The employer admitted that it employed 3 or more employees from 1988 through March 22, 2006.  The employer also admitted that during that time period it did not carry Worker’s Compensation Insurance.  Consequently, the employer was fined by the Industrial Commission pursuant to N.C.G.S. 97-94(b).

You HAVE TO maintain those parts of your business that help make money.  You have to maintain the vehicles or else they’ll break down.  You have to update the anti-virus software or the computers won’t work.  You have to clean the cooking equipment and sharpen the knives, or else the meals don’t get cooked and served.It makes all the sense in the world, then, for business owners to help maintain the health of its employees.  After all, employees are the most vital money making component of any business:  the healthier your workforce, the more money you make.

Employers should encourage physical fitness.  An employee that is more physically fit is less prone to injury, recovers more quickly when they are injured, and overall has more mental acuity and focus.  The research is limitless in support of these propositions.  And, isn’t that the type of employee that every business owner wants?  The alternative is an employee who is easily injured, takes forever to recover when they do become injured, and is generally sluggish with no energy.  Which kind of employee do you think makes and saves a business owner the most money?

An elderly Portland, Oregon man, John Wesley Myers, who has been accused of shooting his daughter in the head and killing her will be placed in an adult care home instead of prison. Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Jerry Hodson agreed with Myers’ attorneys, who argued that the defendant was mentally unfit to stand trial, suffered dementia and should be in a nursing home.  The HensonFuerst nursing home abuse lawyers remain opposed to comingling the violent elderly criminally insane with a nursing home’s residents.

Click to read this story from KGW-TV.

As part of a Statehouse rally held on June 25, the Ohio Skilled Nursing Care Coalition released a statement saying a $300 million reduction in Medicaid reimbursement would force closing dozens of nursing homes and necessitate the transfer of residents to other locations “causing trauma and life-threatening health risks.” Further, 2,000 jobs would be lost, according to the coalition. States throughout the country, including North Carolina, will be affected by Medicaid cuts.  The HensonFuerst nursing home abuse team recommends that viewers to this blog keep a watchful eye on budget discussions in their state; specifically, how proposed budgets will impact nursing home care and long-term care.

Click to read the entire article from the Columbus Dispatch.

I always preach about the importance of wearing a bike helmet to avoid head injury, and here is yet another example out of the UK.  Helmets work, and on young kids they are especially important since kids are more likely to wreck their bike than an older, more skilled rider.  Make it a rule in your house if you have young children.  No helmet, no riding.  Period.  For the entire article, follow this link:   http://www.dudleynews.co.uk/news/4458265.Cycle_helmet_prevents_serious_injuries/

As a brain injury lawyer, I often wonder about the best ways for me to contribute my support in the early stages of being retained by the client or their family member.  At that early stage, the primary goal of the client is to recover, and the legal tasks are voluminous and time consuming.  In addition to those tasks, such as investigating the accident, talking to witnesses, and educating myself about the specific injuries suffered by the client, I find myself wanting to support the family in other ways.  Simply listening to their frustrations, offering resources of which I am aware because of my experience with brain injuries, and simply letting them know that there is a recovery to be had, are some of the most important things I can do.  family members and friends need to know that a brain injury is complex, and often hard to come to grips with, because many times there is no obvious injury on the outside, even though there are substantial differences on the inside.  The brain injured person can act completely inconsistently with their personality that existed before the wreck.  Experts will tell you that spouses of a brain injured person must become used to the idea that the person they married is not the same person they are married to now, and there can be significant differences pre- and post-injury.  Ultimately, however, these differences can be overcome with the proper support systems, the proper medical treatment, and the proper understanding.

Studies consistently show that over half of brain injured persons suffer from chronic depression. Cognitive and physical deficits are common results of brain injury, and those deficits cause loss of self-esteem, inability to enjoy life, and inability to effectively relate to others. Depression also impacts the individual’s ability to recover from the brain injury, or to effectively manage their lives even after they have recovered from the physical limitations imposed by a TBI. Please be aware that the depressive symptoms can warrant treatment as well, and the fact that such symptoms are intertwined with the physiological aspects of the brain injury demand that a neuro-psychiatrist or similar physician trained in TBI issues will be critical to recovery. For a more detailed article on TBI and depression, follow this link:  

http://www.biausa.org/elements/BIAM/2004/depression.pdf

I read with great interest a recent article describing some of the issues that can come about when a seemingly minor head injury turns deadly.  This issue really became a focus of national attention after actress Natasha Richardson suffered a skiing accident on a beginner slope and died, leading the media to adopt the phrase “Talk and Die Syndrome”.  I still worry about these situations, especially when they involve children because so many parents, me included, do not ever want to think that a bump on the head can turn serious.  However, it remains our job to stay vigilant and investigate any bump on the head as potentially being more serious than it appears.   I personally take the view that it is better to overreact to a possible head injury and make what may be an unnecessary trip to the ER, rather than to minimize it and risk a nightmarish outcome.  To view the entire article, follow this link:

http://www.gantdaily.com/news/43/ARTICLE/54739/2009-06-21.html

I was hanging out at the pool this weekend, enjoying my Father’s Day outing with my six year old son, I watched him playing with his friends on a raft in the pool, and became concerned when they were too near the edge of the pool with a bunch of kids at once on the raft. While some may accuse me of being an overly paranoid parent, I could not help but think of what would happen if the raft were to turn over and one of the kids strike the side of their head on the concrete edge of the pool. The temporal area of the skull and brain is one of the most vulnerable to head injury, and that is the area of the head likely to hit the pool edge in that scenario. Please stay safe with your kids this summer, and do everything you can to minimize head injury.

The federal government has promised a nationwide crackdown on nursing home abuses with the worst nursing homes being targeted for repeat surprise inspections, instead of the annual surveys conducted under the current system. Furthermore, federal officials pledge they will impose tough sanctions on violators, including fines and a ban on new admissions under the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The special enforcement effort will be aimed at “poor performers,” a category that might include as many as 15% of the nation’s 17,000 nursing homes. The HensonFuerst team of nursing home abuse lawyers recommend viewers to this blog show their support of this measure by contacting the American Society on Aging at www.asaging.org.

Click to read the entire article.