Blog Posts in September, 2013

Escalators may pose hazards

New Jersey residents might not give much thought to getting on an escalator. However, people are sometimes hurt or killed while using them. The design of escalators hasn't changed much since it was patented 121 years ago. Clothing and body parts can become stuck in escalators. One man was strangled when the hood of his sweatshirt tangled in an escalator. The device can also malfunction and buck ...

Hospital-acquired infections are cost $10 billion a year

A new estimate of the cost of infections developed in New Jersey and other states' hospitals was lower than earlier studies showed, but it was still pegged at a level of $10 billion per year. Whether the infection were caused by medical errors or by other factors, the new figure is an improvement on the $20 billion to $40 billion figures calculated by previous research. One of the study's authors ...

Possible malpractice results in brain disease

Residents of New Jersey may be surprised to know that a recent incident at a Cape Cod hospital may have caused the introduction of a dangerous brain disease into five patients. It is reported that surgical utensils that were potentially contaminated with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease were used on patents at the hospital during a variety of surgical procedures. These utensils were used at another ...

Veteran alleges he was wrongly told he had HIV

In a case with implications in New Jersey and across the nation, a 43-year-old man is taking legal action against a medical facility after he was allegedly and incorrectly told that he had HIV in 2004. The U.S. veteran, who lives in Kentucky, has undergone extensive treatment to fight the illness, has battled suicidal thoughts and has been involved sexually with others with HIV. The man has filed ...