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- Hazing Kills
All of us have likely seen or been involved in some form of hazing over the course of our lives. Indeed, making the new guy or gal earn his or her stripes is tradition in school, fraternities and sororities, sports, the military, and even the workplace. Some would say it helps build a sense of cohesiveness, and I think some traditions certainly do. For example, making the rookies carry the water establishes team hierarchy and order in athletics as well as a sense of contribution on behalf of the newbies. The spectrum of hazing, however, ranges from constructive to innocent horseplay to violence and humiliation and even to death. In fact, most states now have laws on the books making hazing illegal and stiff punishments to back those laws up.
In the group dynamic, particularly when young people are involved, hazing can become wildly dangerous and quickly get out of control. Most of us have probably seen footage of the high school junior girls of a wealthy Chicago suburb being beaten and covered with feces by the senior girls in what was supposed to be a long-standing tradition of innocent hazing surrounding a powder puff football game. More tragically, however, most of us have probably heard a story about a college freshman in one of our higher learning institutions die from hazing. Recently, students at numerous colleges and universities have died from alcohol poisoning, water intoxication, DUI motor vehicle accidents, and suicide, all as a result of hazing. Even more students have been injured, expelled, incarcerated, or disqualified from participating in athletics because of their involvement in hazing-related activities. For an excellent video compiling numerous unfortunate hazing cases and that is intended to educate all of us about hazing go to http://inmemoryofjack.com/ and click on the video link.
Hazing is illegal and civil liability can reach a wide spectrum of people involved or who have the power to prevent it, including fraternities and sororities, their national chapters/organizations, school administrators, students, coaches, athletes, colleges and universities, employers, co-workers, and parents to name a few. No more can we endorse the attitude that hazing is harmless or not dangerous because it may be based on long-standing tradition.
If you or someone you know is participating in hazing or being hazed, you have an obligation to report it and try to stop it. If you or someone you know has suffered injury or death as a result of hazing you should not hesitate to contact a civil justice attorney to impose civil liability on those responsible.
Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Nick DiCello - Hospital Acquired Infection Lawsuits on the Rise
The Wisconsin Law Journal reports that a new type of medical malpractice lawsuits are on the rise. These suits allege hospital negligence in failing to prevent hospital acquired infections. Multi-million dollar awards have been reported in these types of cases. Last month, a jury awarded a $13.5 million verdict involving a Massachusetts woman who died from a flesh eating bacterial infection she acquired while undergoing cancer treatment. A Utah woman also entered into a confidential $16 million settlement last month to resolve a lawsuit she filed alleging that a hospital failed to catch a flesh-eating bacteria that caused her to lose three limbs and several organs.
Lawyers and the medical community are debunking the myth that these infections are not preventable. The Centers for Disease and Prevention Control (CDC) estimates that over 2 million hospital acquired infections occur annually and are responsbile for 90,000 deaths. While not all these infections are necessarily the resut of negligence, the founder and chair of the non-profit patient safety organization Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, Betsy McCaughy, has explained that "the evidence is overwhelming that nearly all infections are preventable."
The standard of care governing prevention of these infections is evolving. The CDC has published guidelines for preventing these infections. Another non-profit that evalutes and accredits health care programs, the Joint Commission, has released its own set of strategies for preventing infections. As Ms. McCaughy puts it, "hospitals that don't follow the proven protocols are inviting lawsuits."
For more information, see
http://wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/12/01/Hospital-infections-spread-so-do-lawsuits
Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Halli Brownfield - Research Shows that Foreign Manufacturers Enjoy Favorable Status in U.S. Markets Forcing Society to Pay a High Price for Their Dangerous Products
The American Association for Justice (AAJ) has recently released two research papers concluding that foreign manufacturers enjoy favorable status in American markets that imposes high costs on Americans.
The first paper, Defective Foreign Products in the United States: Issues and Discussion, argues that foreign producers "are protected by the complex web of laws, policies, and practices that make it difficult if not impossible to sue successfully foreign manufacturers in domestic courts." Not only is this bad for the American consumer, U.S. manufacturers are also negatively impacted. U.S. manufacturers who do face the prospect of tort liability must pay higher product liability insurance rates and cannot set their prices as low as foreign manufacturers. Professor Andrew Popper of American University Washington College of Law concludes that "[f]oreign manufacturers suffer few consequences from exporting popular and profitable products that are also inexpensive, untested, and deadly."
The Social Costs of Dangerous Products: An Empirical Investigation, the second paper released by the AAJ, concludes that the costs imposed by dangerous products are less than what is recovered through the tort system. This paper examined the costs associated with three known dangerous products: Ford SUV's with Firestone tires, the Baycol pharmaceutical drug, and ATVs (all terrain vehicles). The paper concludes that these three products created almost $4.7 billion in costs, including those associated with medical bills and lost wages.
To see the actual reports see
http://www.justice.org/he_Social_Costs_of_Dangerous_Products_An_Empirical_Investigation.pdf and
http://www.justice.org/Unavailable_and_Unaccountable.pdf.
Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Halli Brownfield
- Recall for Oversized Narcotic Tablets
Ethex Corporation and the FDA recently issued notice of a voluntary recall of five generic narcotic tablet products because they may be oversized and contain more than twice the intended level of the active drug ingredient. This can result in patients receiving as much as twice the expected dose of the drug which could cause serious life-threatening consequences.
According to the manufacturer's recall notice, the involved lots were all shipped prior to May 22, 2008 and are as follows:
Propafenone HCl Tablets, 150 mg: Lots: 73761, 78184, 79373, 81240, 81241, 81242, 83470, 84357, 90525, and 90526 with expiration dates ranging from 3/2009 to 3/2011
Propafenone HCl Tablets, 225 mg: Lots: 71720, 74831, 76014-15, 81243-45, 89731, 90527-29, and 90657 with expiration dates ranging from 3/2009 to 2/2011