Running With Scissors

pencil-xray.jpg

. . . or sharpened pencils is a bad idea. So far as I know, this personal injury did not result in a lawsuit–just this fascinating x-ray:

A woman in Germany who has spent 55 years with part of a pencil inside her head has finally had it removed.

Margret Wegner fell over carrying the pencil when she was four. It punctured her cheek and part of it went into her brain, above the right eye.

The 59-year-old has suffered headaches and nosebleeds for most of her life.

Posted on August 15, 2007 in Personal Injury
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Think Twice About Buying Your Kid “Heelys”

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons warns about the dangers of “heelys,” the newest shoe craze among adolescents:

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) stresses the importance of protective gear while engaging in a particularly new phenomenon…heeling. Heeleys – also known as roller shoes or street gliders – are shoes that have a wheel on the heel. These types of shoes fall into the category of inline skates which qualifies them as a sport, and carries warnings for their use including wearing protective gear such as wrist guards and helmets to avoid injuries.

According to James H. Beaty, MD, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and president of AAOS, “Orthopaedic surgeons are in fact seeing children come into their practices with injuries due to heeleys, mostly of a fracture-type within the hand, wrist or elbow.”

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission now reports over 1,600 emergency room visits in 2006 due to wheel and roller shoes.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a dangerous product, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.

Posted on June 18, 2007 in Defective Products, Personal Injury
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Renowned Jurist Files Slip and Fall Lawsuit

A slip and a fall–it can happen to anyone. Even famous judges. The New York Times reports:

In his days as a legal scholar, Robert H. Bork, the onetime Supreme Court nominee, engaged, as many scholars do, in high-minded debates about the august issues of the law. He wrote widely — sometimes controversially — about antitrust issues, the right to privacy and the limitations of the First Amendment.

Yesterday, however, Mr. Bork, who is 80, waded into a somewhat less majestic area of law. After a tumble at the Yale Club in Manhattan last year while ascending to the dais to deliver a speech, he filed a common everyday trip-and-fall lawsuit against the club.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to the negligence of another, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.

Posted on June 15, 2007 in Personal Injury
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The Devastation of Spinal Cord Injuries

In today’s Journal Star there is the moving account of Shannon Malloy who suffered an atlantooccipital dislocation or “internal decapitation” in an automobile accident.

As [Shannon's] head hit the dashboard, the force separated the skull from the spine. It’s not an uncommon injury, but it’s usually found during an autopsy. It’s similar to what Christopher Reeve suffered, only his was more severe.

Surviving a dislocated head, while still rare, has become more common due to quicker airway protection and better spinal isolation at accident scenes. More than 100 “decapitated” people may be walking around, according to medical literature.

What is Spinal Cord Injury?

A spinal cord injury usually begins with a sudden, traumatic blow to the spine that fractures or dislocates vertebrae. The damage begins at the moment of injury when displaced bone fragments, disc material, or ligaments bruise or tear into spinal cord tissue. Most injuries to the spinal cord don’t completely sever it. Instead, an injury is more likely to cause fractures and compression of the vertebrae, which then crush and destroy the axons, extensions of nerve cells that carry signals up and down the spinal cord between the brain and the rest of the body. An injury to the spinal cord can damage a few, many, or almost all of these axons. Some injuries will allow almost complete recovery. Others will result in complete paralysis.

Is there any treatment?

Improved emergency care for people with spinal cord injuries and aggressive treatment and rehabilitation can minimize damage to the nervous system and even restore limited abilities. Respiratory complications are often an indication of the severity of spinal cord injury About one-third of those with injury to the neck area will need help with breathing and require respiratory support. The steroid drug methylprednisolone appears to reduce the damage to nerve cells if it is given within the first 8 hours after injury. Rehabilitation programs combine physical therapies with skill-building activities and counseling to provide social and emotional support.

Reference: The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke website.

If you or a loved one have suffered a spinal cord injury due to the negligence of another, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.

Firms, Families Settle Spinach Claims

The Washington Post reports that:

The companies that grew, processed and marketed contaminated spinach that led to a nationwide E. coli outbreak last year have settled lawsuits in the deaths of three women.

The lawyer for the families of Ruby Trautz, 81, of Bellevue, Neb.; Betty Howard, 83, of Richland, Wash.; and June Dunning, 86, of Hagerstown, said the women died after eating fresh spinach bagged under the Dole label.

“They just didn’t die immediately after eating it, but they got sick,” said Bill Marler. “But there’s no question that it came from Dole baby spinach, or else there wouldn’t have been a settlement.”

Federal officials announced a recall of bagged fresh spinach last September, as nearly 200 people were sickened after eating the leafy greens processed by Natural Selections LLC under a number of labels, including Dole.

Inspectors eventually traced the E. coli strain to cattle or wild pig feces found in the San Benito County spinach fields of Mission Organics, which grew the spinach.

Terms of the settlements were not disclosed.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a dangerous product, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.


From offices in Lincoln, Nebraska, attorneys at Keating, O'Gara, Nedved & Peter, P.C., L.L.O. serve clients in Lincoln, Grand Island, Kearney, Omaha, Hastings, Norfolk, Fremont, Beatrice, Broken Bow, Valentine, Lexington, North Platte, McCook, Ainsworth, O' Neill, Wayne, Norfolk, Fairbury, Kimball, Sidney, Seward, York, Aurora, Columbus, and communities throughout Lancaster County, Adams, Buffalo, Custer, Gage, Hall, Lincoln and Red Willow Counties, and those injured in traffic accidents on Interstate Highway 80, and Nebraska state highways 81, 83, 183, and 281.