Michael Neff's Blog

Heat Lamp Caused Lawrenceville House Fire

2010-03-15T05:00:00.001-04:00

A Lawrenceville couple thought that they were doing a good deed when they placed a heat lamp on their front porch to provide warmth for a homeless cat that had been wandering their neighborhood. The couple, cat owners themselves, felt sorry for the stray and tried to do something kind for it.

Even Gwinnett County fire Captain Tommy Rutledge could see that the couple meant well when they provided a haven for a cat on their porch.

"They were trying to do a good thing," he said. "Unfortunately, it sparked a fire."

Indeed, that heat lamp that the couple placed outside their split level home is currently the primary suspect in a fire started outside their home last week, a fire that caused significant damage to the house before it was contained. Rutledge explained that the fire started outside the house on the porch, and climbed the outside of the building, then burned through the roof. When crews arrived on the scene, it was to find the home owners struggling to contain the fire with a garden hose.

Fortunately, no one was hurt in the house fire. Both adults in the house were able to exit safely, and fire fighters were able to rescue two cats from the burning home.

While the couple's home did have working smoke alarms, because the fire started outside, the alarms did not warn the couple immediately. This gave the fire ample opportunity to spread before anyone was able to respond to it. Fire fighters were able to gain control of the blaze within a relatively short time, however, which is a small silver lining on the situation.

From an outside perspective, it is both easy to see why this couple felt compelled to help an animal stuck out in the cold, and to realize what they did wrong by leaving a heat source unattended. While not as dangerous as some other heaters, in the aftermath, that risk eventually did return to cost this couple in fire damage, as well as the emotional toll of a house fire.

Firesafety.gov has some helpful information about what to do immediately following a fire. Luckily, the couple involved in this incident did not require Red Cross assistance; however groups such as the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army can provide help meeting basic necessities after a fire. Immediate needs which require attention after a fire include temporary housing, food, medicine, clothing and other essential items, most of which relief groups can help provide if no other options are available.

It is very important not to take unnecessary risks after a fire - home owners won't do themselves any good by immediately re-entering a burned building, which could result in injury. If possible, recover important documents and items from the fire, but realize that smoke and heat may have damaged things which were not themselves burned, so exercise caution.

If you or someone you love has been wrongfully injured in a fire due to negligence or product malfunction, then contact an experienced Atlanta, Georgia personal injury attorney as soon as possible. You may be entitled to compensation. Call MLN Law at 404-531-9700 to schedule a free consultation.

Ten-Year-Old Boy Struck by Car Still in Critical Condition

2010-03-12T05:00:00.000-05:00

A week after being struck by a car while crossing I-85 near Church Street Elementary School, ten year old Artavius Hall was still in critical condition at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston.

The accident occurred when Hall attempted to cross the busy stretch of highway without the protection of a crosswalk and was struck by a driver. Hall was wearing dark clothes at the time, and in the early morning without the benefit of street lights, poor visibility may have contributed to the accident. Police say that while the accident took place about a mile away from a Riverdale elementary school, it is not entirely clear if the boy was walking there or not.

Hall was near a bus stop when he was hit, and Willie Heath Jr, the driver of the Chrysler sedan which struck Hall, claims to have pleaded with people waiting at the bus stop to help him perform CPR on the boy. Most of them got on the next bus, however.

"We're in a mean world," Heath said of the incident.

"I was begging for help," he said. "They got on their bus and left." Drivers passing by were equally callous, honking their horns and rushing by. Heath admits that he was afraid of being hit himself. While most of the people at the bus stop left the scene, two bystanders did help Heath and Hall in the end - one of them running to the nearby fire station to bring aid.

Heath, a religious man and himself the father of five, was both deeply sorry and upset by the incident when he spoke with the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

"I don't know if the parents are mad at me," he said. "I want to pray with them."

He also cites the lack of lights and sidewalks as contributing to the accident. While he said that he did not blame the government for not providing them, the conditions made it difficult for him to see Hall, and contributed to the accident.

As always, it is sad to hear about a child who is injured, and especially so critically. While I do not place blame on Hall, it is not always easy for drivers to see pedestrians, and he put himself in a more dangerous situation when he crossed without protection, and in clothing which made him difficult to see in the early morning light. According to reports, Hall was crossing the street with his brother at the time, who was luckily not hurt.

This is a reminder, without a doubt, of the importance of instilling good pedestrian etiquette in our children, so that situations like this are less likely. At the same time, it is a reminder of how easily a person can be critically injured by a car, and the importance of being alert for people walking in or along the roadways who might not be readily visible.

If you have been injured in a car accident in Atlanta, it is important to contact an experienced Atlanta car accident attorney immediately. You may be entitled to compensation. Call MLN Law at 404-531-9700 to schedule your free consultation.

T. Marzetti Veggie Dips Recalled Over Salmonella Scare

2010-03-11T05:00:00.000-05:00

Certain T. Marzetti Veggie Dips - also sold under the Oak Lake Chip Dips and Great Value Chip Dips labels - are currently being recalled due to a potential salmonella contamination. These vegetable dips are sold in a variety of supermarkets across Georgia.

Salmonella is a very dangerous food borne bacteria which is well known for being dangerous to people, and has been responsible for numerous cases of food poisoning. Symptoms include severe diarrhea, and especially in children or the elderly, it can lead to complications which pose serious health risks. While not normally fatal, salmonella is responsible for deaths every year within the United States.

Products being recalled include:

T. Marzetti Southwest Ranch Veggie Dip, 15.5- ounce (UPC 70200 52004) Best By dates: APR2010F, APR2810F, MAY1610F, MAY3110F, JUN0610F, JUN1410F, JUN1910F

T. Marzetti Fat Free Southwest Ranch Veggie Dip, 13- ounce (UPC 70200 52033) Best By dates: MAY1610F, MAY3010F, JUN0810F, JUN1210F, JUN2510F

T. Marzetti Spinach Veggie Dip, 15-ounce (UPC 70200 52059) Best By dates: APR1910F, MAY0910F, JUN0710F

Great Value Ranch Chip Dip, 16 ounce (UPC 78742 43099) Best By dates: 042810F, 050810F, 052910F, 053010F, 053110F, 060410F, 060510F, 061110F

The Great Value Ranch Chip Dip is mostly distributed through Walmart and Sam's Club, while the T. Marzetti varies are distributed widely through a variety of supermarket chains.

Consumers who have purchased these products should either discard them, or return them to the store where they were purchased for a refund. Because of the potential of salmonella poisoning, these products are possibly dangerous and should not be eaten. T. Marzetti can be contacted by those who have questions at: 800-427-0147

State Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin's office announced this recall last week, hopefully before there could be serious consequences from the tainted food. I have written before about the damaging consequences of salmonella contamination and poisoning, and while this does not seem to be on the same scale as last year's peanut recall, it is still a serious recall. It would be a mistake to understate how greatly this disease can affect people's lives. Exposure to unclean food is one of the more common methods of contracting salmonella, along with exposure to contaminated water and exposure to feces.

If you or a loved one has been injured by a recalled or defective product, it is important contact a Georgia accident lawyer as soon as possible. You may be entitled to compensation. Call MLN Law at 404-531-9700 to schedule a free consultation.

What Are States Doing About Sexting?

2010-03-10T05:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I began writing about the difficulty faced by lawmakers, schools and the media in navigating how to deal with children and teens sexting. I wrote about the difficulty of knowing where to draw the line between innocent and predatory behavior when we as adults respond to these young people's decisions - but that neglects an important point which Emily Bazelon's Slate article touched on, and which I am sure many of us wonder: just what are state lawmakers doing about teens sexting?

The answer to that depends greatly on the state.

Vermont, for example, passed a bill last year which would shield teenagers from criminal prosecution for sexting. This legislation protects individuals under eighteen from being charged under child pornography laws and registered as sex offenders. With this sort of protection, someone like Phillip Alpert, who will be a registered sex offender in Florida until he is forty-three, might avoid that stigma. However, Phillip Alpert maliciously emailed naked pictures of his ex-girlfriend to seventy people; is it right that he not be punished? Vermont's bill seems well suited to the teens who consensually - if mistakenly - share pictures of themselves nude within some kind of intimate relationship, but in the event of people who distribute those pictures to third parties, is it really fair?

Illinois on the other hand has defined a new misdemeanor crime specifically for placing nude pictures on the internet without consent. Illinois law does not exempt minors from being charged with this new crime. This may seem fitting - especially for people like Alpert or Anthony Stancl whom I mentioned before for his use of nude photos to blackmail his fellow students into performing sex acts on him. In those cases, the distinction between a felony charge of child pornography and a misdemeanor seems accurate to life, at least.

Other states, like Utah and Ohio, have created separate juvenile misdemeanor offenses for minors who send sexts. While they will be charged, it would not be as adults.

The National District Attorneys Association has voiced their preference on the matter, stating, "We're in favor of having state prosecutors have the discretion to charge it as a juvenile or not charge it at all."

The distinction would allow state prosecutors to decide whether or not a crime worth punishing had taken place, or whether they were looking at teenagers who had, as teenagers will do, made a mistake. The advantage of this, applied well, is that it does allow for this distinction, and might be more sensitive to context. The problem, however, is that it trusts prosecutors not to make mistakes themselves.

It can be hard to say how we should handle sexting. While the response to this act may sometimes be disproportionate to the reality, it can still be a dangerous activity to engage in, and one which many teens do not necessarily understand the significance of. Rather than viewing sexting is nothing but fun and flirting, it is important for teenagers to realize that once they have sent someone else a nude or sexually explicit photo of themselves, they have no control over it. They cannot erase it, and they cannot control who else might see it. Tell your teens that sexting has the potential to follow them around in ways they might come to regret.

How Should We Tackle Sexting? The Debate Rages On

2010-03-09T05:00:00.002-05:00

The "sexting" phenomenon is nothing new to this blog. In the past, I have written both about how the media may inflate the fear of sexting and punish young offenders disproportionately, and also about the possible dangers when sexting comes together with harassment and inaction on the part of authority figures. But the conversation on this controversial topic is far from over.

State governments across the country are still in the midst of dealing with the dilemma of how to treat sexting, a dialogue which they share with parents and child advocacy groups as well as schools and the police. There are lines to be drawn - on that, most parties can agree. Where those lines need to be, however, is something no two groups can quite agree on.

Last week, Slate magazine's Emily Bazelon wrote an article on this problem which added not only one more voice to the ongoing debate, but encouraged the discussion on the online magazine's message board, as well as most likely in homes and offices, and other places people air their opinions on current conflicts.

Bazelon starts out with describing a case where sexting and related behavior was used in a predatory fashion. In this incident, a teenage boy named Anthony Stancl - either seventeen or eighteen at the time when events began - created an account on Facebook where he posed as a girl. Using this account, Stancl convinced dozens of his male schoolmates to send him nude pictures or videos of themselves. He then used those pictures coercively; he threatened to upload them on the internet unless the boys performed sex acts with him. Seven of the boys claimed to have done so.

So on the one hand, there are times when sexting is clearly involved in activity which should be punished, but on the other hand the article contrasts this case with that of a twelve year old boy and thirteen year old girl in Indiana who she describes as essentially playing a high tech game of "You show me yours, I'll show you mine." In this second case, the children were not charged but rather referred to juvenile probation. Even so, some people found the state and school's actions too harsh, since it funneled two apparently healthy, normal children who had made a bad decision into the juvenile justice system.

And entering that system itself is something which some people - parents and child advocacy groups - see as something to avoid if possible. The ACLU and the Juvenile Law Center have argued against putting children into the justice system already in Pennsylvania. Their reasons cited include possible future complications that "may hinder a juvenile's future plans to seek higher education, obtain employment, or enlist in the military."

Another fear which the article explores is the fact that in some cases, punishment may harm victims more than predators. There have already been cases where girls have had nude photos which they sent, either freely or through coercion, used as blackmail against them to perform other sex acts, or as part of bullying or harassment. In those cases, seeing them as offenders for sending sexts may actually deter them from coming forward to authority figures for the help they need.

After reading about these different arguments, where do you stand on the punishment for teen sexting? Should all sexters be treated equal, or should the act be prosecuted by varying degrees? I would appreciate hearing your opinion in the comments.

Parents: How to Choose Qualified Childcare

2010-03-08T05:00:00.000-05:00

One of the most pressing decisions new parents can make is how they will address their childcare needs. Can one parent take time away from work to stay home with the children? Or perhaps work from home? Can schedules be adjusted so someone is always available? Who can be trusted to babysit?

Every parent's situation is different, and those different experiences mean that there is no one size fits all answer for everyone. One mother might be able to cut back on hours at the office and work from her home computer, while another might have a job which requires her to be on site forty hours a week without compromise. One family may have a devoted grandmother nearby who can babysit odd hours, while another may not have any relatives living in the state.

For many parents, some kind of daycare becomes the most reasonable option. However, choosing a daycare can be a daunting task - and as many a news exposé or frightened friend's experience can illustrate – there is good reason for parents to be nervous when it comes to finding qualified, trustworthy childcare. Just last week I wrote about a young child who died because his mother left him with an unqualified babysitter. These are people who parents trust with the lives of their children. Suspicion is not only natural, it's healthy.

Parents looking for a daycare should keep several things in mind:

Research - If possible, avoid making quick decisions without comparing options. Investigate daycare centers in your area, get recommendations from friends, family, doctors, and referral agencies. Find out which of them are accredited, and make sure that they are properly licensed. Licensing varies greatly from state to state, and does not necessarily ensure a good childcare provider, but it is a place to start.

Ask Questions - Parents should always talk extensively with daycare providers before making a decision. They should talk to providers on the phone and in person, and make sure that the provider meets both their needs and their standards. It is perfectly reasonable not to pick a daycare provider because of a bad feeling. These are people with whom parents trust their children. Important questions to remember are how many years experience a provider has, what the ratio of children to adults on site is, what kind of training and education providers have.

Investigate - Visit the daycare center or provider's home before hand. Make sure that it's clean and suitable for children. Know what the daycare provider's rules are and how those rules are enforced; rules should be reasonable and punishment for breaking the rules clear and consistent.

Continued Involvement – A parent’s responsibility doesn’t end once her or she has identified a suitable childcare provider. Parents should attempt to stay involved with their daycare provider, speaking with them regularly, asking questions and being aware of problematic situations as they arise. Ask to be notified of staff or policy changes that could potentially change the environment of the daycare.

Obviously, not everyone is in an ideal situation where these things are always popular, and some people prefer informal childcare environments. That may be what is better for a particular parent. But keeping these things in mind while seeking out a daycare provider is one more step a parent can take to ensuring their child's continued safety.

Atlanta Doctor Convicted for Child Pornography

2010-03-05T05:00:00.001-05:00

Adam Wayne Lebowitz, a former Grady doctor who was caught in a sting in 2006, has finally been convicted of one count of producing child pornography and one count of attempting to coerce a minor into unlawful sex acts.

Lebowitz, now fifty, came under investigation from the Coweta County Sheriff's office when the mother of a fifteen-year-old boy contacted them about the solicitous emails and sexually explicit instant messages that her son was receiving. Lebowitz had initiated a series of contacts with the boy through MySpace and AOL's instant messenger, according to the boy, and his mother's reaction was in keeping with what any responsible parent would do - she pursued an investigation.

The arrest which followed took place in the boy's driveway. At that time, the former doctor was in possession of both condoms and sexual lubricant, which fact as presented at his trail as evidence of his intention to have sex with the fifteen-year-old boy. Also presented as evidence of his pattern of behavior were VHS and digital recordings seized in Lebowitz's home which showed him having sex with two different underage boys. After the FBI identified and contacted the victims in Lebowitz's videos, both gave incriminating statements to police.

With this evidence, the state was able to construct a convincing case for the jury, who found Lebowitz guilty.

“If not for the diligence of a mother and her son, and the quick work of county and federal law enforcement," Acting U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in a written statement regarding the investigation, "this doctor could still be preying upon young victims."

The fact that he is no longer preying on young victims is something that, I believe, makes all of us feel somewhat better. It is heartening to see that with time and due process, this sort of anti-child pornography sting can yield a conviction. This is doubly true with the recent efforts of local and national law enforcement to crack down on child pornography and child trafficking. Such efforts can sometimes seem to be an uphill battle, and unlikely to turn the tide of child exploitation in this country - this case and conviction serve as a reminder that this is not the case.

A sentencing date has not yet been set for Lebowitz. Given the nature of his crimes, he may serve a life sentence. For the child porn conviction, he will serve no less than fifteen years, and no less than ten more for the coercion conviction.

Felony convictions do not necessarily prevent the issuing of a medical license in Georgia. Lebowitz's licenses - a learning license, as he had never gotten enough experience to apply for a full medical license - was suspended as a result of his arrest, but in the event that he should be released, he would still be able to apply for a medical license. The board would then consider whether or not his crime affected his ability to practice medicine.

Georgia Baby Dies in Unlicensed Childcare

2010-03-04T05:00:00.000-05:00

A six month old Georgia boy died last week due to an embolism associated with bronchitis. By the time his babysitter took him to the hospital, the baby boy was already dead.

Riverdale Police Chief Samuel Patterson explained to AJC that when the child arrived at Southern Regional Medical Center, his body was already stiff, his lungs full of fluid. Rigor mortis was already setting in before the babysitter sought help. A preliminary autopsy identified the cause of death as an embolism, while a more conclusive report was pending on the return of toxicology results.

The babysitter will face charges, though the police are satisfied with the initial results to say that there was no foul play.

According to Patterson, the six month old's mother was desperate to find someone to watch her son while she worked the overnight shift. Both the babysitter and the baby's mother advertised on Craigslist, a popular online classified site. While the police are unsure which of them approached the other, Patterson described them as "satisfied" with the knowledge that the two women met through Craigslist, where the babysitter offered her services.

The police chief has indicated that he feels the blame for this tragic death rests with the babysitter, who the dead child's mother trusted to be responsible with the care of her son in a time when she had very few choices.

"Had it been left with the right person, I would hope that the child would still be alive today. Quite frankly, the child was dead before it left home because the charge nurse at the hospital said rigor mortis had already set in [by the time the child arrived at the hospital]," he said.

The babysitter was watching the now deceased six month old, along with two other unrelated children, at the Hometown Inn on Highway 85 in Riverdale when this tragedy took place. She faces state and local charges for running an unlicensed daycare. The woman's husband, who was also present and described the child dying of bronchitis as "whiny," was arrested by police when they discovered that he had a warrant for unpaid child support in Carroll County.
The other two children were thankfully unharmed, and returned to their parents by police.

It is always difficult to say what might have happened in other circumstances. If the child had been with his mother, or if he had been in the care of a trained and licensed childcare provider, it is possible that he would still have died. However, it is impossible to know that now. This woman, who advertised herself as a childcare professional to a working mother in a tight position, failed to respond to a clear emergency in a timely manner. Not only did the child die, but the police have indicated that he was dead before the woman even left the hotel where she was staying with the children.

It is very possible that with prompt and attentive care, this baby would still be alive, and this fact highlights the great trust place in their daycare providers, as well as the parents' responsibility to ensure that those providers are capable of living up to that trust.

Delaware Pediatrician Case Moves Forward

2010-03-03T05:00:00.000-05:00

I wrote last month about the investigation of Dr. Earl Bradley, the Lewes, Delaware, pediatrician who had allegedly molested many of his young patients.

Now, I return to this nauseating topic after a grand jury returned with a 160 page indictment against Bradley, one which has now publically confirmed investigators suspicions that the dangerous pediatrician had over one hundred victims. Bradley is being charged with 471 counts of sexual crimes with 103 victims.

"The charges in this indictment are unique in the history of the state of Delaware, as far as I can tell," said Attorney General Beau Biden when he spoke of Bradley's crimes.

Over the more than a decade, Bradley worked as a pediatrician in the small town of Lewes, and during that time he molested a staggering number of victims - all but one of whom who have so far been identified as girls, and all under the age of sixteen. Some were victimized multiple times. One of the girls was raped over a dozen times in the course of a year.

Even now, Biden suspects that the list of victims will keep growing.

"I expect that we will add to this indictment with new charges over the coming months," he said, and encouraged the parents of victims to come forward regardless of age or gender. Prosecutors have even set up an office to handle the weight of complaints and to meet the needs of victims and their families as the investigation progresses.

The charges against Bradley range from rape and continuous sexual abuse of a child to reckless endangering. No one in any way doubts the weight of these crimes. If convicted, Bradley will face life in prison without any possibility of parole.

"I am determined to see that this defendant will never, ever be in a position to hurt another child," stated Biden.

Bradley's attorney, Eugene Maurer, has made clear his intention to move the trial to Sussex County, though his words did not seem to indicate that he thought that shift of venue would be the "real battleground." Instead, Maurer sees his client's mental state as the pivotal portion of this case. That, he's indicated, cannot be seen in the thirteen hours of video tape which police seized from his client as evidence.

Maurer has not read the indictment, but claims to be unsurprised by it. He pointed out that, under state law, one conviction of rape would have been enough to earn Bradley a lifetime sentence.

"I'm sure they have their reasons for including all these different victims in this indictment," he said.

As before, I am struck by the truly horrific nature of the crimes allegedly perpetrated by Dr. Bradley. Parents and communities trust doctors with their children, expecting them to be safe in their pediatricians’ offices. These crimes represent an incredible betrayal of the trust we place in physicians. While there were suspicions about Bradley before, he was still allowed to practice for over ten years even within a small, close knit community, and in doing so rape and serially abuse a staggering number of children.

Reviews have been called to investigate whether doctors, hospitals or some other agencies somehow failed in their obligation to report unprofessional behavior. I’ve said this many times, but will say it again now. If you suspect that a child is being abused or exploited, it is your responsibility to step up. It’s better to be wrong and embarrassed than right and silent while a child goes through the hell of abuse. If you suspect child abuse, contact local law enforcement or, if you feel a child is being exploited, these resources:

Georgia Statewide Tip Line
(404) 577-8477

National Center For Missing and Exploited Children Hotline
1-800-THE-LOST

Dear John Hotline
(404) 379-3602

Marine Continues to Battle Traumatic Brain Injury, Part 2

2010-03-02T05:00:00.000-05:00

After years of faithful dedication the Marines, Staff Sergeant David Marino found himself struggling with a desk job. Formerly reliable, Marino found himself forgetting phone calls and conversations that he'd had only minutes before. Formerly even-tempered, he quickly became frustrated with his wife or the men in his command when they pointed out his uncharacteristic lapses. The Marine, who had been stationed in Iraq and respected for his service, a man who had been known as a "Marine's Marine," had thought he was coming home to a desk job while he treated injuries to his back and knee. What he discovered was a much longer and more fraught road to recovery than he ever expected.

Marino was suffering the permanent effects of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) - a fact which had gone undiagnosed for two years.

He was also not alone. Nearly one in five of the men and women in uniform who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq have suffered TBI. In a service which prides itself on its able-bodied men and women in uniform, these people too often find themselves suddenly invisible, fighting a new battle. As for Marino, finally armed with the knowledge of what was wrong with him, he was placed in the Wounded Warrior Battalion.

The Wounded Warrior Battalion is a relatively new sort of organization, created by Lt. Colonel Timothy Maxwell after his own experience with TBI when an explosion left shrapnel near the left side of his brainstem. Maxwell's injuries were terrible, but it was the isolation of coping with treatment alone, without any support system that truly understood what he was going through, which he found unbearable. Starting in 2004, the Wounded Warrior Battalion has served as a home for Marines too injured for regular duty. There, they could heal together, sharing barracks as well as support.

Over time, the Wounded Warrior Battalion has grown into the Wounded Warrior Regiment. Over 4,000 soldiers strong, the regiment now has Battalions in North Caroline and California, as well as a budget of 4.5 million dollars with which to attempt to see to the soldier’s needs.

The Wounded Warrior Battalion is not a permanent solution for Marino – simply being assigned there is not a solution for soldiers who wish to continue to serve in the Corps. However, without their help and support, he would find himself facing a continuing uphill battle alone.

Marino needed to be granted permanent limited duty status (PLD). Very few uniformed Marines actually achieve this status. In 2008, after nearly a year of paperwork, requests, and medical examinations, Marino became one of only 50 Marines recognized for PLD out of a force of 203,000.

Now, Marino works with the Wounded Warrior Battalion as a career retention specialist in their West Coast Battalion, where he can continue to support others who have had suffered TBI in the service of their country. With his help, hopefully, more American soldiers will be able to continue their careers doing what they want – serving their country actively. While TBI itself may be associated with a life of limited abilities, the success of soldiers like Marino prove that overcoming brain injury is not impossible.

Battle Not Over for Brain Injured Marine

2010-03-01T05:00:00.001-05:00

Our nation's armed forces take pride in their abilities - the ability to face circumstances that most Americans would shy away from, to be ready and on the scene as soon as humanly possible, to do what needs to be done. The image that we as citizens have of them, and the image which they project through ceremony and symbolism, is an able bodied one.

However, as careers wear on and wars continue to wage on, these high expectations leaves more and more of our service men and women at loose ends. What happens to soldiers who find themselves no longer able to serve? What does it mean for the nearly 20 percent of soldiers who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq who, in their tours of duty, have suffered from traumatic brain injury?

There are no cures for traumatic brain injury (TBI), but for soldiers who have been diagnosed, and who wish to continue serving their country, there is still hope. The way ahead may not be easy, and far too many of them slip through the cracks or fall by the wayside in what is an uphill battle both to recovery, and to continued service. But, true to their reputation as spirited fighters, at least some of these injured soldiers choose to fight this battle.

Marine Staff Sergeant David Marino is such a man.

Marino enlisted at seventeen, over a decade ago now. He continued a family tradition, following both his father and brother into the armed services.

"I didn't want to go to college," he said. "I wanted to be a warrior."

Between 2004 and 2006, Marino served in Iraq, where he led mean on a variety of missions, from patrols and escort missions, to raids to capture resistance fighters. It was in the course of this duty that Marino received his traumatic brain injury.

Marino was exposed to two separate explosions. After the first, he talks about feeling out of sorts. There was not any time or place for worrying about vague feelings of sickness. He experienced headaches, ringing in his ears, and what he describes as being "discombobulated." He was not gushing blood, not suffering from obvious, visibly life threatening injuries. He did what he had to - he did his best to meet his responsibilities, to not make anyone else pick up the slack because he could not keep up.

"Back then, if you weren't physically bleeding, you didn't go to medical. We would just try to be hard as nails, take care of your brother," Marino explained. "Because if you missed a patrol, you were making someone else fill your position."

Even after his injuries, Marino was a respected Marine. It was not until other injuries landed him in a desk job that the symptoms of TBI began to surface. He was supposed to be receiving treatment for severe back and knee pain which were preventing him from maintaining the rigorous lifestyle being a Marine demands. Instead, Marino found himself frustrated with confusion, memory lapses and mood swings - all tell-tale signs of a traumatic brain injury.

For more on dedicated Marine David Marino’s story, stay tuned to tomorrow’s post.

Awareness of Distracted Driving on the Rise

2010-02-26T05:00:00.001-05:00

I have written many times about the dangers and consequences of distracted driving - and considering the number of teens who text while driving and the devastating potential consequences of driving while distracted, I suspect that distracted driving will continue to be a common topic on this blog. It should come as no surprise that I am pleased to see increased understanding of the risk of texting or talking on a cell phone while driving.

Until relatively recently, it seemed that to a large portion of the country, the cell phone had become an all too accepted part of the driving experience. Seeing someone else driving with phone in hand or glued to his ear was simply too ubiquitous to work up concern over. And for too many of us, multitasking our phone and text conversations into our driving time was simply too tempting.

But in the past few years, and even just the past few months, we have witnessed more and more states discussing and passing legislation which penalizes or even criminalizes cell phone distractions while driving. In some states, only younger drivers are prohibited from talking or texting while driving, while in others, teens and adults alike are not allowed to text or talk while driving. And both groups can face hefty fines.

This push back against distracted driving has been motivated in no small part by insurance providers seeking to avoid the increasing liability presented by distracted drivers. And this is no mean nickel and diming on the side of insurance agencies - in 2008, nearly 6,000 people in the United States died in accidents where driver distraction was a factor. That is 16 percent of all traffic fatalities for that year. It is also only a small fraction of all of the accidents caused by distracted driving.

Insurance companies and the government, however, are not the only driving force behind this growing awareness.

Following in the footsteps of MADD and other, similar groups who have sought to raise money and awareness of driving and cell phone dangers, anti-distracted driving accidents have been appearing in greater and greater numbers on television and in the news. These groups, such as FocusDriven, are often fueled by individual experiences with loss of friends or family members to distracted driving. They have even begun hiring celebrities to endorse their platform.

Oprah herself is among those who have helped this issue find a platform. The popular television host has devoted time on her show to highlighting those who have had their lives altered and loved ones lost to distracted driving. She took the opportunity to ask her audience to take a No Phone Zone pledge.

With this sort of pressure on communities and law makers, perhaps we really will see a change in distracted driving statistics.

At present, nineteen states and the District of Columbia have regulations in place either limiting or outright banning texting while driving a vehicle. Nine states prohibit novice drivers from texting while driving.

Six states ban the use of hand held cell phones while driving entirely.

Adult Surgeries Used to Treat Obesity in Children

2010-02-25T05:00:00.000-05:00

Fear of obesity has been a mounting concern in our country for some time. Across the United States, people's awareness of weight has been increasing as the media tosses out words like epidemic and crisis to describe the state of the nation's waistlines.

Childhood obesity has come under particularly harsh review in recent years as fear grew in the public consciousness that we are facing the first generation of people who will, on average, not live longer lives than their parents did. Parents and schools have both come under criticism as people see overweight and obese children and view them as growing less and less healthy. The question of how to address this issue, however, has often come under heavy criticism as well.

Among the latest controversies in the ongoing debate over how to treat childhood obesity stood out to me, as a lawyer with malpractice experience.

Gastric bypass, a surgery most commonly used to help control obesity in adults, has been growing increasingly more common among teenagers. While still relatively rare, the number of teenagers getting bariatric surgery every year has grown sharply. The only available numbers, reflecting a period between 2000 and 2003, show the number of teens receiving weight loss surgery tripling. And while that still put the total figure at around 800 a year, that kind of growth has not stopped according to the anecdotal evidence of the hospitals and doctors performing the surgeries.

In keeping with this trend, the manufacturers of the Lap-Band System have begun seeking FDA approval for pediatric use. With the FDA's approval, they would be able to market their product for use on children.

The problem is that in both of these surgeries, there is very little understanding of the long term affects of bariatric surgery when performed on minors. Some doctors support the shift, citing the fact that the initial weight loss presented after a bariatric surgery as reason to make them more wildly available to combat childhood obesity. Other doctors, however, are hesitant. What studies have observed the effects of bariatric surgery on adolescent patients have rarely tracked participants for more than two years. The possibility of some unforeseen complication to permanently altering a child's body or implanting a device which may cause scarring or malfunction, seems unreasonably high to some.

Dr. Mary L. Brandt, a pediatric surgeon, said, "There’s no way you can give a 70-year guarantee."

Some doctors worry that surgeons who normally perform bariatric surgery on adults will find themselves increasingly often handling underage patients, because the surgical procedure is the same. Unfortunately, while the surgery is the same, the patients are not. Doctors experienced with adults may not be able to provide the support and counseling necessary for a teen faced with the option of a gastric bypass or other alternative surgery.

Following a gastric bypass, patients have to alter their diets drastically. If they do not, they stand to have serious complications - complications which could prove fatal. Dr. Brandt has said that her team, operating in Houston, turns down nine out of ten of the requests they receive for bariatric surgery on children simply because of the fear that children are unequipped to follow through with that diet.

"If you don’t follow the rules afterward," she said, "you can die."

Good Samaritan Saves Cobb County Girl from Pit Bull

2010-02-24T05:00:00.001-05:00

An unnamed seven-year-old is recovering now from a severe wound to her leg which she received when she was attacked by a pit bull while walking home last week.

The mauling injury was serious, but could have been much worse if not for a bystander who observed the attack and reacted quickly. Cobb County police believe that in all likelihood, without this good Samaritan's intervention the girl would have been killed.

“It was bad," said Sgt. Dana Pierce of the Cobb County Police. "But it could have been worse had he not intervened.”

The police officer described the events to the local media. The young girl was walking in the Valley View mobile home park near Marietta alone when the incident took place last Tuesday. The dog, which had roamed one street over from its owner’s home, approached the girl then attacked her aggressively, doing serious damage to her leg before the Good Samaritan was able to intervene. The man, who witnessed the unprovoked attack, came to the girl's aid with a piece of wood.

Luckily, the bystander was able to separate the dog and the girl, and then rush the girl to WellStar Kennestone Hospital. At Kennestone, Pierce explained, and off-duty police officer heard what had happened and reported the attack to the Cobb County police.

The dog, a 115lb pit bull, was signed over to animal control to be euthanized and tested for rabies.

The injured girl was later transported to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston, where her condition was upgraded. Pierce described the injury to her leg as severe. She will, without a doubt, suffer from this injury for some time.

This is not the first time that the issue of dogs attacking children has come up on this blog. I wrote about it before, early last month, when a mother killed a dog as it attacked her young daughter. The CDC estimates something like 4.5 million people a year are injured by dog bites in the United States alone. Of those bitten, approximately one in five requires medical attention. Many even require reconstructive surgery. The bills for these injuries cost Americans huge sums of money every year. Children are among those most at risk in these situations, both because of their size - a seven-year-old can be only too easily overwhelmed by a dog, especially one as large as 115lbs - and the likelihood that they will not know how to respond in the event of a dog attack.

This incident, like that one, only serve to once again remind us all of dog owners’ responsibility to see that their dogs are properly trained and socialized. And, unlike in this unfortunate case, secured somewhere so that they are not a danger to others in the neighborhood.

The pit bull’s owners will likely face charges as a result of this attack.

Nearly Half of All Medical Dramas Treat Seizures Inappropriately

2010-02-23T05:00:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I wrote about two studies which looked at how depictions of medical treatment on television are not only wrong, but in some cases, dangerously so. I described a study last year which found that some doctors were performing life-saving medical intubation incorrectly as the result of seeing the procedure performed improperly in television shows like ER and House M.D. However, as the second study shows, the inaccurate treatments span far beyond one particular procedure, and the danger is not only from doctors, but also other well meaning bystanders who may try to help someone in distress.

If I asked a group of average people what to do if someone were having a violent seizure, it is very likely that many of them would provide an answer which involved putting something in the seizing person's mouth. They might also describe trying to restrain the person during their seizure by holding them down, or attempting to control their involuntary movements.

In reality, if someone is having this sort of seizure, the appropriate response is to clear the surrounding area of anything with which they could hurt themselves, and, if possible, to position the seizure sufferer on her side and cushion her head. While it is true that treating a seizure does involve trying to keep the patient from hurting herself, holding her down is not an effective way to do that. In fact, restraining a seizing patient may do more to hurt them or the person holding them than the seizure itself.

Putting something in the patient's mouth is also incredibly dangerous - not only are many of the items used on TV a choking hazard that may block airways, prying open a seizing individual's mouth to force an object into it is incredibly dangerous. People having seizures are not, in reality, at risk of swallowing their own tongue. They can, however, experience damage to their jaw if it is pried open against their will.

Were you among the people who had the wrong idea about treating seizures? If so, that is most likely because nearly half of the depictions of seizures in medical dramas are flat out wrong. Proper seizure treatment, in the study, was shown only 29 percent of the time. The rest of the time, not enough of the treatment was shown to determine how accurate it was.

Dr. Lisa Sanders is the technical advisor for the TV show House, and she found these results far from surprising. Accuracy, she explains, is secondary to drama in that show. She reviews the episode scripts and informs the writers of problems. Sometimes those problems are fixed, and other times they make it into the final broadcast. It depends on what makes better television.

While people who are in the business of making good, entertaining television programming certainly have their priorities, this sort of study does raise some questions about the responsibility of writers and producers to represent medical treatments accurately. In this case, nurses and doctors ought to know better, but there is still the question of the viewing audience at large, who may find themselves in an emergency situation. Are depictions of CPR any better than those or seizure response? Or are new doctors and nurses going to find themselves thinking of what they watched on television during a moment of stress, as happened in the case of intubation? There are times when inaccuracy can be very dangerous indeed.

Medical Dramas Teach Doctors Bad Habits, Say New Studies

2010-02-22T05:00:00.003-05:00

It probably comes as no surprise most of us TV shows such as House M.D and Grey's Anatomy are not entirely accurate depictions of hospital life. Anyone who has been in a hospital would probably note that their tests do not come back as quickly as they do on TV, that the doctors look nothing like actors, that the nurses are responsible for a great deal more day to day activity than portrayed on television, and most importantly, that the average ER is incredibly boring. The writers who produce medical dramas focus most of their attention on how to fill an hour long episode with more excitement than most real hospitals see in weeks. That’s their job. They’re entertainers.

However, despite the fact that most people know this, new evidence suggest that this knowledge does not keep the misrepresentations we see on TV from sinking into our minds and giving us a false impression of how to treat certain situations or even perform some common procedures.

Doctors are no exception.

At least two separate studies have recently looked at how accurately medical treatments are represented in mainstream television, and both of them have found the results sadly lacking. In a Canadian study last year, researchers even found that many medical students and young doctors were performing intubations incorrectly because of how they had seen them performed on television.

Intubation is the insertion of a tube down a person's windpipe when they not able to breathe properly on their own. Obviously, if a patient is having difficulty breathing, it is incredibly important for a doctor to be able to intubate them quickly and correctly.

On television, actors are not actually intubated; they, of course, are not really having any difficulty breathing on their own. The shows are shot to make it seem that the tube is inserted properly when it is not. To do this, the study found that they habitually positioned the actor's head in the wrong position during this procedure. ER, one of the most often cited dramas in this study, positioned the patient's head incorrectly to at least some extent in all twenty-two intubations which can be fully seen on screen.

This may seem like a reasonable solution in Hollywood, but for young doctors and medical students who may find themselves performing intubations without enough supervision, all that repetition of the wrong head position can sometimes overwhelm what they have seen in lecture halls and hospital rounds. Dr. Peter Brindley and Dr. Craig Needham noticed that many of their students and even residents in fact positioned the patient's head incorrectly for intubations.

When the head is incorrectly positioned, the likelihood of a "bad-outcome" rises, especially when time is of the essence.

"We were a bit shocked," said Dr. Brindley. "The important lesson here is that we can't leave medical education to chance alone."

If you or a loved one has been injured due to a medical mistake, it is important to contact an experienced Georgia personal injury lawyer (as opposed to a Hollywood lawyer who only plays one on TV!) as soon as possible. Call MLN Law at 404-531-9700 to schedule a free consultation.

Georgia Teacher On Trial for Classroom Striptease

2010-02-19T05:00:00.001-05:00

Having turned down a plea deal, former Southwest DeKalb High School chorus teacher Nathan Grigsby will be going to trial for allowing several of his male students to engage in a "Chippendales style" performance in his classroom during class time.

In 2008, Grigsby allegedly allowed three male students to strip out of their clothing and dance in a sexually explicit style. They gave lap dances, manhandled female students, and performed simulated sex acts on them. According to Solicitor-General Robert James, Grigsby provided the music himself - “Meeting in My Bedroom” by Silk.

“There were lewd caresses and gropes all in the presence of a teacher,” James said. “Under the law, if you have custody and control of kids, you are held to a higher standard. You don’t get to just turn your head.”

Grigsby was terminated from his teaching position when video of the performance surfaced on Facebook. He is being charged with six counts of indecency, and four counts of contributing to the deprivation of a minor. His trial is slated to begin in March. A judge recently granted him the extra time to prepare his case after having dismissed his original attorney. The two of them had apparently had a disagreement over his plea.

Grigsby's new attorney, Jackie Patterson, seems optimistic.

“I’m excited about trying this case and presenting witnesses to show he had no knowledge of what took place,” Patterson said.

The students involved have come to their former teacher's defense, according to Patterson. They wanted him to keep his job, and have continued to be supportive as this case turns toward a future trial. Patterson has said that they are willing to testify on Grigsby's behalf, supporting the claim that he did not know the nature of their performance and should not be held responsible for their actions.

“It is no question that Mr. Grigsby had no knowledge that these kids would commit these sex acts and put them on video. When the kids started performing these acts, it took him totally off guard,” Patterson said. “You can’t hold a teacher accountable for everything a child does.”

While it is true that a teacher may not be able to predict everything that will happen in his class, it is his job to control and oversee the behavior of his students. There is no question that what took place in his classroom was inappropriate, and potentially offensive or even hurtful to students in the class who could have been less enthusiastic for the display. It is also, quite simply, inappropriate behavior for school, and for teenagers in the company of an adult. As a teacher, it was expected that Grigsby control his class and look out for the wellbeing of his students. It was also expected that he would provide discipline in the event where that control is lost. Perhaps he honestly was simply taken so entirely by surprise that he failed to respond in a timely manner, and perhaps he felt that he did regain control of the situation adequately, but this story is without a doubt troubling.

None of the students were charged in this case.

Gwinnett County Charges Vehicular Homicide in Texting Case

2010-02-18T05:00:00.001-05:00

"Obviously, this is a case in which they are pushing the envelope and trying to establish a test case," said Larry Delan, the lawyer representing the first Gwinnett County woman to be charged with vehicular homicide for texting while driving.

Someone like Lori Reineke, forty-eight, might not be the first person that comes to mind when we picture someone endangering others by texting on the road. Normally when stories about the dangers of texting while driving come up, the focus is on younger drivers, those in their teens or early twenties. However, if the scene police describe is accurate, Reineke serves as a reminder that dangerously distracted driving knows no one age.

According to police, Reineke was texting when she hit James Eaton III, also forty-eight, in a crosswalk last October. She behaved responsibly, in most respects. She had a green light. The crossing signal was red. Reineke was not speeding when she hit and killed Eaton. The only mistake Reineke made in this version of events was texting while driving.

And had she not been texting, the police feel the outcome of this incident may have been different. Reineke might have seen Eaton in time to stop, had her attention not been divided between the road and her cell phone.

Cpl. David Schiralli, police spokesman, explained, "Investigators saw this as a contributing factor. He was crossing against the light, which would be another contributing factor. There may be more than one."

Reineke's arrest follows months of investigation by Gwinnett county police. Schiralli did not disclose what prompted investigators to believe texting was an issue in this case, but the result of that lead was a warrant claiming that Reineke caused Eaton's death as a result of texting while driving. She is charged with vehicular homicide, reckless driving, failure to exercise due care and engaging in actions which distract from the safe operation of a motor vehicle. The day after her arrest was released, having posted the $34,900 bond.

Delan, Reineke’s attorney, maintains that the charges against his client are entirely baseless. He tells Reineke's version of the story, in which the woman was not texting at all when this accident occurred. She was not distracted, and could not have been distracted by texting since she was not engaging in it - Delan maintains that it was poor driving conditions that caused the accident.

"It was dark, it was rainy and she just didn't see him in time," Delan said.

Whether or not Reineke was texting when the crash occurred is certainly something which needs to be established to fully understand whether or not these charges are founded. Not being involved in the case, it isn't for me to judge who is right and who is wrong. Pedestrians who cross against traffic, especially when visibility is poor, are putting themselves in a situation of increased risk. On the other hand, drivers are always responsible for being aware of their surroundings and doing all they are capable of to avoid collisions with pedestrians. In either event, this represents an interesting step in terms of how distracted driving accidents are charged here in Georgia. I will be following this case and will report back as soon as new developments emerge.

Emory Sleep Study Death Stirs Controversy

2010-02-17T05:00:00.002-05:00

The family of Brandon Harris, a twenty-five year old man who died last month during a sleep apnea test, has called for the closure of the Emory Healthcare Sleep Clinic until Harris's death can be reviewed.

While Emory has issued a statement that Harris's death was the result of a sudden cardiac arrest, and that the hospital attended to this crisis properly, Harris's family tells a different story. They describe a situation where Brandon Harris failed to receive timely attention and care from the hospital staff, and claim that it was medical negligence which took his life. Harris's family is calling for a full review of events.

The DeKalb County Medical Examiner's office has already ruled in their own inquiry that there is no need for further investigation. Harris died of a sudden cardiac death, and his previous medical history was believed to account for this. Harris suffered from Type 2 diabetes and was overweight. He was said to have had heart problems in the past by family friend, Michael Langford. According to the office, they do not investigate standard of care issues.

"He had significant medical problems ... He had a medical history that could explain a sudden death," said Paul Kelhofer, the medical examiner's office director.

The study in which Harris participated is considered low risk. Participants were not given drugs or any other substances. They simply slept while monitored by trained medical professionals, who could observe signs of sleep apnea - a condition often associated with obesity, hypertension and heart failure. The study was performed on patients who were considered stable.

Renee "Sunshine" Lewis, Brandon Harris's mother, does not argue that her son did not have medical problems, or that his death was caused by the tests themselves. What she and the rest of her family dispute is that her son would be dead if he had received immediate, quality care. According to them, Harris had tried to get some attention before he died, and no one was paying attention to his distress.

John Lewis, Harris's uncle, claims that the hospital allowed him to watch the video footage of his nephew at the sleep center the night that he died. According to his account, Harris waved seven times over the course of forty minutes, attempting to attract the attention to his distressed state, and that in those forty minutes, no one responded. A nurse only responded when Harris removed his sensors, got up and went to the restroom. That nurse did not remain to investigate, however, and Harris returned to bed.

Only later did three nurses return to find him apparently in discomfort. Harris attempted to stand, but collapsed, finally eliciting a call for emergency response personnel.

"There is no reason he should have been neglected like that," Lewis said

"We never knew he'd be dead," Renee Lewis explained. "Brandon did not receive the appropriate care from [the sleep center]. Actually, in my opinion, he received no care at all."

Whatever the outcome of this disagreement, it is clear that Brandon Harris's family will not be satisfied until it receives the attention which it is due.

Surprising New Study Results on Mixing Driving and Cell Phones

2010-02-16T05:00:00.002-05:00

A recent study produced some surprising information about the effect of using a hands free cell phone headset while driving. Many states, including California and New York, have laws which prohibit the use of cell phones while driving, but make allowances for hands free devices. The logic behind this is that having both hands on the wheel instead of one on the wheel and holding a cell phone, would result in better driving. The instincts of both law makers and insurance agencies - and of the many other people worried by distracted driving all around them on the road who supported these laws - said that hands free headsets would be an improvement, at least.

But now, the numbers are starting to come in, and that just isn't the case.

Adrian Lund, the president of the group which performed the study (the Highway Loss Data Institute), expressed their reaction simply.

"We were very surprised," he said. "You know that there should be fewer [crashes]. We were looking for that, and we aren’t seeing that pattern."

Atlanta’s own Clark Howard was inspired to speak up on this topic. The TV host and consumer advocate voiced his outrage at having money from tickets issued under the hands free cell phone laws essentially just going to the state. He also expressed a view that I personally can respect - that any cell phone use is distracting, no matter if people use cell phones hands free or otherwise. If they are talking on the phone while driving, people are not devoting their attention to the task at hand, and they are putting themselves and those around them at increased risk for an accident.

Adrian Lund supported this idea himself. "Our real problem is to do something about the bigger problem of distracted driving," he said, "whether that's cell phones, whether that's the baby crying in the back seat, whether it's the CD you dropped on the floor, whatever it is."

Clark's advice to drivers was to always keep their eyes on the road, no matter what. This is, it seems, a lesson which he is still working to instill in his son, and a lesson most distracted drivers could stand to learn along with Clark's four year old.

It may be a bit early to leap to conclusions based on this study's results. It did not look into the exact circumstances of different crashes, which took place while driving with a hands free device, which drivers were speaking illegally on hand held phones, and which were not speaking on the phone at all. All it establishes is that enacting laws against using hand held phones while driving does not lower the overall crash rate.

"We can’t even see a blip in the data for crashes," said Lund.

If you have been injured by a distracted driver, it is important to contact an experienced Atlanta, Georgia auto accident lawyer immediately. You may be entitled to compensation. Call MLN Law at 404-531-9700 to schedule your free consultation.

Undisclosed Allergens a Serious Threat

2010-02-15T05:00:00.002-05:00

In the course of writing this blog, I have made it a point to pay attention to food and product recalls through various sources. Recently, while scanning this month's recalls on the U.S Food and Drug Administration's site, I noticed a troubling trend.

So far this month, the FDA has posted announcements of several separate incidents where known and potentially dangerous allergens were not disclosed on a product's packaging. I could say that we here in Georgia are lucky that none of the recalls are likely to affect us locally; however, two of these incidents involve products distributed in more than one state. In the case of the allergy alert which Pierino Frozen Foods Inc. issued on its Jumbo Shells with Cheese, the recalled product was sold in stores in Michigan, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Colorado, Texas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida - essentially across the entire country.

Pierino Frozen Foods Inc. failed to include eggs as a potential allergen on the Jumbo Shells with Cheese's packaging, putting people with allergies or intolerances to eggs in danger of reactions. So far, there has only been one confirmed allergic reaction to the undeclared eggs, thankfully mild, but this mistake could easily have resulted in a far more serious, potentially even fatal reaction in someone with severe allergies to egg.

Roughly 4 percent of adults in our country suffer from food allergies, and something like 6 to 8 percent of children. Food intolerances, which are less dangerous, are even more common. In people who have food allergies, exposure to even trace amounts of the allergen can result in an immune response. Symptoms of an allergic reaction could be from discomfort in the form of digestive problems or hives, to life threatening if the victim suffers from anaphylaxis.

Anaphylaxis is an allergic reaction which affects the whole body, and can cause a person's airways to constrict. Also called anaphylactic-shock, anaphylaxis is relatively rare, but exceptionally dangerous, especially if left untreated.

The FDA requires manufacturers to list warnings for some of the most common potential allergens. While people can develop allergies to nearly any food, potentially, a few common foods make up the vast majority of life threatening allergies in adults and children. These allergens include: peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, eggs, milk, wheat and soy. While it is not required by the FDA, many manufacturers also list potential allergens which other products may have come in contact with.

These precautions may seem extreme to people who do not themselves have experience with severe food allergies, however they can be life saving for people who live with them. The most effective treatment for these people is nothing less than entirely avoiding the food that they are allergic to, making clear labels and warnings nothing less than a manufacturer's responsibility to its consumers.

If you or a loved one has been injured by a recalled or defective product, contact a Georgia personal injury lawyer immediately. You may be entitled to compensation. Call MLN Law at 404-531-9700 to schedule a free consultation.

Overweight Women Receive Lower Quality of Healthcare

2010-02-12T05:00:00.001-05:00

Most of us hold the image of doctor as a benevolent, impartial sources of care. We believe that if we go to the doctor, we will receive the same quality of care as any other human being who does the same, regardless of that person's gender or race - or weight. Certainly, we imagine, people with weight problems, like people of advanced age, may have more problems which relate back to their weight. Excess weight has a detrimental effect on overall heath, doesn't it? However, a doctor would check other avenues before chalking up an overweight person's problems to just their Body Mass Index, wouldn't he? Just as he would make sure that an aging individual complaining of fatigue would not simply be written off as old.

As it turns out, thought, doctors are guilty of the same biases as many other people. Most of us believe in the risks of obesity, and doctors are not above all other mortals. Many doctors and other medical professionals see an overweight person, and they expect them to have more health problems than an individual of healthy weight.

And this bias harms women more than any other group.

A CNN article last month goes into great detail on this problem.

According to CNN, recent studies have indicated that overweight women are likely to experience a wide variety of short-comings in their medical treatment. These include:

• Having a harder time finding medical insurance and paying higher premiums.
• Being at higher risk of being misdiagnosed or receiving inaccurate dosages of medications.
• Being less likely to find a fertility doctor willing to treat them.
• Being less likely to have cancer detected early and treated effectively.

All of these are very serious problem, and things which drastically affect the quality of women's lives, their ability to plan and have a family as they chose, and in some cases seriously affect their health - potentially even risking their lives.

There are many hurdles facing overweight people, including diagnostic difficulty and poor research, but even these are not excuses for receiving substandard care. However, often, this is not the primary problem. The problem is nothing other than bias and prejudice against overweight people - particularly overweight women.

CNN refers to the phenomenon of attribution. Attribution takes place when a doctor or other medical professional sees a person, in this case an overweight women, and unconsciously attributes their health symptoms to the obvious health problem. Say a patient complains of breathing problems. Those can be attributed by her weight problems, so why look further?

That is precisely what happened to Jen Seelaus, a Connecticut woman, when she sought help for breathing problems. Seelaus expected that the medication for her asthma needed changing, since it was no longer effective. Instead, the overweight woman was told that she would feel better if she just lost weight. Seelaus had already been diagnosed with asthma, but the nurse whom she spoke to saw her weight rather than her medical history.

"I didn't go to be lectured about my weight. I was there because I couldn't breathe," said Seelaus. "Asthma can be dangerous if it gets out of control, and the nurse practitioner totally ignored that because of my weight."

Many Teen Athletes Return to Play after Dangerous Concussions

2010-02-11T05:00:00.002-05:00

A recent study Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital states that about 40 percent of teenage athletes who received concussions during play are allowed to return to games too soon.

"Max's Law" is a project lobbied for by Ralph Conradt, named after his son, Max Conradt, a former high school football player. Max's Law is a piece of legislation aimed at reducing the risk of concussions to teenage athletes, and is one of perhaps two dozen such legislations pending in states across the country. Like many of these initiatives, Max's Law is driven primarily by the grief and rage of someone - in this case, a father - who has lost his child as the result of brain injury. In the Conradt’s case, they son they knew has been done for eight long years.

"It was a vicious hit," said Ralph Conradt. "A really bad hit."

But Max got up. The seventeen year old quarterback staggered a bit, but he continued to play. The game ended, and he limped toward the sidelines where his family waited. There, he looked at his step-mother, Joy Conradt, and said, "My chin hurts."

Before she could respond, he collapsed.

Later, doctors would explain that it was multiple concussions over the course of two weeks or so which led Max Conradt to lose consciousness that night. Blood was pooling dangerously in his brain. In a closed off waiting room at the hospital, these doctors explained to the boy's anxious family the severity of his brain injury. They told the Conradts that Max would die.

"Up until then, I never heard of anyone ever dying in a football game," Ralph Conradt confessed.

After months and several surgeries, Max did not die. He lived, still recovering on life support, struggling to stand, to communicate, and to remember the injury that had left him with the mental capacity of a nine year old.
"It's a whole different thing losing your child to a brain injury," said Joy Conradt. "The kid you knew is dead. Somebody completely different is in the body of the child you knew."

Today, Max lives in an assisted living facility. He often remembers his glory days as a high school football quarterback. His memories and understanding of the injuries which led to his current condition are scant.
"I was sat on by a 280-pound lineman ... he sat on my head," says Max, now 25. "When I was walking off of the field, blood was gushing through my brain. I don't remember, but that's what happened."

Max is lucky to have survived. While thinking about his injuries depresses him, he is not without goals and dreams. He still wishes to make the best of his life. Now twenty-five, he would like to return to school and have as normal a life as possible for him in his current condition.

While stories as severe as Max Conradt's are relatively rare, taken against the many millions of teenagers who participate in high risk athletics, they are hardly isolated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate somewhere around 4 million sports and recreation related concussions a year. In most of these cases, there is no medical expert on the field. Parents and coaches are the ones left to respond. It is among coaches, parents and teen athletes themselves that the culture shift away from playing through concussions must take place. High school glory if fleeting, but, as Max Conradt’s case shows, a brain injury can last a lifetime.

Street Racing Behind Stone Mountain Girl's Death

2010-02-10T05:00:00.002-05:00

I previously wrote before about the death of Tanesha Williams, the Stone Mountain High School student who was killed when another teen apparently lost control of his vehicle and jumped the curb. Now, it seems, two seventeen year old boys are being held accountable in this tragic accident.

The two boys, Saheed Saunders and Tomcum Siripanhya, are both being charged with racing, reckless driving and vehicular homicide. In addition to that, Saunders is accused of improper passing. It was this improper passing which caused his car to leave the road near Stone Mountain High School - which it did just shortly after classes had been dismissed. Saunders' car struck three Stone Mountain High School students, killing Tanesha Williams and injuring the other two.

The boys were released from jail late last month, Saunders on bond of $21,000, and Siripanhya on bond of $20,000.

At the time of the boys' release, DeKalb County police were still investigating the case in cooperation with the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office.

It saddened me to learn that the death of a fourteen year old girl was caused by something as reckless and preventable as street racing. Drivers of whatever age carry the responsibility to think not only of their own safety, but the safety of their passengers, of other motorists and of pedestrians. Driving is a privilege which many of us enjoy and even rely on for maintaining both our professional and personal lives.

In the case of seventeen year olds, it is still a new privilege, and one which is easy not to fully appreciate. Street racing is among numerous other dangerous driving habits which are significantly more common among teens and other younger drivers, along with driving while distracted by cell phones or texting, and driving while intoxicated. Of these three behaviors, street racing could be considered among the safest statistically. Fewer accidents are caused every year by racing than by distracted or intoxicated driving.

However, that statement ignores the obvious danger presented by street racing. Over the past few years, a wide variety of different news programs and media outlets have showcased the dangers of street racing through interviews and articles, and it is not hard to find other stories of how irresponsible, illegal street racing leads to the death of either the drivers, or other motorists or passersby whose only mistake was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Street racing is, by its nature, dangerous. Whenever drivers choose to ignore the basic rules of the road in favor of their own "fun" or convenience, they put themselves and others at risk. Hopefully this incident will serve as a lesson for Saunders and Siripanhya, and other teens in the area. It is tragic that a young girl had to die for it.

If you or someone you love has been injured by a reckless or distracted driver, it is important to talk with an experienced Georgia car accident lawyer immediately. Call MLN Law at 404-531-9700 to schedule your free consultation.

Georgia Consumers File Class Action Lawsuit against Fifth Third Bank

2010-02-09T21:50:00.002-05:00

Georgia consumers have filed a lawsuit against Fifth Third bank over illegal overdraft charges, many of which were instituted when customers had enough funds in their accounts to cover purchases. The lawsuit would require the bank to refund hundreds of millions of dollars in overdraft charges.

“It is one thing to charge an overdraft fee when someone has actually overdrawn their account,” said attorney Hassan Zavareei of Tycko & Zavareei in Washington D.C. “It is entirely another to charge an overdraft fee when the customer's account has sufficient funds. Even worse, in some cases Fifth Third charges overdraft fees and additional fees for every day an account is overdrawn - even when an account is overdrawn solely because of bank fees charged by Fifth Third. The bank is essentially charging overdraft fees on overdraft fees. This is outrageous bank conduct, made worse by the fact that most of the bank’s victims are struggling to make ends meet.”

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Marlene Willard of Hephzibah, Georgia and other Fifth Third Bancorp customers who were charged illegal overdraft fees. The suit was filed in federal court and alleges that the fees violate federal and state law as well as the contractual relationship between the bank and its customers. The complaint alleges that the bank manipulated debit transaction posting times to cause overdraft fees even when there were sufficient funds to cover transactions. The lawsuit also claims that Fifth Third bank fails to properly disclose fees that will be charged at the point of sale and uses deceptive practices with its customers to hide the true nature of its overdraft policies. Further, according to the lawsuit, the bank does not allow customers to opt out of its overdraft protection program as recommended by federal regulators.

“We are continuing to investigate Fifth Third and other banks around the country,” said Zavareei. “Customers must be compensated for bank practices that caused hundreds of millions of dollars in improperly charged fees.”

Fifth Third Bancorp is headquartered in Cincinnati, OH, and has over 1,000 banking centers in several states including Georgia. The lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of Georgia.

This case sounds like a true modern-day Robin Hood tale. It’s nice to see the little guy win (or at least have the opportunity to present his case). All too often, when people face off with a bank or an insurance company, they simply give up because they feel as if they cannot possibly compete with a large institution (even if said institution is breaking the law). However, having an experienced attorney on your side will even out the fight, so to speak. If you feel that you have been wronged by illegal tactics on the part of a large corporation, do not give up; contact an experienced Georgia personal injury attorney to discuss your legal rights. Call MLN Law at 404-531-9700 to schedule a free consultation.