Cleveland, Ohio Personal Injury Blog

When families ultimately make the difficult choice to send their loved ones to a nursing home, because they are unable to take care of themselves, the family member's hope is that their loved one will receive adequate care. Unfortunately, nursing home neglect and abuse does occur in Cleveland, and a recent USA Today survey indicates some nursing homes in Ohio still have a long way to go before their care is considered exemplary.

Three nursing homes in Cleveland appeared on a list of 15 facilities in Northeast Ohio that USA Today has rated as consistently bad in its analysis of ratings given by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Ratings are assigned to nursing homes based on a number of factors, including incidents of resident abuse, facility and equipment cleanliness, staff licensing and quality of care for residents.

The report noted that despite the stagnant ratings in Ohio, most nursing homes' ratings are improving. Ohio isn't alone in its struggles to provide senior citizens with good places in which to spend their sunset years.

The five-star nursing home rating system was introduced in 2008 as part of a federal effort to increase the transparency of consumer health care. Nursing homes residents are especially vulnerable to faulty health care practices. Many

homes that rated low in the survey are staffed by caregivers who fail to provide proper care. For example, a check of a home on the east coast found that on 19 occasions, staff had given patients an incorrect dosage of a drug used to treat Parkinson's disease. Not surprisingly, that home received a one-star rating.

Some people might expect that chain-owned nursing homes would have more uniform standards and achieve higher ratings as a result. But the survey found that is not always the case. The nation's largest chain by number of beds received a consistent one-star rating for 22 of its 277 nursing homes over the last three years. None of this company's homes has received regular five-star ratings.

The good news is that USA Today's analysis showed a trend in overall quality improvement in most of the 15,700 nursing homes monitored. The number of homes with four or five-star ratings increased by five percent -- from 38 percent to 43 percent -- over the three-year period studied. During that same time, the number of homes with the worst ratings of one or two stars dropped five percent from 40 percent of all nursing homes to only 35 percent.

Even with these overall improvements, there are individual homes that seem unable to improve. Nationally there are 564 homes that received one star in each of the seven reporting periods analyzed. Fifty-four of these homes are in Ohio.

By Nicholas A. DiCello Esq.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an important and invaluable diagnostic tool that saves an untold number of lives every year. However, a certain type of MRI scanning procedure can kill those who have compromised or weakened kidneys.

The type of MRI that can be dangerous to those with weakened kidneys involve the use of a widely used contrast agent containing gadolinium. MRI contrast agents are used to take clearer MRI images of the body's internal organs; they are injected into the blood vessels in the patient's hand or arm just before the scan. MRIs only require contrast agents in certain types of scans.

The Health Risks of Gadolinium Contrast Agents

Gadolinium-based contrast agents can increase the chances of developing a rare disease called nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) in patients with weakened kidneys. In such patients, after the gadolinium is administered, it cannot be excreted and remains in the body for a long period of time - which can lead to the development of NSF. NSF can cause lesions and thickening of the skin, organs and tissues, causing difficulty in moving joints. Eventually, NSF causes the organs to fail. Once contracted, NSF cannot be treated.

What You Can Do To Protect Yourself

To guard against developing NSF, patients should ask their doctors before their MRIs if a gadolinium-based contrast agent will be used. If gadolinium will be used, people with histories of kidney problems should let their doctor know of their concerns. The doctor may be able to use another type of diagnostic imaging. However, if a MRI is medically necessary, doctors can use a lower dose or put the patient on hemodialysis after the MRI to filter out the Gandolinium from the patient's blood.

Source: "Is gadolinium safe for people with kidney problems?," Mayo Clinic

A U.S. District Court Judge recently postponed nine "bellwether trials" against drug-maker Bayer involving injuries allegedly caused by their popular contraceptives Yaz and Yasmin - these were going to be the first trials of more than 10,000 lawsuits filed regarding Yaz and Yasmin.

Alleged Yaz and Yasmin Side Effects

Contraceptives made by Bayer - including Yaz and Yasmin - generated $1.58 billion in sales during 2010, and are used by women throughout the nation.

Given their wide use, for the sake of judicial economy, the federal cases filed against Bayer were consolidated in the Southern District of Illinois. Alleged Yasmin and Yaz side effects claimed in the suits range from strokes and heart attacks to pulmonary embolisms - and in some cases even death.

In fact, last year the FDA examined data on more than 835,000 women who were taking drospirenone - including YAZ - and found a 74 percent increased risk of developing blood clots than women on low-estrogen contraceptives.

Judge's Order

U.S. District Court Judge David Herdon ordered Bayer to enter into mediation with the alleged victims before mediator Stephen Salzburg, a George Washington University professor of law.

The judge further clarified his order on January 10^th, when he stated that if mediation fails in good faith, the first trial will begin on April 30^th. However, he also warned that if the parties fail to act in good faith, he will begin remanding the cases to the districts in which they originated.

Obviously this is a pivotal time in the Yaz and Yasmin litigation. What transpires in the next few months could impact all pending and subsequent Yaz lawsuits.

It has been estimated that drug-maker Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. may ultimately have to defend itself against as many as 10,000 lawsuits in the United States - suits stemming from allegations that its diabetes drug Actos may cause bladder cancer.

Given that Actos was prescribed throughout the county with potential victims nationwide, a Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation recently consolidated the lawsuits related to the potentially dangerous drug to the Western District of Louisiana under Judge Rebecca F. Doherty.

Actos Consolidation Order

Given that potential bladder cancer victims could be found in almost any part of the country, for the sake of judicial economy it is generally best for the cases to be heard by one judge in one court. This way, the issues are only determined once instead of countless times.