“Cervical Sprain/Strain” refers to an injury to the muscles, ligaments, and other connective tissues of the neck, head, and upper back resulting from a sudden and severe snapping motion, either forward and back or side-to-side. Motor vehicle crashes are among the most common causes of these injuries. Many neck strains caused by a car or truck accident result in permanent pain. The permanency of the injury is typically diagnosed by the patient’s treating orthopedic doctor.
If you have been injured as a result of a Connecticut town’s or city’s defective sidewalk, you must give written notice of the claim within 90 days of the accident to the town. If proper written notice is not given within 90 days, you will be prohibited from bringing a lawsuit against the town or city. The written notice must be filed with the town or city clerk. The written notice must identify the injury, describe the injury, describe the cause of the injury (i.e. the nature and substance of the defect or hazrad), the date and time of the incident, and the location of the incident. This crucial notification requirement is another example why it pays to retain a Connecticut personal injury lawyer soon after an accident.
If, as a result of your personal injuries, you have received medical care paid by your employee health plan, the health plan will probably be entitled to reimbursement for those expenses from any settlement you receive. This is called subrogation or third-party reimbursement. In addition, a lien may be placed on your settlement by the insurer. Whether your employee health plan has a right of subrogation is based upon the language contained in the plan or policy. Look through the document, if it contains sections entitled subrogation or third party liability, then you will be reimbursing the plan at the time of settlement. It is important to learn this early on in the case so that when the case is being settled, the lien can be factored into the settlement.
If you do not have a copy of the plan, the attorney will obtain it. When dealing with such a lien, our attorneys will work with the insurer to negoitate a compromise so that only a percentage of the lien is paid and the rest goes into the client’s pocket.
Hospital acquired MRSA (methicillin-resistant staph infection) infects about 880,000 patients a year and accounts for about 8% of all hospital infections. Hospital infections caused by all kinds of bacteria infects millions of patients per year. Nearly all of these infections are now preventable. They are preventable when doctors and the hospital staff clean their hands, rigorously practice proper hygiene and implement other preventive measures. For example, central line bloodstream infections should no longer occur. These infections take place when a device is inserted into the patient such as a tube in a vein. If the person inserting the tube has not properly washed his hands or the insertion site has not been properly cleaned, bacteria can enter the bloodstream.
Certain hospitals have taken the necessary steps to sharply reduce infection rates. However, a recent survey performed by Leapfrog (a patient-safety organization) found that 87% of hospitals fail to consistently practice infection prevention measures. This is unacceptable and Medicare agrees. Starting in October 2008, Medicare will stop reimbursing hospitals for treatment of certain device related bloodstream infections, urinary tract infections and surgical infections. Why? because Medicare has determined, and correctly so, that these infections should not bee happening and when they do happen, it is the result of the negligence on the part of the hospital.
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