Hauppauge Personal Injury Law Blog

When people enter a nursing home on Long Island, they expect to receive compassionate, dutiful and diligent care. Unfortunately, places do not always live up to this standard. There are stories of neglect, sexual assault and elder abuse at assisted living facilities around the country. In a report from another state, one nursing home that has been the subject of a number of prior violations during recent years is now the center of an investigation into sexual assaults committed by one resident.

According to complaints registered by various residents, one man repeatedly entered fellow residents' rooms and touched them inappropriately. The nursing home's administrator did not do enough to address those complaints and prevent future assaults, said the state's Board of Nursing Home Administrators. The board has charged that administrator with negligence and professional incompetence for his inability to control the alleged assailant, who was reportedly an abuser of alcohol.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that approximately one out of every 300 newborn children will develop cerebral palsy. Those who suffer from the disease exhibit trouble with motor skills and may also present delayed cognitive growth.

Cerebral palsy's root cause lies in damage to the brain that occurs from the time a baby develops as a fetus to the time that the baby turns a couple of years old. While there are many things that can cause that brain damage--such as an infection during fetal development--doctors and other medical professionals can be responsible for a negligent birth injury that leads to cerebral palsy.

During surgery's early days, infection was common and often a source of patient mortality. Over the past 150 years, however, the surgical profession has made progress by leaps and bounds. The introduction of antiseptics and sterilization procedures have drastically reduced infections and markedly improved patient outcomes.

But surgical infections still do occur, accounting for approximately 8,000 patient deaths each year. Not every infection is evidence of medical malpractice. But hospitals are often able to hide infection data behind friendly state disclosure laws. A new report on those laws argues that more rigorous legislation will allow patients to make better choices and will force hospitals to provide better services.

Parents of newborn children in New York and around the world are extremely vigilant of anything that could adversely affect the child's health and well-being. A pediatrician may say that a light cough or an ear infection is usually not cause for great concern, but parents want to make sure nothing is wrong with their child. When a young mother took her feverish 3-month-old baby to a hospital, she expected it to be cured and unharmed.

Instead, the baby left the hospital permanently disfigured. Although the child spent just two days in the hospital, she did require an intravenous line. When she improved enough to go home, a nurse went to cut off the intravenous tube, but completely severed the baby's pinky finger. The mother has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the hospital and nurse on behalf of her daughter.