Injuries to Minors

September 19, 2010

New NFL Season Turns Spotlight on Brain Injuries

After a spring and summer spent, in part, answering claims that the league may not take brain and spinal cord injuries seriously enough, NFL officials cannot have been pleased that the new season’s first week brought all of these questions back into play. During last Sunday’s season opener, as the New York Times reports, Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Stewart Bradley lay motionless on the field for several minutes. Though taken off the field for medical reasons he returned to the game, the paper reports, “less than four minutes later.” At halftime team doctors diagnosed him with a concussion.

As the Times notes, however, the real question is what example all of this is setting for younger players. NFL teams are well-positioned to offer their players immediate and on-going medical care. At the high school level, in particular, that is far less likely to be the case. As the Times notes, “only 42 percent of high schools in the United States have access to a certified athletic trainer, let alone a physician.”

The danger is that youngsters inspired by dreams of NFL glory are taking and giving sharper hits than they should, and that many schools are ill-equipped to deal with the consequences.

September 12, 2010

Oregon Child Injury Car Crash Kills Two

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The Oregonian reports that the 6-year-old survivor of a Labor Day weekend Oregon car crash is still hospitalized in serious condition, even as the operator of the car that caused the accident has been charged with a series of vehicular offenses by the district attorney in Klamath Falls.

The boy was seriously injured, and his great-grandparents killed, when 22-year-old Carrie Ames allegedly slammed into them in a head-on Oregon car crash. Ames and an 18-year old passenger in her car suffered only minor injuries.

According to The Oregonian, Ames has been charged “with two counts of first-degree manslaughter, driving under the influence of intoxicants, second-degree assault in connection with the 6-year-old’s injuries, and third-degree assault in connection with injuries “ to the teenage passenger in her own car.

September 9, 2010

Kansas Accident Shines Spotlight on Inflatable Rides

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Have you ever been to a carnival, or even a child’s birthday party and wondered just how safe those moonwalks, bouncy castles and other portable ‘rides’ are? According to a recent article in the Wichita Eagle, a Kansas court case looks set to bring those issues into focus.

According to the newspaper, the civil lawsuit was filed last month by the parents of a five-year-old boy who died after being thrown from an inflatable ride called King of the Hill. The newspaper describes this as being “designed like a large mattress – flat except for a bulge in the middle – and… surrounded by a 2-foot-high inflatable barrier.” Parents were allegedly told to place a child in the center of the ‘mattress’ and then to jump up and down themselves on the inflatable’s sides, causing the child to fly into the air. Having done this a few days earlier for the boy’s birthday party the five-year-old’s family returned to the same amusement park a few days later, using free passes they had received during the birthday celebration. On this second visit, however, the child was launched over the inflatable barrier. He landed head-first on the facility’s concrete floor, resulting in his death.

The parents also charge that the ride was “underinflated and unsupervised” and that the operator ignored the manufacturer’s recommendation that the ride was for children ages 8 and up.

August 30, 2010

Oregon HS Football Players felled by rare muscle condition

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Media reports over the last ten days have noted the strange case of nearly 20 Oregon high school football players taken ill after practice with a rare muscle disorder. According to the Associated Press three of the teens needed surgery “and 16 others were treated after suffering muscle damage following a fall camp.” The high schoolers are suffering from a rare condition known as “compartment syndrome” in which high levels of enzymes released after heavy exercise can, in some cases, lead to kidney failure. The constant repetition of the fact that the victims are football players, however, can obscure the fact that they are high schoolers – children, in the eyes of the law – and raises the question of what level of responsibility ought to be assigned to McMinnville High School and its football coach.

According to an article in The Oregonian, doctors familiar with the case say an intense combination of “high heat, dehydration and heavy exercise” may have led to the mass case of compartment syndrome. The doctors are also, however, “waiting for blood tests looking for the presence of creatine, a legal, loosely regulated and widely available bodybuilding supplement present in a number of weight-gain products that has been linked to an increased risk of sports-related injury.”

These Oregon child injuries, taking place at a high school sports practice, raise serious questions about the school’s responsibility – where it should start and where it should end. In particular, if creatine is found in the players’ blood that, in turn, would raise questions about whether the team’s coaches were aware of supplement use among their players and what, if anything, they may have done to warn against it.

August 21, 2010

Oregon Child Injured in Bike Accident May Have Been Saved by Helmet

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Luck, and his helmet, appear to have saved the life of a 13-year old Milwaukie, Oregon child injured this week in an Oregon bike accident. According to The Oregonian, the boy “survived a collision with a car”, in part because he was wearing a heavy-duty helmet received as a gift from his mother only days earlier.

The Oregon bicycle accident took place at the intersection of Southeast Thiessen and Oetkin Roads south of Milwaukie’s city center. According to the newspaper, a motorist making a left turn collided with the boy, throwing him off the bike head-first and into the car’s windshield.

The boy “suffered a broken toe, dislocated left hip and fractured femur in the crash,” The Oregonian reported, but, thanks to the helmet, has no serious head injuries. Police officers quoted by the newspaper speculated that the boy was helped by the fact that he was wearing a heavy-duty skateboarding helmet rather than a traditional bike helmet at the time of the accident. The difference in helmets may have been a factor in the boy’s avoidance of Oregon traumatic brain injury.

August 8, 2010

New Massachusetts ATV Laws – A Model for Oregon?

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A new measure signed into law in Massachusetts this week raises questions about whether Oregon has sufficiently strong laws regarding young riders and ATVs. As outlined by Boston TV station WCVB, the measure, known as “Sean’s Law,” raises the minimum age for ATV operation in Massachusetts from 10 to 14. The law is named after a 8 year old boy who died in an ATV accident in 2006.

New laws such as this are necessary because of the disturbing ways in which some ATV manufacturers market their products. Advertising materials show families using ATVs – in some cases portraying children who in many states would be breaking the law by being on one. Manufacturers downplay the tendency of ATVs to flip over and the serious consequences that can come from being pinned under one. ATVs are neither small nor light.

Here in Oregon there is no minimum age for operating an ATV, though operators below the age of 30 are required to complete a safety education course (by 2014 that requirement will apply to all Oregon ATV riders regardless of age). The course can be taken either in person or online, though beginning in 2012 the “hands-on” version will be required for Oregonians 15 and younger.

July 17, 2010

Government Highlights Potential Dangers of Open Windows

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A new public information initiative from the Consumer Product Safety Commission takes hot summer weather as a starting point to highlight the potential danger of open windows. It is an admonition Oregon parents should take to heart.

The CPSC reports that an average of eight children aged five or younger are killed each year after falling from windows, and a shocking 3300 per year require emergency room treatment. As the agency notes, many of these deaths and injuries are eminently preventable. CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum used the news release to call for greater parental responsibility. “It takes active supervision on the part of the parent or caregiver, and a device called a window guard,” she said. “Screens are meant to keep bugs out, not kids in.”

Tenenbaum’s comment refers to the fact that a large number of injuries from window falls begin with children leaning on screens. Small children, of course, do now understand that a screen won’t hold their weight. Parents, however, ought to know better and need to be both vigilant and proactive.

June 28, 2010

Oregon Abuse Suit Can Go Forward: Supreme Court

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A Supreme Court decision issued today allows an Oregon sexual abuse lawsuit against the Vatican to go forward, raising the possibility that the Catholic Church may have to defend itself in Oregon courts against allegations that it covered up repeated abuse by a priest.

The Oregon child abuse case, officially known as Holy See v John Doe, was brought by an alleged abuse victim. It turns on the actions of Father Andrew Ronan, an Irishman who the church moved from his native country to Chicago and later to Portland as abuse accusations followed him from place to place from the 1950s through the 1980s, according to Associated Press. Ronan died in 1992. The suit’s plaintiff is seeking damages from the church, as Ronan’s employer, for abuse he suffered as a teenager in 1965.

The Vatican, in turn, claims that as a sovereign state it is shielded from such liability under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act – a law that prevents individuals from suing foreign countries except in a few, relatively narrow, circumstances. On Monday the Supreme Court turned down the Vatican’s appeal, letting lower court rulings in favor of the plaintiff stand. Those earlier rulings held that the Vatican’s sovereign immunity was not absolute and that the church “could be sued in a U.S. court on certain grounds,” according to the Washington Post.

June 25, 2010

Wide-ranging Crib Recall Raises Oregon Injury, Liability Issues

by Matthew D. Kaplan

An enormous recall effort effecting over 2 million baby cribs distributed under the brands of seven different companies was announced this week. The recall action raises issues of liability and responsibility that many Oregon parents would do well to think about in the coming days and weeks.

The recall applies specifically to so-called ‘side-drop’ cribs, in which one of the crib’s long sides is hinged to allow parents easier access to the baby. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the sides of the cribs in question can come loose and drop unexpectedly, creating the danger of trapping children’s heads as they fall. The Associated Press reports that no deaths have been linked to the cribs, but that “at least 16” instances of entrapment have been documented, including one that led to the hospitalization of a child.

The CPSC’s website warns parents not to try to repair the cribs themselves and notes that “new mandatory standards to make cribs safer” are being prepared by the agency. These are expected to be formally issued before the end of this year. The Commission’s website offers links to the manufacturers of the recalled cribs, through which consumers can obtain information on the specific recall procedures for different brands.

April 25, 2010

Oregon Sexual Abuse Damages Ordered for Boy Scouts

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Following up a story I blogged about earlier this month, the news broke late last week that an Oregon jury has awarded the victim $18.5 million in punitive damages in a high-profile Oregon child sexual abuse case involving the Boy Scouts, according to media reports. Earlier this month the Oregon jury awarded $1.4 million in compensatory damages for pain and suffering. The victim in this case, now 38, sued after determining that a scoutmaster had abused him in the 1980s.

As I’ve previously written, this case has attracted national attention. The New York Times noted that the case marked a rare instance in which the Boy Scouts’ confidential files on alleged sexual abuse and other inappropriate behavior by scout leaders were available to a jury. According to the Times: “Known variously as the “perversion files,” the “red flag files” and the “ineligible volunteer files,” the documents have been maintained for more than 70 years at the Scouts’ national office in Texas.” According to The Oregonian, the case marked only the second time that the records had been available to a jury.

Still to be decided by the judge is whether the files seen by the jury will now also be opened for public scrutiny. According to The Oregonian the Boy Scouts currently have about 2.8 million members, supervised by 1.1 million adult volunteers. The organization began running criminal background checks on volunteers in 2003, the paper reports. Numerous media reports have indicated that the precedent set by opening the Scouts’ files may unleash a flood of litigation nationwide.