Tag: trial attorney

Philadelphia Man Sentenced for Callous Run-Down

Joseph Genovese, 20, of South Philadelphia.

On May 6th, 2010, Twenty year old Joseph Genoveseof South Philadelphia was sentenced to 7-14 years in prison for callously running down 2 women after a Phillies game on July 10th, 2008. The game was over and the two women, both from St. Louis, were crossing the street at Broad and Curtin on their way to have dinner. Genovese was stopped at a red light three cars back. Genovese, under the influence of marijuana, swerved around the two stopped cars in front of him and sped through the red light, striking down 53 year old Cindy Grassi, and 36 year old Sandra Wacker.

Grassi was killed and Wacker was permanently disabled. The women were both P.E. teachers at an elementary school in St. Louis, and became friendly after discovering their shared loved for the St. Louis Cardinals. The two would follow the Cards to one away game a year. They had made it all the way out to San Francisco before seeing them play at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

Grassi’s death and Wacker’s permanent disability are awful tragedies, especially to their families. Yes Genovese will serve jail time, but this doesn’t ease the blow of losing a loved one. Nor does it ease the hardships Cindy Grassi’s family will now have to face without her. In Grassi’s case, a Philadelphia Wrongful Death Attorney could work to recover damages for pain and suffering, medical expenses, loss of past and future income, and loss of consortium.
Wacker’s permanent disability will also create hardships for the people that depend on and love her. In this case, a Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorney could recover damages for disability, impairment and loss of enjoyment, past and future medical expenses, and life expectancy.

Seek Help from a New Jersey or Philadephia Trial Attorney

If you or a loved one is suffering due to personal injury or wrongful death, do not do it alone. The Philadelphia and New Jersey Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Trial Attorneys at Mininno Law Firm are here to help you. Our team is dedicated to earning you the compensation that you deserve. Contact us for a free consultation or call at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.

Nursing Homes: A Cure For Incontinence?

Electronic Underpants could bring an end to incontince related complications in nursing homes.

We at the Mininno Law Firm are advocates for health and safety in nursing homes. We applaud any and all uses of technology that could improve the quality of life for patients in nursing homes and convalescent centers. Anything these facilities can employ that will help prevent bedsores, patient falls, and prolonged pain or discomfort , is something this firm stands behind. That is why we post this blog about a new technology that could potentially end patient complications due to incontinence.

The product, developed in Australia and focused on incontinence management, could change the way elderly citizens are cared for. Simavita, a “company established to develop solutions that improve quality of life across the global spectrum,” has been developing the product for the last ten years. Simavita’s “SIMsystem” is a new continence aid that will revolutionize the way caretakers handle patient continence. SIMsystem, or Smart Incontinence Management System, will work towards four separate goals:

1. To limit the time patients spend in soiled undergarments.
2. To limit the time caregivers spend on incontinence management.
3. To use the data collected by the SIMsystem to schedule bathroom visits to eventually prevent events on incontinence.
4. To limit costs for facilities on incontinence consumables.

How Does it Work?

The product is, in laymen’s terms, a pair of electronic underpants. Under a disposable pad lies a sensor strip that measures frequency and level of incontinence. Ultimately, the use of the sensor strip is imperative to prevention of incontinent events. The entire system works as a 4 step process through the SIMserver.

1. An incontinent event is read by the SIMbox.
2. The event is recorded on the computer at the time that it occurs.
3. The caregiver is notified over the facilities paging system, or via SMS text message to a mobile phone or pager.
4. The caregiver tends to the patient implementing required procedure, and the intervention is recorded via the SIMbox.

The Chief Executive of Simavita, Phillipa Lewis, says:

“Incontinence Management is a key area in which innovative technologies can benefit aged care. We developed SIMsystem to provide greater comfort and dignity to the elderly while aiming to significantly lower costs for aged care facilities.”

When asked about the safety of the product, Lewis called the product “completely safe,” using very low power as well as the accepted form of wireless technology for body worn products. Some naysayers have commented on the ethics of the new invention, claiming that the tracking portion of the system is an invasion of privacy that may work to diminish dignity, rather than the opposite.
In the end, however, it seems that removing patients from incontinence pads and gaining them some form of freedom does much more to build dignity than the tracking does to take it away.

Incontinence is a very time consuming aspect of a nurse or caregivers job. It’s often necessary to for caretakers to check for incontinence upwards of ten times a day. The SIMsystem will potentially cut the time spent on incontinence management in half, freeing up time to pay attention to other dire needs of patients.
With this new technology, currently being used only in care facilities in Australia, the quality of life for elderly patients in nursing homes and convalescent centers will gradually and greatly improve.It’s not really clear how long it will be before the SIMsystem is being used world wide, but hopefully, it will be soon. Far too many of our elderly citizens are being victimized by their own incontinence, and by nursing home attendants not providing the proper care and attention.

Has Your Loved One Been Victimized by Nursing Home Abuse?

If you or a loved one have suffered from this kind of negligence at a nursing home or care facility, you need help. A New Jersey trial attorney will help you receive the compensation you deserve. Contact us to fill out a free case evaluation form, or call us at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia for a free consultation.

Medical Malpractice Payments at an All Time Low

Amidst all the talk of so called tort reform and “frivolous lawsuits” comes a study by the Public Citizen, a non profit organization based in Washington D.C. that represents consumer interests through lobbying, litigation, research, and public education. The study illustrates the decline in medical malpractice payments since 1999.
In 2008, the number of malpractice payments was the lowest it’s been since the formation of the federal government’s National Practitioner Data Bank, which has tracked medical malpractice payments since 1990. 2008 was the third consecutive year that medical malpractice payments sunk to an all time low.

Unfortunately, the decline in payments has nothing to do with a reduction in medical errors and everything to do with the increase in the number of victims not being compensated. This also means that there are fewer incentives for doctors and nurses to reduce errors. According to a 1999 study done by the Institute of Medicine entitled “To Err is Human,” an estimated 44,000 to 98,000 hospital patients are killed every year due to avoidable medical mistakes.
Yet fewer than 15,000 malpractice payments were made in 1999. Those numbers DO NOT include the number of patients who suffered serious, non-fatal injuries. The large gap between the victims and the compensated has likely grown larger since 1999, as there is no evidence that any meaningful improvements to medical safety have been made.

In a series of graphs and charts, the Public Citizen thoroughly demonstrates the fall in malpractice payments in the last decade. In five years, there was a loss of 3,336 medical malpractice payments made on behalf of physicians. That means that while the number of victimized patients was rising, the number of those patients being compensated was falling. Studies since the 1970’s show that medical errors greatly outnumber lawsuits.
Perhaps the kind of reform that would greatly reduce the legal liability of our health care system is not the kind of reform that’s needed. It seems that medical errors are shockingly prevalent. Problems should be fixed at their source. Eliminating medical errors, rather than reforming our tort system, should be a goal of priority.

It’s been easy to drum up support for so called tort reform by blaming our health care woes on medical malpractice cases and “junk lawsuits,” but the numbers tell a very different story. In 2006, medical malpractice payments accounted for between .18 and .58 percent of all health care costs. 2006 is the most recent year with all of the necessary information available to make these comparisons.

Medical malpractice is a very serious issue, and something that is affecting patients everyday. Most doctors are wonderful and care tremendously for their patients. They are careful and follow well established rules of the medical profession to prevent errors.
However, a very small minority are not so caring and do not follow the rules. It is the mission of a trial attorney to represent those victimized by medical malpractice and earn them the compensation they deserve.

The trial attorneys at Mininno Law Firm want to help you get the compensation you deserve. If you or a loved one have recently suffered due to medical malpractice, you must act quickly! A two year statute of limitations can prevent you from being able to hold liable those who have harmed you.
Contact the Mininno Law Firm or call us at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.