Blog

 Posted on April 20, 2014 in Medical Malpractice

Being able to identify the warning signs and protect yourself against a sexual assault has become an increasingly important skill to learn. The recent sexual assaults in Friendship Heights and northwest D.C. has put the dangers of sexual assault back in the media and the forefront of our minds. Therefore, we do what we have to do to protect ourselves; we carry mace, we learn defensive moves, and we trust our instincts when we don't trust the area around us.

But what happens when you let your guard down in a place you do trust, like a hospital? How do you prepare yourself against sexual advances from your own doctor?

Being able to identify your doctor's sexual misconduct before it gets too far is your best defense. However, sometimes it may be difficult to fully process the improprieties, because of the trust and deference we give to health care providers.

Forms of Sexual Misconduct You Need to Know

There are several different types of sexual misconduct that a medical professional could use throughout an examination or procedure. If for any reason you feel uncomfortable, don't hesitate to speak up or flat out leave the situation. Trust your instincts; sometimes seemingly harmless actions can lead to dire consequences.

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 Posted on April 18, 2014 in Catastrophic Injuries

When someone is injured in a car accident, trucking wreck, motorcycle crash, pedestrian accident, bicycle accident, or slip and fall accident, it can be devastating to say the least. Not only do these types of accidents cause serious physical injuries, but many people who are injured also suffer from emotional injuries. The fact of the matter is that physical trauma often leads to emotional distress.

Sometimes emotional trauma may not be apparent in the immediate aftermath of an accident. Following a traumatic event, emotional injuries may not show up for several weeks or months. In order to determine if you or a loved one is suffering from emotional trauma following an accident, we have compiled a list of common signs of emotional injuries.

Common Types of Emotional Trauma

• Acute stress disorder (ASD). After experiencing a traumatic event, someone may be suffering from acute stress disorder if they feel detached, emotionally unresponsive, and numb. Oftentimes, people with this type of emotional trauma will feel like their thoughts and emotions aren't real, as well as thinking their environment seems strange. People with ASD may also relive the traumatic event through flashbacks, but they may not be able to remember every detail.

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 Posted on April 15, 2014 in News

Everyone knows the feeling you get when you try to hold your breath for too long: your heart begins to race, you feel dizzy, your chest hurts, and depending on how long you hold it, you may even pass out in order to conserve necessary oxygen needed for your brain cells. However, once that stored oxygen is used up, your brain cells will literally begin to suffocate and die, causing brain damage.

Now imagine all of those feelings and resulting consequences happening to your unborn child during delivery. It's almost too hard to imagine. Unfortunately, an estimated five out of every thousand newborns suffer some sort of brain damage from oxygen deprivation during delivery.

Many hospitals, including the leading critical care nursery at Georgetown University, treat newborn hypoxia with a type of "therapeutic hypothermia." This treatment tries to slow brain function down to allow it to heal itself. Although this method has proven to be effective in decreasing newborn fatalities and reducing developmental disabilities, it isn't 100 percent effective.

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 Posted on April 12, 2014 in News

If you've ever had the experience of driving over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, you won't be surprised that it was named the ninth scariest bridge in the world by Travel and Leisure magazine. The five-mile journey from Anne Arundel to Queen Anne's County can be incredibly nerve-racking, especially during bad weather. When storms roll over the Chesapeake, visibility becomes almost nonexistent; if you're stuck on the middle of the bridge, you may not even be able to see the land.

At that distance, with no outlets or options to get off, it becomes frighteningly apparent that if an accident did occur, the risk of going over the side is uncomfortably high. Unfortunately, this risk has already become a tragic and fatal reality for at least two different vehicles; however, thorough analyses of these particular accidents have thankfully encouraged the Maryland Transportation Authority to initiate a short-term safety plan for drivers traveling across the bridge.

Within a period of six years, two separate collisions-one fatal accident in 2008 and an injurious rear-end collision in 2010-have resulted in vehicles crashing through the concrete barriers of the bridge and plunging into the cold waters of the Chesapeake. After years of investigation on what initially caused the car accidents (both determined driver errors were at fault for the collisions), the real concern fell on the safety of the bridge barriers and traffic laws to help prevent these types of accidents from ever occurring again.

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 Posted on April 10, 2014 in Birth Injuries

Any instrument used to deliver a baby may carry risks. However, in cases of prolonged labor, breech positioning of the baby, or other birth complications, the use of forceps is often thought to be the best option for safe delivery. The forceps give the doctor a better grip on the head and ideally allow him to pull the baby out just as it would be naturally delivered.

Types of Birth Injuries Caused By Forceps

The problem arises when the forceps are not used correctly. Since the method involves putting a squeezing pressure on the baby's head, forceps delivery in Virginia can cause temporary or even permanent damage to the infant.

• Bruising. A temporary side effect of forceps, bruising will usually last about a week.
• Facial nerve damage. This is especially noticeable when the baby cries. If the infant's facial structure appears asymmetrical, the damage may be permanent.
• Brain damage. In extreme cases, trauma to the child's head can result in brain damage. This type of force should never be used, and may be grounds for a medical malpractice suit in DC.

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 Posted on April 10, 2014 in Traffic Accidents

When you suffered a fractured wrist in a Fairfax car crash, you were probably told it was a minor injury. After all, you are expected to fully recover, and unlike many accident victims, you were able to walk away from the crash. So is it really worth it to pursue a case against the other driver?

Minor Injuries Can Lead To Bigger Problems

The truth is, many so-called "minor" injuries can still cause extreme pain, loss of earning capacity, and loss of mobility for the victim – and that's if the injury heals without any complications.

Ways to Obtain Compensation Following an Accident

Your Virginia personal injury case could get you compensation for your suffering, including:

• Pain. Victims often experience severe pain after a broken wrist injury, requiring immobilization and pain medications to cope with everyday tasks.
• Loss of income. Victims may not be able to grasp objects or turn their wrists for months after the bones have healed. If his dominant hand was injured, a victim could be out of work for months until he is capable of full mobility.

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 Posted on April 07, 2014 in Birth Injuries

All new mothers are extremely thankful during birth that their baby's skull isn't fully hardened. Not only does this allow some flexibility within the birth canal (mothers rejoice), but it also allows room for the baby's brain to grow at a rapid pace.

Brain Injuries To Infants During Birth

Unfortunately, the softness of a infant's skull also has a downside. The softer the skull, the higher the risk of potential head and brain trauma during birth and early development, which could lead to one or more forms of cerebral palsy.

Cerebral palsy can also occur while the child is in the womb as a result of an infection, such as rubella, meningitis, or herpes, or as a result of hypoxia during gestation or delivery. No matter what the cause, the last thing you want to hear after giving birth is that your baby may have suffered from a debilitating brain injury-"may have" being the scariest part.

The complexity of the brain and the fact that it contains a dozen different sections, each controlling different parts of the body, makes it hard to determine if an injury will cause cerebral palsy. However, the three main forms of CP-spastic, ataxic, and athetoid-are the direct result of damage done to specific areas of the brain.

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 Posted on April 05, 2014 in Catastrophic Injuries

In language, all words have meanings. We grow up learning the meaning of words, and it is through cognition that we are able to retain such an extensive vocabulary-making it possible to communicate. Unfortunately, people who experience traumatic injuries, such as those who suffer head trauma and brain injuries in serious car accidents, may suffer from cognitive difficulties. When this happens, it generally leads to communication problems because people who are affected in this way find it hard to remember certain words or understand what someone else is trying to tell them.

When people endure cognitive and communication problems following serious accidents, they will have trouble with the following:

• Recalling memories. When victims suffer in this way, they may forget certain things that they have learned and retained. Sadly, part of their knowledge base-whether short-term or long-term memory retention-can be negatively impacted.

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 Posted on March 25, 2014 in News

At one point or another, we've all hurt ourselves, but figured the injury wasn't bad enough or didn't hurt enough to seek medical attention. Unfortunately, some military veterans don't get the treatment they need-not by choice, but because they don't know they have a problem.

Virginia is the proud home of nearly 825,000 military veterans, the seventh-highest population in the United States. According to Veteran Affairs, 60 percent of these veterans were exposed to combat situations that may have included close proximities to explosions and percussive forces. These forces have traumatic effects on the human brain, causing concussions, swelling, and hemorrhages. Unfortunately, according to a recent study, these effects may also not show obvious symptoms at first, masking the injury and preventing necessary treatment.

The Journal of Head Trauma and RehabilitationStudy

The study focused on white matter damage to the brain. White matter helps link different areas of the brain together and an injury to it can cause cognitive problems.

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 Posted on March 20, 2014 in Brain Injuries

How many times a day do you speak, gesture, write, or otherwise communicate your thoughts to someone? When ordering your lunch at Basil Thyme, how do they know which lasagna you want or if you need one or two cannoli?

Most people take their ability to communicate for granted. You think about something you want to tell someone, and you tell him, easy as that. But imagine if it were not that easy. Hundreds of people in D.C. suffer from brain injuries each year- brain injuries that limit their ability to communicate easily or at all.

When particular areas of the brain are seriously injured, it can affect specific aspects of how your body communicates. When the brain swells or hemorrhages from trauma, it loses its ability to communicate with and control your body.

Depending on the severity of the injury and where it occurs, injuries can vary from minor speech impediments to complete lack of cognitive function.

Types of Communication Defects

• Aphasia: Limited abilities to understand language and express thoughts through language (writing and reading problems associated with dyslexia are common).

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