The Law Offices of Chaikin and Sherman, P.C.
Phone - 855-206-8760
Fax - 202.659.8680
December 9th, 2011
If you’re thinking about starting a new exercise program — or just starting up, period — there are a few warning signs to keep in mind as you navigate through a new routine.
Of course, a certain amount of discomfort is bound to be felt as you start up. you can expect to have sore muscles and, quite often, you won’t feel that pain until a few days later. However, there are also some warning signs that shouldn’t be ignored:
»Have pain or pressure in the left or middle part of your chest, or in the left side of your neck, left shoulder or left arm
»Feel dizzy or sick
»Break out in a cold sweat
»Have muscle cramps
»Feel sharp pain in your joints, feet, ankles or bones
»Notice that your heart starts racing or beating irregularly
Remember, you should also consult a doctor before beginning any exercise program. This is particularly important if you’re not normally physically active.
Whether you’re starting a new program — or starting all together — keep a healthy mindset and always remember to consult a doctor.
Posted in Health and Safety, safety | Comments Off
December 7th, 2011
For many, fall is synonymous with football. Any level of football, really. Whether it’s your local high school team, the college game or the NFL, the players come into the fall ready, having sweated it out over the summer, preparing for the season to begin. But, as with all sports, safety must be a priority.
With football, in particular, there is great concern regarding head injuries — specifically concussion, a traumatic brain injury that can be caused by a bump, blow or jolt to the head and can change the way your brain normally works.
Concussions can also occur from a blow to the body that causes the head to move rapidly back and forth. It is important to note that even what seems to be a mild bump or blow to the head can be serious.
Something important to note: A concussion cannot be diagnosed without medical testing. It can be hours or days after the injury before some athletes experience and/or report symptoms.
Some people with a concussion recover quickly and fully with no additional problems. But for others, signs and symptoms of concussion can last for days, weeks or longer.
For more information, visit www.cdc.gov/concussion/HeadsUp/youth.html.
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December 5th, 2011
Millions of Americans suffer from back pain at some point in their lives. That stat’s not surprising, considering almost everything we do requires us to use your backs.
According to Discovery Health, approximately 60-90 percent of all Americans will experience at least one back injury in their lives. Half of these people will experience multiple episodes of back problems. Back pain ranges from dull and achy to stiff and sharp and can be acute, chronic or recurrent acute.
To help minimize potential back pain issues, heed this advice:
Avoid exerting too much force on your back.
Lifting or moving heavy objects can cause injury. When lifting, kneel down on one knee with the other foot flat on the floor as near as possible to the item you are lifting. Lift with your legs and not your back.
Modify any repetitious activity.
Be careful when sitting and standing.
Sleep on your side.
Sleeping on your back puts 55 pounds of pressure on your back. Putting a couple of pillows under your knees cuts the pressure in half.
Use a stool to reach anything higher than shoulder level.
Stay active.
Maintaining a healthy weight minimizes stress on your back, and exercise can strengthen your back and stomach muscles.
Listen to your body.
If you must sit or stand for a prolonged period, change your position often.
If you smoke, stop.
Nicotine restricts the flow of blood to the discs that cushion your vertebrae, increasing the likelihood you will suffer back pain.
If you suffer from back pain, seek the advice of your family doctor.
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December 2nd, 2011
Cerebral palsy is defined by the national Center for Biotechnology Information as a “condition, sometimes thought of as a group of disorders, that can involve brain and nervous system functions such as movement, learning, hearing, seeing and thinking.” Symptoms range from simple lack of fine muscle coordination to an inability to maintain balance or walk.
The condition is often accompanied by other medical complications, including seizures and developmental delays.
The Cause
Cerebral palsy can be caused by a number of different events, some of which may occur before, during or after birth. In some cases, the condition may result from a combination of events occurring at all three stages of the birth process.
However, premature infants have a slightly higher risk of developing cerebral palsy, according to NCBI.
Cerebral palsy also may occur during early infancy as a result of conditions, including:
- Bleeding in the brain
- Brain infections (encephalitis, meningitis, herpes simplex infections)
- Head injury
- Infections in the mother during pregnancy (rubella)
- Severe jaundice
While we are a long way from making cerebral palsy a thing of the past, we are coming closer to fully understanding the condition.
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November 30th, 2011
The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety recently released a study which found that teenagers are more likely to crash in their first month of driving then they are in the next two years of driving.
The most significant mistakes during the first month are failing to slow down, failing to yield and a lack of attention. During this period, a parent or guardian who accompanied the new driver during the learning phase, is often replaced by the teenager’s peers. This results in greater distraction. According to the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 2009 (the latest year which data was available) more than 2,300 drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 were killed nationwide. The NHTSA also found that laws which restricted teen driving also contribute to lower accident rates, such as limiting the time when a teenager can drive and the number of non-related underage passengers allowed in the car.
A spokesman for AAA believes that the way to minimize the potential for crashes during the first month, is for parents or guardian to continue to talk to their child about driving habits and to emphasize careful driving.
Posted in auto accidents, safety | Comments Off
November 28th, 2011
This is the third in three installments about Steve Jobs’ commencement speech delivered to Stanford University in June 2005, and this blog is adopted from that address. In his address, Mr. Jobs told three stories. Each story set out a part of Mr. Jobs’ philosophy for life. The third story was about death.
Mr. Jobs stated that the realization that death will come, helped him make the big choices in his life. He said that all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, all fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. He stated that in the face of this there is no reason to follow you heart.
At the time he gave his address, Mr. Jobs believed that his pancreatic cancer had been cured by surgery and that he was fine. The experience of facing impending death led him to sum up his story about death as follows:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination that we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have th courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
Stated differently, “March to the beat of your own drum.” Keep your focus, your own focus and no one else’s. Live a file that is best for you, however you define it. Above all, never settle for second best.
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November 23rd, 2011
This is the second in three installments about Steve Jobs’ commencement speech delivered to Stanford University in June 2005, and this blog is adopted from that address. In his address, Mr. Jobs told three stories. Each story set out a part of Mr. Jobs’ philosophy for life. The second story was about love and loss.
With this story, Mr. Jobs recounted how at age 20, he and Steve Wozniak started Apple in his parents’ garage and within ten years, grew it into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. Then, at the age of 30, he got fired by the Board of Directors because they disagreed with his vision for the company.
Mr. Jobs recounted how, despite his public failure, he loved what he did and he was freed to enter one of the most creative periods of his life. He went on to start a company named NeXT and another named Pixar. Pixar created the first computer animated feature film called, “Toy Story.” As it turned out, Apple bought NeXT and Mr. Jobs returned to Apple.
Mr. Jobs summed up his story on love and loss as follows:
Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.
So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.
While it may be true for a song to “Love the One You’re With”, don’t settle for complacency in love or at work. If you are not passionate about your work, then it’s time to find an alternative. It doesn’t matter what you do, so long as you enjoy it. It’s hard to get up out of bed, get to work, spend the day on the job and head home if your heart and soul are not in it. I’ve been there. One morning, long ago, I woke up, sat on the edge of the bed and told my wife, “I hate my job. I just can’t go to work.” Shortly thereafter, I quit and my life was the better for it. Like Mr. Jobs’ said, “Don’t settle.” Life is too short.
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November 21st, 2011
This is the first in three installments about Steve Jobs’ commencement speech delivered to Stanford University in June 2005, and this blog is adopted from that address. In his address, Mr. Jobs told three stories. Each story set out a part of Mr. Jobs’ philosophy for life. The first story was about “connecting the dots.” Mr. Jobs dropped out of college because he did not see any value in it – he had no idea what he wanted to do with his life and no idea how college would help him figure it out. Although he dropped out, he continued to drop in on classes he found interesting. Mr. Jobs said he followed his curiosity and intuition.
This led him to take a calligraphy class where he learned what made great typography great. At that time, what he learned had no practical application in his life.
It was not until about ten years later when he was designing the first Macintosh computer that he used what he learned about typography from that calligraphy class, giving the computer world, among other things, multiple typefaces and proportionally spaced fonts. Mr. Jobs said that had he never dropped out of college, he would have never have dropped in on the calligraphy class and personal computers would not have had the typography they do. He said that he did not know this at the time he dropped out. He said it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when he was in college. He summed it up as follows:
Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
At one end of the spectrum, one should not be reckless in the application of this “trust” philosophy, and at the other end one should not be paralyzed by fear of taking action. At the core of the “trust” philosophy is the notion that in the end, “IT WILL BE OKAY.” Keeping that core belief in mind will lead to action and inner peace at the choices made.
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November 19th, 2011
General Motors has ordered a recall of 38,000 of its Pontiac G8 Sedans, following recent crash-tests of the vehicles. GM discovered that, when the front passenger seat is moved forward, close to the dashboard, to accommodate a passenger approximately the size of a woman 4’ 11” in height, the position of the seat triggered a fault in the deployment of the passenger-side airbag. This fault caused the airbag to deploy more slowly than it should have, which could lead to serious injury of the passenger in the event of an impact.
Usually, when someone is hurt in an automobile collision, people tend to look for someone on the road to blame. And most of the time, that’s correct. Sometimes, however, the cause of an automobile collision injury traces back to something that happened long before the crash itself – for example, defective safety equipment in the car. Thankfully, GM appears to have nipped this problem in the bud. But we’re sure that GM was at least partly motivated by the desire to avoid legal liability, in the event that this defect had hurt someone.
Posted in Liability, Product liability, safety | Comments Off
November 16th, 2011
Each year, millions of people in the United States sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI) from falls, motor vehicle traffic crashes, collisions with moving or stationary objects, and assaults. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that TBI will affect 1.7 million people, resulting in approximately 1.37 million emergency room visits; 275,000 hospitalizations, and 52,000 deaths every year.
“Brain injury affects people in ways that are invisible, that no one understands, and it is often called the hidden disability,” says Beasley Allen employee Carol Stanley, who began crusading for awareness about TBI after her son, Jason, was injured during a violent crime. She is active with the Alabama Head Injury Task Force. “A brain injury is a forever life-altering experience for the TBI survivors and their family,” she says. “Many characteristics of the brain injury impairment are not always familiar, and are not obvious to the general public, medical system, education system, legal system, judicial system, law enforcement, and so on. My son’s TBI journey has taken us down all those avenues, and this is why I feel TBI education and awareness for all people is so very important.”
According to the CDC, a brain injury may be sustained in a variety of ways, but the most common causes are:
- Falls (35.2%)
- Motor vehicle traffic crashes (17.3%)
- “struck by / against” events (16.5%)
- Assaults (10%)
Another growing segment of the population that suffers from TBIs are soldiers returning from battle. In fact, TBI has been called the “signature” injury of American troops returning home from war. Studies have shown that soldiers who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer a high exposure to concussive blasts that cause these types of traumatic brain injury.
The Brain Injury Association of America explains that brain injury may affect the way a person thinks, acts, and feels. It can change everything within a matter of seconds, and its lasting effects are often much more than physical. A brain injury can damage the nerves in the brain that carry messages telling the brain what to do. It also can change some of the body’s internal function, such as regulating body temperature, blood pressure, bowels, and bladder control.
“A generation ago, people who had severe brain injury did not survive,” explains Charles Priest, executive director of the Alabama Head Injury Foundation (AHIF). “Thankfully, today, the opposite is true – about 85% are saved due to things like medical advances, improvements in roadside protocol, and the ability to monitor and control swelling of the brain. But unfortunately, the brain doesn’t heal like the rest of the body, and many people will need support and services permanently. A brain injury is forever.”
People with severe TBIs may require services such as in-home respite care, housing assistance, financial aid, physical therapy, and neurobehavioral assessment and counseling. Even people who suffer mild TBIs, such as concussions, may experience persistent behavioral challenges, including mood swings, inability to concentrate, and severe depression. These can lead to serious problems if undiagnosed and left untreated. In patients who have depression after TBI, suicidal ideation is not uncommon. In fact, the suicide rate among people with TBI is increased two to three times.
The Effects of Concussions
The physical effects of concussion are more traumatic when a person suffers repeated concussions, as can be common in many contact sports, such as football, hockey, and boxing. New studies have linked repeated concussions to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease. In addition to memory loss and declining cognitive abilities, CTE usually manifests as depression and moodiness. The condition can lead to suicide and dementia.
In February 2011, former NFL safety Dave Duerson, a two-time Super Bowl champion who played for the Chicago Bears, took his own life, fearing he was suffering from this condition. Family members reported that he left messages before he died, asking that his brain be donated to the NFL Brain Bank, a special research arm at Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy that specifically examines the brains of these professional athletes. This event has shined a spotlight on the issue of repeated concussions and their effect on the brain.
As a result, there is new attention on youth sports and the relation to concussion. Sports are one of the top causes of traumatic brain injury in people ages 15 to 24, second only to motor vehicle crashes. Every year, American athletes receive an estimated 3.8 million sports-related concussions.
There also is a new focus on helmets. A number of medical authorities and other experts argue that helmets can give players a false sense of security, leading to more aggressive play and more risk taking, which, in turn, results in more concussions. This is particularly evident in football, where players are prone to hitting opponents helmet-first. But the sense of security football helmets gives players is false because they don’t protect players from the type of violent movement that causes concussions – movement of the brain inside the skull.
So, what is the solution, if not a helmet? The answer is education. Unfortunately, concussion is still not recognized as it should be among student athletes. There are new programs aimed at student athletes, their families, coaches, and schools to educate them about concussions, as well as efforts to establish better clinical guidelines for identifying concussions and establishing how to treat them, and rules about when student athletes can return to play following a concussion.
In 2010, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the ConTACT Act (Concussion Treatment and Care Tools Act of 2010), which would amend Title II of the Public Health Service Act to provide for the establishment and implementation of concussion management guidelines with respect to school-aged children. However, the bill never made it before the Senate and did not become law.
Newly proposed legislation aims to start a step earlier – before young athletes sustain any injury at all.
Sponsored by New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall and New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell, the Children’s Sports Athletic Equipment Safety Act would introduce tougher penalties for manufacturers that make false or misleading injury prevention claims about their helmets and other athletic equipment. The new legislation has already been endorsed by several organizations, including the NFL Players Association.
It is particularly important to protect the developing brains of our young people. According to information provided by the Brain Injury Association of America, “a brain injury actually has a more devastating impact on a child than an injury of the same severity has on a mature adult. The cognitive impairments of children may not be immediately obvious after the injury but may become apparent as the child gets older and faces increased cognitive and social expectations for new learning and more complex, socially appropriate behavior. These delayed effects can create lifetime challenges for living and learning for children, their families, schools and communities. Some children may have lifelong physical challenges. However, the greatest challenges many children with brain injury face are changes in their abilities to think and learn and to develop socially appropriate behaviors.”
Want more information? Visit the Brain Injury Association of America at www.biausa.org or the Family of A Vet organization at www.FamilyOfaVet.com, or call the National Brain Injury Information Center at 800-444-6443.
Posted in brain damage, traumatic brain injury | Comments Off
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