California Injury Blog

Published on: April 18, 2007

Swimming Pool Accident Proves Fatal for Young Boy

By Brian Chase

Two young brothers were pulled unconscious from a murky backyard pool Saturday, and one died later while the other was hospitalized in critical condition, according to a news report by the Associated Press posted on Newsday’s Web site.

The boys’ grandmother found the 5-year-old boy floating in the pool Saturday afternoon at the family home in the Walnut Park area south of downtown, sheriff’s officials said. The boys’ father pulled him out and tried to resuscitate him, before realizing his 3-year-old son was also missing. The father eventually found the younger boy, Jonathon Verdugo, just below the surface, but he and paramedics were unable to resuscitate him, sheriff’s officials said. Jonathan died Sunday and the 5-year-old, whose name was not released, was in critical condition, the sheriff’s department said.

A swimming pool in the yard can be very dangerous for children. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that you do not put a swimming pool in your yard until your children are older than 5 years. If you already have a pool, protect your children from drowning by doing the following:

• Never leave your children alone in or near the pool, even for a moment.
• You must put up a fence to separate your house from the pool. Most young children who drown in pools wander out of the house and fall into the pool. Install a fence at least 4 feet high around all 4 sides of the pool. This fence will completely separate the pool from the house and play area of the yard. Use gates that self-close and self-latch, with latches higher than your children’s reach.
• A power safety cover that meets the standards of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) adds to the protection of your children but should not be used in place of the fence between your house and the pool. Even fencing around your pool and using a power safety cover will not prevent all drowning accidents.
• Keep rescue equipment (such as a shepherd’s hook or life preserver) and a telephone by the pool.
• Do not let your child use air-filled “swimming aids” because they are not a substitute for approved life vests and can be dangerous.
• Anyone watching young children around a pool should learn CPR and be able to rescue a child if needed. Stay within an arm’s length of your child.
• Remove all toys from the pool after use so children aren’t tempted to reach for them.
• After the children are done swimming, secure the pool so they can’t get back into it.
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Published on: April 18, 2007

Disability Insurance Company Refuses to Pay Victim’s Benefits

By Brian Chase

This is the story of a friend and a client and a classic case of how insurance companies can let you down very badly when you need them the most.

Mary Nehrlich was a top insurance saleswoman. She was as good as they got. Mary was a top producer in insurance sales and received many awards and accolades for her sales volume.

Mary thought she had prepared herself for every eventuality that insurance could cover, and she had. In selling insurance, she was a total believer. She had purchased, for herself and her family, every type of insurance she sold, including disability insurance. What she wasn’t prepared for was the way the insurance companies whose products she sold would show her the door when she was down and out.

Mary was severely injured in a horrible car crash on Oct. 18, 1995. She was driving near the intersection of McFadden and Springdale streets in Huntington Beach when a speeding motorist ran the red light and struck her vehicle. The other driver had been drinking.

The car was totaled and she suffered traumatic head, shoulder, hip and back injuries. She underwent knee and shoulder surgeries and later rehab at UCI Medical Center for three years. But, quite unexpectedly, she was also diagnosed with a brain injury months after the incident. The man who hit her also turned out to be an uninsured motorist. Her disability insurance carrier, for whom she was a top salesperson, declined to pay her the benefits promised in her policy.
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Published on: April 17, 2007

Brain Injury Results From ATV Accident

By Brian Chase

A 12-year-old girl died last week after she suffered brain injuries in an all-terrain vehicle accident in a dirt field on April 8. Two days after the accident, Arlene Marie Ochoa’s family was forced to take her off life support because of the severity of her brain injuries, according to an article published in The Bakersfield Californian.

Arlene was a passenger of an ATV driven by her 13-year-old aunt, her best friend, as they traveled through a dirt field in the 2300 block of Macau and Areili streets, according to a Kern County coroner’s office release. She fell off the ATV and struck her head.

According to eyewitness reports, Arlene had been having so much fun on the vehicle that she kept letting go and holding her hands up, her father Robert Ochoa told the newspaper. Some of Arlene’s relatives were also present when the incident happened, but were facing the other way when the accident happened, he said. Arlene was a spirited girl who played soccer and had numerous friends and a beautiful heart, her grieving father said.

At first the Ochoas thought their daughter would make it through the injuries, but tests revealed that Arlene was in fact, brain-dead. Bakersfield police detectives are investigating the accident and still don’t know whether any California vehicle codes were broken. Under California law, anyone driving an ATV off-road must wear a helmet and anyone under 18 must secure a safety certificate to operate an ATV, Terry said.

It is not clear from this article whether the young girl was wearing a helmet. But here’s what we know about ATVs. Although ATVs are toys, they are powerful toys that can turn deadly. They are powerful vehicles that can travel at speeds of 70 mph. They are not designed to carry passengers.
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Published on: April 16, 2007

Nursing Homes in California Get Off Easy

By Brian Chase

The California Department of Health Services has been negligently slow to respond to complaints regarding nursing home safety and has been understating the severity of the problems they do find, according to a state auditor report released last week. The audit, which looked at about 17,000 complaints lodged over a recent two-year period, found that the department failed to respond within legal time limits to almost half, and failed to complete about six in 10 investigations promptly, the Sacramento Bee reported.

Auditors also cited instances where state health investigators did not take safety violations seriously. For example, in one case, the inspectors issued a low-level citation to a home that failed to provide oxygen to residents with breathing problems. Auditors pointed out that the home should have faced a much higher penalty for putting its residents in immediate jeopardy, the article stated. According to the auditor in 20% of the cases reviewed in which the state inspectors cited a nursing home for violations, the penalty imposed was too light.

Our California Department of Health is sick. It is under a San Francisco Superior Court order to improve its speed in response to complaints. Advocates filed a lawsuit last year, alleging that the department was too slow in processing and investigating complaints and the Court agreed.

The article also cites a recent report by the California Health Care Foundation that found the total number of complaints against nursing homes rose from about 8,000 in the year 2000 to 12,000 in the year 2005. But at the same time, the portion of complaints that were substantiated by investigators fell dramatically, from 41 percent to 16 percent. The report cited the slow response time as a factor hampering investigators’ ability to determine what happened. Last year, the federal Government Accountability Office also issued a report saying that California’s inspectors often overlooked or downplayed serious safety violations.
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Published on: April 15, 2007

Rottweiler Attack Injures Local Resident

By Brian Chase

Two Rottweilers attacked an Inland Empire woman while she was taking a morning stroll, last Friday morning. Gail Theurer, 66, of San Antonio Heights was severely injured in the dog bite attack. She was airlifted to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton where she was hospitalized in serious condition, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

Apparently Theurer used a can of Mace or pepper spray on the dogs to protect herself after the initial attack. It did not stop them however. According to Beth Les, community-resource officer for the Inland Valley Humane Society in Pomona, neither dog was licensed. The Humane Society took possession of dogs. The owners of the dogs have not been located.

The dogs will be quarantined for 10 days, per state code, because the bites broke Theurer’s skin, said Brian Sampson, supervisor of animal services for the Inland Valley Humane Society. He said that vicious-dog charges will be filed against the owners due to the severity of the attack.
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Published on: April 15, 2007

Ford recalls 527,000 Crossovers over Fire Hazard

By Brian Chase

Ford Motor Co. is recalling 527,000 Ford Escape crossovers from the 2001-04 model years because the antilock brake system in the small truck can catch on fire, according to a news report posted on consumer watchdog Web site, Consumeraffairs.com.

According to a statement issued by Ford, missing or incorrectly installed seals on the wiring harness could lead to corrosion when water or road salt gets into an electrical connector. The corrosion could cause the ABS warning light to come on and lead to melting or burning of the electrical ABS connector. The recall does not include the hybrid version of the Escape.

The article states that the Ford Escape fires have prompted several reports to ConsumerAffairs.Com. Ford has not reported any accidents or injuries as a result of the Escape fire, but according to the article, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received complaints of at least 50 engine fires connected to the problems. The federal agency is also reportedly actively investigating the Ford Escape.

The article also talks about a Ford Escape owner in Jacksonville, Fla., whose 2001 Escape burned last month. This is what the woman had to say to consumeraffairs.com:

“I saw smoke rolling out of the engine compartment. The car had not moved in two days and my brother came to the truck with me. We popped the hood and smoke was everywhere, but primarily coming from underneath the brake reservoir.”

She said she could tell by the smell that it was an electrical issue as the wires were melting and burning. She got through to Ford after repeated efforts to contact a company spokesperson, who only told her that they had never heard about the problem before but that several factors could have caused the fire.
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Published on: April 14, 2007

Fatal Motorcycle Accident Caused by Poor Visibility

By Brian Chase

A motorcycle accident in Southern California takes the life of a Vista man who was hit and killed early Tuesday morning after he crashed his motorcycle into the back of a slow-moving truck and was then run over by an oncoming van, according to a news report posted on the San Diego Union Tribune’s Web site.

Mark Anthony Blecher, 37, was riding eastbound on Sycamore Avenue in Vista and was just east of Hot Springs Way when he came up on a cement truck that was having mechanical problems and emitting black smoke, which limited visibility, according to San Diego Sheriff’s officials.

The truck was being driven slowly uphill when Blecher crashed into the back of it. He was thrown to the ground and was then hit by a van being driven by a 49-year-old man from Vista who was also heading eastbound, according to the article. That driver stopped after the accident but the truck’s driver, apparently unaware that someone hit him, continued on to his workplace, a company in Vista, and didn’t learn about the accident until he got there, according to the article.
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Published on: April 11, 2007

Another Vicioius Dog Attack on a Child

By Brian Chase

Should dog owners be held criminally responsible for severe injury attacks perpetrated by their dogs? Would the prospect of jail time, a fine and mandatory participation in a dog education program make dog owners more responsbile for their animals? Would such a law cut down on the number of vicisous attacks on children that happen nearly every day in our state?

If such a law saved ten vicious attacks on children a year, would it be worth it? If it was your child or grandchild that was saved, would it be worth it? You bet it would. Would such a law have prevented the following?:

A Monterey County Sheriff’s Department’s news release stated that on Thursday of last week, emergency crews from the North Monterey County Fire Protestion District and Westmed Ambulance Services treated a 7-year-old Las Lomas girl for severe dog attack wounds and then transported her to a local hospital. She suffered multiple lacerations to her face, back and leg.

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Published on: April 10, 2007

Dementia Patient Died with Dead Rat in his Mouth

By Brian Chase

A 90-year-old dementia patient was found last month alone in his Mission Viejo care facility room with a dead rat lodged in his mouth, according to an article published in The Orange County Register Friday.

Attorneys for plaintiff Sigmund Bock filed the lawsuit Thursday in Orange County Superior Court against Paragon Gardens Assisted Living and Memory Care facility for the elderly. The suit also alleged that the facility’s staff ignored Bock’s needs by allowing a rat infestation and then failed to supervise the mentally incapacitated patient.

“The defendants so literally ignored the needs of their residents, and most specifically Sigmund Bock, as to allow vermin in the form of a rat to become lodged in the mouth of Sigmund Block and die therein,'” the lawsuit read.

Nobody at Paragon was available for comment Thursday afternoon. An attorney for Paragon did not respond to a request for comment, the article said.
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Published on: April 10, 2007

Pit Bull Saves a Life

By Brian Chase

Andrew Richesin, a 27 year-old Napa Valley College student and golfer, spent March 29th the way he spent most days-playing golf. After returning home that afternoon Andrew was anxious to spend some quality time hanging out, watching some TV, and relaxing with his dog, Jessie. Andrew seemed to fall asleep next to Jessie, and several hours later when Andrew’s girlfriend, Vanna Kalawa, returned from work she covered Andrew with a blanket, curled up next to him, and went to sleep.

Vanna recounted that about 3AM the next morning Jessie, Andrew’s 2 year-old boxer-pitbull, started barking and yelping in Vanna’s ear, startling her from a sound sleep. Vanna soon realized why Jessie was so unnerved. You see, Andrew had suffered a heart attack while he was sleeping and when Vanna checked Andrew she found that he had no pulse. Paramedics were called, but even shock treatments appeared unsuccessful, and Andrew lay in a coma for several days on life support. Then, miraculously, several days later, Andrew awoke from his coma, and now his condition is slowly improving.

As it turned out the doctors now say that they have never seen anything like this, and they marvel at the fact that they cannot figure out Andrew’s condition, and except for an enlarged heart Andrew seems to be improving. A brain scan was unremarkable, and the doctors pronounced his brain perfect.
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