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Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Explains Burn Injuries

Burns represent one of the most common and horrendous types of injuries. If you or a loved one was burned severely, you know that burns take a tremendous amount of time to heal, can result in deadly infections, and often cause prolonged absences from work and school.  Here in Mississippi, people experience a wide variety of burn injuries caused by several sources, which I will describe below.  If you were burned as a result of another person’s negligence or by a malfunctioning product, you need to speak with an experienced Mississippi personal injury attorney immediately.

If you or a loved one was severely burned, you will need to have experienced counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation for your injury and recovery. Barrett Law has the experience to help you—contact us now at (800) 707-9577.

Types of Burns

Obviously, there are many types of burns. If you have been sunburned or scalded your finger on a hot pan, you have been burned.  Those are first degree burns, which amount to reddening and destruction of the epidermis or outermost layer of skin.  Generally speaking, first degree burns are painful but not severe enough to justify legal action.  Second-degree burns affect both the epidermis and the lower dermis.  Because second-degree burns are deeper, they usually require more time—several weeks—to heal.  Third-degree burns destroy the entire epidermis and dermis layers and burn down into the body’s fat; they also cause nerve damage and permanent disfigurement or discoloring.  Fourth-degree burns burn through the skin and fat into the bone and muscle.

Any burn can cause a serious medical condition if it gets infected, and even second-degree burns can be life-threatening if they cover a sufficient area of the body.  From a personal injury perspective, second through fourth-degree burns are usually the type that will result in financial compensation.

Receiving Compensation for Your Burn Injury

Just because you were burned does not mean that you will be compensated for your injury.  To receive compensation, you must show that your burn is the result of another person’s negligence.  Generally speaking, negligence means that the person failed to act reasonably to protect you from harm, and that failure resulted in your injury.

Burns are frequently caused by car accidents, chemicals, workplace injuries, defective products, and radiation.  In any of these situations, your personal injury attorney will have to show that the person who burned you acted unreasonably, resulting in your injuries.  For example, imagine you go to a tanning salon and receive second-degree burns from head to toe by the tanning bed that was too intense.  There will be a serious legal question regarding the cause of your injury—was the tanning bed defective or was the tanning salon using the tanning bed recklessly.  Those two possible defendants will likely both point the finger of blame at each other, and you will need an experienced personal injury lawyer to attain expert witness analysis to prove whose negligence truly gave rise to your injuries. A similar analysis will have to be performed if you were burned by a chemical spill at work or fire in your apartment building—were the steps taken to protect you from your harm reasonable?

What Should You Do If You or a Loved One Has Been Suffered a Serious Burn?

If you or a loved one was severely burned, you know that burns require extensive, expensive medical treatment and can result in years of trauma and lost income. Inexperienced counsel may lead you down a dead end where you receive no compensation for your burn injuries. Instead, let experienced personal injury counsel take care of discovering who is at fault for your burn injury, preserving your medical records, attaining expert medical opinions, and dealing with the defendant’s attorneys. These are essential tasks that only a personal injury attorney can handle for you.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered a serious burn injury. Contact us now at (800) 707-9577. Our Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney looks forward to making a difference for you.

 

 

 

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Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Explains Trampoline Injuries

It’s summer, which means that children are out of school and spending long Mississippi days playing with their friends. For many children, there is nothing more fun than spending an afternoon bouncing on a trampoline. While there is no denying that trampolines are a tremendous amount of fun, they are also to blame for countless serious injuries, mostly to children.  Because of the height and acceleration involved with trampolines, the injuries associated with them can be catastrophic and often include spinal compression, back and neck injuries, as well as injuries to the head. While I love the idea of children playing outside, this sort of injury has to give every parent pause.  In this blog post, I will describe the causes of trampoline injuries and what you should do if a trampoline injures your child.

If a trampoline injured your child, you will need to have experienced counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation for his or her injury and recovery. Barrett Law has the experience to help you—contact us now at (800) 707-9577.

Types of Trampolines

There are two primary types of trampoline venues.  The first is the classic, backyard trampoline. Many now have high, padded net rings built to keep children on the trampoline, while some have no sides at all. The second is a more recent addition to the trampoline landscape, the trampoline park.  These are usually large, indoor spaces filled with dozens of trampolines, ball pits, and bouncing challenges such as ramps and obstacles.

Types of Trampoline Injuries

Falls—the most common type of trampoline injury is broken bones associated with falling off of an outdoor trampoline. While broken wrists and legs are common, these are not as serious as spinal compression, head and neck injuries, and paralysis.

Collisions—head injuries and concussions frequently occur when children hit each other while bouncing either outdoors or at an indoor park.  Indoor parks, because of their large size, allow children to build up speed as they jump, resulting in more velocity and potential trauma.

Springs—trampolines bounce because their taught fabric is held in place by springs.  Whether indoor or outdoor, these springs should be covered by a padded fabric cover that expands and contracts as the springs move.  If the pad is not present or are allowed to be removed or disintegrate, the springs can become exposed. Children’s legs can fall in between springs, causing severe, deadly injuries such as lacerations to the femoral artery.

Trampoline Negligence

All trampolines are dangerous, even when they are well maintained and used correctly. That is part of their thrill.  But to recover for injuries caused by a trampoline, you will not only have to show harm but also negligence. To prove negligence, you will need a personal injury attorney that can demonstrate that the owner or manufacturer of the trampoline did not take reasonable steps to protect your child from harm.

What Should You Do If Your Child Has Been Injured on a Trampoline?

As I described above, if your child was injured on a trampoline, you will need the assistance of a talented personal injury attorney to show that either the homeowner who owns the trampoline, the adult who was supposed to be providing supervision of the trampoline use, or the trampoline manufacturer were negligent.  If your child has been injured on a trampoline, you should seek immediate medical attention and then contact an experienced personal injury attorney.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if your child has suffered a trampoline injury. Contact us now at (800) 707-9577.  Our Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney looks forward to making a difference for you.

 

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Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Explains Decrease in Older Workers’ Injuries

Interesting demographic changes have resulted in fewer workplace injuries for older workers.  Here in Mississippi, while workplace injuries continue to occur, they are happening less frequently with workers over the age of 55.  In the blog post, I will explore why this is the case, what it means for our local workforce, and what you should do if you experience a workplace injury.

If you or a loved one was injured due to a workplace accident or injury, you will need to have experienced personal injury counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation for your injury and recovery. Barrett Law has the experience to help you—contact us now at (800) 707-9577.

Fewer Men in the Workforce, Fewer Industrial and Construction Jobs, and Automation Means Fewer Injuries

Our economy is changing quickly.  Here in Mississippi, a variety of factors are converging that significantly affect the number of older people injured in the workplace each year.  First, there are fewer workers over 55 in the workplace, and those that remain in the workplace tend to be the healthiest and safest workers. Sadly, less safe and injury prone workers have often been forced out of the workplace due to debilitated health by age 55.  Second, while the overall number of older workers has dropped slightly, the number of male older workers has dropped significantly.  This is due to several factors. The 2008 economic downturn eliminated a large number of manufacturing and construction jobs, positions historically held by men. Accordingly, the number of older women in the workforce now dramatically outweighs the number of men. This has many effects, as women tend to work in less dangerous jobs than men and are safer workers than men in all jobs overall. Thus, a workforce with more women will tend to be a safer workforce overall.  Finally, industrial workplaces have seen a rapid influx of automation, removing hands-on work that required strength or repetitive movements, two factors that historically resulted in a large variety of injuries.

Thus, even though there remain many older workers in Mississippi’s workforce, they are more often women and are more often not doing the sort of strength and danger-intensive work that was previously done by men, resulting in a working demographic that has aged but simultaneously becomes less prone to workplace accidents. An exception to this overall trend is the medical field, which remains dominated by women working as nurses and CNA’s whose work requires them to lift patients daily, resulting in an ongoing issue with work-related back issues. Until automation enters the medical field, I predict that women working in this area will still suffer from a high number of back injuries.

What Should You Do If You or a Loved One Has Been Injured at Work?

While workers and workplaces may be safer than ever, there are still unscrupulous employers that fail to maintain safe work environments. These dangerous work areas eventually end up injuring workers. If you or a loved one was injured at work, you should seek medical attention immediately and contact an experienced personal injury attorney soon after. Inexperienced counsel may lead you down a dead end where you receive no compensation for the harm you experienced or the long-term damage to your career and lifestyle. You require the services of experienced personal injury counsel take care of preserving medical records, attaining expert opinions, reviewing evidence, and dealing with the defendant’s attorneys while you get back on your feet again.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered a serious injury. Contact us now at (800) 707-9577.  Our Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney looks forward to making a difference for you.

 

 

 

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Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Explains 3M Military Earplug Lawsuits

We have a tremendous number of veterans here Mississippi, many of whom have returned home after their service only to suffer from a variety of short term and permanent medical conditions. It seriously troubles me whenever our service members are harmed needlessly, and a massive class-action lawsuit has demonstrated, once again, that we have not done enough to protect our veterans from harm.  If you served in the U.S. military between 2003 and 2015, you might have been issued, Combat Arms Earplugs, Version 2 (CAEv2).  The company 3M manufactured the earplugs, which were supposed to offer two levels of protection. Instead, the earplugs failed to provide a basic level of ear protection, which resulted in service members being exposed to loud noises when they should have been protected. As a result, those suffering from hearing loss and tinnitus, which I will describe below, are entitled to compensation for any effect on their hearing arising from their use of the 3M earplugs.

If you suffered hearing loss or tinnitus as a result of your military service from 2003 to 2015, you may be entitled to compensation for injuries and ongoing expenses.  You will need to have experienced counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation. Barrett Law has the experience to help you need—contact us now at (800) 707-9577.

Hearing Loss and Tinnitus in Service Members Serving from 2003 to 2015

Exposure to thunderous sounds such as gunfire, artillery, and heavy machinery is a standard military experience. While service members were issued 3M earplugs to muffle these loud sounds, the product was defective and failed to protect the user’s ears.  As a result, many service members that used 3M’s products have suffered from hearing loss and tinnitus.

Hearing loss is a prolonged decrease in a person’s ability to hear and differentiate sounds.  It is caused by nerve damage within the inner ear or damage to the ear itself.

We often discuss tinnitus as a “ringing in the ears.” That is a simplistic description, as tinnitus does not have to be ringing; instead, tinnitus can manifest as buzzing, hissing, clicking, screeching, and even a loud roaring sound. Another symptom is that sounds outside of the ear that would typically be audible and clear become muffled and inaudible. Thus, while generally referred to as ringing, tinnitus is more accurately described as a constant or occasional sound originating deep in the ear that cannot be controlled and by a suppression of the ability to hear sounds that are usually audible.

What Should You Do If or a Loved One’s Hearing Was Affected by 3M Earplugs?

If you served in the military and now suffer from permanent hearing loss or any one of the hearing deficiencies or irregularities associated with tinnitus that I listed above, you may be entitled to compensation for your injury.  Hearing loss and tinnitus can severely impact your ability to work as well as your quality of life. Hiring an experienced personal injury attorney that has the experience to take on an international company like 3M is vital to attaining your fair share of compensation. Do not make the mistake of hiring a general practitioner that lacks access to experts and the ability to negotiate a favorable settlement that protects your long-term interests.  These are essential tasks that only a seasoned personal injury attorney can handle for you.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered hearing loss or tinnitus due to your military service. Contact us now at (800) 707-9577.  Our Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney looks forward to making a difference for you.

 

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Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Discusses Multiple Myeloma and Medical Malpractice

You have probably seen many advertisements for multiple myeloma cases on television here in Mississippi. Massive class action cases are providing compensation for many people who were exposed to asbestos and other materials that caused multiple myeloma, often through their service in the United States military.  But what if you had multiple myeloma and your physician or physicians failed to diagnosis it.  A failure to diagnosis this particularly aggressive cancer can mean a much shorter life span and a decreased quality of the end of life. If your multiple myeloma was misdiagnosed or was not diagnosed as early as possible, you might have also had a viable claim against the physicians and medical center that delayed or missed your diagnosis.

If a loved one died as a result of a multiple myeloma misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis, you will need to have experienced counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation for their death. Barrett Law has the experience to help you—contact us now at (800) 707-9577.

Multiple Myeloma and Medical Malpractice

In this blog post, I am not discussing the various causes of multiple myeloma, a particularly deadly cancer that attacks the plasma in the body’s blood cells.  Once multiple myeloma begins to attack the cells’ plasma in earnest, the patient usually dies within three years. Because multiple myeloma is so deadly and fast, early detection and treatment is vital to extending the patient’s life and increasing the quality of the remainder of life. Usually, the cancer is determined through a well-established blood test, x-rays, and a bone marrow biopsy. It does not manifest in a detectable tumor or lump like other cancers.

Many people contract multiple myeloma, and it is caught as soon as possible, and they still die.  So simply dying from this horrible cancer is not a sufficient basis for a malpractice claim. Negligence must be proven to prevail in a malpractice claim.  Negligence can be established when the medical center or physician failed to act reasonably to meet a duty of care towards a patient.  Specifically, if a reasonable medical center or physician would have performed a multiple myeloma test and your loved one’s medical team did not, then they may have acted negligently.

Similarly, if sufficient testing was performed, but the results were unreasonably misunderstood or missed altogether, then the medical team may have been negligent. Basically, while a patient cannot necessarily expect the medical professionals to stop an aggressive cancer, he or she should be able to expect them to take reasonable steps to discover and treat the cancer as early as possible. If you believe your loved one’s multiple myeloma treatment was botched, the best course of action is to contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney immediately.

What Should You Do If You or a Loved One Has Been Injured?

If a loved one died as a result of a multiple myeloma misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis, you should contact an experienced personal injury attorney to determine whether you may attain compensation from a medical malpractice claim.  Compensation can include the costs of additional medical treatment, payment for diminution in your loved one’s quality of life, missed work, and pain and suffering. I am highly experienced in the work required by these types of claims, including preserving medical records, attaining expert opinions, reviewing evidence, and dealing with the hospital’s attorneys. These are essential tasks that only a personal injury attorney can handle for you.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered a serious injury. Contact us now at (800) 707-9577.

 

 

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Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Explains Liability for Nurses’ Negligence

While we often associate our time in the hospital or medical center with physicians, we actually have much more contact with nurses.  Here in Mississippi, I have helped several clients with personal injury cases that stemmed from nurses’ mistakes, negligence, and misconduct.  Because this is such a common situation, I have written the following blog post to provide you with an overview of steps you should take if a nurse injures you.

If you or a loved one was injured or killed as a result of medical malpractice, you will need to have experienced counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation for your injury and recovery. Barrett Law has the experience to help you—contact us now at (800) 707-9577.

Not all injuries are compensable.  That means that just because you were injured while under a nurse’s care, it does not mean that you will necessarily recover any compensation for your injury.  For example, if you develop a medical condition that requires medication and a nurse administers the medication according to standard protocols, he or she will not likely not be liable if you subsequently have an allergic reaction to the medication if the allergy was previously unknown. To be negligent, a nurse must breach the standard of care due to you, the patient.  That means that he or she must provide a standard of care that fails to meet medical industry standards.  That failure can be due to several different reasons, which I will describe below.

As I mentioned above, “accidents” do happen. Unavoidable accents such as the previously unknown allergy discussed above are pure accidents that occur even though a nurse acts reasonably to meet the accepted standard of care.

“Negligence,” on the other hand, occurs when a nurse fails to meet a standard of care.  Taking the above example, imagine that a nurse did not review your chart, and you had disclosed that you had an allergy to penicillin.  The reasonable standard of care mandates that a nurse checks a patient’s chart before administering a drug; accordingly, his or her failure to notice your disclosed allergy would likely result in a successful negligence claim.  This failure does not have to be intentional, but can simply be an omission that a reasonable nurse would not have made.

“Misconduct” involves voluntary actions on the part of nurses that violate the accepted standard of care. Unfortunately, many medical professionals self-medicate with drugs to deal with the demands of the medical workplace.  The opioid crisis has caught many nurses in its net.  For example, imagine that nurse comes to work while under the influence of either legal opioids or illegal drugs such as cocaine and misreads your chart. Imagine the nurse gives 10 milligrams of a drug instead of .10 milligrams, a dosage mixup that could result in death or serious bodily harm.  That is undoubtedly negligence, but the decision to come to work under the influence was intentional, making the conduct more serious.

The types of nursing negligence I most commonly see are: Administering the wrong dosage of a drug; Hurting a patient with medical equipment; Failing to chart actions taken that affect a patient’s treatment; Failing to notify medical staff of critical changes in a patient’s physical or mental condition; Administering the incorrect drug.

What Should You Do If You or a Loved One Has Been Injured?

If a nurse’s negligence or misconduct injured you or a loved one, you should seek medical attention immediately and contact an experienced personal injury attorney. Barrett Law is experienced in holding medical professionals accountable for any harm they cause. You are entitled to your fair share of compensation for your pain and suffering, work absences, and trauma. Let experienced counsel take care of preserving medical records, attaining expert opinions, reviewing evidence, and dealing with the defendant’s attorneys. These are essential tasks that only a personal injury attorney can handle for you.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered a serious injury. Contact us now at (800) 707-9577.

 

 

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Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Explains How to Establish a Doctor-Patient Relationship

If you have received medical treatment lately for any serious medical condition, you have likely not only been seen by your primary care physician but also by a revolving door of specialists.  Were those specialists also your doctor?  The answer to that question, whether a physician-patient relationship is created between a specialist and a patient he or she sees briefly or indirectly, may be essential to subsequent medical malpractice or wrongful death suit.  That is because a negligence claim can only be brought against medical professionals with a legal duty to the patient; only the physician-patient relationship creates that duty.  This is a complex area of the law, so I have written the following blog post to provide greater context.

If you or a loved one was injured or killed as a result of an accident, you will need to have experienced counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation for your injury and recovery. Barrett Law has the experience to help you—contact us now at (800) 707-9577.

The Physician-Patient Relationship

In any medical malpractice or wrongful death claim against a medical center or physician, several elements must be proven if you hope to be compensated for your injuries.  These elements include that the patient was harmed and that the physician in question caused the harm. One often-overlooked factor is that a physician-patient relationship must exist as well, as if there is no physician-patient relationship, then there is no duty of care and a much steeper uphill climb to proving negligence. Most people assume that they have a physician-patient with every physician that treats them, but this is not the case.  Many medical centers and physicians have been quick to assert that a physician-patient relationship does not exist between the vast majority of physicians that come into contact with a patient throughout his or her medical care. This is especially relevant now that an increasing amount of medical care is provided by nurses, medical assistants, and physician assistants under varying degrees of physician supervision.  Below I discuss the factors that courts consider when analyzing whether a physician-patient privilege exists.

Courts consider many factors when determining whether a physician-patient relationship was created in the course of medical treatment. First, courts usually ask whether the physician in question saw the patient or merely provided consultation or oversight to another medical professional.  Imagine a physician who provides supervision to a physician assistant that provides a patient’s medical care—the physician is unlikely to be considered to have a physician-patient relationship with the patient receiving care.  Second, courts look to whether the physician was able to develop specific knowledge of the patient’s condition from actual contact with the patient, or whether he or she simply reviewed charts and provided consultation.  Finally, courts will look to written documents, physicians’ notes, and the patient’s charts to determine visitation and the level of care.

What Should You Do If You or a Loved One Has Been Injured?

If you or a loved one was injured by a physician or other medical professional’s mal, you must contact an experienced personal injury attorney immediately. Inexperienced counsel may lead you down a dead end where you receive no compensation for your injuries. Instead, let experienced counsel take care of preserving medical records, attaining expert opinions, reviewing evidence, and dealing with the defendant’s attorneys. These are essential tasks that only a personal injury attorney can handle for you.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered a serious injury while attaining medical care. Contact us now at (800) 707-9577.

 

 

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Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Explains What You Should Do if Your Child Is Injured at Summer Camp?

For some, school is out for the year, and it is about to be summer camp season here in Mississippi. Unfortunately, you do not have to search very hard on the internet to find tragic stories of children who were injured or killed while they should have been having the times of their lives swimming, horseback riding, and exploring the outdoors. Sexual and physical abuse can also occur at summer camps when there are inappropriate or insufficient safety protocols in place. Whether it is an injury, abuse, or neglect, your child should not be harmed while he or she is entrusted to another’s care.

If your child was injured, killed, or abused while at summer camp, you will need to have experienced counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation for his or her injury, counseling, and recovery. Barrett Law has the experience to help you—contact us now at (800) 707-9577.

The Negligence Standard in Mississippi

Not all accidents are compensable.  That means that just because something unfortunate happens to your child—she falls off a swing and breaks her arm, he jumps off the top bunk and bumps his head—does not mean that you will receive compensation through the legal system.  You will only win a suit for monetary damages if you can prove that the camp in question was negligent.

Negligence means that a party—here, the camp—had a duty towards your child.  That is easy to prove in this example because if you entrust the care of a child to a camp, they assume the responsibility of the child en loco parentis, or in place of the parent.  You then must show that the camp breached that duty, meaning that it failed to reasonably provide the level of care required to protect the child from injury.  The word “reasonable” is particularly important in this analysis, as a camp does not have a duty to protect your child from all harm, just harm that it is reasonable to protect them from.  An example may help flesh out what “reasonable” means in this context.

All children are allergic to poison ivy, a plant that is rampant here in Mississippi, and that causes a very irritating rash when it comes into contact with skin. A camp would take reasonable steps to protect children from getting poison ivy by warning them about its appearance; it would be unreasonable to expect a camp to remove all poison ivy from its property.  On the other hand, some children have an extreme peanut allergy that can result in death. Accordingly, a camp should have protocols in place that prevent allergic children from receiving peanuts in their meals, should train staff how to prevent peanuts from getting into meals, and should have epi-pens and other medical supplies on hand if those protocols in place. All of those steps make up a reasonable response to a grave threat, and merely warning campers about peanuts would be unreasonable.

Accordingly, camps need to take reasonable steps to protect your child from harm, and the expectations around those steps increase in proportion to the risk at hand.  Because sexual abuse is such a significant risk, numerous, redundant steps should be taken to prevent it, including background checks, training, protocols, and two-deep supervision.  Similarly, falls from horses can result in paralyzing injuries; as a result, trained supervision, certification of instructors, and helmets should always be in place.  For every danger at camp—whether it is archery or bunk beds—there is an expectation that the camp will act reasonably to protect your child from serious harm.

What Should You Do If Your Child Has Been Injured at Summer Camp?

If you or a loved one was injured in at summer camp, you should seek medical attention immediately and contact an experienced personal injury attorney. Inexperienced counsel may lead you down a dead end where you receive no compensation. Instead, let experienced counsel take care of preserving medical records, attaining expert opinions, reviewing evidence, and dealing with the defendant’s attorneys. These are essential tasks that only a personal injury attorney can handle for you.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered a serious injury. Contact us now at (800) 707-9577. Our seasoned Mississippi Personal Injury is ready to

 

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Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Explains Maternal Infections

Giving birth to a child ought to be a miraculous moment; unfortunately, it can instantaneously become a nightmare if a maternal infection threatens the baby or the mother. A “maternal infection” is an exposure to a serious infection that can be passed in utero to an unborn child. Maternal infections can kill either the child or mother and can result in congenital disabilities.  As a personal injury attorney, I have learned the minutiae and nuances maternal infection medical malpractice law.  The fact of the matter is that hospitals are often at fault for failing to prevent infections that can have life-altering and even deadly consequences.  If you or a loved one contracted an infection while giving birth and have suffered as a result, I will meticulously examine your case and attain compensation for medical errors that resulted in your maternal infection.

If you or a loved one was injured or killed as a result of maternal infection, you will need to have experienced counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation for your injury and recovery. Barrett Law has the experience to help you—contact us now at (800) 707-9577.

Maternal Infections

Maternal infections commonly cause congenital disabilities and injuries.  Basically, the mother contracts the infection and passes it on to the unborn child.  Common infections include methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA, hepatitis B, toxoplasmosis, urinary tract infections, strep, HIV or AIDS, rubella, and others.  These infections are widely present in many hospitals and are transferred from patient to patient by negligent handling of medical devices, failing to properly sterilize medical devices, and inadequate cleaning and sterilization protocols. Once the mother is exposed, the infection spreads to her unborn child through the uterus and placenta or exposure when the child passes through the birth canal.  Tragically, these infections sometimes result in the death of the child through miscarriage or fatal congenital disabilities. Even when they are not deadly, these infections can cause serious, life-long problems for the child, including blindness, learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, and challenges with motor skills and hearing.

Contracting a maternal infection, while unfortunate, does not necessarily mean that the medical facility or staff were negligent.  These infections exist all around us, and a mother can contract them from many places.  However, a medical center may expose the mother to these infections unnecessarily.  To be proven negligent, the medical facility must fail to meet a reasonable standard of care to the mother and child.  To show that the medical facility has been negligent, a personal injury attorney often has to show that the hospital lacked proper sterilization and device-handling protocols and failed to make changes to address this problem through training and increased scrutiny of practices.  Alternatively, if the medical center or hospital knew that the mother had an infection and failed to treat the infection or alter the birth plan in a way that prevented its spread to the child, they may be negligent for that failure as well.

What Should You Do If You or a Loved One Has Been Injured in a Hospital Setting?

If you or a loved one was injured in a hospital by a maternal infection or any other type of medical negligence, you should seek medical attention immediately and contact an experienced personal injury attorney. Inexperienced counsel may lead you down a dead end where you receive no compensation for the harm you experienced or the long-term harm to your child. Instead, let experienced counsel take care of preserving medical records, attaining expert opinions, reviewing evidence, and dealing with the defendant’s attorneys while you grieve and heal.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered a serious injury. Contact us now at (800) 707-9577.

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Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Explains What You Should Do if You are in a Four-Wheeler Accident

Given our love of working and playing outdoors here in Mississippi, it is not surprising that four-wheelers are so popular.  Four-wheelers are ubiquitous because they are good at so many different things—they can plow through streams, climb steep banks, haul trailers, and drive on the open road.  Driving them is a lot of fun. Four-wheelers’ strengths all stem from their high power to low weight ratio, a useful combination that comes with significant danger. Four-wheelers can haul large roads that can topple onto the driver, roll over and crush their driver, lack the protection of a car on the highway, and have acceleration that can result in them throwing their driver.  Additionally, people often double up on four-wheelers, riding tandem in a way that many were not designed to be driven.  In the U.S., almost 1,000 people are year killed each year, and 100,000 are injured in four-wheeler related accidents.

If you or a loved one was injured or killed as a result of a four-wheeler accident, you will need to have experienced counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation for your injury, medical bills, loss of income, and recovery. Barrett Law has the experience to help you—contact us now at (800) 707-9577.

Common Causes of Four-Wheeler Accidents

Four-wheeler accidents have a wide variety of causes.  The most common include: Riding on steep or uneven terrain and suffering a crushing rollover; Driving on public roads and getting into an accident with automobile traffic; Minors driving four-wheelers recklessly; Passengers being thrown off of the back of four-wheelers not made for passengers.

Steps to Take to Reduce the Chances of a Four-Wheeler Injury

Most four-wheeler drivers have no training before they get behind the handlebars for the first time. This inexperience, especially with teen drivers, is a common cause of injuries, as young drivers often couple their lack of experience with an appetite for daredevil driving.  Make sure minor drivers have supervision and training before allowing them onto a four-wheeler.  Similarly, a four-wheeler should only be ridden by the number of passengers it was made for.  When driving on uneven or hilly terrain, scout out the route ahead to prevent a rollover.  While a four-wheeler is light compared to an automobile, there is no way that a pinned rider can free him or herself once it has rolled.

What Should You Do If You or a Loved One Has Been Injured in an Accident?

If you were injured in a four-wheeler accident, call the police immediately, especially if the accident occurred on a public roadway. Even if you believe the accident was your fault, still call the police, as you do not know whether a manufacturing error or unsafe roadway condition triggered your crash.  The police report will be a valuable, unbiased documentation of what occurred and what caused your accident.  Additionally, you or a loved one should take as many pictures of the accident as possible so that the images of the crash site are preserved before anyone moves the four-wheeler or any other vehicle.

Four-wheelers can be incredibly useful and fun if used properly.  If misused, however, they can be deadly. If you or a loved one was injured in a four-wheeler accident, you should seek medical attention immediately and contact an experienced personal injury attorney.  Let experienced counsel take care of preserving medical records, attaining expert opinions, and dealing with the defendant’s attorneys. These are essential tasks that only a personal injury attorney can handle for you.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered a four-wheeler injury. Contact us now at (800) 707-9577.

 

 

 

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