Indiana Injury Law Blog

A new survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that about 4 million Americans drove under the influence of alcohol last year. Further, the survey finds that there were 112 million episodes of intoxicated driving in 2010.

Those figures mark a substantial improvement from 2006. In fact, those numbers are a drop of 30% from 2006. However, 112 million episodes of intoxicated driving placing motorists and other drivers at risk of injuries or death, is too high a number for any Indiana car accident lawyer to stomach. Each one of those 112 million episodes of intoxicated driving had the potential to cause a fatal or injurious accident.

Intoxicated driving continues to remain one of the biggest factors in auto accidents in the United States. In recent years, the focus on distracted driving and other threats may have pushed drunk driving off the spotlight, but the fact is that driving under the influence contributes to the second highest number of auto accident fatalities every year, second only to speeding.

According to the study, there are some categories of drivers who continue to be at a high risk of drunk driving. Approximately 81% of all intoxicated drivers are men. About 85% of drunk drivers are binge drinkers. Young men aged between 21 and 34 constitute one out of every three intoxicated drivers. People in the Midwest are at a higher risk of intoxicated driving than those living in the South, Northeast and west. The most dangerous states for drunk driving are North Dakota, Nebraska and Massachusetts.

In 2009, approximately 1/3rd of all people who were killed in car accidents tested positive for drugs. The federal administration released this data to announce the launch of a new initiative to reduce the numbers of people dying in accidents caused by drugged driving.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy is collaborating with Mothers against Drunk Driving to launch a new initiative against driving under the influence of narcotic drugs. According to the report, the risks of driving under the influence of narcotics are especially high among drivers aged between 15 and 20.

The report breaks down drug use as a factor in fatal accidents, depending on the person’s age and the kind of drug. For instance, the report finds that accident victims aged 45 and above were more likely to test positive for depressants and narcotics. In accident victims aged 24 and below, marijuana seemed to be the most frequently-used drug. Additionally, close to half of the drivers had been driving under the influence of both alcohol and drugs. 40% of the drivers tested positive for both drugs and alcohol.

Indiana auto accident lawyers find that driving under the influence of drugs has the same kind of effect on driving abilities as driving under the influence of alcohol, but drunk driving has somehow not received the same attention by Indiana transportation safety agencies as driving under the influence has. Thanks to law enforcement and statewide awareness campaigns against the dangers of drunk driving, the numbers of people dying in alcohol-related auto accidents has declined substantially over the past decade. However, while all this attention has been focused on preventing DUI deaths, the number of accidents caused by people driving under the influence of drugs has increased.

Teen drivers have a 50% higher risk of being involved in an accident the first month after they begin unsupervised driving, compared to the first year of unsupervised driving. Further, they are almost twice as likely to be involved in an accident in the first thirty days of unsupervised driving, as they are up to two years of driving experience. That information comes from a study called Measuring Changes in Teenage Driver Crash Characteristics during the Early Months of Driving.

The results of the study were released by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. The findings were released in time to mark National Teen Driver Safety Week between October 16 and 22.
The researchers identified the three main factors that increase the risks of accidents involving teen drivers. These include inattention, failure to reduce speed while driving and failure to yield. According to the study, these three behaviors alone were responsible for about 47% of teen driver-related accidents during the first month of driving.

The results of the study show that while teenage driving skills do improve with practice, there are some skills that need further development. The type of accidents that were seen in the survey were not so much the result of a lack of experience, but the failure to develop certain specific driving skills.

The Indiana car accident lawyers at Theodoros and Rooth represent persons injured in automobile and car accidents across Indiana.

Contact lens manufacturer CooperVision Inc. has announced a recall of nearly 600,000 contact lenses, close to two months after reports of eye injuries associated with their use began to emerge. That's not all. The Food and Drug Administration has been very critical of the manner in which the company has gone about the recall, and the limited information it has provided consumers.

The recall was first announced on August 19, when the Food and Drug Administration announced a class I recall of the Avaira Toric lenses manufactured by CooperVision and sold at retailers like Costco, Wal-Mart and others. Class I recalls are the most serious recalls that the agency can announce, and Indiana product liability attorneys expect such recalls only when there is a risk of serious injuries or death associated with the product.

Reports of eye injuries associated with the CooperVision contact lenses began to surface in April, when some consumers began to report problems including corneal infections, scratches, and chronic pain. However, CooperVision announced the recall only in August.

It's highly likely that users in Indiana are not aware of this particular recall, because the company hardly bothered to publicize it at all. For the first few days after the recall was announced, the company had only the minimal information available on its website, merely informing consumers that there had been a recall, and that their contact lenses were likely included in it. There was no mention of lot numbers, and little information that would allow consumers to determine whether their lenses were included in the recall.

The company has now assured the Food and Drug Administration that it will take more steps to publicize the recall. The company’s website now has a checkbox that allows consumers to enter their lot number, to determine whether their contact lenses are included in the recall. There's also an FAQ as well as a consumer hotline number that consumers can call to find if their contact lenses are included in the recall.

A string of recent studies have pointed to various sources of contamination that increase the risk of hospital-acquired infections in Indiana hospitals. First, one study found that doctors’ and nurses’ clothing were home to potentially deadly pathogens. This was followed by another study which found that hospital curtains had alarming amounts of germs on them. There have been other studies that have found that cell phones used by patients and patient visitors are also contaminated with potentially deadly bacteria.

The clothing study found that approximately 60% of doctors’ and nurses’ clothing contained potentially deadly disease- causing germs. Nurses’ clothing was found to be a little more prone to contamination with about 65% of nurses’ uniforms testing positive for pathogens, compared to 60% of doctors’ clothing. Fortunately, the risks of contamination through doctors’ and nurses’ clothing seem to reduce when these personnel change uniforms every day.

Another study analyzed samples of hospital curtains, and found that 95% of the curtains tested positive for disease-causing bacteria, including the deadly methicillin- resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and the vancomycin-resistant enterococcus organisms. The researchers installed 13 new curtains, and when they tested these after one week, they found that twelve of them were now contaminated with pathogens.

An earlier study found that 40% of all cell phones belonging to hospital patients or their visitors in hospitals contained dangerous disease-causing germs. About 21% of health-care workers’ phones were also contaminated by bacteria. Out of the 133 phones of patients and their visitors that were tested, seven tested positive for the deadly MRSA bacteria.

These studies indicate to Indiana medical malpractice attorneys that it may not be possible to completely eliminate external sources of bacteria in a hospital. However, doctors and nurses can reduce the risk of contamination and infections by making sure that they follow proper handwashing and hand hygiene practices.

There has been another recall of contaminated alcohol prep pads, the second one by manufacturers in the past year. Indiana medical malpractice lawyers wonder how concerned we need to be about the infection risks from pads and wipes used in hospitals.

This newest recall was announced by New York-based Pacific Disposables International Inc. after the company found that its alcohol pads may have been contaminated with Bacillus cereus. This is a potentially deadly organism that can cause serious infections. The recall was triggered after a patient who suffered from hemophilia, contracted an infection from the use of the contaminated wipes. The alcohol wipes were used before an infusion, causing the patient to contact the Bacillus cereus infection. The Food and Drug Administration had pressured the company to recall its pads in June, when the incident occurred, but the company only announced a recall in September.

This is the second recall involving contaminated alcohol prep pads and wipes that Indiana product liability lawyers have come across. The first recall involved hundreds of millions of alcohol and iodine wipes and pads manufactured by Triad Group and H&P Industries Inc. Those wipes have been blamed for several deaths and infections across the country, and these companies already face lawsuits related to those deaths.

Questions are being raised about the safety of both sterile and non-sterile pads and wipes, and whether there is a need to ban these products altogether in hospital settings. Overall, the market contains about 70% of sterile pads and 30% of non- sterile pads. Part of the problem is that when home kits come with alcohol prep pads, healthcare professionals and homeowners who are using these home kits, may erroneously assume that these prep pads are sterile when they are not. In many cases, the packaging does not mention if the wipes are sterile or not.
Many hospitals are wondering whether it's worth it to continue using these pads, in light of these infection risks.

As Indiana medical malpractice lawyers, we often find that misdiagnosis, wrong diagnosis and failure to diagnose are some of the most underestimated medical errors out there. A new survey by QuantiaMD finds that at least 47% of clinicians found these errors at least once over the past month. Besides, 62% of the clinicians believe that these errors may have caused harm to patients. More than 90% of the clinicians in the study also believe that many of these errors were preventable.

Most diagnostic errors that Indiana medical malpractice attorneys come across involve misdiagnosis of cancers, heart attacks, strokes, infections, cardiac diseases, and psychological disorders,. Some types of diseases are particularly susceptible to misdiagnosis. For instance, cancers are often misdiagnosed. When this happens, doctors may begin the wrong treatment or may leave the patient untreated, while the disease worsens. Some of the most frequent cancer misdiagnoses involve lung cancer and prostate cancer.

Most diagnostic errors are the result of
• Inadequate test results
• Incorrect interpretation of test results
• Inadequate interpretation of scans
• Lack of communication
• Incorrect interpretation of symptoms and signs of serious injuries
• Inadequate follow-up on test results
• Insufficient access to patient records and history

When it comes to preventing diagnostic errors, there are no simple solutions. The clinicians believe that changing physician thought processes may contribute to more accurate diagnosis. 75% also believe that using decision support tools and artificial intelligence aids could help minimize the risk of diagnostic errors.