What to Do When Your Child is Injured at School

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Posted on 25th June 2010 by admin in Uncategorized

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Children often enjoy school. It is a time where they get to see their friends and learn new things. However, there can be times where school can be bad for a child and a parent. One of these times is when a parent finds out their child has been injured at school. What to do when your child is injured at school is rather simple.

First, you need to ensure your child is both physically and emotionally safe. Having a child that is not fixed in both physical and emotional ways is extremely dangerous. Take your child to a hospital or their doctor to ensure their injuries are checked over and documented. This documentation will become important should you decide to sue the school.

Second, it is important to consult with the school about what happened. The school should have filed out an incident report that will state exactly what happened. Ask the school for a copy of this report. Ask your child what happened and check to see what they say is what the report reflects. The report and your child may have different versions of the events and it is important to determine which set is correct for the injury.

Third, consult with legal counsel. Your legal counsel will want a copy of all relevant reports include the school incident report, copies of your child’s medical records and a sworn statement made by witnesses and your child. They will guide you through the process to ensure all of the relevant information is gathered and that your child does not have to be injured without legal recourse. It is important to consult with a lawyer as soon as possible after the injury or accident. While there is no statute of limitations in criminal law it is becoming increasingly difficult to prove a case after weeks or months of time has elapsed.

The information contained within this article is not legal advice and should not be taken as such.

If your child has been hurt at school in Indiana, contact the qualified attorneys at Ken Allen Law.

Financing Nursing Home Care

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Posted on 24th June 2010 by admin in Uncategorized

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There may be many reasons why one would consider home nursing care for a loved one. This is the case normally in situations where the loved one needs long term care to either get better or live in more comfort. Unfortunately financing nursing home care is difficult.

The average annual cost for home nursing care is about $50,000. This may be out of reach for most families. More so since most of these conditions are not planned. It is not surprising to find families going through all their savings to keep their loved ones in a more comfortable home setting. This does not have to be the case.

So, how can one finance home nursing care? Personal finances are normally the first options for most families. However, since home nursing care is not in most budgets, it does not take long before this source runs dry. Many families have found themselves in serious financial difficulty once they depend on this as their only source of funding.

When personal financing becomes untenable, most families fall back on Medicaid and Medicare. Medicaid may pay part or all of the home nursing costs through the Medicaid Nursing Facility Program. Medicare also helps for people over the age of 65 years. The problem with both is that they have strict eligibility requirements. Since they are state and federally funded programs, you are required to meet part of the costs for home nursing care. For example, Medicare does not pay for custodial care and usually pays for a limited time. However, for the family in a dire financial situation, they are very important.

For those that would like to take control of their own lives, then long-term care insurance comes in handy. This private insurance protects assets against situations that require extended long-term care. It usually covers the cost of care in a nursing home, adult day care and your home. One should not underestimate the costs of home nursing care. Not only does it devastate your finances, it is also emotionally draining. You need to plan for these situations to avoid difficulty in financing nursing home care.

This article is not legal advice. People seeking legal assistance with elder law should contact Attorney Andrew M. Lamkin.

The Recall of Yaz

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Posted on 18th June 2010 by admin in Uncategorized

In November 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recalled some of the birth control pill Yaz, due to unsafe practices during manufacturing.

While Yaz is still on the market, its maker, Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, is facing an undetermined number of lawsuits. Yaz is said to have contributed to heart attacks, strokes, blood clots, gallbladder disease, kidney disease and sudden death in countless women. Yaz is made with drospirenone and ethinyl estradiol. The drospirenone is a diuretic and can cause electrolyte imbalances, specifically the increase of potassium which can lead to blood clots, kidney disease and gallbladder problems.

Yasmin, a similar contraceptive, was approved by the FDA in 2001. Yaz wasn’t approved until 2006, and many of its users claim that they have had severe side effects from the pill which they were never warned about. In 2008, the FDA required that Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals relaunch the pill’s campaign to include the more severe side effects, and to clarify the other benefits of the pill, like its use in treating acne.

Although the recall wasn’t widely heard about, almost 33,000 boxes of Yaz were recalled. There was also a recall of Yaz’s generic equivalent, Ocella. More than 120,000 boxes of Ocella were affected. The problem stemmed from a manufacturing plant in Germany. Some of the pills may have contained too much drospirenone. Other pills were dispensed using dirty equipment that was labeled clean. Instead of destroying those batches, the number of bad batches were averaged with the number of good batches to make it look like the drug was within specifications. The FDA warned Bayer that the averaging practice was fraudulent and unacceptable.

At present, there is no indication that there will be more recalls but Yaz class action lawsuits are likely. Bayer Pharmaceuticals faces a combination of lawsuits in the United States, as well as Canada.