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Recent Blog Posts
Why Pool Play Can Put Your Child In Danger
It's Sunday afternoon and you and your family have been stuck inside most of the weekend due to continuous thunderstorms. However, the clouds seemed to have miraculously disappeared, so your children are begging you to take them swimming.
You check the weather and sure enough, it's going to be 85 degrees and sunny for the rest of the day. Since you can't really argue with their hopeful faces and you yourself could use a little relaxation in the sun, you gather the pool toys, bathing suits, and towels and head over to Banneker for a leisurely summer pool day.
As soon as you step into the pool area, your daughter sees a school friend and attempts to run over to greet her. Unfortunately, she starts to run directly toward a man carrying three metal lawn chairs over his head. You grab her arm and stop her, just as the man loses his balance while navigating around a puddle and drops all three chairs directly where your daughter would have been.
It's only been two minutes, and already your child was almost injured. What other pool area hazards and dangerous activities should you be aware of in order to keep your children safe?
Serious Accidents Can Cause Permanent Paralysis In DC
It doesn't matter how it happened: one minute you were able to move your legs, and the next minute you weren't. You lie in bed, hoping, waiting for the use of your limbs, knowing deep down that it may not happen at all. Your family is caring and supportive, but it's impossible not to feel hopeless.While nobody can know how you feel, it's important to know that you're not alone-even if you feel that way. There are people out there who can help you get your life back, and hold those responsible accountable for your injury.
Types of Injuries That Can Cause Paralysis
We've seen these injuries before. For example, all of the following can cause a paralysis accident in Virginia:
- Car and truck accidents. Motor vehicle accidents are the number one cause of serious back injuries in Virginia, often resulting in both temporary and permanent paralysis.
- Pedestrian accidents. Without the protection of a car, a pedestrian will often suffer serious bodily trauma.
Reasons Behind Patient Medication Mix-Ups At The Pharmacy
Many different people of all ages need medications to treat their injuries and ailments. While some people need powerful pain medications, others may need blood pressure medication or mild antibiotics. In fact, there are actually thousands of prescription drugs that are designed to treat various health complaints, and many of those medication names sound similar to those of others-just like many people's names are similar to other patients' names. Unfortunately, pharmacies can confuse one patient for another and mix up their medications.
Although pharmacies generally have procedures to avoid confusion between similar-sounding patients' names, the reality is that pharmacy negligence occurs for a variety of reasons, including:
- Distraction. Pharmacy technicians generally take payment and in return give out a prescription medication to a customer. Unfortunately, they may make mistakes due to sheer negligence or distraction. For instance, the phone may ring while they are trying to get a customer's medication or they may be in a hurry to check a customer out and they end up grabbing the first medication they see with the patient's last name, failing to consider there may be other customers with the same last name.
Chronic Pain: The Continued Toll Your Virginia Accident Can Take
Were you involved in an accident that resulted in a catastrophic personal injury? Were you left with broken bones or intense pain? While many assume that once bones heal, the pain disappears, unfortunately, the truth is that pain can persist for much longer.
A recent study found that over 70 percent of people dealing with chronic pain had been involved in a car or work accident. If you were involved in an accident and experiencing any of the following symptoms, you may be considered a chronic pain patient:
- Pain that persists longer than six months after an accident or injury
- Bone painBones that are recovering from being broken can continue to cause pain as they heal and ache long afterward. Shattered bones are especially susceptible, as they have affected nerve damage.
- Somatic pain
- Muscular pain that persists after an accident, or begins to hurt within weeks or months of an injury. This can include muscles near broken bones, or those that were strained, torn, stretched, or damaged by broken bones during an accident or injury.
Available Damages For Spinal Cord Injury Victims
Suffering a spinal cord injury is not only an overwhelming and traumatic time in one's life, but it is also a time when financial stresses are high. Because spinal cord injuries are serious injuries that limit function and mobility, many people with spinal cord damage are unable to work or make a financial living again. Even if someone is able to work, it is not likely that he or she will be able to earn the same pay due to their new disability.
Along with a loss of income, a spinal cord injury can result in exorbitant medical bills. The truth of the matter is that spinal cord injuries are likely to cause a long-term financial burden for those injured as well as their families.
Collecting a Financial Recovery
If you or a loved one has been injured due to someone else's negligence, you have the right to file a personal injury claim and collect compensation. In order to alleviate some of the financial stresses associated with a spinal cord injury, it is essential to learn about the types of compensatory damages available to you to ensure you collect a full and fair financial recovery.
When A Surgical Attempt To Decrease Back Pain Results In Paralysis
Anyone who has ever had back pain or nerve pain that radiates from the back down into the leg knows firsthand how debilitating it can be. Because the pain can be so severe, people with this type of pain typically turn to their doctors for treatment. Generally, doctors are people who use great judgment and know how to fix painful medical concerns; however, sometimes things go wrong and an injured back can actually end in paralysis due to medical negligence.
Severe Medical Mishaps Involving the Spine
We all know that there are risks with any type of surgery, and this is especially the case with back surgery or spinal cord surgery. This is because if anything goes wrong during surgery, nerves can be affected, impairing someone's entire nervous system. When damage to the spinal cord occurs, sadly, it can lead to paralysis. Although paralysis is one of the least likely complications to occur, as infections, blood clots and anesthesia complications are more common, spinal surgery can lead to paralysis. This can be the case with a variety of different back and spinal cord surgeries, such as:
What To Look For In A Car Accident Attorney Following A Brain Injury
Brain injuries come in several degrees of seriousness. For instance, not all brain injuries impact someone for life. Some minor brain injuries might heal on their own and not affect a person for more than a few weeks; however, other brain injuries are more serious in nature and can cause permanent brain damage and life-long changes. No matter what, anyone who has suffered trauma to the head should treat it seriously and seek immediate medical care.
Levels of Brain Injury
There are a variety of issues and impairments that can occur based on the level of the brain injury a person suffers. For example:
- A mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) can include a brief loss of consciousness and a change in mental status.
- A moderate TBI is usually identified when a person suffers a loss of consciousness for over a few minutes to a few hours. People with moderate TBIs often suffer from confusion that lasts from a few days to a few weeks, and they experience behavioral, cognitive and/or physical impairments that could last for several months or the rest of their lives.
Beware Of Car Sharing Insurance Coverage Limitations
Car sharing and ridesharing services have changed the way people get around. In fact, these services have gained popularity in recent years-especially in urban areas. For example, many people who live in areas like D.C. only need a car once in a while and for only a few hours at a time. In fact, most of the time they aren't even driving far. Because car sharing services like Zipcar and Car2go allow people to rent their cars by the hour and provide more flexibility than tradition rental cars, many people are choosing to postpone purchasing a vehicle and opt for renting a car every now and then.
Understanding How Car Sharing Services Work
With the use of smartphone applications, people are able to rent cars in their area, even dropping them off in other convenient locations around the city. This allows people to rent cars for short periods at a time, usually paying minimal fees.
Most car sharing services charge a registration fee of around $15, plus a monthly membership fee of $5 to $7. Once approved and a member, a person will have the ability to view cars available to rent in their location via the company's app. People can rent a car for around $8 an hour. When they are done, they park it per the company's requirements and lock it up. These vehicles can also be used for longer trips as well, but they have to be returned to certain areas in specified cities.
Can A Spinal Cord Injury Be Cured?
Spinal cord injuries are among the most serious types of survivable injuries that an individual can incur. Less than 1 percent of spinal-cord injury victims leave the hospital with a complete neurological recovery.* Spinal cord injuries are currently incurable.
As Virginia and Washington D.C. spinal-cord injury attorneys, we know how much you are suffering and how badly you want a cure. We know how much medical care and rehabilitation cost, and we want to help you recover damages to pay for those services, and for other damages related to your spinal cord injury.
How Spinal Cord Injuries Occur
Approximately 12,000 people suffer spinal cord injuries in the United States each year.* Just over 41 percent of spinal cord injuries are caused by motor vehicle accidents. Falls are the second leading cause of spinal cord injuries, accounting for approximately 27 percent of injuries each year. Other spinal cord injuries result from violence, sports injuries, and other causes.
Personality Changes Caused By Traumatic Brain Injuries
Following a traumatic brain injury (TBI), one of the hardest parts for survivors and their families to understand and accept is a personality change. Prior to the injury, someone may have been known to be kind, funny, sweet and thoughtful; however, after the brain injury, the person may no longer seem the same. Although many traumatic brain injury survivors display versions of their pre-injury personality from time to time, they often are left with a different personality.
Why Do Brain Injuries Impact Personality?
When the brain is damaged, memory isn't the only thing negatively affected. Personality is often impacted depending on the areas of the brain that are injured. For example, if the frontal and temporal lobes are damaged, a brain injury survivor may very well suffer a change in personality. Depending on the severity of the brain injury and the areas of the brain that are damaged, a victim may suffer a subtle personality change or experience a major change in personality.
703-591-0067
10513 Judicial Drive, Suite 200, Fairfax, VA 22030
703-591-0067
From our office in Fairfax, Shevlin Smith, P.C. serves clients throughout Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., including Alexandria, Annandale, Arlington, Ashburn, Burke, Centreville, Dale City, Fair Oaks, Leesburg, Manassas, McLean, Oakton, Reston, Springfield, and Woodbridge, as well as Fairfax County, Arlington County, Fauquier County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County.
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