Missouri Injury Lawyer Blog

A burn injury is any injury to the skin caused by heat, chemical exposure, friction or electricity. Most burns only affect the skin, although deeper tissue damage can occur in severe burns. They can cause disfiguring and disabling scaring as well as shock, infection, electrolyte imbalance, respiratory distress and even multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. Large burns can be fatal; in fact, burn injuries are directly responsible for more than 300,000 deaths worldwide each year. They can be very serious, and often require immediate medical attention.

Burn injuries are typically and traditionally classified into first-, second- and third-degree burns. First-degree burns usually are limited to redness of the skin along with minor pain. Second-degree burns manifest as redness of the skin along with blistering. They can be more or less painful than first-degree burns, depending on the level of nerve involvement. Second-degree burns may involve deeper tissue damage, which can take as long as three weeks to heal. Third-degree burns occur when the epidermis is lost and there is significant damage to the deeper tissue. These very serious burns result in scarring, and may require a skin graft.

The treatment of a burn injury depends on the severity of the burn as well as the cause of the injury. However, regardless of the cause or severity of the injury, the first step in performing first aid on a burn victim is to stop the burning process at its source and cool the burn wound. In most cases, this is as simple as rinsing the wound with clean water. But with chemical burns, the first step should always be to remove the chemical causing the burn. Large burns should never be exposed to cold water for longer than 20 minutes, as it could result in hypothermia. Ice and greasy substances such as butter also should be avoided. Large second- and third-degree burns may require surgery and skin grafts as well as antibiotic treatment in order to avoid infection.

If you or a loved one has suffered a serious burn injury as a result of another's negligence, a faulty or dangerous product or while at work, contact Carey, Danis & Lowe. We can help.

The terrifying and tragic story of California Highway Patrol officer Mark Saylor and his family has come to a resolution, in the form of an out-of-court settlement with Toyota. As a St. Louis automotive product liability lawyer, I hope that the settlement helps Saylor's family to gain some sense of closure amidst their sorrow. The accident that killed Saylor and his family became famous last year because it was one of the first stories of deaths blamed on Toyota and Lexus vehicles that had unintended acceleration problems. Saylor was a law enforcement officer trained in handling vehicles at very high speeds, making this tragedy particularly hard to blame on the mistakes or inexperience of the driver.

Saylor's story is a particularly dramatic version of the kind of tragedy that I see frequently in my work as a Missouri automotive defect attorney. In August 2009, Saylor, 45, was driving a 2009 Lexus E350, with his wife, Cleofe, 45; their daughter Mahala, 13; and Cleofe's brother, Chris Lastrella, 39; just outside San Diego. Lastrella called 911 to report that the car's accelerator pedal was stuck. The Lexus raced down the freeway at speeds up to 120 miles per hour, and Saylor was unable to stop it. Lastrella ended the call by saying "Hold on and pray." The Lexus hit another vehicle and landed in a ravine. Everyone in the Lexus was killed.

The devastated Saylor and Lastrella families filed a defective product claim against Toyota, the maker of Lexus vehicles, and a negligence lawsuit against the Bob Baker Lexus dealership, which owned the loaner car that Officer Saylor was driving while his own car was being repaired. In the negligence suit, the families allege that the loaner car had the wrong floor mats installed, and according to the Sheriff's Department, the floor mats may have caused the accelerator to get stuck. The families' claims against the dealership have not been resolved, but Toyota has reached a confidential out-of-court settlement with the families. Meanwhile, Bob Baker and his attorneys are concerned that Toyota did not stand with them, and wonder whether Toyota plans to help the Saylors and Lastrellas make the case that the dealership was negligent.

This case is of interest to southern Illinois vehicle defect attorneys like me because so many people have been affected by Toyota's sudden acceleration problems. There are millions of Toyota owners, and at least 93 people are believed to have died because of this defect for which 8 million cars were recalled. It's possible that there could be more we don't even know about. Toyota has insisted that the vast majority of sudden acceleration has happened because of driver error, not because of defects in their cars. Toyota's attempts to quash research into its products' design flaws suggest that the company is not as interested as it should be in making sure there is no defect -- or learning how to make sure that sudden acceleration problems do not continue. But this out-of-court settlement may signal a new willingness to make amends, if not to acknowledge the problem.

Continue reading "Family of High-Profile Runaway Acceleration Victims Settles Lawsuit Against Toyota" »

Less than a month ago, we discussed in this blog a new system that Philadelphia Eagles head trainer Rick Burkholder instituted to determine a player's readiness to return to the field after a head injury.

Regrettably, just last week, the Eagles have once again made headlines because of head injuries, but not in a good way.

Early in last week’s season opener against Green Bay, Philadelphia Eagles’ linebacker Stewart Bradley got up woozily after a play, stumbled and then collapsed on the field. Players from both teams started waving to get medical personnel on the field. Yet four minutes later, Bradley was back in the game! It wasn't until halftime that he was diagnosed with a concussion and taken out of the game.

Remarkably, the Eagles said that no medical personnel saw Bradley's collapse or the hit that caused it. They also said that their initial exam on the sidelines didn't reveal a concussion. But any of the millions of television viewers of the game could have told them it was a concussion. He was stumbling around like a boxer who had taken a number of punches to the head.

All of this raises some very difficult questions. If the NFL — and the Philadelphia Eagles in particular, with its raised awareness of the dangers of concussions and full medical staffs — has difficulty identifying so obvious a concussion, then how many serious concussions go undiagnosed and untreated (or completely unnoticed) on high school fields every weekend?

There are data which estimate approximately 70,000 reported high school football concussions a year. Reported. There also are data which suggest that as few as 25 percent of high school football concussions each year are reported. If you extrapolate the numbers, it is a truly frightening statistic.

With concussion awareness becoming more widespread, the Philadelphia Eagles took a major step backwards last week in educating younger players about concussions and their dangers.

As a Missouri auto accident lawyer, I was interested in an article about the progress of a wrongful death suit brought by family members of a high school baseball coach killed by an allegedly drunk driver. The Pulaski (Missouri) County Daily recently reported that the criminal and civil trials related to the crash will be held in separate counties to help ensure a fair trial for the defendant, since the families of both the defendant and the plaintiffs are well known in their community. News reports like this one help the public gain a better understanding of the rights and responsibilities that all of us have when we get behind the wheel of a car, and in the unfortunate event of an accident.

The crash occurred on June 4, 2009, when George Harry Widener, 65, of Jerome, was allegedly driving the wrong way on Old Route 66. His Chevy Avalanche SUV crashed head-on into Don Nelson, who was riding a motorcycle. Nelson was pronounced dead at the scene. Widener's blood alcohol content was 0.214 percent, nearly three times the legal limit of .08. Widener is criminally charged with negligent homicide, a Class B felony punishable by five to 15 years in prison. He was convicted of drunk driving three times, in 1983, 1993, and 1999, and was driving on a restored license at the time of the 2009 crash.

Nelson was Waynesville High School's head baseball coach as well as a radio sports announcer for KJPW/KFBD. Widener is a retired railroad employee, and his wife is a real estate agent. Because of the two families' prominence in the Waynesville area, Widener's attorneys requested that the civil and criminal trials be held in a different county. His attorneys argue that Pulaski County residents are prejudiced against Widener because of widespread news coverage and Nelson's prominence in the community, so it would be impossible for him to receive a fair trial in the county. Already, the court had been deluged with phone calls from Pulaski County residents attempting to lobby the judge to require a high bail amount from Widener.

However, Nelson's adult children, Kenneth Todd Nelson and Stacey Marie Cruz, who have brought the civil lawsuit, argued that their case should remain in Pulaski County. Kenneth Nelson and Cruz seek damages to compensate them for costs they have borne because of the accident, such as funeral and legal expenses, as well as “the reasonable value of the services, consortium, companionship, comfort, instruction, guidance, counsel, training and support” that they will no longer receive from their father. They also seek punitive damages in light of the “great physical pain and mental anguish” that they say their father must have experienced in the crash, and because Widener's actions demonstrated disregard for the safety of others. Widener denies responsibility for Nelson's death, saying that Nelson himself was responsible for it.

It's too early to say whether Widener will be found guilty of the charges against him, regardless of where his trials are held. But what is very clear is that when someone makes the choice to drive while intoxicated, they are not just risking their own life. Their disregard for the safety of other drivers threatens the other drivers, as well as their families. And when a drunk driver's negligent decision to get behind the wheel results in a fatal accident, an entire community can be torn apart. As Pulaski County is discovering, family, friendships and business relationships can be severed.

As a St. Louis car crash lawyer, I sympathize with Nelson's children as they go through the painful process of trying to hold Widener responsible for his alleged harm to them and their father. Preventable accidents like the one that killed their father should be far less common than they are. I have seen a lot of cases in smaller communities like Waynesville where victims' families have to see the person who hurt them in their community. This can make them feel uncomfortable about asking for compensation for their injuries. But victims need to preserve their ability to ask for compensation for the harms they have suffered. It would be unfair to expect them to not only bear the pain of their injuries but also all the expenses too -- not just funeral costs, but pain and suffering and lost quality of life.

Continue reading "Small-Town Families Devastated by Fatal Accident Caused by Allegedly Drunk Driver" »

With the recent passing of the Healthcare Reform Bill, a lot of people were arguing that they didn't want the government to get between them and their doctor. Yet it seems that many of those same people want the government to step in and put some kind of cap on medical malpractice awards. They feel that these awards and the amount of money doctors have to spend on insurance against claims are one of the biggest reasons the cost of medical treatment today is so high.

A new study in September's issue of “Health Affairs” analyzes the entire system of medical liability, including lawyers' fees, other administrative costs, malpractice awards to plaintiffs and the cost of “defensive medicine.”

While discussions of numbers usually make eyes glaze over, here are just some of the pertinent — and mind-boggling — numbers: Medical liability costs were about $55.6 billion in 2008 — that's 2.4 percent of U.S. spending on healthcare; $4 billion of that was lawyers' fees and administrative expenses; $5.7 billion was actual malpractice payments to plaintiffs; and a whopping $45.6 billion was spent on defensive medicine expenses.

So this leads us to wonder what, exactly, defensive medicine is and how we can reduce its costs? The answer to the first part of the question is easier than the second; defensive medicine is when a doctor orders tests and procedures which are not medically necessary in order to protect himself if someone tries to sue him by saying that he didn't do everything he could for a particular patient.

So when the discussion of medical malpractice reform comes up, just looking at the numbers tells us that instead of focusing on the amounts of awards (which definitely should be looked at), something needs to be done to alleviate or reduce the waste connected with defensive medicine.

And the baby should not be thrown out with the bath water. Another study showed that almost $20 billion was spent on medical errors in the U.S. in 2008. So reform is needed, but the medical liability system is also needed to protect patients from negligent doctors.

The Gallatin North Missourian recently reported that a Smithville, Mo., man was
seriously injured after being ejected from a 2010 Polaris ATV. As a Missouri ATV defect lawyer, I always notice reports of accidents like this because they confirm what many people already know, but that ATV manufacturers continue to deny: Many ATVs are dangerous simply because of how they are designed.

The newspaper said that on the morning of August 7, William Thompson, 36, was driving a 2010 Polaris ATV in a field on private property in Pattonsburg. While driving south, he attempted to make a right turn and the ATV flipped over, ejecting him. The ATV ended up right-side-up again, but facing the opposite direction. It sustained minor damage, but Thompson sustained unnamed injuries described as serious. He was taken in an ambulance to Harrison County Community Hospital. The Daviess County Sheriff's Office and two state troopers investigated the accident. The news report did not say whether Thompson was wearing a helmet or other safety gear.

In my work as a St. Louis all-terrain vehicle crash attorney, I've handled the cases of many clients injured by ATVs even though they were riding them properly and in what they thought was a safe manner. Yet, as I wrote earlier this summer, Polaris ATVs have such a long and checkered history of serious safety recalls, it's hard for ATV riders to know when they really are safe on these vehicles. Since 2000, The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued multiple recall notices for Polaris ATVs almost every year. The recalls were called for serious safety risks like defective steering mechanisms that fall apart without notice, as well as fire hazards from several different causes. In many cases, ATVs are also designed in a way that makes them unreasonably likely to flip over, despite their intended use as off-road vehicles.

I hope that Thompson makes a full and speedy recovery from his injuries. Unfortunately, injuries sustained in ATV accidents are frequently very serious. Some people are not fortunate enough to escape these accidents with their lives. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, 410 deaths were reported due to ATV accidents in 2008 alone, 74 of them of the deaths of children under the age of 16. The actual number of deaths may be even higher. Many more people -- over 135,000 -- were treated in emergency rooms for ATV-related injuries that year, 28% of them children. The average cost of hospitalization for people injured by ATVs tops $20,000. It's upsetting to think that such carnage can continue year after year while ATVs with inherently unstable designs remain on the market.

Consumers can stand up for themselves if they are injured by dangerous or defective products like ATVs. Victims of injuries caused by defective ATVs, or other types of defective products, can hold manufacturers legally responsible for the harm that their unsafe products cause. Illinois and Missouri state laws require manufacturers of consumer goods to ensure that their products are safe for consumers. Using products according to the manufacturers' directions, or according to common practice, consumers should be able to expect that they will be safe. If the consumer is injured or killed by a product even while using it in what they reasonably expected would be a safe way, the consumer can sue the manufacturer for financial compensation for his or her injuries. In a lawsuit, the expenses of pain and suffering, damage to relationships, and past and future lost wages and medical costs can all be laid at the feet of the one who caused the injuries -- the defective product's manufacturer.

Continue reading "Polaris ATV, Subject of Numerous Safety Recalls, Seriously Injures Smithville Man" »

Child custody battles are never pretty, but the ongoing tug of war between Ohio and California currently grabbing national headlines is particularly troubling. On the one side in Ohio is the biological father, Benjamin Mills Jr., who was never consulted when the biological mother, Andrea Conley, put their daughter up for adoption; on the other side in California is the would-be adoptive mother, Stacey Doss, who has taken care of the now 2-year-old girl since birth.

At the time that “baby Vanessa” was put up for adoption by her birth mother, the mother said she didn't know who the father was, and that he wasn't in the picture anymore. One snag: She lied. The father now wants custody. He has two older daughters with Conley, neither of whom he has custody of, and both of whom are being raised by his mother, Rena Jordan. Ms. Jordan also is seeking custody of Vanessa.

In this very complicated tug of war, the courts are in the middle of a minefield. The biological mother wants — and has always wanted — the baby to be adopted by Doss. Doss is the only parent the child has ever known. Yet, as the biological father, Mills’ rights should trump those of a potential adoptive parent, right? Not so fast.

Mills is apparently not a stellar example of fatherhood. In addition to Vanessa's two sisters whom, again, are being raised by his mother, he has two other children who are being raised by his ex-wife. He currently has custody of none of his children. In addition, he spent eight months in prison after being convicted for the third time on felony domestic violence charges, he has an open case against him for child endangerment and his driver's license has been suspended a number of times because he failed to pay child support.

Clearly, this is not an easy case.

The courts have a tendency to lean heavily in favor of parental rights. In this case, however, there seems to be a compelling argument to consider the rights and the best interests of the child, which seem to favor adoption.

The parties are all talking now, trying to work something out. If they can't, a custody hearing is set for the week of December 6th, and the court has made it clear that it wants this resolved soon.

Until recently, there have been only vague guidelines for what to do if and when an athlete has a concussion. Trainers would tell the player to take it easy, and they would tell the coaches that the player should be okay in a about a week. Those days are gone — especially after the recent news that former Philadelphia Eagles fullback Kevin Turner’s ALS diagnosis may be related to head trauma.

It is perhaps fitting, then, that it's Philadelphia Eagles' head trainer, Rick Burkholder, who has instituted a new system of determining a player's readiness to return to the field after a head injury. Having worked with the Eagles for 12 years and with the Pittsburgh Steelers for six, Burkholder is no stranger to dealing with concussions.

One of the major problems with concussions is that they go un- or under-reported, mainly because the immediate ramifications of an injury don't appear to be too serious. It is only in the last few years that the long-term effects are starting to be understood. Players want to play. They don't want to be sidelined. Football players especially tend to disregard or ignore their health problems in order to continue to play. But the NFL is trying to change the way players look at concussions. Every locker room in the NFL now has a poster which says, “Concussion... Let's take brain injuries out of play."

Burkholder has instituted a five-phase program for a player with a concussion. The program was developed by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Each phase is followed by a 24-hour period in which the player must be symptom-free. If any symptoms appear, the player has to repeat the previous phase. Phase 1 is easy: no-impact exercise in a quiet environment, which usually lasts three to four days. In Phase 2, which usually lasts a day or two, the training intensifies a bit and moves to the team gym. Phase 3 is the most problematic: In this phase, the player does exercises in which he starts moving his head. It can be a while before they can handle that without symptoms. In Phase 4, they'll start running pass routes and complete more sports-specific training. And in the final phase, contact is added — no tackling, but drills involving players butting up against one another.

While Burkholder admits that much is still unknown about concussions and the proper treatment of them, he feels that this new program helps to ensure that players will not be sent back to the playing field before they are ready. He also feels that attitudes are changing, too — that the players are reporting concussions more and protecting one another.