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An inquest will take place in the death of Daniel Ryan. The Mashpee man died three weeks after he was restrained at Cape Cod Hospital on October 9, 2009. The 35-year-old was there to visit his wife, who was a patient.

The hospital claims that they had to restrain him because he was a danger to patients, staffers, and himself. He fell into a coma before passing away. The state’s medical examiner’s office representative is calling Ryan’s death a homicide, and the Department of Public Health cited Cape Cod Hospital for violating his rights and using inappropriate restraint methods, which led to his death.

Ryan reportedly was walking through the hospital without authorization and was stopped by a security worker. The hospital says that Ryan turned violent and tried to break away and run off. Their account is different from the video surveillance footage that shows him tripping on a sheet that was placed over his head and falling forward. A security officer escorting Ryan also fell before placing him in a headlock, flipping him over, and sitting on him in what looked like an attempt to restrain him.

According to the state’s report, at least two other hospital workers helped keep Ryan immobile. The state also says that it wasn’t until he needed emergency attention that the workers loosened his restraints or checked his condition. The state determined that security staff at the hospital hadn’t been trained in appropriate and proper restraints.

Massachusetts Wrongful Death
If you believe that your loved one died because a party behaved negligently, recklessly, or carelessly, you may be entitled to obtain Massachusetts wrongful death compensation.It doesn’t matter whether the negligence was accidental or intentional.

ME Rules Death a Homicide, Cape Cod Times, April 27, 2010
Inquest set in fatal conflict at Cape Cod Hospital, Boston.com, April 27, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Cape Cod Hospital

Wrongful Death Action, Law.Cornell.Edu Continue reading

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Hilda Almonor, a nurse’s aide, is accused of raping a 68-year-old nursing home resident. The 46-year-old woman has pleaded not guilty to one count of indecent assault and battery and two counts of rape.

According to prosecutors, the alleged Massachusetts nursing home abuses occurred on April 3 and April 10 while Almonor was helping the patient shower at the Hancock Park Rehabilitation & Nursing Center in Quincy. “Terrified” that Almonor would assault her again, the woman reported the nursing home sex abuse to another nurse and the assisted living facility contacted police.

According to the victim, Almonor used her fingers and an unknown object to sexually assault her. A police investigation is under way.

Nursing Home Sexual Assaults
Unfortunately, incidents of sexual assaults at assisted living facilities throughout the US are all too common occurrences and it is usually the patients, who are often too frail, sick, vulnerable, or scared to fight back or report what happened that are the victims.

Sexual abuse, assault, rape, and molestation are crimes and acts of nursing home abuse when committed by a nursing home worker. Regardless of who sexually assaulted you or your loved one, if the crime occurred at a Quincy assisted living facility, you may have grounds for filing a Massachusetts nursing home negligence lawsuit.

Nursing homes are supposed to provide residents with the nursing care they require while making sure that they don’t come to any physical or emotional harm during their stay at the assisted living facility. Assisted living facility supervisors know that nursing home abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse can happen and it is their responsibility to must take the necessary steps to prevent such incidents from happening.

Quincy nursing aide held on $10k bail in alleged rape, Wicked Local/The Patriot Ledger, April 21, 2010
Nursing Home Aide Accused Of Raping Patient, The Boston Channel, April 20, 2010
Related Web Resources:
Nursing Homes, Health and Human Services, Mass.gov
Massachusetts (MA) Nursing Homes, UCompareHealthcare.com Continue reading

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Toyota is recalling the 2010 Lexus GX 460 sport-utility to fix the software in the sport utility vehicle’s stability control system. Testing by Consumer Reports and Toyota found the vehicle to be an SUV rollover risk, and the automaker has taken immediate action to fix the problem.

So far, there are no reports of injuries or deaths related to the auto defect. The problem became public knowledge after Consumer Reports issued a “Don’t Buy” warning to car buyers because its testers found that the GX40 was in danger of rolling over during certain emergency situations. Toyota immediately began conducting its own tests and suspended the sale and manufacturer of its SUV’s to determine if there was a problem and if so, how to fix it.

The need for a recall is the latest bad news for Toyota, which has recalled more than eight million autos for sudden acceleration-related defects and brake problems. Last week, the automaker recalled approximately 600,000 1998 -2010 Toyota Sienna minivans because of concern that if road salt causes the carrier cable to corrode excessively, the spare tire may fall off, potentially causing a traffic crash.

Toyota has been trying hard to regain consumer confidence, which has faltered in the wake of so many auto defects and resulting injuries and deaths. Since the mass recalls, dozens of people have filed auto products liability lawsuits and wrongful death complaints against the automaker.

On Monday, the auto manufacturer agreed to pay the $16.4 million fine imposed by US safety regulators because it waited too long to address the “sticky” gas pedal defect that prompted a mass recall in January. US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says that by not acting fast enough to notify the public and the government about the problem-Toyota automaker may have known about the problem in September-the automaker put people’s lives at risk.

Toyota Recalls Lexus GX 460 SUV Rated ‘Safety Risk’, BusinessWeek, April 20, 2010
Toyota to Pay $16.375 Million Civil Fine, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, April 19, 2010
Related Web Resources:
Don’t Buy: Safety Risk–2010 Lexus GX 460, Consumer Reports, April 13, 2010
Recall Information, Toyota Continue reading

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Bob Oliva, a former high school boy’s basketball coach has pleaded not guilty to two counts of child rape and one count of disseminating pornography to a minor. Oliva, 65, is charged with raping sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy, who was a family friend, at the Boston Sheraton in 1976.

The alleged victim, Jimmy Carlino, is now 48-years-old. He reported the alleged sex crime to Boston police last year. Massachusetts prosecutors can prosecute Oliva for the 34-year-old sex assault case because the statute of limitations stayed frozen as long as the former coach lived outside the state.

Oliva, considered one of the top high school coaches in New York for almost 30 years, won more than 540 games and five city championships while coaching basketball at a high school in Queens.

Boston Sexual Assault Lawsuits
In addition to reporting a sex crime to the authorities, you may be able to file a Boston sexual assault lawsuit against your assailant or the entity that employed your perpetrator. Sexual assault can consist of rape, inappropriate fondling, molestation, unwelcome kissing, or other sexual acts.

Just last week, a jury awarded Kerry Lewis $1.4 million for the sex abuse he experienced at the hands of Timur Dykes during the 80’s. The 38-year-old former Boy Scout sued the Boy Scouts of America for his personal injuries. The jury will determine next week whether to order the defendant to pay up to $25 million in punitive damages. Dykes admitted to molesting 16 other boy scouts in addition to Lewis.

Sexual assault can be painful, traumatic, and may lead to lasting scars that can impede the victim’s ability to lead a normal, healthy, and happy life. The victim may end up with medical and therapy expenses because of physical, emotional, and psychological injuries brought about by the sex crime. Many instances involving Boston sexual abuse involve attackers that the victim knows or trusts, such as a family friend, a relative, a teacher, a priest, a coach, a doctor, a group leader.

Ex-high school coach pleads not guilty, ESPN, April 13, 2010
Former Christ the King coach Bob Oliva indicted on two counts of child rape by Mass. grand jury, NY Daily News, March 25, 2010 Former Boy Scout Kerry Lewis Wins Sex Abuse Case Against Boy Scouts, Gets $1.4 Million, CBS News, April 14, 2010
Related Web Resources:
U.S. courts allow sex abuse cases against Vatican to proceed in rare legal move, Washington Post, March 27, 2010
Child Sexual Abuse, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Continue reading

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Kayla Lackey’s mother Erin has reached a $1.8 million wrongful death agreement with Community Health Care Inc., a for-profit Massachusetts methadone clinic in Chicopee. Kayla was just 8 when she died in a Marlboro truck accident in April 2005 on Route 9. Stephen Fairchild, the driver of the pickup truck that struck the truck that Erin, Kayla, and two of her cousins were riding, was a patient at the clinic. He died from injuries he sustained during the truck crash.

Autopsy findings indicate that at the time of the head-on truck crash, Fairchild’s methadone level was “peaking.” He also had recently used marijuana and cocaine.

In 2007, Kayla’s estate sued the clinic and Putney doctor Walter Slowinski over the truck crash that claimed the young girl’s life. Slowinski, who prescribed anti-anxiety medication to the Fairchild while he was taking methadone, settled with the estate earlier this year.

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A Massachusetts jury has awarded the parents of Antwoine Key $2.4 million for his Worcester wrongful death. The college basketball player died in 2005 after collapsing during the first quarter of a game at Worcester State College.

A Boston Doctor had examined the 22-year-old Eastern Connecticut State University student in 2001. According to the plaintiffs’ Boston medical malpractice lawyers, the doctor was supposed to determine whether Key was medically eligible to take part in college sports.

While examining Key at a Dorchester health center, the doctor discovered that there was a “slight systolic murmur” in his heart. Yet she signed a form clearing him to play sports. She noted that Key was in “excellent health” and did not impose any physical restrictions on him.

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The dad of 19-year-old Julia Gauthier is suing her boyfriend and his mom for Massachusetts wrongful death. Gauthier died in a Lynn car accident on March 21 when the Toyota 4Runner SUV that her boyfriend, 19-year-old Christopher Maxson, was driving flipped over.

Maxson is accused of speeding, driving drunk, and driving through a stop sign before crashing his mother’s sport utility vehicle into three parked cars, which caused his vehicle to flip over. Gauthier was thrown from the Toyota. She went through the sunroof before landing on the pavement. Gauthier was pronounced dead at the Massachusetts car accident site.

Maxson, a Marblehead resident, has pleaded not guilty to charges of drunken driving, motor vehicle homicide while driving drunk, failing to stop, and driving to endanger.

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Pfizer has settled the Boston wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Hartley Shearer for $400,000. Shearer, 57, committed suicide 16 months after he started taking the epilepsy drug. In their Massachusetts dangerous drug complaint that they filed in federal court in Boston, the plaintiffs, Hartley’s widow and son, had accused Pfizer of failing to warn doctors and patients that Neurontin can increase the risk of suicide.

Over 1,000 dangerous drug lawsuits have been filed accusing Pfizer of illegally marketing Neurontin for unapproved uses and contributing to the suicide deaths of a number of users. While the US Food and Drug Administration has approved Neurontin for treatment of epilepsy and shingles, the medication’s off label uses have included:

• Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy • Attention Deficit Disorder • Restless Leg Syndrome • Post-Hepatic Neuralgia • Drug Withdrawal Seizures • Alcohol Withdrawal Seizures • Trigeminal Neuralgia

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According to the Boston Globe, close to 2,500 Massachusetts nursing home patients were given antipsychotic drugs last year even though the medication isn’t recommended for treating their illness. Data gathered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services shows that 28% of the state’s nursing home residents were given the powerful medications and that 22% of these patients-that’s 2,483 people-had not been diagnosed with a medical condition that warranted this type of treatment.

The fact that so many patients were given antipsychotics without just cause is an issue of concern-especially because so many residents suffer from dementia. Dementia patients increase their fatality risk when they take antipsychotic meds, which are actually for treating patients with serious mental illnesses. Confusion and weight gain are two of the other unpleasant side effects that antipsychotic meds can have on a someone with dementia.

Other Possible Side Effects When Taking Psychotropics:

• Dizziness • Drowsiness • Increased risk of cardiac failure • Skin rashes • Sun sensitivity • Muscle spasms • Rigidity • Menstrual problems
With such potentially serious side effects, choosing to administer this kind of powerful drug to a patient is a decision that cannot be made for the wrong reasons. Unfortunately, some nursing homes use psychotropics to sedate patients who exhibit “bothersome behavior” or they fail to follow up after prescribing the drugs to determine whether a resident’s dosage should be reduced or eliminated. Inadequate training, low staffing, and nursing home negligence are some reasons why patients who don’t need to psychotropic drugs are forced to take them.

Overmedication, prescribing the wrong drug, or sedating a patient solely for the convenience of the nursing staff can be grounds for a Boston, Massachusetts nursing home negligence lawsuit.

Nursing home drug use puts many at risk, Boston.com, March 8, 2010
Sane Elderly Given Antipsychotic Drugs at Mass. Nursing Homes, Fox News/AP, March 8, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Study Confirms Antipsychotics Pose Heart Risk, Wall Street Journal, January 15, 2009
Nursing Homes, Mass.gov Continue reading

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Now that Rebecca Riley’s parents have been convicted of her murder, the Boston wrongful death lawsuit accusing Dr. Kayoko Kifuji of Massachusetts psychiatric malpractice will move forward. Rebecca, 4, died after her parents overmedicated her with psychotropic drugs.

The drugs were prescribed by Kifuji who, in exchange for immunity, testified at the criminal trials of Carolyn and Michael Riley. During Michael’s trial, Kifuji said that she does not question the diagnosis she made that Rebecca, then 2, was suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder.

Kifuji said her diagnosis was based primarily on Carolyn’s accounts of her daughter’s conduct. The psychiatrist prescribed Depakote and clonidine for Rebecca. She had prescribed the same drugs to Rebecca’s two older siblings, who were diagnosed with the same conditions.

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