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Should You Have That Back Surgery?

April 7, 2010

Deciding whether to have back surgery after a motor vehicle or other type of accident is a decision our clients often have to make. It is usually not an easy decision. No doctor in his or her right mind will guarantee the results of surgery – to the contrary, in making sure not to do so, many doctors scare their patients when rightfully advising them that they may feel worse after the surgery. More than one client who had surgery have lamented that they wish they never had the surgery, especially when spinal fusion has been performed. Their concerns have been confirmed in a just released study that shows that invasive fusion procedures are associated with a higher risk of life threatening complications. (more…)

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Use of Morphine Found to Prevent Development of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

January 22, 2010

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common, important and well-documented mental health outcome among seriously injured civilian and military survivors of trauma such as those injured in car accidents, construction site accidents, or by electrocution. One risk factor for the later development of PTSD is physical injury from a traumatic event especially injury that is associated with severe pain. A study published in this month’s New England Journal of Medicine found that giving morphine to troops injured in fighting in Iraq lowered their risk of post-traumatic stress disorder by half. These findings suggest a potential for prophylactic use of rapid pain reduction among injured, traumatized persons in both military and civilian acute care (emergency room) settings. (more…)

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Youth Concussions Continue to Receive Attention from National and Local Legislatures

December 19, 2009

The sports pages the last several months have been filled with reports of Congressional hearings and testimony concerning concussions and the National Football League – particularly the long-term health effects of head injuries on players. Years ago when people thought about football players’ injuries, the attention was focused more on injuries such as knee injuries and other effects on bone structure, such as arthritis. When I was in law school, research I undertook in connection with a project revealed statistics that showed that the life expectancy of professional football players was lower than the general population because of such injuries.

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Brain-Computer Interface Research Used for Speech Prosthesis to Assist “Locked-In” Motor Vehicle Accident Victim

July 13, 2009

Around midnight on November 5, 1999, Erik Ramsey was a passenger in a friend’s Camaro that was in an accident with another vehicle and flipped and landed on an embankment. His injuries were devastating – a collapsed lung, a lacerated spleen, a ruptured diaphragm, ripped tendons in his hand, and a femur that was broken in two places. More so, a blood clot had caused a brain-stem stroke that cut the connection between his mind and his body, a condition known to neurologists as locked-in syndrome. He can still see, smell, and hear, his body could still register the itch of a rash or the pleasure of a warm breeze. But he cannot speak or make any voluntary movements other than with his eyes. Help, though, is on the way, as reported in a fascinating article by Chris Berdik that was published in the Spring 2009 issue of Bostonia magazine. (more…)

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Don’t Be So Sure That Dietary Supplements Are Safe, The F.D.A. Isn’t

March 10, 2009

In the first 10 months of 2008 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.) received 948 reports of health problems associated with dietary supplements, but not necessarily directly caused by them, according to a report from the federal Government Accountability Office (G.A.O.). Those included 9 deaths, 64 life-threatening illnesses and 234 hospitalizations. The F.D.A. recently estimated that there are more than 50,000 minor and serious health problems a year related to dietary supplements. For purposes of the G.A.O. report, dietary ingredient means an ingredient that is included in the dietary supplement definition in the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), such as vitamins, minerals, and herbs or other botanicals. (more…)

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Protect Your Children from Exposure to Lead Resulting From Home Renovation, Repair, and Painting Activities

March 3, 2009

Home renovation, repair, and painting activities cause elevated blood lead levels in children – no doubt about it. A 1997 analysis conducted by the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) indicated that home renovation, repair, and painting (RRP) activities were important sources of lead exposure among children with blood lead levels (BLLs) >20 µg/dL in New York state. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report dated January 30, 2009 identified RRP activities as being the probable source of lead exposure in 139 (14%) of the 972 children in New York with BLLs of over 20 µg/dL. But importantly, the majority of offenders are resident owners or tenants as opposed to contractors. (more…)

Posted under: Children's Safety, Children's Toys, Consumer Issues, Health & Science | Comments (0)

Using Hands-Free Cell Phone While Driving No Less a Danger Than Using Hand-Held Phone

February 17, 2009

The congressionally chartered National Safety Council is advocating for the first time a total ban on cell phone use while driving, including hands-free use, saying the practice is clearly dangerous and leads to fatalities. States should ban drivers from using hand-held and hands-free cell phones, and businesses should prohibit employees from using cell phones while driving on the job. The problem is not where your hands are, but where your brain is. (more…)

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Even With All the Attention on Bruce Springsteen’s Concert Later Today (A Football Game Is Sandwiched Around It), The NFL Still Can’t Avoid a Concussion Discussion

February 1, 2009

Super Bowl hoopla did not prevent a meeting this week in Tampa with the attendees urging the NFL to join them in researching the connection between football and progressive brain damage and declaring that a concussion crisis exists in football. Among those at the hotel meeting were former Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson, eight-year NFL special teams standout Isaiah Kacyvenski and 73-year-old Bernie Parrish, who played eight seasons for the Cleveland Browns and now spends much of his time battling the NFL Players Association, which he says refuses to adequately represent retired players. Joining them were several doctors from the Boston University School of Medicine and the widows of two former NFL players who suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease caused by head trauma that leads to dementia and a other long-term cognitive problems. (more…)

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Allstate Runs Ad Touting a New Year’s Resolution That Can Keep You From Losing Your Teenager

January 29, 2009

A print advertisement placed by Allstate in newspapers takes information from The Allstate Foundation Report on Teen Driving, 2005, and puts it in a form called “Parent-Teen Driving Contract”. The contract lists several topics with corresponding statistics from the Report. For each topic, there is a blank space for “Agreement” to be filled in, and another blank space for “Consequences” to be filled in. At the bottom of the contract is a space for the Teen Driver’s signature, and another for the Parent/Guardian signature. An interactive contract can be downloaded from the Internet. (more…)

Posted under: Health & Science, Motor vehicle accidents | Comments (0)

Concussions and the NFL: Legal Liability for Rushing a Player Back to Play Too Soon?

January 5, 2009

It is indisputable that cerebral concussions are commonly sustained by football players, professional or amateur. As time has gone by, concussions have gone from being considered relatively minor injuries to becoming a cause of deep concern for long-term cognitive problems that often result therefrom. An interesting article in The New York Times last week by Alan Schwartz about the recent concussion sustained by Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and the expertise of concussion management at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center pointed out some apparently significant differences between how concussions are dealt with in the National Football League as compared to elsewhere, particularly in the willingness to allow players suspected of having sustained a concussion to return to the game in which they were injured. Whether this will eventually result in the imposition of civil liability in a future lawsuit brought by a player is an interesting question. (more…)

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