Archive for February, 2009

Nursing home residents at Lake Isabella nursing home in Bakersfield, California, are being over-prescribed drugs that may have life-threatening side effects for the elderly.

The anti-psychotic drugs Zyprexa, Resperidol, and Seroquel were being given to nursing home residents with behavioral issues. These drugs carry the FDA’s strongest black-box warning because they can cause sudden death in elderly residents.

Dr. Kathyrn Locatell, a geriatric physician who specializes in forensic investigation of elder abuse, helped the California Attorney General’s office investigate the Kern Valley Healthcare District’s skilled nursing facility.

The attorney general’s office says that at least 22 residents were over-medicated at the facility to calm and control them. Three residents are believed to have died as a result. The investigation resulted in the arrest Wednesday of a physician, a nursing supervisor and a pharmacist.

The side effects associated with these drugs include constipation, risk of falling and difficulty swallowing. These side effects may lead to dehydration, weight loss and other life-threatening problems.

Locatell discussed the trend of using anti-psychotic drugs to manage patient behaviors,

Doctors are just giving it out like candy and nurses are administering it without any knowledge of what to look for…and they’re being prescribed for behaviorial problems — like resisting care.

It’s like they’re being drugged to quell the behavior instead of someone investigating why the behaviors are happening and coming up with a more humane approach.

Locatell mentioned that national statistics show about 50 percent of nursing home residents are on some form of psychotropic medication with another 30% of residents on anti-psychotics. Anti-psychotics are a class of psychotropic drugs designed to treat serious mental illness and and that the use of these psychotropic drugs should raise concerns for loved ones.

The use of chemical restraints in elder-care facilities is unethical and, without consent of the individual or a power of attorney, illegal.

Pitman, Kyle & Sicula, S.C. is a Wisconsin law firm with a devoted nursing home neglect practice.  Our nursing home abuse and neglect trial team has successfully represented abused and neglected residents in almost every county.  We know Wisconsin.

A University of Illinois-Chicago study found that repeatedly exposing people to situations where the footing is unstable helped train them to maintain their balance on slippery floors and avoid falls.

The research improves understanding of how the brain develops fall prevention strategies that can be used in a variety of situations. And experts say such training might prove particularly helpful for elderly people, who are at increased risk for falls that can lead to serious complications, disability and death.

The study had volunteers train on a moveable platform that could be operated to disrupt a person’s balance and a group of volunteers who did no training on the platform. All participants were asked to walk on a vinyl surface that had an invisible slippery spot.

Not one member of the group that had received training on the moveable platform fell on the slippery floor, and seven of the eight never lost their balance. Those who didn’t receive training had more trouble when they made contact with the slippery surface.

The study found that the trained volunteers were better at controlling the landing foot — the foot that’s on the ground when someone starts to slip. They could slow the movement of the landing foot as it began to slide forward, whereas the landing foot of the untrained participants went out from under them much faster.

“Controlling this foot, which is sliding forward, plays an important role in maintaining stability and prevents a backward fall,” study co-author Yi-Chung Pai said in an American Physiological Society news release.

The researchers found that the trained participants unconsciously changed their gait when they began to slip. They used a flatter landing foot and bent the landing knee more, which helped reduce the velocity of the slip.

The study, which was published in the Journal of Neurophysiology, included young adult volunteers. Research is now being conducted with older adults.

Falls in the elderly can have serious consequences. We have seen many cases of falls at nursing homes that were avoidable and preventable.  We have also seen many residents die as a result of fractures and brain injuries caused by a fall. The nursing home staff should focus on minimizing fall risk and risk of fall-related injuries while maximizing individual dignity, freedom, and quality of life.

In fact, the Wisconsin Nursing Homes and Residents annual report shows that 24% of nursing home residents have fallen in the past 30 days, and 26% had fallen in the past 31 days to 180 days.

Pitman, Kyle & Sicula, S.C. is a Wisconsin law firm with a devoted nursing home neglect practice.  Our nursing home abuse and neglect trial team has successfully represented abused and neglected residents in almost every county.  We know Wisconsin.

The House of Representatives has passed the Elder Abuse Victims Act of 2009 (H.R. 448). The bill authorizes funding “to protect seniors in the United States from elder abuse by establishing specialized elder abuse prosecution and research programs and activities to aid victims of elder abuse, to provide training to prosecutors and other law enforcement related to elder abuse prevention and protection, to establish programs that provide for emergency crisis response teams to combat elder abuse, and for other purposes.”

Pitman, Kyle & Sicula, S.C. is a Wisconsin law firm with a devoted nursing home neglect practice.  Our nursing home abuse and neglect trial team has successfully represented abused and neglected residents in almost every county.  We know Wisconsin.

Former physician Mark Benson was released from jail Friday afternoon after posting $500,000 bail. Prior to Friday, the bail had been set at $1 million after he was charged in the crash that killed an Oconomowoc mother along with her unborn child and her 10-year-old daughter.

The bail was lowered  by Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge J. Mac Davis. Judge Davis said $500,000 was a large enough sum to ensure that Benson would show up for court if released.

While released, Benson cannot possess or consume alcohol or drugs or contact the family of the victims. Any prescriptions must be filled at a single pharmacy and the drugs taken as directed by a physician. His travel is also limited to adjacent counties.

According to Prosecutors, Benson had a significant level of Ambien (a sleep aid), Xanax (anxiety drug), and Oxycodone (a painkiller) at the time of the accident.

Benson was charged with two counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle, homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle involving an unborn child and injury by intoxiicated use of a vehicle. All of these crimes are felonies.

Pitman, Kyle & Sicula is a Wisconsin personal injury law firm handling cases through out the state.  Our personal injury lawyers have successfully represented injured people in almost every county. We know Wisconsin.

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Twitter is is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts.  Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Click here to learn more.

Pitman, Kyle & Sicula is a Wisconsin personal injury law firm handling cases through out the state.  Our personal injury lawyers have successfully represented injured people in almost every county. We know Wisconsin.

The widow of Minnesota Vikings offensive tackle Korey Stringer reached a settlement with the NFL over her husband’s heatstroke death during the 2001 Vikings training camp in Mankato, MN.

Kelci Stringer sued the league and football equipment maker Riddell Inc. after her husband’s death. The lawsuit claimed the NFL hadn’t done enough to ensure that equipment used by players protected them from injuries or deaths caused by heat-related illnesses. The lawsuit against Riddell remains pending.

When Stringer, 27, collapsed, the heat index — a combination of temperature and humidity — was 110. Experts advise that such a high index is one of the first red flags that NFL teams must monitor.

Stringer’s death, the first attributed to heatstroke in the NFL’s 82-year history, made national headlines. It also focused attention on a trend that hasn’t commanded as much attention — an upsurge in heat fatalities at all levels of football.

Last season, the deaths of a college player and a high school player also were attributed to heatstroke. From 1995 through last season, there were 19 such deaths in high school and college football, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research at the University of North Carolina.

Heat stroke is a life-threatening, but preventable, condition which occurs when the body is unable to cool itself. When body temperatures rise to 103 or 104, the brain’s hypothalamus loses its ability to regulate the heat. The heart beats faster to increase blood flow to the skin to aid in evaporation, leaving less blood in the heart and other muscles. Brain death begins around 106 degrees, but death from heat stroke can be gradual, taking three or four days while organs begin to fail.

There were a total of 20 football-related deaths in 2006; two “pick-up” game players, three college players and 13 middle and high school players. Just one of the 20 deaths was not heat-related, involving a 17-year-old high school player who suffered a spinal cord injury when tackled in practice. There have been 31 total since 1995.

Pitman, Kyle & Sicula is a Wisconsin personal injury law firm handling cases through out the state.  Our personal injury lawyers have successfully represented injured people in almost every county. We know Wisconsin.

An HIV advocacy group is accusing the Fond du Lac Regional Clinic of discrimination after refusing to operate on a woman infected with HIV.

The civil lawsuit, filed by the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin in the U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, names Dr. Steven Cahee, Agnesian HealthCareInc. and Fond du Lac Regional Clinic as defendants.

The lawsuit alleges the defendants violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, in addition to state and federal laws, when they refused to perform gallbladder surgery on Melody Rose after learning she was HIV-positive.

According to the lawsuit, “Defendant Cahee stated he would not perform the surgery because he was concerned Rose might infect him and/or his surgical team.”

The lawsuit seeks unspecified actual, compensatory and punitive damages.

Pitman, Kyle & Sicula is a Wisconsin personal injury law firm handling cases through out the state.  Our personal injury lawyers have successfully represented injured people in almost every county. We know Wisconsin.

A voluntary recall of 20,000 Playhouse Disney Handy Manny toy sets was instituted after reports that the eyes can detach and cause a choking hazard.

Consumers have been instructed to take the toy away from their children and return it to a Disney Store for a full refund.

The toy sets have eight peices and the name “Handy Manny” on the side of the tool box. The toy was sold nationwide from October 2007 through last month.

Pitman, Kyle & Sicula is a Wisconsin personal injury law firm handling faulty product cases through out the state.  Our personal injury lawyers have successfully represented injured people in almost every county. We know Wisconsin.

Yesterday, the Texas Department of State Health Services ordered the recall of all products ever shipped from the Peanut Corporation of America’s plan in Plainview, Texas, after a health services inspection found dead rodents, rodent excrement and bird feathers in a crawl space.

The plant’s ventilation system pulled the debris from the crawl space and into production areas, effecting the exposed food products.

Tests are being performed to determine if the products contain salmonella. The plant isn’t allowed to resume operation until health services approval. The recall applies to products that have been shipped since the plant first opened in March 2005.

Pitman, Kyle & Sicula is a Wisconsin personal injury law firm handling faulty product cases through out the state.  Our personal injury lawyers have successfully represented injured people in almost every county. We know Wisconsin.

A hidden camera investigation by a CBS-affiliate in New York found disturbing evidence of potentially harmful peanut products still on store shelves.

When the reporter asked the manager how he explains why the recalled products were still on the shelves to the customers, his response was, “I don’t…”

If you’re unsure of a products contents or unsure if the product has been recalled, check the product against the FDA recall list or the manufacturer’s website.

Click here for the complete list of recalled peanut products.

Pitman, Kyle & Sicula is a Wisconsin personal injury law firm handling faulty product cases through out the state.  Our personal injury lawyers have successfully represented injured people in almost every county. We know Wisconsin.