Indiana Injury Law Blog

A comparative study of all 50 states and the District of Colombia finds that a person's risk of being seriously or fatally injured in an accident increases significantly if the accident occurs on a rural road. In fact, Indiana had an accident death rate of 10.8 per 100,000 population in 2009. That is close to the national average of 11.0, and can be traced to the large number of deaths that occur here on the state's rural roads. The study found that states like Massachusetts and Washington that don't have as many rural roads, have a much lower accident death rate than states with more number of rural roads.

It has been no secret to Indiana accident attorneys that the state's rural roads are fatal accident magnets. Rural roads suffer from a number of deficiencies that increase a person's risk of being involved in an accident on these roads. For instance, for the most part, Indiana’s rural roads are narrow two-lane roads, that come with no center dividers, or any other safety aids to prevent accidents. As a result, drivers have a higher chance of being involved in crashes on these roads.

Besides, because of the absence of center dividers, many of these accidents tend to be head-on accidents that cause serious injuries or fatalities. There are other reasons why rural roads in Indiana are so dangerous. These roads don't feature high on the priority list for state law enforcement agencies. Indiana's law enforcement agencies have strained resources, and most of their efforts are directed in urban areas. It’s the reason why you see fewer campaigns against intoxicated driving or distracted driving on rural roads. It's also why you see fewer numbers of officers pulling cars over and ticketing people for violating seat belt and child restraint laws on these roads. This contributes to a higher number of fatalities on Indiana's rural roads every year, which adds to the state's overall accident fatality toll.

As Indiana brain injury lawyers, we know that in many cases, surgery soon after a traumatic brain injury, can enhance the person’s chances of survival and facilitate a quicker return to a normal life. A new study shows that brain injury surgery can also be helpful in elderly patients, but it also comes with certain risks, especially within the first year after the surgery.

Out of the elderly patients in the study who had surgery after brain injury, approximately one third died in the hospital after surgery. Further, about 50% of the patients died within one year after surgery. That doesn't mean however that brain surgery does not benefit seniors. Among those elderly patients that had brain surgery, and were monitored over a period of 42 months, there were favorable outcomes. Two thirds of the survivors of brain injury surgery had a favorable outcome as seen over 42 months. This was demonstrated by their Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended score of at least five. Overall, the researchers say that they are happy with what they saw in elderly patients with brain surgery over an extended period of time of several months, but the results for patients over a period of one year, were a little disappointing.

There also seem to be a lot of other factors that determine outcomes for elderly patients with brain injury who have surgery. For instance, patients who were admitted to the hospital in a conscious state were much more likely to have favorable outcomes, then those who were unconscious when they were taken to the hospital. Besides, the degree of independence at the time of discharge from the hospital also seems to play a big role in the type of outcome.
Brain injuries among the elderly can be caused due to slip and fall accidents, or as a result of high impact auto accidents including car/truck/motorcycle accidents in Indiana. These can also be the result of violence, assaults and gunshots.

The number of women dying during childbirth in the United States has decreased dramatically over the past few decades. There's also been a decline in the number of deaths linked to the use of general anesthesia. However, what's alarming to Indiana medical malpractice attorneys is that there has been a slight increase in the number of maternal childbirth deaths linked to the use of regional anesthesia, including epidurals and spinal blocks.

Researchers in a new US study used information from a government database on pregnancy-related deaths around the country. Deaths from general anesthesia during a C-section increased from 17 deaths per million C-sections between 1991 and 1996, to 6.5 deaths per million C-sections between 1997 and 2002. However, there were 2.5 deaths per million C-sections linked to regional anesthesia between 1991 and 1996, and that number had increased to 3.8 deaths per million C-sections between 1997 and 2002.

2002 is the last year for which statistics are available, and there is no information about the regional anesthesia-related childbirth death rates since then. There's also no solid information available about why there has been an increase in regional anesthesia -related childbirth deaths, even when there has been an overall decline in maternal mortality. One theory seems to be that healthcare professionals have been overly focused on preventing maternal deaths linked to general anesthesia, because this type of anesthesia is typically considered riskier. This excessive focus on making general anesthesia safer could have been to the detriment of regional anesthesia.

However, as Indiana medical malpractice attorneys often see, cases of maternal C-section-related childbirth distress don't have to end in mortality, if the delivery room is equipped with resuscitation gear and other medical aids.