Common Car Seat Mistakes

New laws & common car seat mistakes

Pennsylvania’s new car seat law goes into effect next month. The new law will require  all children to be restrained in a rear-facing car seat until at least two years of age.

Why is rear-facing safer?

A rear-facing car seat supports the head and neck, and is designed to distribute the force of a crash across the shell of the car seat in the event of a car accident. Babies’ necks and spinal cords aren’t yet strong enough to withstand the force of a crash or sudden stop. Children under two are five times less likely to die or suffer serious injury in a car accident when restrained in a rear-facing seat.

Switching to a front-facing seat too soon is one of the most common car seat mistakes parents make. […]

5 Swimming Survival Skills to Teach Your Child

Prevent swimming accidents with these 5 tips!

Swimming season is well underway!

Swimming can be good exercise and a great way to beat the heat, but it can also be dangerous, particularly for young children. Approximately 800 children drown each year. Safe Kids Worldwide has more information on how to stay safe in the water!

We’re sharing 5 essential swimming survival skills you can teach your child to make them more confident swimmers and to help keep them safe in the water. These tips are simple, but they could save a life.

1. Step or jump into water that is over your head and return to the surface. Help your child practice rising/kicking to the surface of the water, but ONLY when you are there to supervise.

2. Tread water for one minute. Treading water for a longer amount of time will help your child become a stronger swimmer and be less afraid in deep water. […]

Doctors on Probation for Gross Misconduct Still Practicing

Would you want to know if your doctor was on disciplinary probation?

When it comes to a physician’s disciplinary history, patients are kept very much in the dark. Physicians all over the country who have been disciplined for sexual misconduct, drug abuse, and devastating medical mistakes are still practicing, some while on probation, and they are not required to disclose their probationary status to their current patients.

Meanwhile, medical errors 3rd leading cause of death in the U.S.

Recently, Senator Jerry Hill of California authored a bill that would require doctors to inform patients of their probationary status. The legislation didn’t pass.

Is your doctor on probation?

Under current laws, doctors are required to disclose their disciplinary history to the hospital or practice where they work, and to their medical malpractice insurer, but are under no obligation to share this information with patients.  […]

Distraction Blamed for Amtrak 188 Wreck

Last year, eight people were killed and more than 200 were injured in the derailment of Amtrak 188 near Philadelphia.

For nearly a year, investigators couldn’t determine what led to the tragic accident. The train’s engineer, Brendan Bostian, was known for his attention to safety. He was cleared of any suspicion that he may have been using a cell phone or that he may have been intoxicated at the time. Yet somehow, the train was traveling at more than twice the posted speed limit when it entered a sharp curve and derailed.

This week, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released the conclusion that radio reports of a nearby train that was struck by rocks distracted Bostian, who was likely concerned about the condition of the other train’s engineer or the possibility that there were people on the tracks. The distraction caused him to momentarily lose his bearings, […]

Medical Errors the 3rd Leading Cause of Death

A recent study from Johns Hopkins found that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States, claiming more lives than any other medical condition except cancer and heart disease.

Unfortunately, this problem is kept out of the public eye because the CDC’s mortality statistics, which rely on death certificate data, don’t capture things like communication breakdowns or errors in judgment that can lead to a patient’s death. As a result, medical mistakes are under-reported. This new study, based on eight years of hospitalization records,  calls for a better way to track medical errors in order to better protect patients.

As personal injury lawyers, we know that there are seemingly endless numbers of things that can go wrong during a patient’s care. Missed or mistaken diagnosis, unnecessary procedures, poor communication, electronic medical record inconsistencies, prescription mishaps, and infection can all have tragic consequences. […]