There is never a shortage of issues to discuss in the world of personal injury, and April 2014 has been no exception. Current topics include mammography and its coverage by the media, dysfunction in healthcare, schools near dangerous chemical facilities, and a potentially record-breaking rate of car recalls this year.
Here’s what other personal injury and worker’s compensation lawyers have been talking about over the past few weeks:
Miscommunicating the Science of Mammography (Protect Patients Blog). This article highlights some of the confusing, conflicting, and sometimes misleading information about mammography. The article discusses the difficulty that the media seems to have with reporting on mammography studies accurately and objectively and harshly criticizes the media for its lack of “nuanced balance” with respect to this area of medical research.
Podcast: Dysfunction and Accountability in Health Care. ProPublica hosted a podcast on April 28, 2014 on the dysfunction within the health
care system and the ways that it is hurting patients. The podcast featured David Goldhill, president and CEO of the game-show television network GSN, whose book “Catastrophic Care: Why Everything We Think We Know about Health Care Is Wrong” focuses on the ways that the health care system isn’t held accountable for its mistakes like other industries. For instance, Medicare – which is often viewed as a success because it pays for medical care at reduced prices – may be fraught with problems. According to Goldhill, “when you look at the data, you get a much more subtle view, which is low prices, little admin, little oversight encourage a type of medicine that may be excessive, and wasteful. And the prices may be low, but people may be performing too many of them.”
Interactive Map: Students, Others at Risk from Hazardous Chemical Facilities (Workers Compensation Law Blog). According to this article, an alarming number of children attend schools near dangerous chemical facilities which puts them at risk for environmental hazards and chemical accidents. In fact, “one in ten American schoolchildren study within one mile of a potentially dangerous chemical facility.” Just last year, a fertilizer facility in West, TX exploded, destroying one school and irreparably damaging two other schools.
Recalled Cars – A New World Record? (The Pop Tort). According to the Associated Press, approximately 9 million vehicles have been recalled in the U.S. so far this year, including about 5.6 million GM cars and SUVs, and 2.85 million Toyotas. The AP notes, “If that pace continues, the nation would break the record of 30.8 million recalled vehicles set in 2004.” The article also points out that, despite the recent attention on defective vehicles, there seems to be a certain level of obliviousness of the issue. An article in the New York Times reported:
“For all the attention, there remains considerable ignorance of the issue.
Malisa Norman, a 35-year-old home health aide in Latta, S.C., was unaware of the recall when she bought a used 2007 Cobalt in February — days after the recall was announced.
A few weeks later she was driving near her home when she says the car suddenly stopped running, veered off the road and hit a tree. The air bags did not deploy, and Ms. Norman says she and her 18-year-old son were injured in the accident.
Ms. Norman purchased the car from E-Z Credit, a used-car dealership in Dillon, South Carolina. She said she was never told that her car had been recalled. She happened to have only a small angel ornament hanging from her key ring, but she said she had not been told there were any issues with items on a key chain. Drivers have been told by G.M. that extra weight on the car’s key ring can make a shutdown more likely.”
