Georgia Injury Lawyers Blog

At least four lawsuits have been filed against a nursing home in Florida that was the site of eleven deaths in the wake of Hurricane Irma.The facility, known as the Rehabilitation Center of Hollywood Hills in Hollywood, Florida, lost power during Hurricane Irma, which subsequently knocked out the facility’s air conditioning. All victims of the tragedy are believed to have died from heat-related conditions or from existing conditions that were exacerbated by excessive heat.

The first lawsuit, filed by the family of 94-year-old Rosa Cabrera, is based in negligence and seeks unspecified damages. Cabrera, a diabetic with weight problems, had her left leg amputated last year and her right leg amputated in March of this year, just one month before she was placed in the nursing home. In their lawsuit, the Cabrera family said that, as a double amputee, she suffered injury, pain, and distress inflicted by the center’s staff, who should have known that she could not care for herself or escape the “horrific conditions” at the nursing home. Stuart Grossman, the Cabreras’s attorney, said that Cabrera was assured by the rehab center’s staff that she would be safe from the storm as Hurricane Irma approached Florida. Instead, the home placed her in unnecessary danger that could have cost her her life. He said that the center’s conduct far surpasses a failure to meet a standard of care because Cabrera was forced to endure unbearable heat when the staff did not immediately respond to the escalating medical emergency.

The nursing home, which has had its operating license suspended since the incident and is under criminal investigation by state and federal regulators, has defended its procedures before, during, and after the storm. In a timeline, the center said that two Florida Power and Light (FPL) transformers—one that powers the building’s life safety systems and the second the air-conditioning chiller—flickered and came back on on the afternoon of September 10th during the storm, but then the power to the AC chiller went down and did not come back online. Nursing home operators said they contacted FPL, state regulators, and even Governor Rick Scott’s cellphone, but received no assistance. They said the staff set up 10 spot coolers and fans on the first and second floors, and eventually obtained additional spot coolers from Memorial Regional Hospital, across the street.But the rehab center’s administrator also admitted in the time line that they did not call 911 to deal with the medical emergency and failing patients until 1:30 a.m. on September 13th, three days after the air conditioner went down. Five patients had already suffered cardiac arrest or respiratory distress by 4:45 a.m. on that day.

The latest automotive technology—driverless vehicles—promises a world where accidents caused by human error are a thing of the past. Several companies, most notably Tesla, have made great strides toward bring this future into reality, but, as of 2017, we are not quite there yet. Most vehicles equipped with self-driving technology sold today are what are known as semi-autonomous vehicles, in which a human driver is still the primary operator of the vehicle, but the vehicle can assist the driver with a variety of tasks, including automatic braking, self parking, and lane detection. While these technologies are a promising start toward completely autonomous vehicles, they still have their limitations, which were tragically illustrated last year when an inattentive driver’s over reliance on his Tesla Model S sedan’s semi-autonomous driving system caused a deadly crash.

Joshua Brown, 40, was traveling on a divided highway near Gainesville, Florida using the Tesla’s automated driving system known as Autopilot when a truck driver made a left-hand turn in front of him. The vehicle did not recognize the oncoming truck, which resulted in a fatal collision. Tesla stated that it told drivers of the Model S vehicle that the automated systems should only be used on limited-access highways where there are no vehicles suddenly turning into the car’s path. Despite this warning, however, the company did not incorporate protections against using using Autopilot on other types of roads.

The Model S is a level 2 on a self-driving scale of 0 to 5. Level 5 vehicles can operate autonomously in nearly all circumstances. Level 2 automation systems are generally limited to use on interstate highways, which don’t have intersections. Drivers are supposed to continuously monitor vehicle performance and be ready to take control if necessary. In its investigation of the Brown accident, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that the car’s cameras and radar weren’t capable of detecting a vehicle turning into its path. Rather, the systems are designed to detect vehicles they are following to prevent rear-end collisions.Investigators also found that Brown had his hands on the car’s steering wheel for only 25 seconds out of the 37.5 minutes the vehicle’s cruise control and lane-keeping systems were in use prior to the crash. As a result, Brown’s attention wandered and he did not see the truck turning into his path.

Heat-related deaths among high school athletes is a serious and growing problem, although one that has only recently begun to receive widespread public attention. A study by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina reports that 18 high school athletes suffered from fatal exertional heat stroke between 2005 and 2009, with an additional 19 since 2010. A representative from the Kory Stringer Institute (KSI) a sports safety research and advocacy organization located at the University of Connecticut, stated that, since 2004, the yearly average of high school students suffering from fatal heat stroke is almost twice that of the preceding decades. Although there have been many efforts at the state and local level to combat these traffic deaths, a recent study by KSI and the National Football League (NFL) found that the implementation of policies to prevent heat-related deaths is far from uniform.

The study at issue shows that many individual states are not fully implementing key safety guidelines to protect athletes from potentially life-threatening conditions. The Youth Sports Safety Alliance, an organization representing more than 100 groups, issued the guidelines, which call for access to health care professionals, better-trained coaches, and up-to-date equipment. The state-by-state survey showed that North Carolina had the most comprehensive health and safety practices, adhering to 79% of the guidelines, followed by Kentucky at 71%. At the bottom were Colorado at 23% and California at 26%. Those scores are based on a state meeting the best practice guidelines addressing the four major causes of sudden death in high school athletes: cardiac arrest, traumatic head injuries, exertional heat stroke, and exertional sickling occurring in athletes with the sickle cell trait.

Dr. Douglas Casa, of KSI,  says that progress is slow because most states only make changes to their safety guidelines after a tragedy. In his field of expertise (exertional heat stroke), Casa notes that states that have adopted significant changes to their heat acclimatization practices have not suffered any deaths from exertional heat stroke. To prevent death from EHS, best practices come down to three things:

A state appeals court in Illinois has upheld a $21 million judgment for a railroad worker whose foot was crushed on the job. Michael Parsons had been working as a conductor for Norfolk Southern Railway Company in Chicago for a year when his foot was crushed between the rail car on which he was riding and a car he had recently left on an adjacent track on the 51st/55th Street railway in Chicago. He alleged that two months before the accident, the railroad had installed new, wider switches in the yard, which narrowed the space between the tracks from 12 feet and two inches to 10 feet and five inches, and that employees were not notified of this change.

At trial, expert witnesses for Parsons testified that Illinois state law required 13-foot six-inch spaces between the centers of each track. Because he was unaware that the spaces between the tracks had been narrowed, Parsons was struck unaware and struck by a passing train. After the accident, he was transported by ambulance to the emergency room. He sustained a traumatic amputation and degloving of his left heel, with tears to the Achilles and peroneal tendons and nerves and a calcaneus fracture. Parsons was hospitalized for five weeks, during which he underwent six surgical procedures, including multiple skin grafts and removal of his calcaneus. Parsons’ counsel claimed he was unable to use his foot for two years, and when he did, it resulted in an immediate tear to the skin graft, resulting in an infection. Parsons’ medical experts testified that for the rest of Parsons’ life he will experience cycles of skin breakdown on his heel, preventing him from using his foot for three months and requiring antibiotic treatment to prevent infection. Parsons’ orthopedic expert testified the only, permanent solution would be amputation of the leg below the knee. Parsons’ vocational assessment expert testified these issues will reduce his work life by 11.4 years.

As damages, he sought $36,000,000 for future medical expenses, lost income, past and future pain and suffering, loss of normal life and disfigurement. The jury subsequently found Norfolk Southern liable and awarded Parsons $22 million, from which Norfolk Southern appealed. Their primary argument on appeal was that the damages award should have been lower because Parsons was partially at fault for the accident. The appeals panel denied all of Norfolk Southern’s claims. Revisiting testimony from the jury trial, the panel determined that the jury could find Parsons’ conduct was reasonable owing to testimony supporting claims that his conduct leading up to the accident was customary for many rail yard workers. The court also found that reducing Parsons’s award was improper because, at the age of 34, he may need surgery every four or five years for the rest of his life and that his pain and suffering will only increase.