February 25, 2010

WRAL reported that a Raleigh truck accident left the highway covered with hardwood flooring.

The driver of a tractor-trailer collided with a box truck, causing it to tip over and spill its contents onto the road.

One person suffered some injuries during the North Carolina truck accident, but the injuries were not considered life-threatening. He was taken to the hospital to be treated.

Crews worked for several hours to clear the scene of the Raleigh truck accident.

Read more

The Raleigh truck accident lawyers at HensonFuerst can help if you were injured in an accident.

As  soon as you are injured at work, report it to your supervisor.  Your rights under the Worker’s Compensation Act can be jeopardized if you fail to give notice to your employer.  If possible, give written notice and keep a copy for yourself.  When it comes to notice, the general rule of thumb is the sooner the better and the more documentation the better.

We knew the Britthaven of Chapel Hill nursing home had substandard care, but today’s news is both terrifying and disheartening. It seems that a team of state inspectors are investigating why nine people living in the facility’s Alzheimer’s unit tested positive for strong pain-control opiate drugs that they weren’t supposed to be receiving. As we posted earlier this week, one patient died.

What the heck has been going on? Three possibilities come to mind:

1.  The staff may have been using the drugs to “chemically restrain” the residents—medicating them into silence;

2.  There may be rogue, out-of-control employees who are acting without proper supervision;

3.  There may be severe medication errors or medication control issues in their facility.

No matter what the explanation, we take these issues seriously, even if the Britthaven of Chapel Hill employees don’t. Based on our dealings with this facility in the past, this is not the first time that there have been medication problems—they have been cited by the state on multiple occasions in the past.

Prior to these most recent events at Britthaven of Chapel Hill, the nursing home had already been identified by the Centers for Medicare Services as a “Special Focus Facility,” which means that they have a history of persistent poor quality of care.  Their lapses have resulted in more frequent inspections and monitoring by Medicare. In addition, Britthaven of Chapel Hill has been given the rating of 1 Star by the Centers for Medicare Services, the worst rating possible, further proof its services are much below the national average.

But all those warnings and reprimands didn’t prevent this latest atrocity.

HensonFuerst is currently investigating cases involving patients receiving opiate medications, when they are not prescribed for Alzheimers patients.  If you have any information to assist in our investigation, or if you are concerned about a loved one who resides in Britthaven of Chapel Hill nursing home, please give us a call.  We want to help.

You can reach our nursing home abuse team by calling 1-800-4-LAW MED.

One patient from the Alzheimer’s unit of Britthaven of Chapel Hill nursing home died…six more have been hospitalized after opiates were found in their system…three others were hospitalized as a precaution. You know what happened to the staff? According to a report in the Raleigh News & Observer, they were put on paid leave. Paid. Kind of like a vacation.

Managers from Britthaven’s corporate offices were brought in to investigate. We truly hope that some drastic action will be taken, but we’re not holding our collective breath. This nursing home is one of the facilities that failed to show significant improvement after being tagged by Medicare as a “Special Focus Facility,” which is a gentle way of saying that they provide substandard care, and that serious problems persisted for a long time. (See our earlier blog about this rating.)

According to the newspaper, criminal investigation has not been launched.

We’ll keep you posted on further developments.

North Carolina is among the states with the highest number of salmonella infections from certain brands of salami. Today, the company responsible–Daniele International, Inc., expanded the recall.

Click here to read the full USDA press release.

Are you kidding, Toyota???

Today, the major car company that has redefined the phrase “fall from grace,” said that it is considering recalling some of its best-selling Corollas due to problems with the power steering.

So in the past few weeks, Toyota has acknowledged problems with floor mats, sticking accelerators, floor design, brakes, and now steering. Let’s see…I guess we can say they still make darned good cup holders.

(This initial report was from the Raleigh News & Observer. We’ll post more as it happens.)

Will your loved one end up with a feeding tube? According to an article in a recent issue of JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), the answer may depend more on money than on desire.

In patients with advanced dementia, doctors know that careful feeding by hand is safer and more comfortable for the patients. But because it takes more time, some nursing facilities decide to insert a feeding tube instead. Here’s the kicker–they do it even if patients had previously signed directives asking not to be tube-fed.

Hospitals were more likely to use feeding tubes if they were for-profit hospitals, or if they had a large number of patients. The authors of the study compiled a list of hospitals and feeding tube usage (view it here), so you can look up your facility. In 2003, the New York Times published an article that detailed race also plays a role: Feeding tubes are more likely to be used if the nursing home resident is black or Asian.

Both these articles clearly illustrate how some nursing homes pursue profits at the expense of our most defenseless family members. They are trading compassion and humanity for dollars. This is what we find ourselves fighting against every day.

In an editorial in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), experts report that Of the 600,000 ski- and snowboard-related injuries each year, up to 20% result in traumatic brain injury (TBI)…many times resulting in serious disability or death.

The editorial calls for a widespread change in the culture of snow sports so that helmet are not only required, but accepted and encouraged in the same way bicycle helmets have been adopted by casual and serious bikers. As a firm that sees a lot of people with TBI, we echo that call for change.

For any sport with speed or risk of falls, helmets are a smart way to protect your smarts!