Product Liability Law Blog

According to EMS Magazine, some 475,000 US kids in the 14 and under age group suffer from traumatic brain injuries. While 90% of TBI kid patients are seen in emergency rooms and then released, there are still over 47,000 patients a year who end up hospitalized because of a TBI.

Fall accidents, car accidents, and incidents involving the victim getting hit by or struck against a hard object continue to be the most common causes of traumatic brain injuries in the US. 2,685 children die each year because of TBIs while more than 30,000 kids with TBIs will sustain permanent disabilities.

Our injuries to children and minors lawyers represent the families of babies, toddlers, young children, adolescents, and teenagers who were seriously injured in personal injury accidents. Many of our injuries to minors cases involve children who were injured or killed because of a defective product. Gilbert, Ollanik, & Komyatte, PC is one of the most recognized products liability law firms in the US.

Traumatic brain injuries—whether sustained in a car crash, from a drowning accident, in a fall accident at the playground, because the child car safety seat or seatbelt restraint system was defective, during a suffocation accident that occurred because a crib was defectively designed, or from a choking accident that happened because a child swallowed a defective toy part—can drastically alter the life of the child victim and his or her family forever.

A TBI can result in impaired vision, hearing problems, speech difficulties, muscle spasticity, seizures, paralysis, memory deficiencies, communication problems, impaired writing and reading abilities, impaired judgment, mood swings, anxiety, agitation, depression, and problems relating to others.

A TBI's degree of severity will determine the problems that can result from this type of head injury. In many instances, a child with a TBI will need special services to cope with living with a traumatic brain injury, and the ongoing therapy and medical help can become very costly. There are also other damages that a TBI victim can suffer, including loss of the ability to live a normal life, loss of independence, or the inability to enjoy the normal activities that most kids without a traumatic brain injury get to experience.

If your child’s TBI occurred because a product manufacturer, a premise owner, a car driver, a trucker, a motorcyclist, or another party was negligent or careless, your son or daughter may be entitled to personal injury recovery.

Severe Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury, EMS Responder

Traumatic Brain Injury, Kidsource.com

Related Web Resources:
Traumatic Brain Injury Information Page, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

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Posted In: Catastrophic Injuries , Infant Products , Injuries to Children & Minors , Kids in Cars , Motor Vehicle Safety , Nursery Products , Playground Products , Swimming Pools , Toys , Traumatic Brain Injuries

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With summer fast approaching, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission has revealed its latest figures on child drowning injuries and deaths in pools and spas. According to the CPSC, almost 300 children under age 5 drown in spas and pools annually, while 3,000 young kids sustain injuries that require emergency medical attention. Also:

• 2/3rds of the victims killed or injured in pools and spas are toddlers, ages 1-2.
• 80% of drowning deaths take place in residential settings.
• Between 1999 to 2008, 69 injuries and 11 deaths occurred due to spa and pool entrapment accidents.

Last December, the Federal Pool and Spa Safety Act went into effect. The new law makes it a requirement for all public spas and pools to install drains that prevent drain entrapment accidents from happening. The drains are arched and designed to prevent a person’s hair or another body part from getting suctioned into the drain.

In 2007, 6-year-old Abigail Taylor sustained a catastrophic injury when the drain of the wading pool she was in suctioned out a portion of her intestinal tract. She had to undergo transplants of the small bowel, pancreas, and liver and could only be fed through an intravenous tube. She died from her pool drain injuries last March.

The new pool spa and safety act is also known as the Virginia Graham Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act. The law is named after former Secretary of State James Baker’s granddaughter. Virginia was just 7 when she drowned after getting caught in a spa’s suction. Unfortunately, there are pools and spas in the US that have yet to install these new drains because they have not been easily available.

There are also the dangers that pools and spas can pose because the owner failed to surround the pool or hottub with a protective barrier designed to prevent children from getting into the water unsupervised or to provide proper supervision or adequate safety measures for when people are in the pool or spa.

When you think about the fact that a child can easily drown in as little as two inches of water, our personal injury law firm, known for our work with injuries to children and minors cases, cannot do enough to emphasize the importance of making sure that the proper safety precautions are in place to prevent tragic drowning deaths. Even a near-drowning accident can prove catastrophic, with many children that survive forced to live with permanent brain damage.

CPSC Announces New Report on Child Drownings and Near-Drownings in Pools and Spas, CPSC, May 21, 2009

Pool drains pose risk to swimmers, NewsChannelKTIV, May 13, 2009

Girl Whose Intestines Were Partially Sucked Out by Swimming Pool Drain Dies, Fox News, March 21, 2008

Related Web Resources:
Virginia Graeme Baker Pool Spa and Safety Act (PDF)

Keep an Eye on your Kids, Drowning is Preventable!, WestCov.org

Continue reading "CPSC: Almost 300 US Children Under Age 5 Drown in Pools and Spas Each Year" »

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Posted In: Injuries to Children & Minors , Swimming Pools

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading causes of accidental child injuries and deaths are motor vehicle collisions and fall accidents. From 2001 to 2006, about 8 million child deaths occurred each year due to motor vehicle crashes, bicycle collisions, or pedestrian accidents, while some 2.8 million nonfatal injuries happened as a result of fall accidents. Overall, approximately 55 million teenagers and young children were treated for accidental injuries in US emergency rooms between 2001 and 2006—that's about 9.2 million kids a year.

More CDC findings:
• About 12,175 young people (under age 20) were killed each year in the US because they sustained accidental injuries.
• Motor vehicle crashes continued to be the leading cause of fatalities for kids, ages 5 to 19.
• For young children ages 1 to 4, drowning was a leading cause of death.
• For infants, the leading cause of death was suffocation.
• The leading causes of nonfatal injuries for kids ages 1 to 4 were fall accidents and accidental poisoning.
• About 20 kids are killed every day because of accidental injuries.
• Burn injuries were also a common cause of child injuries.

While there are steps that parents can take to prevent such injuries from happening, it is also important that product manufacturers make goods that are free from defects and are safe for use.

In recent years, there have been too many recalls of too many products because of the potential injuries they could cause to young children. Toys with excessive levels of lead paint, poorly constructed cribs and bassinets that pose a fall hazard or are a suffocation threat, household products that are fire hazards, defectively designed clothing that are a strangulation danger, poorly constructed child safety seats, and dangerous nursery furniture and playground rides, are just some of the millions of toys that the Consumer Product Safety Commission and manufacturers have recalled because a child was (or could get) injured or died.

Product manufacturers must be held liable when their negligence and carelessness leads to serious products liability-related injuries and deaths.

Childhood Injury Report, CDC

Recalls, US Consumer Product Safety Commission

Related Web Resources:
World report on child injury prevention, World Health Organization

Keeping Children Safe from Dangerous Products (PDF)

Continue reading "Motor Vehicle Accidents, Suffocation Injuries, and Fall Accidents Among Leading Causes of Injuries to Children, Says CDC" »

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Posted In: Clothing , Infant Products , Injuries to Children & Minors , Kids in Cars , Nursery Products , Playground Products , Swimming Pools , Toys

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Abigail Taylor, the six-year-old girl who was seriously injured last year when here intestines were partially sucked out by a swimming pool drain in Minnesota, has died.

The catastrophic accident took place on June 29 while Abigail was sitting in a wading pool at the Minneapolis Golf Club. Abigail had to undergo liver, small bowel, and pancreas transplants following the incident.

Abigail's parents have fought for tougher laws that would prevent similar accidents from happening. In December, Congress approved The Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act, which prohibits the manufacture, distribution, or sale of drain covers that fail to meet anti-entrapment safety laws.

The bill is named after former Secretary of State James Baker’s granddaughter, who drowned in 2002 when she became trapped in a drain and couldn’t be pulled out because the suction was too strong.

Last November, Abigail’s parents filed a personal injury lawsuit against the Minneapolis Golf Club and Sta-Rite, the company that made the pool’s pump and drain. The couple is accusing the manufacturer of knowing that its products could cause evisceration but did not do anything to remove this danger.

In 2005, a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission report stated that since 1990, at least 130 people have gotten stuck in the suctions of pool and spa drains, resulting in numerous fatalities and many more injury cases. Other reports indicate that from 1985 to 2004 at least 33 children 14 years of age and under have died because of spa/pool entrapment, with almost 100 other kids sustaining serious injuries.

A person can become entrapped in a pool or spa drain when his or her hair, swimsuit, or another body part gets caught. Sometimes, the suction can be so strong that it becomes impossible to pull the trapped person out of the water.

Had she lived through adulthood, Abigail 's family says that her medical and special living costs would have cost about $30 million.

Our consumer products safety law firm represents clients in serious injury cases that were caused by a defective or dangerous product. Our products liability lawyers work with clients nationwide, and we handle defective products cases involving serious personal injury and wrongful deaths.

Girl Whose Intestines Were Partially Sucked Out by Swimming Pool Drain Dies, AP, March 21, 2008

Family of Girl Maimed by Pool Drain Sues, ABC News, November 16, 2007

Baker family motivated by the death of 7-year-old Virginia Graeme Baker, USA SafeKids.org, May 2, 2006

Related Web Resources:

Guidelines for Entrapment Hazards: Making Pools and Spas Safer, US Consumer Product Safety Commission, March 2005 (PDF)

The Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act (PDF)

Sta-RIte

Continue reading "Six-Year-Old Girl Whose Intestines Were Ripped Out by Swimming Pool Drain Dies" »

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Posted In: Injuries to Children & Minors , Swimming Pools

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