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A leading cause of pediatric malpractice is a birth defect that isn’t often discussed but occurs more often than one would think: Malrotation, which involves the abnormal alignment of the bowel. This usually happens while the fetus is growing. This birth defect can also be hereditary. Occurring in 1 in 500 live births (like cerebral palsy), most cases are diagnosed by the time the baby turns one.

However, it is not uncommon for pediatricians to misdiagnose or delay diagnosis of this potentially deadly bowel condition and mistake malrotation for a mild illness, such as acid reflux. The only way to untwist the bowels if the malformation is serious is through surgery and when treatment is delayed, the defect can be fatal if blood flow to the intestines is blocked for too long. In many instances involving a misdiagnosed malrotation, a child with this birth defect end up having to be rushed to an emergency room.

Signs of Malrotation:

• Abdominal pain
• Projectile vomit that is green or yellow in color
• A bloody stool
• A swollen abdomen
• Rapid breathing or heart rate
• Drawing up of the legs
Malrotation can also result in other complications, such as Ladd’s bands, volvulus, and obstruction caused by either of these complications. The sooner malrotation is diagnosed, the better the chances that a child will recover fully and develop normally.

Pediatric Malpractice:
Your son or daughter deserves the proper medical care and when a pediatrician or another doctor is careless or makes a mistake that causes injury or death, the medical care provider should be held liable for the injuries to your child. Grounds for pediatric malpractice can include:

• Surgical errors
• Birthing injuries
• Meningitis
• Negligent care
• Delayed diagnosis
• Wrong diagnosis
• Prescription mistakes
Malrotation: Potentially fatal bowel condition often misdiagnosed as mild ailment, Chicago Sun-Times, April 21, 2009
Intestinal Malrotation, KidsHealth
Related Web Resources:
Malrotation

Malrotation and Volvulus, The American Pediatric Surgical Association

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The Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (OBPAC) has written a letter to the Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC) calling on it to push for a ban on cell phone use while driving and increase its efforts to notify the public about the dangers of distracted driving. The OBPAC not only wants the OTC to support the National Safety Council’s call that all cell phone while operating a motor vehicle be barred, but it wants details about the hazards of distracted driving to be added to Oregon’s DMV manual.

Oregon doesn’t have any laws regarding adults and cell phone use while operating a motor vehicle. The state, however, does currently ban drivers younger than 18 from text messaging or talking on a cell phone while driving.

Next week, the House Transportation Committee will hear House Bill 2377, which bans the use of “mobile communication devices” when people are driving their motor vehicles. The bill makes talking or texting on a cell phone illegal—albeit only a secondary offense, which means an Oregon police officer has to catch the offender committing another offense first. However, the law doesn’t apply to hands-free devices.

According to a 2006 University of Utah study, people who talk on cell phones while driving exhibit behavior similar to that of motorists who are drunk driving. Among the study’s findings:

• Hands-free and handheld held cell phones impair driving to an equal degree.
• Drivers who talk on cell phones tend to drive slower and step on the brakes slower than drivers who aren’t using cell phones.
• Motorists who talked on cell phones while driving exhibited 24% more variation in following distance and were 19% slower when it came to accelerating back to normal speed after braking than drivers who weren’t talking on cell phones.
• Drunk drivers tended to drive slowly but more aggressively than sober drivers. They were also slower to brake and did so with 23% more force.

If you were injured in an Oregon car accident because another motorist was driving drunk, talking or texting on a cell phone, fell asleep behind the wheel, or was impaired, distracted, or negligent in any other way, you may have grounds for filing an Oregon personal injury lawsuit.

Oregon bike/ped committee urges state to ban cell phones while driving, BikePortland.org, April 17, 2009
Drivers on Cell Phones are as bad as drunks, U News Center, June 29, 2006
Related Web Resources:
Oregon Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee, Oregon.gov
National Safety Council

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The parents of 15-year-old Austin Miller have reached an Oregon wrongful death settlement with TriMet over their son’s bicycle accident death. Austin died on February 11, 2008 when he was struck by a bus while riding a bicycle. Under the terms of the agreement, TriMet will pay Michael and Stephanie Miller $200,000 with an additional $175,000 pending adjudication.

TriMet has argued that the Oregon Tort Claims Act caps its liability at $200,000 and that is the maximum they should owe for Austin’s death. Personal injury attorneys for the Millers, however, have pointed out that the state’s current tort claims cap is now $400,000.

The Miller family’s Oregon wrongful death complaint accuses a TriMet bus driver of acting negligently when driving into the bike lane where Austin was riding his bicycle. Their wrongful death lawyer has said that the bus driver can be overheard in an audio recording telling TriMet’s dispatch that she thought she gave Austin enough space.

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According to the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about 37,313 people died in US traffic accidents last year. This annual estimated death toll is the lowest in 47 years when in 1961, 36,285 died. Last year’s fatality rate was also the lowest ever recorded at 1.28 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled.

The decrease in overall traffic accidents last year was clearly reflected in the Oregon city of Portland, where its Bureau of Transportation is reporting that 20 people died in traffic accidents last year—15 motor vehicle occupants and 5 pedestrians—and there were no bicyclist deaths. In the past, there have only been three other years—in 2000, 2006, and 2007—when the number of Portland traffic crash deaths was below 30.

Total number of traffic deaths in Portland were particularly high in the 1930’s and 1940’s before neighborhood speed limits, traffic signals, and sidewalk extenders existed. Now, the city has over 1,000 speed bumps—boasting more than any US city. It also has red light cameras, photo radar vans, and over 350 miles of designated trails, bike lanes, and boulevards. The NHTSA lists Oregon (at 96.3%) as one of the 16 US states where seat belt use is 90% or more.

According to traffic safety specialist Greg Raisman, the fact that more people are biking and walking makes them more cautious when they do get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. This is another reason why there were less Portland motor vehicle deaths last year.

Despite these improvements, there are still some areas that are considered dangerous corridors for potentially deadly Portland traffic accidents:

• Burnside Street (beginning from Southeast 20th Avenue to Northwest Cornwall Road)
• Southeast Foster Road (from 52nd to 92nd Avenues)
• 82nd Avenue (stretching from Northeast Columbia Blvd to Southeast Clatsop Street)
• North Lombard Street (from Williams Ave to the St. Johns Bridge)
• Southeast Division Street (from 82nd Avenue to 148th Street)

The decrease in Portland motor vehicle deaths, is of course, excellent, but Oregon car crashes and injuries and fatalities still happen and can be grounds for a personal injury or wrongful death claim if there are any injuries or fatalities.

Accident fatalities in 2008 lowest in Portland history, TheOutlookOnline.com, April 2, 2009
U.S. Transportation Secretary LaHood Announces Record Low Traffic Deaths, Improved State Seat Belt Use, NHTSA, April 6, 2009
Seat Belt Use in 2008—Use Rates in the States and Territories (PDF)

Related Web Resources:
City of Portland, Office of Transportation
US Department of Transportation

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The Cambridge Health Alliance is recommending that truck drivers be tested for obstructive sleep apnea. The condition, which makes individuals prone to exhaustion and falling asleep during the daytime, can be deadly in the trucker line of work.

Drivers are already on the road for hours at a time and may be exhausted from working such long shifts or irregular hours. Compounding their fatigue with a greater chance of dozing off behind the wheel of a semi-truck, a tractor-trailer, or an 18-wheeler truck does not bode well for the truck driver or the motorists or pedestrians around him or her and can result in catastrophic truck collisions.

About 2.4 million to 3.9 million commercial truckers in the United States have OSA. Some experts, however, believe that this estimate may be rather low—especially as many truck drivers don’t even know that they are suffering from sleep apnea.

A trucker afflicted with sleep apnea has a seven fold greater chance of becoming involved in a traffic accident. According to the Divided Attention Driving Test, a person who has sleep apnea may exhibit driving behaviors similar to someone who is driving drunk—meaning that their ability to drive responsibly and safely can become severely impaired.

The Cambridge Health Alliance is also reporting a noticeable connection between obesity and obstructive sleep apnea. Findings of their study, which confirms that obesity-driven test strategies can help identify the truck drivers that are at risk of having OSA, can be found in the March 2009 issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The study recommends making OSA screenings mandatory for commercially licensed truck drivers. Meantime, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is considering whether to require all obese truckers to undergo sleep apnea screenings.

In 2006, an article in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine reported that many of the approximately 5,600 commercial truck crash-related deaths that occur in the US every year happen because a trucker fell asleep behind the wheel. Identifying the truck drivers that are more prone to drift off behind the wheel because they have OSA could save lives.

Obesity Linked To Dangerous Sleep Apnea In Truck Drivers, Science Daily, March 12, 2009
Many Commercial Drivers Have Impaired Performance Due To Lack Of Sleep, Science Daily, August 16, 2006
A Study of Prevalence of Sleep Apnea Among Commercial Truck Drivers, FMCSA
Related Web Resources:
Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Sleep Disorder Channel
Sleep Apnea, National Institute of Health

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Natasha Richardson, who died this month from a traumatic brain injury, was just 45-years-old. The movie star was young, talented, had a loving husband and two young boys, and no one expected her to die so suddenly and unexpectedly—after a fall on a beginner’s ski slope.

Richardson struck her head, and although there are reports that she initially turned down an offer for medical attention—it wouldn’t be until a second ambulance arrived at the ski resort that she was finally whisked away—one can’t help but wonder how her life’s story would have turned out if she or someone else had known enough to insist that she receive medical care immediately.

Autopsy reports indicate that the movie star died because of a blunt impact to the head that resulted in an epidural hematoma. This kind traumatic brain injury can cause the brain to swell and bleeding to occur. It can also take awhile for symptoms of this TBI to appear, and if too much time passes, this injury can prove fatal.

Common causes of an epidural hematoma include fall accidents, assault incidents, motor vehicle crashes, motorcycle accidents, and slip accidents. Of course, there are other kinds of traumatic brain injuries that can also occur from these kinds of accidents.

The sooner someone with a TBI or another kind of head injury gets medical attention—even if the injury appears mild or minor—the faster any potentially serious condition can be diagnosed and the more time there will be to prevent the injury from becoming catastrophic or fatal.

A person who survives an accident with a serious brain injury could end up permanently impaired and debilitated and, depending on the seriousness of the TBI, require ongoing, costly medical care. The financial and emotional toll on the TBI patient and his or her family can be tragically life changing, which is why, if someone you love sustained a traumatic brain injury in an Oregon accident that occurred because another party was negligent, you should speak to a Portland personal injury lawyer as soon as possible.

Richardson died during Brain Injury Awareness month.

911 Calls Show Urgency Of Richardson Fall, CBS News, March 31, 2009
Actress Natasha Richardson buried in Upstate New York, Chicago Tribune, March 23, 2009
Related Web Resources:
Brain Injury Awareness Month 2009

Brain Injury Association of America

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In Albany, Oregon, five people were hurt in a Linn County multi-vehicle crash on Friday when a driver in a stolen Jeep Cherokee ran a red light while fleeing from police. The suspect, 22-year-old Portland resident Kyle Holder, ran a red light before colliding with an Eagle Summit, a Toyota pickup, and a Nissan Sentra. Holder then fled the scene on foot but was later apprehended by police.

Oregon car crash victims who were injured include John Dinnis, 63, and Candice Dinnis, 56, who are both from Monmouth, John Carreira, 46, Robert Foss 49, and Scott Foss, 19, who are all from Albany.

Holder faces five counts of third-degree assault charges in Linn County and he is wanted in Multnomah County for assault, robbery, attempted strangulation, harassment, theft, burglary, and interfering with the making of a police report.

Running a Red Light
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, about 260,000 motor vehicles accidents occur every year because a driver ran a red light. For example, 206,000 US traffic accidents occurred because of red light running in 2003—934 people died and 176,000 got hurt as a result.

A few common reasons why people run red lights:
• To avoid having to wait for the light to turn green again.
• To avoid law enforcement officers who might be pursuing them.
• Driver distraction causes them to not realize they are about to run a red light.

Running a red light can lead to serious auto injury accidents. The driver responsible for causing a traffic accident because he or she ran a red light can also be held liable for Oregon personal injury or wrongful death.

For motorists wishing to protect themselves against red light runners, the Allstate Web site recommends:
• Make sure that when the light at the intersection in front of you turns green that you check to make sure there are no vehicles on all sides of you that are about to run a red light.
• Drive carefully into an intersection in case a motorist decides to run a red light.
• Pay extra attention when turning at intersections.

Man caught in Albany chases faces more charges in Portland, OregonLive.com, March 24, 2009
5 injured in 4-car crash as driver flees police, KVAL.com, March 23, 2009
Running red lights, Allstate
Related Web Resources:
Oregon DMV

State Traffic and Speed Laws, MIT.edu

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In Oregon, the family of Tracey Sparling is suing a cement truck driver and his employer for her wrongful death. Sparling, 19, sustained fatal crush injuries on October 11, 2007 after her bicycle was struck by the large truck. The deadly Portland truck accident occurred at the intersection of Burnside and Southwest 14th Avenue.

Both Sparling and truck driver Timothy Wiles were stopped at a red light. Sparling was stopped in a bike lane located on the right side of the road in an area that Wiles couldn’t see.

When the light turned green, the trucker turned right. Sparling was crushed under the truck’s back wheels. The cement truck, which weighed 40,000 pounds, belonged to Rinker Materials, which was purchased by Cemex Corp.

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In Oregon, lawmakers are considering revising the current state drunk driving laws so that they include all substances that could impair someone’s ability to safely drive a motor vehicle. The current Oregon DUI laws cover alcohol and controlled drugs. A person apprehended or who causes an Oregon motor vehicle accident because he or she was abusing medication or overmedicated, however, cannot currently be prosecuted for drunk driving because state law regarding driving under the influence of intoxicants does not define these substances as intoxicants.

Those who oppose changing the law, however, say adding prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs to the list of intoxicants under Oregon’s drunk driving laws would place motorists who actually need to take the medication for their health at a huge disadvantage.

Impaired Driving Caused by Medication
Catastrophic Oregon motor vehicle crashes have been known to occur because a motorist was under the influence of strong medication. For example, one teen driver drank two bottles of Robitussin cough medicine right before becoming involved in an Oregon rollover accident. Although Portland police charged him with Oregon DUI, the criminal charge was eventually dropped.

Medication and Driving
Medication, depending on the kind of drug and the dose taken, can lead to drowsiness, dizziness, difficulties focusing, nausea, vision difficulties, delayed reflexes, and unconsciousness. These are not the kind of side effects you want to have when operating a motor vehicle anywhere in the United States.

While many medications are prescribed by doctors to maintain a patient’s health, especially someone who is suffering from depression, heart problems, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, high blood pressure, schizophrenia, and other conditions, it is the responsibility of the person taking the drugs to make sure that he or she doesn’t drive while under the influence of such medicines.

Any kind of impaired driving is dangerous driving. Too many lives are lost every day in drunk driving accidents because someone was driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or medication.

Oregon ponders new drunken driving law, SeattlePINews.com, March 9, 2009
Related Web Resources:
Impaired Driving, CDC
Driving Under the Influence of Intoxicants, Oregon State Legslature

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A new study published in the new issue of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery is reporting that children have a greater chance of getting bitten by a dog and sustaining a serious injury to the neck or head areas in the summer time. This finding is based on an analysis of 84 dog bite cases involving child victims.

The reason for why this happens is not clear, but two possibilities are that the hot weather may put dogs in a worse mood, while kids tend to spend more time outside the house playing with pets.

According to the study:
• Family pets caused 27% of dog bite injuries.
• 34% of dog bite wounds occurred on children’s cheeks.
• 21% were lip injuries.
• 8% were ear injuries.
• 8% were nose injuries.
• The average wound size was 7.15 centimeters.
• 64% of children who sustained dog bite wounds had injuries on more than one part of the body.
• The pit bull is the breed most likely to attack or maul a child victim.

Children and Dog Bites
Dog bites can cause serious harm to a child. A dog that mauls a child can cause serious bodily harm and/or facial disfigurement. Sometimes, it may take years until a child is fully-grown before he or she can undergo all the necessary reconstructive surgeries. This can lead to ongoing physical suffering, as well as mental and emotional trauma. Serious scarring from dog bite wounds can also deprive a boy or girl from experiencing a normal childhood.

In the US, about 44,000 dog attacks each year result in facial injuries. 1% of all emergency room visits involve a patient who was injured in a dog attack or a dog mauling. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 800,000 dog bite victims a year will require medical treatment. Nearly 50% of people injured in dog attacks are younger than age 12.

Dog bite risk for kids greatest in summer

Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery

Related Web Resources:
Dog Bite Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Most dog bites are avoidable, Post-Gazette.com, January 26, 2009

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50 SW Pine St 3rd Floor Portland, OR 97204 Telephone: (503) 226-3844 Fax: (503) 943-6670 Email: matthew@mdkaplanlaw.com
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