Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog

A Gladstone man and his 7-year-old daughter are recovering from their injuries after a 90-pound pit bull mix attacked them outside a friend’s home. Police later shot and killed the animal.

The Oregon dog attack occurred last Wednesday while 7-year-old Jayda Kempas was playing on a tire swing. Without provocation, Titan reportedly jumped up and clung to her left leg, pulling her off the swing and onto the ground.

Jayda’s father, Steven Hehr, heard screams and rushed to her rescue. The 31-year-old Oregon National Guard sergeant managed to get the pit bull to release his jaw from his daughter’s leg, but then the dog attacked him, biting his leg, hands, and chest in an attempt to grab his throat. Hehr also dislocated his shoulder during the incident.

Neighbors and friends came forward to help him, with two men hitting the dog about 40 times with an aluminum baseball bat. Two other people managed to tie straps around the dog’s hind quarters and get a noose around his neck. Clackamas County Sheriff deputies, who were called to the scene, eventually shot Titan.

Jayda sustained severe lacerations and puncture wounds on her legs. She underwent surgery for her injuries last Thursday. In addition to dislocating his shoulder, Hehr sustained bite wounds on different parts of his body.

At the time of the dog attack, Hehr’s friend Alan Clinansmith was in possession of Titan. He was trying to find a home for the animal. The pit bull belongs to Gresham resident Rick Harrison.

Oregon Dog Bite Incidents
If you or your child was attacked by a dog in Oregon, you may be able to fie a personal injury claim or lawsuit. Oregon’s “one bite rule” holds a dog bite owner strictly liable for personal injuries if he or she knew or should have known that the dog can be dangerous. Dog attacks and dog maulings can lead to serious injuries—even death.

Pit bull mix attacks 7-year-old, her dad in Happy Valley, OregonLive.com, November 20, 2008

Father Fights Pit Bull To Save Daughter, Fox 12 Oregon, November 20, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Dog Bite Liability, Insurance Information Institute, August 2008

National Dog Bite Prevention Week, CDC

Continue reading " 7-Year-Old Gladstone Girl and Her Father are Injured in Oregon Dog Attack Involving 90-Pound Pit Bull Mix " »

Posted by Matthew D. Kaplan | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Dog Attacks , Injuries to Minors

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According to doctors and nurses at Providence Health & Services, newborns at Oregon hospitals appear to be at risk of falling. Hospital records from Providence Hospitals indicate that 20 fall accidents involving newborns occur each year in Oregon hospitals—a figure that some researchers consider a low estimate because parents and hospital staffers don’t always report newborn falls when they occur.

In a scientific study published in the Journal of Pediatrics, reporters noted that some 600 to 700 newborn falls occur at US hospitals each year. Examples of newborn falls include babies:

• Falling out of bassinets while they are being rolled down a hallway or onto an elevator.
• Dropping onto the floor during delivery.
• Slipping through the delivering doctor’s hands and onto the ground.
• Falling out of a sleeping parent's arms.

While the report doesn’t cite any specific fall accidents at hospitals that resulted in infants sustaining serious injuries, one newborn did sustain a skull fracture. However, a 2003 article on the Whitaker Foundation’s Web site found that babies are vulnerable to traumatic brain injuries during falls when the head hits a hard surface. Traumatic brain injuries also happen to be one of the leading causes of childhood deaths.

Dr. Robert Christensen and his colleagues at Intermountain Healthcare says that newborn falls are preventable and that there are measures that hospitals can take to prevent fall accidents from happening. For example, ordering nurses to regularly check on infants that are being held by parents during the night, changing bed designs to minimize fall accidents, and modifying sedative drug use by new mothers.

Oregon hospitals, doctors, and nurses are supposed to provide newborns with the proper care following delivery. This includes implementing the proper safety procedures so that injury accidents do not happen. If medical error, negligence, or carelessness results in serious injuries to your son or daughter, you may have grounds to file an Oregon medical malpractice claim or lawsuit.

Other injuries to newborns that may be grounds for medical malpractice include:

• Birthing injuries
• Forcep injuries
• Facial paralysis
• Brachial palsy
• Cerebral palsy
• Injuries caused by heparin (or another drug) overdose
• Fractures during labor
• Wrongful death

Hospitals look into ways to prevent newborn falls, The Oregonian, November 19, 2008

Infants More Vulnerable to Serious Brain Injury From Falling Than Previously Thought, The Whitaker Foundation, August 12, 2003

Related Web Resources:

Newborn Injuries, Family Practice Notebook

Birth Injuries

Continue reading " Oregon Hospitals Take Steps to Protect Newborns from Fall Injuries " »

Posted by Matthew D. Kaplan | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Injuries to Minors , Medical Malpractice

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In Oregon, a 97-year-old pedestrian died on Saturday after she was struck by a car that was backing out of an apartment complex parking lot. Anne Hemming sustained head injuries and was pronounced dead shortly upon her arrival at Oregon Health and Science University Hospital.

The car’s driver, 79-year-old Milwaukie resident Stanley Keltz, has not been charged with any crime related to the Oregon pedestrian accident.

NHTSA Pedestrian Accidents
• There were 4,654 pedestrian deaths in 2007.
• 903 of these victims were elderly pedestrians, age 65 and older.
• 70,000 pedestrians suffered injuries in traffic accidents.
• 6,000 of the injury victims were seniors, age 65 and older.
• 60% of elderly pedestrian deaths took place at non-intersections.

Common Causes of Pedestrian Accidents
• Driver negligence
• Drunk driving
• Motor vehicle defect
• Pedestrian error
• Speeding
• Talking/texting on the cell phone while driving
• Failure to obey traffic signs
• Driver inattention

Elderly people may have a harder time than their younger adult counterparts recovering from a broken hip, a fractured bone, a traumatic brain injury, a spinal cord injury, or another serious injury. Not only may senior pedestrians need more time to heal from their injuries and infections, but chronic illnesses, such as diabetes or heart disease, may create further complications.

Personal Injury or Wrongful Death
Even if Oregon police decide not to pursue criminal charges against the driver or another party responsible for causing a motor vehicle accident, the injured person or the family of a person killed in an auto crash may still be able to hold the responsible party liable in civil court.

Woman, 97, Dies After Being Hit By Car, KPTV.com, November 16, 2008

97-year-old Milwaukie woman hit, killed by car in parking lot, Oregon City News, November 16, 2008

Pedestrians Traffic Safety Fact Sheet, NHTSA

Related Web Resources:
Older Population Traffic Safety Fact Sheet, NHTSA

Focusing on the Senior Pedestrian, Federal Highway Administration

Continue reading " 97-Year-Old Oregon Pedestrian Dies After She is Hit by Car in a Milwaukie Parking Lot " »

Posted by Matthew D. Kaplan | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Motor Vehicle Accidents , Pedestrian Accidents , Wrongful Death

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In Oregon, A Marion County Circuit Court judge added $3 million in punitive damages to the $1.5 million jury awarded to a woman who filed a sex abuse lawsuit against her stepfather. The woman, now 24, says her stepfather began sexually abusing her when she was 11 or 12.

In her lawsuit, she accuses Edward Webb of sexually molesting her and touching her inappropriately, until she was about 14 years old. While Webb is not facing criminal charges for the alleged abuse because the statute of limitations for child abuse crimes had expired, she was able to sue her stepfather under a state law that allows adults to sue people that abused them when they were children.

Child Sex Abuse
Sexual abuse can cause serious physical and emotional injury to victims. Many children who are the victims of sex abuse are too scared to speak up or may repress the memories of the abuse for years. Regardless, the emotional scars from being sexually abused can last a lifetime.

A sexual abuse victim may suffer from depression, an eating disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, drug addiction, alcoholism, have problems with sexual intimacy, or find it hard to form intimate relationships. The financial and emotional tolls that these illnesses and issues can wreak on a person's life can be very high. In many cases, the abuser is someone the victim knows, such as a family member, a family friend, a priest, a teacher, a coach, a doctor, a counselor, a daycare supervisor, or another “trusted” adult.

If your son or daughter was the victim of child sexual abuse or you were sexually abused as a child, there are legal options available to you. Not only may you be able to hold the abuser liable in civil court by filing an Oregon sexual abuse lawsuit, but there may be other parties, such as a church, a school district, or another entity that can also be held liable for personal injury.

Woman Awarded $4.5 Million in Sex Abuse Case, The World Link, November 11, 2008

Woman Awarded $4.5 Million in Sex Abuse Case, NRToday.com, November 11, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Oregon Department of Human Services

Child Sexual Abuse, American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

Continue reading " Oregon Woman Awarded $4.5 Million for Child Sex Abuse " »

Posted by Matthew D. Kaplan | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Child Sexual Abuse , Injuries to Minors

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A young Oregon couple died on Tuesday when the Jeep Wrangler they were riding in was involved in a head-on crash with a 2003 Kenworth truck. Klamath Falls residents Dotsie J. Irion, 21, and Clay J. Newcomer, 23, were pronounced dead at the crash scene on US 97.

According to Oregon State Police, the large truck, driven by Ajmer Singh, sideswiped a Dodge pickup that was pulling a horse trailer driver. The pickup was able to stop safely. However, the Kenworth, which had entered the southbound lane struck the Jeep in a head-on crash, killing the young couple.

Trucker Singh sustained minor injuries in the crash. The pickup truck driver, Merrill resident Samatha Gallagher, and her horses did not sustain any injuries in the traffic collision.

Oregon State Police are continuing to investigate the case of the deadly truck crash. The roads were reportedly covered in snow and ice when the crash happened.

Frontal-Impact Crashes
Frontal-impact crashes can lead to serious injuries for victims. In addition to head-on crashes, other examples of frontal-impact accidents include:

• The front of a vehicle crashing into the back of another vehicle.
• A vehicle crashing into a nonmoving object.
• The front of a vehicle colliding into the side of another vehicle.

Common causes of head-on crashes:

• Crossing over the centerline.
• Driving too quickly into a curve.
• Losing control of the vehicle.
• Turning directly into the oncoming path of a car, truck, bus, or motorcycle.
• Not paying attention to lane markings.
• Making wide right turns.
• Drunk driving.

Head-on collision kills young couple from Klamath Falls, OregonLive.com, November 5, 2008

Klamath Falls Couple Dies Tuesday in Highway 97 Wreck, KTVL.com, November 5, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Head-On Collisions

Oregon State Police

Continue reading " Klamath Falls Couple Killed in Oregon Large Truck Accident " »

Posted by Matthew D. Kaplan | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Motor Vehicle Accidents , Truck Accidents , Wrongful Death

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In Oregon, a Portland motorcyclist lost his leg in a motor vehicle crash with an alleged drunken driver. The accident occurred on Monday morning when Robert Schlick, a barber, was riding his Harley motorcycle to work.

According to Portland police, a 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee was driving erratically on Scholls Ferry Road when he turned a corner and moved into the oncoming lane. Schlick laid his motorcycle on the road to try and avoid being struck by the Jeep, but the impact of the motor vehicle crash left him with a shattered leg. Doctors say that Schlick may be able to use a prosthetic. Police are waiting for toxicology test results to determine whether the driver of the Jeep, 22-year-old Portland resident Paul Conklin, was driving under the influence of alcohol.

This would not be Conklin’s first arrest for drunk driving. In 2007, he pleaded no contest to DUI and underwent alcohol treatment.

Motorcycle Accidents
Motorcyclists are prone to serious injuries any time they are involved in a motor vehicle crash. Motorcycle riders only have their safety gear to protect them from the impact of colliding with a car, a truck, a bus, or a fixed object, such as a wall, a tree, or a concrete barrier.

Serious injuries in a motorcycle crash can include severed limbs, crushed bones, internal injuries, spinal cord injuries, and traumatic brain injuries.

2007 NHTSA Motorcycle Accident Statistics

• 103,000 motorcyclists were injured in the United States.
• There were 5,154 motorcycle deaths.
• 47 of the deaths occurred in Oregon.

Medical bills for treating an Oregon motorcyclist’s injuries can be very costly, and you may need multiple surgeries and rehabilitation therapy in order to recover. Taking time off from work to heal could lead to lost wages.

Portland barber loses leg in suspected DUI crash, KGW.com, October 30, 2008

Morning Beaverton Crash Under Investigation, AM 1360, October 28, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Motorcycle Traffic Safety Fact Sheet, NHTSA

Motorcycle Crashes, Insurance Information Institute

Continue reading " Portland Motorcyclist Loses Leg in Oregon Motor Vehicle Accident Involving Alleged Drunk Driver " »

Posted by Matthew D. Kaplan | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Motor Vehicle Accidents , Motorcycle Accidents

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