Landau Injury Law

“PICC” (or “PIC line”) is a form of intravenous (”IV”) access that can be used for a prolonged period of time (i.e., extended antibiotic therapy).  However, what most people don’t know is that these lines can also cause significant damage to nerves if not inserted and removed properly.

Warrenton and Fauquier County dog attack injury lawyer Doug Landau has recently been consulted in a case involving precisely this type of damage.  A Warrenton Virginia area client was attacked by dogs when he arrived at a residence to do repair work.  The trained attack dogs came at him without provocation, and he was bitten in his dominant hand.  The would became septic, and the injured worker was admitted to the Fauquier Hospital for treatment and IV antibiotic therapy.  The infection was treated, but when the PICC line was removed, he had tingling, weakness and pain in his upper extremity on the non-dominant side.    This has left the client with bouts of pain, loss of feeling at different points and an inability to get a full night’s restful sleep.  He also cannot make a tight grip or oppose fingers as he had been accustomed prior to the attack and he workers compensation insurance company is withholding benefits and authorization for further medical care.

Any person suffering similar symptoms should immediately contact a doctor.  They should also document all of their symptoms and communicate these to their doctor and other health care providers.  The longer a patient waits to address these symptoms the greater the risk of permanent injury.  If you or someone you know has been injured in an on the job accident or dog attack and would like our assistance, please e-mail us at ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd., or call 703-796-9555 today.

In light of grosing evidence of susceptibility to increased brain injury after initial head trauma, the Pentagon is instituting new protocols for soldiers who may have suffered from traumatic brain injury (”TBI”).  Troops caught near a roadside blast or in related vehicle crashes will be pulled out of combat for 24 hours and checked for a mild traumatic brain injury.  This will be the case even if the soldiers appear unhurt or say they are fine, according to a treatment policy the Pentagon is planning to release.  Because the brain is at greater risk for permanent injury right after such head trauma, giving thee soldiers time to recover, heal and get help is a smart move according to Herndon and Reston brain injury lawyer Doug Landau of ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd.

“The sooner you’re able to treat somebody and get it right, the higher the probability you’ll reduce the long-term impacts (of brain injury). So speed is really important here,” according to Admiral Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who pushed hard for the policy change.  The policy change stems from growing concerns that troops suffer mild traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in combat – or more than one – and they go undetected, Mullen told USA TODAY. “We need to treat … more quickly and then we need to keep track of people,” he said.  The new policy is a major expansion of battlefield medicine because it treats troops based on what happened to them, not just visible wounds, said Air Force Col. Jaffee, director of the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center.  For the rest of the USA Today story.

Teen brain injury lawyer Doug Landau reminisces with a High School buddy about things they did "without thinking"

As a parent who has survived 4 teenagers, Chantilly and Centreville area lawyer Doug Landau has seen first hand what neuroscientists are discovering about teenagers’ brains.  It’s not, as comedian Bill Cosby asserts, that “they have brain damage !’  Rather, a crucial part of the brain — the frontal lobes — are not fully connected.

According to a recent NPR report, it’s not that teens don’t have a frontal lobe. They do.  And they can use it. But they’re going to access it more slowly.  That’s because the nerve cells that connect teenagers’ frontal lobes with the rest of their brains are sluggish. Teenagers don’t have as much of the fatty coating called myelin, or “white matter,” that adults have in this area.

When discussing nerve and brain injury with his own car crash and traumatic brain injury clients, Landau has described it as “insulation on an electrical wire.”  Nerves need myelin for nerve signals to flow freely.  Spotty, incomplete or thin myelin leads to inefficient communication between one part of the brain and another.  Social Security Disability clients with demyelinating diseases suffer an inability to control nerve impulses, often resulting in motor function loss or spasticity.  For the full transcript or podcast of this superb news report or to download a podcast, go to NPR.

Doug Landau contributes blood to the Herndon Reston INOVA blood drive

In addition to watching the exciting 2010 Olympic Games, Virginia injury lawyer Doug Landau and his wife again gave blood at an INOVA blood drive in the Reston Herndon area that had been delayed by this Winter’s snow storms.  Going to their children’s pre-school, the Landaus saw friends and were able to give blood to replenish the Fairfax Hospital System’s supplies.  Landau’s client’s often need blood transfusions after car crashes, spine surgeries and construction site falls, explosions and lacerations.

Inova Blood Donor Services supplies lifesaving blood and blood products to 15 different hospitals in Northern Virginia and the Washington, D.C., metro area.

INOVA also works with national and international redistribution organizations to get blood where it is needed most.  If you are ready to donate blood:

Call 1-866-BLOODSAVES (1-866-256-6372) or find a convenient donor site or blood drive.

If you want to know more about donating blood, “Giving the Gift of Life”, Please contact us at 1-866-BLOODSAVES (1-866-256-6372) with any questions.

Herndon Reston injury lawyer Doug Landau hopes that everyone reading this post will consider going to a blood drive soon.

“While there are caps on damages that a disabled victim can receive in many jurisdictions, there are no limits to how much money an expert witness can make,” according to Loudoun and Fairfax injury lawyer Doug Landau of ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd.  In today’s Washington Post there is an interesting article about what, caused a 4-month-old’s brain hemorrhage.  According to the Post, the debate over whether “shaken baby syndrome” exists has erupted into a national battle of the experts. According to the newspaper, in the story “Shaken baby syndrome itself is put on trial in Fairfax court:”

Georgetown University neurosurgeon Ronald Uscinski said brain scans showed that the infant’s bleeding continued long after he had been hospitalized, when no trauma was occurring, and “this condition was not caused by shaking.”   Uscinski said he had testified more than 100 times in shaken baby cases, always for the defense. “I’ve never been contacted by the prosecution,” he said. Last year, he estimated he made about $200,000 in testifying and consulting fees. He said there were numerous explanations for bleeding in an infant’s brain that were unrelated to shaking, especially with no marks or trauma on a child’s neck, arms or body.

This money is in addition to his practice at Georgetown, and any earnings he may have for lecturing, writing, teaching, etc.  There are other doctors in the DC metro area who make six-figure income just from their court testimony and preparation.  So, “if you do not think this is an important part of a physician’s income, you are sorely mistaken,” adds experienced personal injury and workers compensation lawyer Doug Landau.

The State of Connecticut Attorney General’s Office Press Release announced a landmark $25.1 million agreement with drug maker Eli Lilly and Company for allegedly marketing its antipsychotic drug Zyprexa for unapproved uses, and concealing the drug’s serious side effects, for more than a decade.  The Connecticut AG’s office sued Eli Lilly last year for corrupting physicians, pharmacies and administrators at nursing homes and youth detention centers as part of a massive illegal marketing campaign to promote Zyprexa for unapproved off-label uses, including for the treatment of children.  The lawsuit was filed pursuant to the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act and the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).  The settlement also requires stronger standards for marketing and transparency to prevent Eli Lilly from rewarding physicians and others for their prescribing practices.

“This illicit multi-billion dollar drug marketing scheme corrupted health care at the expense of taxpayers, senior citizens, children and others who suffered serious side effects from Zyprexa,” AG Blumenthal said. “Eli Lilly was aided and abetted by so-called independent physicians paid handsomely to promote Zyprexa for unapproved off-label uses — ghost writing articles, downplaying dangers, and pitching the product.  Propelled by profits, Eli Lilly promoted Zyprexa recklessly – regardless of danger or FDA rules. Eli Lilly illegally marketed Zyprexa for unapproved uses in children to treat depression and Attention Deficit Disorder, and other uses never approved by the FDA. (more…)

Bedsores, or decubitus ulcers, are a constant concern for those ABRAMS LANDAU clients with disabling injuries and paralysis.  Doug Landau’s clients and family members who are bedridden after an accident or surgery, are at risk for bedsores if not properly rotated, turned and positioned.  Lawyer Landau has won permanent total disability cases for injuries made much worse by decubitus ulcers.

A jury has ordered Westchester Medical Center to pay $2.2 million to a quadriplegic man who got horrific bedsores while staying at the hospital after a car crash in 2005.  According to news reports, Eric Trainor, a 30-year-old former construction worker from Putnam County, was awarded the amount last month for pain and suffering, following a civil trial in state Supreme Court in White Plains.  His lawyer said the hospital’s failure to turn Trainor every two hours during his six-week stay – and the failure of the Defendant doctor to ensure that care – caused the disabled plaintiff to develop “stage four” bedsores on his buttocks and lower back. “They were all the way down to the bone,” plaintiff’s counsel said. “They were huge.”  The plaintiff, who lives with his parents, suffered for years from the bedsores, which had to be surgically closed.  The sores delayed his physical rehabilitation so much that he lost the chance to build upper-body strength.  Trainor was riding to a construction job with another contractor when their car skidded on ice and crashed in Dutchess County in 2005. He was taken to Westchester Medical Center with a spinal cord injury; he could move his head, neck and shoulders, but little else. Because of the injury, he couldn’t feel the bedsores developing. The money would help provide for the Plaintiff’s three young children, replace his battery-powered wheelchair and allow him to buy a special van.  The jury granted the award following a seven-day trial.

The oral contraceptives Yaz and Yasmin are the top-selling pharmaceutical line for Bayer HealthCare, largely as a result of marketing that presents them as much more than mere pregnancy prevention.  Yaz, in particular, the top-selling birth control pill in the United States, owes much of its popularity to multimillion-dollar ad campaigns that have promoted the drug as a quality-of-life treatment to combat acne and severe premenstrual depression.  Yaz, a newer sister drug to Yasmin, contains less estrogen. The franchise had worldwide sales of about $1.8 billion last year, based on Bayer’s successful positioning of Yasmin and Yaz as the go-to drug brands for women under 35.

But recently, according to a New York Times article, the Yaz line’s image has been clouded by concerns from some researchers, health advocates and plaintiffs’ lawyers. They say that the drugs put women at higher risk for blood clots, strokes and (more…)

Our Virginia law firm was contacted by a woman from Woodstock whose foot was run over by a truck. The crush injuries were severe and painful.  However, when she got to the emergency room, she developed what is known as “compartment syndrome.”  Compartment syndrome is the compression of nerves and blood vessels within an enclosed space. This leads to muscle and nerve damage and problems with blood flow.

The hallmark symptom of compartment syndrome is severe pain that does not go away when you take pain medicine or raise the affected area. In more advanced cases, symptoms may include:

* Decreased sensation
* Paleness of skin
* Weakness

For more information on this painful condition. Because of the compartment syndrome, the emergency room doctors had to make incisions in the top of her foot in order to relieve the pressure in the limb and prevent further tissue destruction caused when blood vessels are choked off due to intracellular pressure and swelling.  This ABRAMS LANDAU client will have permanent scarring on the dorsum on her foot as well as permanent orthopedic deficits (range of motion, strength, sensation, pain).  Currently under a Workers Compensation Award for wage loss and medical benefits, this client’s treating doctor has given her a substantial permanent partial disability (”PPD”) rating as the result of the compartment syndrome and crush injuries.  Her negligence case against the Culpeper Virginia trucking company is pending in the Circuit Court in Woodstock, Virginia. If you, or someone you know, has sustained a crush injury as the result of an accident, please e-mail or call us at ABRAMS LANDAU (703-796-9555).

Top Virginia Trial Lawyers Roger Creager (Richmond), Doug Landau (Herndon - Reston), Barbara Williams (Leesburg), & Lee Livingston (Charlottesville) compared ideas on "independent" insurance medical examiners at the 2009 VTLA Annual Advocacy seminar in Fairfax

Almost every single case involving serious injury, permanent disability or significant wage loss is confronted by an insurance company lawyer demanding an “Independent Medical Examination.” The exam is usually not independent. It is not for treatment, so the “medical” part of the phrase is intellectually dishonest. And as for an “examination,” it’s often more of a cross-examination than a genuine physical exam.

“Independent” medical exams (”IMEs”) are commonplace in personal litigation, workers compensation, and occupational disease cases handled by ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. Because they are not truly “Independent,” as we see the same doctors performing exams for the same insurance companies who pay their bills, we refer to these as “defense medical exams” or “insurance medical exams.” A 3/31/09 New York Times investigation titled “Exams of Injured Workers Feed Mutual Mistrust,” reported that, “Often IME doctors are hired by brokers that then have clerical staffs prepare reports based on dictation or checklists completed by the doctors, who often do not read the reports before signing them. The article gives examples of doctors signing reports on exams they never performed. One of the ways Herndon Reston area injury lawyer Doug Landau anticipates this practice is by offering the insurance company a physical exam early in the case, sometimes even before a lawsuit is filed. “The case we select involve serious, objective and usually permanent injuries,” Landau notes. Because we have nothing to hide, I will offer to have my injured client submit to a voluntary physical exam with a qualified doctor, at a reasonable time and place, in lieu of a later examination after suit is filed.” In effect, it is a “put up or shut up” move by the multi-state trial lawyer, known for his unique and innovative techniques.