Illinois Injury Lawyer Blog

The Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti were happy to know that for-profit Chicago nursing home operators were finally issued a stinging reprimand from a federal judge this week. The judge called the misleading Chicago nursing homes out for using “scare tactics” to persuade psychiatric patients to remain in nursing home facilities rather than moving to supportive community housing that specializes in serving the mentally ill. The federal ruling was made public this week and is directly related to a landmark proposed Illinois court settlement. Illinois authorities in the court settlement promised to offer supportive community-based housing and treatment to nearly 4500 psychiatric patients that are currently living in two dozen large nursing homes known as Institutions for Mental Diseases (“IMDs”). But, Chicago nursing home operators worried about their profits recently distributed “information sheets” to their residents and residents’ families asserting that the proposed settlement lacks details. The information sheet also scares the residents to believe that the settlement could strip away protections for individuals who leave the Illinois nursing home facilities, implying that some could be left hungry, homeless, and without care.

The judge ordered the Illinois nursing homes to stop distributing the “information sheets.” The judge stated that: “implications that those transferred to a community setting would be left without housing, food, or medical care … are misleading in that the settlement provides that the community placements are to include provisions for such.” The judge also cited many other claims in the “information sheets” that he described as inaccurate and incendiary. In a very strong demand, the judge ordered the Illinois nursing home operators to stop contacting the psychiatric patients without permission from the attorneys representing the mentally ill patients involved in the lawsuit.

More information about the judge’s ruling reprimanding the Illinois nursing homes is available at the Chicago Tribune.

Our Illinois readers may remember that the Howe Developmental Center in Tinley Park, Illinois was criticized for being the worst-run state facility for developmentally disabled adults in Illinois. It was a place where Illinois employee neglect and abuse was blamed for dozens of Illinois wrongful deaths. In fact, two Cook County wrongful death lawsuits allege that Howe Developmental Center employees and on-duty doctors failed to prevent Illinois residents from choking to death. The Illinois abuse and neglect problems were so outrageous and hopeless that Illinois closed it in June once the remaining residents found homes elsewhere.

Despite the allegations of rampant neglect and improper care, officials reported that not a single Howe Developmental Center manager or employee was fired as a result of the closing. The Chicago Tribune obtained records that show that nearly 400 former Home employees are now employed at other Illinois state facilities for the developmentally disabled. For those who fought for the closure of Howe Developmental Center, the transfers and hiring of these former employees show a lack of accountability and highlight the problems that the Illinois Department of Human Services encounters when it attempts to fire union employees for poor performance. Many advocates now worry that the culture of ineptitude prevalent at Howe Developmental Center are now spreading to other Illinois state care facilities.

Investigations performed by the United States Department of Justice and the state officials of the inspector general backed up contentions that the facility failed to provide a safe living environment for its residents. The investigations cited a record of questionable care that put Illinois residents at risk. For example, the investigation showed that one resident at Howe Developmental Center in his 50s died after employees gave him medication but neglected to monitor his vital signs after he sustained a serious head injury. Additionally, an ailing man died in his wheelchair and sat there for more than an hour before anyone noticed. These allegations of Illinois wrongful deaths, uncovered by investigations, are atrocious and highlight the problems that lack of accountability can cause.

Click the link to read more about the closed Illinois facility.

The Southtown Star reported that a Chicago South Shore commuter train collided with a car on Friday just east of Gary. The Illinois train accident resulted in the deaths of town women in the car after it drove around a crossing arm at a rail crossing. The train collision happened when the southbound car went around an arm at the crossing on the Lake-Porter county line. Since 2007, at least five other people have died in similar Illinois train crashes. The local police stated that two women were killed and two people received personal injuries in the train accident in the Friday morning crash – a young child and another adult. Nobody who was riding in the eight-car train was injured in the train accident. The train originated in South Bend and was bound for Chicago.

The injured child was airlifted to the University of Chicago Hospital following the train crash with serious internal personal injuries. The child’s mother was taken to Methodist Northlake Hospital. One witness told a reporter that she was two cars behind the car involved in the train crash and said that the car went around the gates. The witness said that the gates were down at the track intersection and one train had just cleared a set of tracks when the car’s driver went around the gate. The train collision pushed the vehicle several yards across the tracks.

In 2008, there were over 9000 train accidents, over 6000 serious personal injuries due to train accidents and over 600 train-related fatalities across the United States according to the Federal Railroad Administration of Safety Analysis. The train accident attorneys at Levin & Perconti want to remind all of our readers that it is extremely difficult for trains to come to a stop – even if they are moving slowly. Please remember to stay out of a train’s way for your safety.

For more information on the commuter rail train accident, click on the link to the Southtown Star article.

The New York Times reported this week that a university has quietly stopped research at a well-known brain imaging center after federal investigators found that it had regularly injected mental patients with drugs that contained potentially dangerous impurities. The brain imaging center is regarded by experts as the nation’s leader in the use of positron emission tomography (“PET”) for psychiatric research. However, the federal investigations revealed that the brain imaging center repeatedly violated Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) drug safety regulations over a four-year period.

PET research is a nuclear medicine imaging technique which produces a three-dimensional image or picture of functional processes in the body. In the university’s brain imaging center, the FDA found in a series of inspections that the center had failed to correct manufacturing problems in a lab that makes experimental drugs injected into psychiatric patients to help capture images of brain activity. In one product liability warning letter, an FDA office described problems dating back to at least 2004 citing a litany of violations, including a failure to reject batches of medication that did not pass required tests.

More information on the FDA violations is available at the New York Times website.

The numbers are shocking and eye-opening. Nearly 300,000 Chicago traffic accidents occur yearly and a Chicago deadly accident takes place every 21.5 hours. However, one study shows that some measures have resulted in about 200 lives being saved each year in Chicago. The rates of deadly Chicago traffic accidents and serious Illinois personal injuries have decreased significantly since the early 1990’s due in large part to safety enhancements on Illinois roads in addition to newer motor vehicles that offer a better change of surviving Chicago car accidents. The annual number of deaths and injuries from vehicle accidents in the Chicago area fell 12.5 percent from 2002 to 2005 and fatalities alone decreased 30.5 percent from 2005 to 2008, from 629 deaths annually to 437. The statistics are based on data collected by the Illinois Department of Transportation. DuPage County recorded the lowest fatality rates over the entire period studied and suburban Cook County and Lake County had the second lowest fatality rates. Illinois’s tougher seat belt laws as well as roadside checks aimed at catching drunk or otherwise impaired motorists are also helping to cut the rate of deadly crashes.

Nonetheless, there is still a lot of improvement to be made in Illinois road safety. In the city of Chicago, one of the biggest challenges will be decreasing vehicle-pedestrian accidents. Further, despite the greatest decline between 2002 and 2008, the crash rates are still highest in the city – three times the rate of some rural areas. Almost 25 percent of fatal crashes in Chicago involve pedestrians. Additionally, fatal Chicago vehicle accidents occur across the Chicago metropolitan area late at night. Traffic fatalities occurring at night accounted for more than a third of all vehicle-related deaths in the Chicago region in 2008.

You can read the full Chicago traffic deaths and injuries report by clicking the link.

A former pro-football player from the Dallas Cowboys has filed a premises liability lawsuit against a facility builder and companies operated by the team owner. The former pro player was inside the team’s indoor practice facility when it collapsed last year and sustained a career-ending injury. Like other injury lawsuits filed after the premises accident, the personal injury lawsuit filed claims that the injury plaintiff suffered serious, disabling, and permanent injuries when the structure fell last year.

According to the plaintiff’s injury lawyer, the former football player suffered a herniated disk in his neck after a steel support landed on him during the accident at the practice facility. The injury attorney explained that the injured player faces a “double edged sword” because he is unable to be cleared to play without surgery, but having the surgery will brand him a “damaged” player to the NFL teams. Though veteran players have bounced back to successful careers after having this surgery, the player was a rookie so the injury has cost him his dream to play in the NFL.

A special teams coach has also filed a personal injury lawsuit stemming from the premises accident when he suffered broken vertebrae. Additionally, a team scout, who was left paralyzed from the waste down during the accident, has also filed an injury lawsuit. The premises liability lawsuits allege that the company who built the facility was negligent in its building and also allege that repairs that were being done on the facility were improperly supervised.

More information about the injury lawsuits is available by clicking the hyperlink.

According to a recent Southtown Star article, Illinois state health officials announced last week that they are continuing to press ahead with a license revocation of a Southland nursing home based on the nursing home’s history of substandard nursing home care, including nursing home abuse and neglect. The nursing home, Evergreen Health Center, which is located on the south side of Chicago, is now reported to be back in compliance with recent nursing home care violations despite allegations of nursing home neglect. A letter last week from the administrator of the Illinois nursing home stated that the nursing home had remedied the nursing home problems cited by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The Illinois nursing home has made changes to avoid the license revocation, including increased continuing education programs, in-house clinical audits, and updated policies and programs. Nevertheless, Illinois health officials stated that the facility has a history of serious nursing home deficiencies.

The Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti are glad that Illinois health officials are treating Evergreen’s history of noncompliance seriously. Our Illinois nursing home neglect lawyers have filed several nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuits against the Evergreen nursing home in the past. Nursing home residents have died from repeated failures of staff medical professionals, administrators, and aides. For example, one of our nursing home neglect and wrongful death lawsuits involve a bedridden senior citizen resident who tragically died at Evergreen due to the failure of staff to monitor the resident’s developing pressure sores.

More information about the Illinois nursing home license revocation is available at Southtown Star.

Several U.S. consumers have filed suit against Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest health-products company in federal court in Chicago. The racketeering lawsuits stem from Johnson & Johnson’s product recalls from earlier this year and accuse the company of fraud and racketeering and demands cash refunds for recalled children’s cold and allergy medicines. Five complaints have been filed, seeking class-action status, expressing their rejection of the offer by Johnson & Johnson’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare and McNeil-PPC Inc. units for refund coupons and demanded cash. The complaints allege that the coupons are worthless because McNeil has ceased making the medicines and assumes – wrongfully – that all consumers will want to purchase the company’s children’s products at some uncertain future date.

In late April, the companies issued a product recall for over 40 types of pediatric allergy medications and pain relief medications, stating that the quality and potency of those drugs for children did not meet the company’s internal requirements. The Chicago product liability attorneys at Levin & Perconti think that what was remarkable about this wide reaching product recall was how many popular products were recalled – recalled products included children’s formulations of liquid Tylenol, Motrin, and Benadryl.

These racketeering cases related to product liability and recalls were filed in the Federal Court located in Chicago, Illinois, which is known as the “Dirksen” federal courthouse, named after Everett McKinley Dirksen. It’s located in downtown Chicago, not too far from the offices of the Illinois personal injury lawyers at Levin & Perconti.

Click the weblink to read the entire article on the lawsuit filed in Chicago.

It has been roughly a year since House Democrats and Republicans approved legislation aimed to improve food safety. Now, public health advocates concerned about recent food safety recalls are growing frustrated that the United States Senate has yet to take up the bill. The Washington Post reports that a coalition of food safety groups tried to turn up the pressure last week on the leaders in the Senate, running newspaper ads featuring constituents who fell seriously ill from food poisoning and urging the leaders to move the bill to the Senate floor and to pass the bill.

Last week, President Obama addressed in a statement his support for the passage of the food safety bill. President Obama added that the bill provides the government the tools it needs to ensure food safety. The food safety bill would be the first major change to food safety law in 70 years and would give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) greater regulatory authority regarding food production. Additionally, it places the responsibility where it belongs – on the manufacturers and farmers to produce food free from product contamination.

As the Chicago product liability attorneys at Levin & Perconti are aware, the legislation comes after a series of food-borne illnesses over the past four years. You can remember that the food recalls have included various products, such as spinach and cookie dough, and have generally made Illinois and U.S. consumers weary about food safety. In fact, just yesterday – USA Today reported that close to one in twenty five outbreaks of foodborne illnesses in restaurants and delis can be traced to contaminated, freshly-made salsa or guacamole!

Click the link to read the full food safety law article.

An Illinois man, only twenty-five years of age, was pronounced dead early yesterday morning after the motorcycle he was driving crashed this morning in Park Forest, a suburb of Chicago. Officials say that the victim of the Illinois motorcycle crash was pronounced dead at 8:10 a.m.

Another young Illinois man, only twenty-eight, was pronounced dead yesterday morning at 4:00 a.m. after an Illinois car crash on the westbound Eisenhower Expressway in Chicago. The 28 year-old man was a passenger in a car and the driver got in a race with another car on the Expressway. The Illinois car crash victim was sitting in the front passenger’s seat when he was partially ejected and killed when the car left the road, overturned on the right embankment, and hit a tree. The Illinois driver of the vehicle was also ejected and taken in critical condition to Stroger Hospital of Cook County. A backseat passenger was also taken to Stroger with non-life-threatening injuries. No individual in the vehicle was wearing a seat belt.

Remember, in Illinois, the law states that each driver and front seat passenger of a motor vehicle must wear a safety belt. Each year in Illinois, lives are needlessly lost in Chicago car crashes simply because individuals were not buckled in. As for motorcycles, more individuals in Chicago hit the road on their motorcycles when the weather is nice in the summer. Please practice safety – wear protective gear, especially a helmet, and try to pick a bright color for the helmet. Please remember to obey the rules of the road.

Click the following web links to read more about the Illinois motorcycle crash or Chicago car crash.

Ten years after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was accused of downplaying the side effects from the popular diabetes drug Avandia, the agency reports that it will reveal the data it is reviewing ahead of an advisory panel meeting about the drug’s safety. The meeting follows two recent drug safety studies that suggest that Avandia may cause serious or life-threatening side effects. A third study appeared to show the opposite. Since 2005, evidence has suggested that the diabetes drug Avandia may increase the risk of cardiovascular complications, including heart attacks, one the major causes of death among diabetes. The drug is still on the market and scientists continue to battle over its safety, leaving patients nervous pending the FDA’s eventual findings about the product side effects.

Avandia acts primarily by increasing insulin sensitivity and improving glycemic control while reducing circulating insulin levels. The drug is not recommended for patients with symptomatic heart failure. Some studies have showed Avandia to be associated with an increased risk of myocardial ischemic events such as angina or myocardial infarction.

Prescription drugs like Avandia along with over-the-counter medications, including generic drugs, are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). Their work, however, covers more than just medicines. They also regulate items such as fluoride toothpaste, antiperspirants, dandruff shampoos, and sunscreens.

For more information about the potential product safety issues with Avandia, click on the link.

According to Business Week, the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) announced earlier this week that it has sent a warning letter to drugmaker Cornerstone Therapeutics Inc. The product liability warning letter alleges that the company’s promotional materials withheld information about the risks of its asthma drug Zyflo CR. The FDA also reported that the materials violated the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act; some of the materials used outdated labeling and suggested that Zyflo CR is more effective than competing drugs like Singulair. Since the FDA contacted Cornerstone on June 22, the company website appears to contain updated drug information.

According to the FDA, the drugmaker left out significant information about Zyflo CR’s risks, which include liver toxicity and neuropsychiatric events. It also neglected to disclose that the asthma drug is not recommended for people with liver disease or who have allergic reactions to ingredients.

Issues with drug companies like this often fall in the realm of products liability, which is an area of personal injury law that focuses on dangerous and defective products. The Chicago product liability firm of Levin & Perconti has represented numerous plaintiffs in Illinois in matters against manufacturers who have sold or manufactured unsafe products to consumers.

For more information about the FDA product warning letter, click on the link.

Yesterday at Campbell Street Bicycle Shop in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Illinois, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed Illinois bicycle safety legislation into law designed to better protect bicyclists in the state. League of Illinois Bicyclists executive director says that the bills will help both motorists and bicyclists do their parts in sharing our roadways safely. According to the group, the bill will establish new penalties for motorists that drive recklessly or unnecessarily close to bicyclists. A second piece of Illinois legislation will create “Share the Road” Illinois license plates, the money from which will fund bicycle safety campaigns. Illinois Governor Quinn states that the new laws will keep bicyclists safe and remind drivers to be alert for bicyclists.

The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) addressed bicycle safety in a website entitled “safe riding tips.” The safe riding tips address ways to avoid bicycle injuries. Before using a bike, one should always make sure that it is ready to ride. The NHTSA says to remember to wear a properly fitted bicycle helmet, adjust the bicycle to fit, check equipment, see and be seen, control the bicycle, watch for and avoid road hazards, and avoid riding at night. Another issue, especially important to Chicago bicycle riders, is to always follow the rules of the road. Bicycles are considered vehicles. With the rights of a bicycle ride, bicyclists have the same responsibilities to follow the rules of the road as motorists. Illinois bicyclists are expected to go with the traffic flow, obey traffic laws, yield to traffic when appropriate, be predictable, stay alert at all times, look before turning, and watch for parked cars.

Click the link to read about the bicycle safety law.

Unfortunately, yearly on this holiday, stories hit the Chicago newspapers of Illinois residents injured by fireworks. And unfortunately again, this year is no different. A 28 year-old South Chicago man received severe personal injuries in a Chicago fireworks accident over the weekend. The Illinois man was trying to explode a fireworks device. According to Chicago police, the man noticed that the firework did not detonate after the man lit it, so he picked up the device to take a second look. The firework exploded near the Illinois man’s face and he was sent to Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn for treatment of massive facial injuries. Chicago police are investigating, but suspect that the firework device may have been an M-series device, which is a type of explosive that closely resembles a stick of dynamite rather than a firecracker. In the state of Illinois, firecrackers, Roman candles, bottle rockets, and other aerial exploding fireworks are illegal.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a statement stating that celebrating the Fourth of July is joyful, but can quickly turn into devastation when adults and children receive personal injuries while using fireworks. The CPSC stated that some fireworks, such as illegal firecracker type devices (M-80’s, quarter sticks) and professional display fireworks, should never be used or handled by consumers due to serious injuries and deaths can and do occur. Indeed, the Chicago personal injury lawyers at Levin & Perconti read yearly about awful personal injuries sustained after handling illegal fireworks in Illinois.

The CPSC offers some tips for celebrating safely this year. Please be safe this Fourth of July!

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Illinois state Senator Heather Steans has divested her ownership interest in a southwest suburban nursing home that has faced repeated citations for serious patient neglect. Some of the citations for patient neglect include medical failures that allegedly contributed to the Illinois wrongful death of two patients. Last December, two patients died at Evergreen Health Care Center in Evergreen Park while the Care Center provided substandard care that moved state health authorities earlier this month to revoke the facility’s license. Despite the move and the two alleged Illinois wrongful deaths, Evergreen continues to operate while contesting the revocation before an administrative law judge.

State Senator Steans had no operational role in the Illinois nursing home, but following a previous Chicago Tribune report on the facility, Senator Steans shed her 2.8 percent interest in the nursing home. Illinois wrongful death lawyer Steven Levin responded that “it’s shocking that somebody who has been an advocate for nursing home reform has an ownership in a home that has a repeated background of citations.” Illinois nursing home abuse firm Levin & Perconti filed an Illinois nursing home neglect lawsuit against Evergreen last week. The Illinois wrongful death lawsuit alleges that the nursing home missed doses of the victim’s medications, failed to keep a log charting her medicines, and failed to inform the victim’s doctor that her blood test results were abnormal.

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