Personal Injury and Social Security Disability Blog

Friday Fun

Is this where we're all headed someday? Senior Olympic Synchronized Swimming

National Do Not Call Registry

There have been many incorrect Internet rumors about cell phones and the National Do Not Call Registry. To help clear up this confusion my friend, business litigator David Abeshouse of Uniondale, NY, sent me a copy of the consumer information that came with a new cell phone he just bought. Here are the facts:

Protect yourself from unwanted calls with the National Do Not Call Registry Program.

• FCC regulations prohibit telemarketers from using automated dialers to call wireless numbers.
• Personal wireless device users can add their wireless numbers to the National Do Not Call Registry Program.
• The federal government does not maintain a national wireless device registry.

You can register by either of the following methods:

1. By wireless device: 1-888-382-1222 from the number you wish to register.
2. Online at: www.donotcall.gov.

Your registration becomes effective within 31 days of signing up and is active for five years. There is no cutoff date or deadline for registering.

Featured Link — Chron's Disease Information

We see many heart-breaking cases of Chron's disease in our Social Security disability department. This disease can be devastating on a person's ability to work.

The Healthline site has excellent information about Chron's disease. Here is a description of the disease from the site:

Crohn's disease—also known as regional enteritis—is an illness that is characterized by abnormal inflammation within the digestive tract. This inflammation can cause a host of other complications that can interfere with the body's ability to process food and can even be life threatening.

At this time, Crohn's disease is incurable, and its cause remains unknown. The good news, however, is that Crohn’s can be successfully managed, allowing many of its sufferers to minimize its effect on their lives.

Crohn's commonly strikes the lower portion of the small intestine (called the ileum) or parts of the large intestine (the colon), but symptoms can appear anywhere within the gastrointestinal system from the mouth to the anus.

It can cause deep inflammation which affects most or all of the tissue layers in the affected area, and it is not unusual for there to be a number of diseased portions present at the same time, with portions of healthy tissue in between.

The disease can cause symptoms in cycles, with active periods of severe symptoms followed by other periods where a person can be mostly or completely free of symptoms.

Dodge Ram Named 'Most Dangerous Car' in America

Wow — I'm glad I don't drive a Dodge Ram. This is nothing to brag about: that truck was just named the most dangerous vehicle in America. Here's the story from the New York Daily News:

It’s the title no automaker wants to have, but was given to the Dodge Ram by 24/7 Wall St., a financial publication that put together a list of the worst cars on the road based on testing scores from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Consumer Reports, the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration and consumer analyst JD Power.

The Ram 1500, a long-standing high-selling pickup truck in the United States, has a safety track record that "has long been unimpressive," said 24/7 Wall St., noting poor crash testing results. It also scored a poor 2/5 from JD Power's Initial Quality Study.

In second place was the Chevrolet Colorado Crew Cab, which earned poor side impact grades and marginal grades for rollover, along with a recall last year due to seatbelt safety concerns.

Mazda vehicles took an ignominious third and fourth place in the study, with the CX-7 and CX-9.

No European automakers found themselves among the worst-scoring seven models, which contained three US-made cars and four Japanese-made models.

America's most dangerous vehicles:

1. Dodge Ram

2. Chevrolet Colorado Super Cab

3. Mazda CX-7

4. Mazda CX-9

5. Nissan Pathfinder

6. Jeep Wrangler

7. Suzuki SX4

Ethicon Announces It Will Stop Sales of Vaginal Implants

Ethicon, a division of the giant Johnson & Johnson company has told a federal judge in West Virginia that it plans to stop selling vaginal mesh implants, in part because of hundreds of lawsuits filed against it by women who say they were damaged by the implants. Ethicon has asked for about three months to wind down production and get the products off the market.

More than 600 women thus far have sued, claiming internal injuries caused by the mesh eroding and shrinking over time.

The Food and Drug Administration has refused comment on the decision to stop selling the devices. However, an FDA report last year found that deaths or injuries had increased about 500% due to malfunctions possibly connected  to vaginal mesh for organs that slump, or “prolapse,” because of weakened support. The FDA had said earlier this year that Johnson & Johnson had sold at least one of the implants for three years without proper government approval.

Friday Fun

Maybe this site is "fun" only for us wannabe astronomers, but I think it's fascinating. It's a collection of high-resolution photos taken by the Hubble telescope. Take a look. Source: Hubblesite.org

Kids Eating Packets of Laundry Detergent

One of the latest dangers parents need to understand is the allure of Tide detergent packets to kids. There have been reports of poisoning, but not death, of children who swallow these candy-like packages. Fortunately, Tide has pledged to remedy the situation, but until that happens, there will be many of these dangerous products in households across the country.

The story was recently detailed in an article at Philly.com. Here are excerpts:

Miniature laundry detergent packets arrived on store shelves in recent months as an alternative to bulky bottles. But doctors across the country say children are confusing the tiny, brightly colored packets with candy and swallowing them.

Nearly 250 cases have been reported this year to poison-control centers. Though they remain a tiny fraction of the thousands of poisoning calls received every year, doctors are concerned. The symptoms they see in connection with ingesting the packets - such as nausea and breathing problems - are more severe than typical detergent poisoning. No deaths have been reported.

"We're not quite sure why it's happening," said Kurt Kleinschmidt, a toxicologist and professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. "But we've clearly had some kids who have become much more ill. We look at these pods as being clearly more dangerous than the standard detergent."

Tide, Purex, and other detergent manufacturers introduced versions of the packets earlier this year. The lightweight, colorfully swirled plastic packets contain a single-use amount of detergent.

Several poison-control centers started to get calls about the packets in March and April. Texas reported 71 instances of exposure this year, all but one in March or later.

 

Actos May Be Linked to Increased Risk of Bladder Cancer

Reuters reported that, according to a study published online in BMJ, the diabetes medication Actos (pioglitazone) may be linked to an increased risk of bladder cancer.

HealthDay reported that investigators "collected data on nearly 116,000 people treated for diabetes from 1988 to 2009 and listed in the General Practice Research Database, which contains records from more than 600 medical offices in the United Kingdom."

MedPage Today added that "patients with type 2 diabetes who were ever treated with pioglitazone had an 83% higher risk for bladder cancer (adjusted rate ratio 1.83, 95% CI 1.10 to 3.05) than those who had never used the thiazolidinedione." The investigators reported that "this was a drug-specific effect, because patients taking rosiglitazone (Avandia) did not have an elevated risk (RR 1.14, 95% CI 0.78 to 1.68)." The findings from "this analysis differed from those of a study being presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, which suggested that the bladder cancer risk was a class effect for glitazones."

From the American Association for Justice news release.

Dallas Approves School Bus Cameras To Crack Down On Reckless Drivers

One of the few traffic laws I'm never guilty of violating is passing school buses when they're stopped. I know how little (and big) kids run out into the street without looking or thinking about traffic, and I sure don't want to hit anyone's child. But there are many drivers who either don't know or don't care that the law says you cannot pass a stopped school bus. For that reason, the Dallas City Council recently approved a test program of placing cameras on all 1700 Dallas County School buses.

Here are excerpts from a Dallas Morning News article about the school bus cameras:

The ordinance, two years in the making, will operate much like the laws that allow for red-light cameras. Footage of the violation will be recorded and sent to law enforcement, and the vehicle’s registered driver will receive a $300 ticket in the mail.

Enforcement of the ordinance is scheduled to start at the beginning of next school year.

“This is a great day for the kids of Dallas and their safety,” said Larry Duncan, president of the Dallas County Schools board and a former City Council member.

Dallas County Schools, which operates buses for Dallas ISD and some suburban school districts, hopes to approach other municipalities to follow Dallas’ lead, Duncan added.

Dallas County Schools proposed the initiative in 2010 and installed cameras on six buses during a monthlong study.

Duncan said they found that during each bus trip, at least one driver illegally passed a stopped bus — sometimes it was as many as 10.

With 60,000 students riding 1,700 Dallas County Schools buses every day, Duncan called the study’s results “a real nightmare.”

Duncan estimated that in the first year, the program would bring in almost $11 million in fines, covering the cost to install cameras on Dallas County Schools’ fleet.

All of the revenue would go toward safety, he said, adding that the employment of crossing guards will be handled by Dallas County Schools instead of the city.

Still, if the enforcement of these automated tickets is anything like the red-light camera tickets, many violators won’t pay their fines. According to a Dallas Morning News survey from last year, nearly a third of red-light camera tickets in North Texas were never paid.

It is difficult to punish drivers who choose to throw the tickets in the trash because they face a civil penalty, not a criminal one. They need not fear an arrest warrant or having the ticket show up on their driving record. However, they might, depending on the municipality, have a collection agency call to demand payment.

But even if the tickets go unpaid, several studies in Texas have shown that red-light cameras can be beneficial to public safety.

The Texas Transportation Institute, part of Texas A&M University, released a report in August showing that in two years, red-light-related crashes across the state dropped by about 27 percent compared with the two years before the cameras were installed.

Duncan said the boost in safety that will result from the bus cameras far outweighs the issue of uncollected revenue.

“I anticipate that we have to work at enforcement, but I do think it will improve over time,” Duncan said. “But because it involves our kids, I think safety’s much more important.”

Mixed Opinions on Social Security Disability Insolvency

This guest post is by Mr. Gene Maryushenko at Fisher & Talwar

Several new headlines, including an earlier post right here by Mr. Jim Loxley  have pointed to the gnawing fact that SSDI trust fund is expected to run out within the next 4 years – unless something is done about it. Today, the congressional blog “The Hill” featured a post about how misinformation has led to increasing attacks on the disability program. Former Democratic representative Charlie Melancon has expressed an opinion stating that the old “cut waste, fraud and abuse” rhetoric has become quite dangerous in the context of SSDI.

With budgeting shortfalls, the federal government has been desperate to trim “waste and abuse,” perhaps arguably ignoring the issue of Social Security Disability Entitlement fund running out.  There is no argument that the unemployment rate is closely associated with increasing Social Security disability claims. A White House report (Figure 5) shows suggestive evidence that those nearing the end of unemployment benefits collection are much more likely to apply for SSDI benefits. Well, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that people are desperate to survive in our current economy despite the legitimacy of their disability claims. However, Melancon argues the claims that qualification is easy and points to the heightened screening measures taken on by the agency since the early 80’s. The “budget hawks” – as Melancon puts it, are eager to cut some of the most important programs such as SSDI with claims that it is festered with abuse and waste.

Every Good Cause is Worth Some Inefficiency

Those eager to cut the program point to inefficiencies of over 1.4 million backlogged benefits reviews – resulting in many continuously collecting disability benefits despite recovery from injuries.  Some are also quick to point out that the program unfairly prevents homeless who actually qualify for benefits from receiving them, because many don’t have access to a doctor – the only authorized individuals to access a medical claim. Most agree that the process for evaluating a claim is very difficult because there is a considerable difference on an individual basis in what constitutes a disability.

According to the RAND Center for Disability Research, many applicants come from a background of extremely low-paying jobs and seek the agency’s aid in medical coverage through Medicare (available after a two-year waiting period). The easy access to Medicare by qualifying disability beneficiaries has put a strain on an already costly program and last year amounted to nearly $212 billion dollars in spending combined.

Either way anyone argues it, once the funds run out the Social Security program is going to take a 21% cut in benefits, affecting nearly 11 million people, many of whom have legitimate claims and are very concerned.

In my opinion, the federal government is going to patch up the problem as it always has with the tax dollars of working Americans, in hopes of creating a more comprehensive plan later. Whether this quick fix will allow for enough time to fix the larger issue at hand is questionable. Perhaps the federal government will take a closer look at its discretionary spending for a more permanent solution.

What do you think?  How should the government go about solving this problem?