The website webMD.com is reporting that North Carolina-based Family Dollar stores are announcing a voluntary recall of sets of toy dart guns following reports of asphyxiation deaths linked to the toys. The report states that a 9-year-old in Chicago and a 10-year-old in Milwaukee were killed as a result of asphyxiation.
Many times immediately after an accident, even though a person is injured, the adrenalin rush minimizes any pain. Because of this condition, individuals requiring emergency care may postpone obtaining treatment.
Within a day or two after the accident, pain otherwise absent begins to appear.
This delay in diagnosis and treatment can result in increased injury, prolonged care and rehabilitation.
In addition, it may appear to the untrained observer that an injury should be present immediately after an accident and therefore any delayed appearance means that the injury has been manufactured.
The lesson to be learned is that anyone involved in an accident should be seen at a hospital emergency room or by a family physician as soon as possible.
Remember, early evaluation and treatment can avoid costly and painful consequences.
In Arizona, as in other states, when an injury is claimed in litigation the defense is entitled, as a matter of right, to have the injured plaintiff examined by a physician.
In Arizona, these exams are entitled, “independent medical examinations” and are conducted by hand picked physicians who are anything but “independent”.
Although reason dictates that the defense should be entitled to have the plaintiff claiming an injury examined by a physician, the system as it now exists is merely gamesmanship.
These “independent” physicians uniformly prepare reports which claim that the injured plaintiff is not injured at all, but in fact is only seeking money.
These reports become suspect when the same “independent” physician writes the same boilerplate report for every plaintiff being examined.
As was recently reported in a New York Times article written by N.R. Kleinfeld, Dr. Hershel Samuels, an independent medical examiner in New York state’s workers’ compensation system stated that, “If you did a truly pure report, you’d be out on your ears and the insurers wouldn’t pay for it. You have to give them what they want, or you’re in Florida. That’s the game, baby”.
Another method for obtaining a truly independent medical examination and evaluation, for the defense, would be for a list of physicians to be assembled by the court. Every medical examination requested by the defense would be conducted by one of these physicians, on a rotating basis, from this list.
When gamesmanship ends, justice can begin.
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