are very old and in desperate need of replacement with modern materials.

If you suffer injury or property damage due to a pipeline explosion, be sure to consult with an attorney with extensive experience in this type of case.

We Focus our Practice Exclusively on Wrongful Death and Critical Injury Cases – Contact a personal injury lawyer at The Lietz Law Firm by calling 866-554-1238 or learn more by visiting http://www.lietzlaw.com/.

To compile the information used in the report cards, the group used performance data from the Nursing Home Compare program of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Kaiser Health Foundation performance information, and complaint data provided by each state’s Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman.

The group said that Texas was the only state with failing grades in six out of eight statistical measures of quality of care.

Less than 20 percent of nursing homes in Texas had an above average direct care staff rating, a lower percentage than any other state. In terms of direct care staffing hours, Texas ranked 44th among the states, with an F grade.

The report found that 94 percent of facilities in Texas had deficiencies, and 16 percent had severe deficiencies. In terms of above average health inspections, Texas ranked 44th out of all the states.

In terms of the average time each resident spends with a registered nurse per day, Texas ranked 50th among the states. Less than 11 percent of facilities in Texas had an above average registered nurse staffing rating, placing the state in 49th place in that category.

With regard to complaints received by the state’s Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman, 92 percent of complaints were verified.

Brian Lee, the executive director of Families for Better Care, said that the state’s “abysmal” record epitomizes what is wrong with nursing home care. Lee said that nursing homes in the state were severely understaffed. The group called on the state legislature and Governor Rick Perry to take action to improve the regulation of skilled nursing facilities.

On the group’s list of the worst states for nursing home care, Texas was joined by Louisiana, Oklahoma, Indiana, New Mexico, Missouri, New York, Michigan, Nevada, Illinois and Iowa. The group said that the best states for nursing home care were Alaska, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Maine, South Dakota and North Dakota.

The United States has over 15,000 nursing facilities that are home to more than 1.5 million Americans.

The Hale Law Firm believe the right solution to your estate planning, elder law, or probate needs can be identified in a free initial consultation with one of our attorneys and counselors at law. To learn more, visit http://www.thehalelawfirm.com/ or call 972.351.0000

Two years ago, a New Mexico civil rights lawyer was found dead in her garage. At the time, it looked like suicide. Now, the New Mexico attorney general’s office is asking questions about how the case was handled. It seems the attorney may have been considered to be a thorn in the side of the local police department, and family and friends have stated that they believe she did not have the mindset to commit suicide.

Most telling, though, was that her car, parked in the garage where she was found, was equipped with a gadget which would turn the car off, before toxic amounts of carbon monoxide could be released. The car wasn’t running and did not have an empty gas tank when she was discovered by her law partner. She was found sitting in her car, with the doors and windows open, her glasses on, her feet on the dashboard, wearing a robe, with a bottle of Ambien in the pocket. The door between the house and the garage was also open — hardly conducive conditions for a death by carbon monoxide poisoning.

The attorney’s family has filed a lawsuit against the city (naming over one dozen officers and investigators, the police chief and the public safety director), stating that the investigation from start to finish was botched and mishandled. Their main allegation is whether or not the police department chose to not look at other explanations for her death. There were more than two dozen police and city officials who arrived at the scene and may have walked through most of what have been used as evidence.

After she was discovered, her death was declared a suicide and her home was not cordoned off for processing. It was later revealed that two antique diamond rings the attorney wore daily were missing, items valued at $100,000. One officer at the scene, a friend of the deceased, has stated that he found it strange and unusual that her car door and windows were open. Most suicide-by-carbon-monoxide victims shut their doors and roll up their windows.

In short, many questions have not been answered to the satisfaction of family and friends. The family has said that their main concern was the woman had made many enemies over the years as a result of what was described as her fiery nature. She had also, during her career, defended police officers who had been accused or wrongdoing.

Until this case gets to court, the family will have enormous expenses to deal with, including funeral and burial expenses and other bills related to their mother’s death. The perfect solution for them to pay all of the bills while they wait for a resolution to this case would be to apply for litigation funding. Pre-settlement funding is also referred to as a lawsuit cash advance, and is an emergency loan to help plaintiffs in situations such as this.

Those that apply for a lawsuit loan do not need to have a job, are not required to have a credit check, do not pay any money upfront and are not expected to make monthly payments on the principle of the loan. They can take the money, once they are approved, and immediately take care of all of their bills, keeping the remainder of the money in the bank. It is easy to apply online for lawsuit funding, or to call a litigation funding company and fill out an application.

Daren Monroe writes for Litigation Funding Corp. To learn more about lawsuit funding and litigation funding, visit http://www.litigationfundingcorp.com/.