Connecticut Injury Attorney Blog

Department of Transportation worker who lost part of her leg in the back of a dump truck while getting it ready for winter snow operations received a 3.6 million dollar verdict in Waterbury Superior Court on November 1, 2011. Her boot was entrained in the moving conveyor chain during a maintenance operation. The defense was primarily that she disregarded a "Danger" decal affixed to the side of the truck advising her not to stand in the body of the dump because of the moving chain which could cause injury. While that was true, the decal had been serially disregarded as the back of the dump bed was often used to store tools and for various other purposes and ther was a ladder affixed to the side of the dump body placed there by the Manufacturer and Dealer to enable access. The dealer who sold and assembled the dump body knew that and in fact their own mechanics would inspect the chain's operation on occasion from inside the dump body as well while the chain was in motion. The State of Connecticut's contract with the DOT required mandatory training on the proper operation and maintenance of the dump body which implicitly included how to clean and maintain the unit in a safe and recommended manner.It also required compliance with OSHA regulations and Industry safety standards. The Dealer maintained that it did so comply and that physical guarding of the chain during operation was implausible as any such guard would necessarily tend to interfere with its intended purpose. Accordingly, administrative controls which included proper training and clear operating instructions were essential and the Dealer maintained that it provided proper training and that the DOT which had operated a fleet of hundreds of similar trucks before the instant purchase should have known how to train their own employees in the first place. After the incident, Conn OSHA did cite the DOT which employed the injured worker for allowing exposure to unguarded nip points and in consequence thereof the DOT implemented a series of heightened administrative controls.

The case was brought under Connecticut's Product Liability Act and was plead under legal theories including Strict liability for Defective design, Breach of the Statutory Duty to provide warnings and instructions, Breach of warranty and negligence. The manufacturer of the Dump bed had settled with the Plaintiff weeks before Trial and was a settled and released party whose fault was considered by the jury for purposes of allocating fault between the Plaintiff, the manufacturer and the remaining Defendant which was the dealer who sold the dump beds to the State under a procurement contract. The Jury allocated slightly less fault to the Manufacturer than to the Dealer who had the contract and primary relationship with the DOT and assigned 38% fault to the injured DOT worker as well resulting in a net verdict of slightly more than 1.3 million dollars to the worker in addition to a confidential sum obtained from the manufacturer shortly before Trial.

It is fairly common for workers injured on the Job to have both workers compensation claims and third party personal injury claims as well. The scenario can present from car and truck accidents while engaged in employment responsibilities, construction site mishaps with general contractors responsible for the safety lapses causing injury and sometimes factory workers hurt because of defective machinery or equipment. In such instances it is helpful if the lawyer handling the file has familiarity and competence as to both in order to maximize both the gross level of recovery and the net recovery after taking into account and negotiating lien issues that are present whenever the employer's workers compensation carrier pays for medical bills incurred or lost wages.

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Continue reading "Workers Compensation, Lien issues and Personal Injury Claims" »

The Connecticut State Medical Examining Board recently reprimanded two surgeons, one in Norwich, and one in New Haven, for medical errors during surgeries.

In January 2008, at William W. Backus Hospital, Dr. Gregory Criscuolo of Norwich performed spinal surgery intended to alleviate an impinged nerve in a patient's spine. Dr. Criscuolo removed the wrong lamina, part of the vertebra. After realizing his mistake, he operated on the correct site.

Continue reading "Connecticut Surgeons Reprimanded for Medical Errors During Spinal and Hernia Surgeries" »

On Monday, the FDA initiated a recall of various chocolate products manufactured by Chocolate Decadence after a Connecticut consumer became ill from eating the chocolate.

Subsequent investigation revealed that the chocolate had been manufactured on production lines that had previously been used to process milk chocolate. It was thus determined that the products contain an undeclared milk allergen. Consumers who are allergic to milk run the risk of serious or life-threatening reaction if they consume these products.

According to the FDA release, the recalled products were distributed nationwide via the Internet and physical retail locations.

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While showering with her two young female children on July 23, 2011, in a bathroom facility at Hammonassett State Park, a Young Woman noticed that they were being watched from behind the shower through holes. Subsequently, two men, state workers, were arrested and admitted their conduct. This conduct was invasive and insulting to my Client and also outraged her husband who witnessed the impact that this had upon his wife. The conduct appears legally actionable as it did subject the victims who were enjoying their family vacation time to extreme emotional and mental distress stemming from this invasion of their privacy.

Continue reading " Hammonassett CT State Park Maintenance workers Watching Unsuspecting Female Beach Visitors " »

Connecticut patients being treated for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) with eye injections should be aware that, last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a release alerting health care professionals to a cluster of serious eye infections suffered by patients in Florida and Tennessee who received eye injections of repackaged Avastin (bevacizumab). Avastin is approved for treatment of various cancers, but used off-label in smaller doses by many ophthalmologists to treat wet AMD due to its substantially lower cost than alternatives ($50/dose vs. $2,000/dose for Lucentis). Tragically, some of the patients were blinded.

As explained on EyeDocNews (a blog covering new treatments for eye conditions), in order to convert Avastin from a cancer drug to a wet AMD drug, pharmacies must repackage the vials into much smaller doses. If that repackagaging process is not handled with proper aseptic techniques, product sterility can be compromised, which puts patients at risk for microbial infections.

Continue reading "Contaminated Avastin Causing Eye Infections and Blindness in Patients" »

A bicyclist from Fairfield Connecticut suffered traumatic head injuries after being thrown from her bike following a collision with a truck. She is currently in critical condition at a Bridgeport, Connecticut hospital.

The media reported that the victim was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident. The accident thus highlights the need for stressing helmet safety for all bicyclists.

Continue reading "Connecticut Woman Severely Injured by Truck in Bicycle Accident" »

Recently, the Connecticut Department of Public Health fined several Connecticut nursing homes for medical care lapses that led to patients' falls.

West Hartford Health & Rehabilitation was fined for failing to prevent a resident with dementia from falling. The staff neglected to provide the patient with a "lap chair" that would have prevented her from falling from her wheelchair.

Continue reading "Connecticut Nursing Homes Cited and Fined for Medical Care Lapses" »

Last weekend, a woman from Yonkers water skiing in a lake near Newton, Connecticut, was killed when her line got tangled in the propeller of the boat towing her.

The victim was taken to a hospital in Danbury Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

While the full details of how this accident unfolded were not reported, the tragedy reinforces the importance of following important safety precautions while water skiing - a popular sporting activity during the summer.

Continue reading "Water Skier Killed in Connecticut Boating Accident Last Weekend" »

It was announced last week in the media that the Department of Veterans Affairs will pay nearly $1 million to Jose Goncalves in settlement of his medical malpractice claim arising out of a botched cataract surgery performed on the Hartford, Connecticut resident.

Goncalves was blinded in his right eye when a third-year resident at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in West Haven, Connecticut, incorrectly injected too much anesthetic into his eye during a cataract surgical procedure, causing Goncalves' eye to explode.

Goncalves' lawsuit was filed in 2009 in the United States District Court in Bridgeport, Connecticut. A few years ago, my office brought suit against a Hartford CT, ophthalmologist and neurologist as well as an emergency room physician, all of whom ignored and evidently tinkered while an overweight uninsured woman lost substantial visual function. The case settled for two million dollars. Since then, I have launched a dedicated website for those with visual loss issues related to medical negligence or significant personal injury.

Continue reading "Hartford Connecticut Medical Malpractice Victim Wins Nearly $1 Million Settlement" »

Consumers in Connecticut and other States who purchase generic drugs instead of brand name prescriptions have had an important legal remedy taken away as a result of a ruling just issued by the United States Supreme Court A divided Court has ruled that those injured or killed by generic brand prescription drugs because the product warnings were inadequate to explain and articulate the risks of taking the medicine can no longer sue the manufacture for damages. A wrongful death or Personal injury claim could still be brought it would appear if the drug were manufactured defectively or designed improperly in a situation where either of which circumstance caused harm. However, if there was simply inadequate information disclosed within the product literature to somebody who went into a CVS pharmacy store in Hartford, for example, resulting in their consuming the drug and suffering harm, their legal remedy now has disappeared against the manufacturer and likely the seller of the generic drugs. Since almost 75% of all prescriptions sold are generic( and cheaper than brand name equivalents) this is a big deal to the consumers.

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A few weeks ago, A Connecticut Jury awarded a $58 Million Verdict in compensatory damages to a child left with severe cerebral palsy on account of an unnecessary and improper delay in the child's delivery at birth. The Jury's verdict appears to be the highest Personal injury medical malpractice verdict in Connecticut history. There is likely to be an appeal filed by the defendant on the basis that the amount awarded by the CT jury was excessive. This is not an easy claim to make, notwithstanding the significance of the size of the award . Connecticut case law is supportive of the jury's determination of what is appropriate financial compensation for injuries caused by negligence. ( ''the amount of an award [of damages] is a matter peculiarly within the province of the trier of facts. . . . [T]he court should not interfere with the jury's determination except when the verdict is plainly excessive or exorbitant. . . . The ultimate test which must be applied to the verdict by the trial court is whether the jury's award falls somewhere within the necessarily uncertain limits of just damages or whether the size of the verdict so shocks the sense of justice as to compel the conclusion that the jury [was] influenced by partiality, prejudice, mistake or corruption.'' (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Mahon v. B.V. Unitron Mfg., Inc., 284 Conn. 645, 661-62, 935 A.2d 1004 (2007)).

Continue reading "Connecticut Personal Injury Award Highest in State" »

One can hardly doubt that persons who have sustained serious work site injuries, some that have led to their Death, by their pursuit of lawsuits beyond the mere assertion of workers compensation claims have fostered awareness and safety for many. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire that occurred in the year 1911 was one of the most tragic industrial accidents in U.S. history. 146 workers lost their lives, many were young female immigrants.
The factory conditions were so deplorable and unsafe that a criminal investigation and charges were filed but the owners of the Factory were acquitted. However, they were sued for civil damages-monetary compensation for those that lost their lives and brought wrongful death claims which they won. The American Society of Safety Engineers(ASSE) was also founded, in part, because of this event and made efforts to bring attention to the horrid conditions which the workers were having to work in.

Continue reading "Safety In The Work Place- " »

A weak economy In Connecticut as in Many other places has generated an increasing number of temporary work positions as companies are reluctant to hire permanent full time workers. This is not just a payroll issue but also one of oversight and management. In factories, warehouses and construction sites where many of these temps wind up laboring there is often a lack of training, supervision and accountability for the safety of those so employed. When a temporary worker is injured there is of course a workers compensation remedy available but the company for whom they were toiling is simply free to hire another temp and ask that the injured temp not return at all. To balance those inequitable scales and also to make up for the harm caused by shoddy or sometimes non existent safety practices the injured temporary employee should consider the initiation of a traditional tort action sounding in negligence which may in such circumstances be asserted against the company on whose job site they were injured. This remedy is one that would not generally be available to a direct employee due to the existence of a workers compensation exclusivity bar to bringing such actions which is legislated into the law in our State as well as many other Sister States.

Continue reading "Temporary Workers, A Permanent Problem OF Accountability" »

In Connecticut and throughout the Northeast Automobile accident statistics confirm that fewer people lost their lives last from automobile roadway and highway accidents. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Secretary Ray LaHood, "the number and rate of traffic fatalities in 2010 fell to the lowest levels since 1949, despite a significant increase in the number of miles Americans drove during the year." Secreatry Hood also stated that "Still, too many of our friends and neighbors are killed in preventable roadway tragedies every day. We will continue doing everything possible to make cars safer, increase seat belt use, put a stop to drunk driving and distracted driving and encourage drivers to put safety first."

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