An Orlando Police Officer was brutally shot while responding
to a call at an apartment complex. His wife is now suing the estate of the
gunman as well as the owner of the apartment complex where the shooting took
place, claiming this never would have occurred had proper security
measures been in place.

The lawsuit states that the Complex and Apartment Owner
should not have allowed the gunman to reside in the building due to his
extensive criminal history.

When the cops came to respond to a domestic dispute call,
the gunman shot through the door and hit the policer officer in the head. There
was a 21-hour standoff after the shooting, while the gunman hid in his
apartment. When the cops finally breached the apartment the next day, they
found the gunman and four children dead.

The Police Officer remains in a coma.

The law suit describes the gunman as a “violent career
criminal with multiple arrests and/or convictions for violent crimes.” At the
time of the shooting, the gunman was on probation from a case where he was
accused of domestic battery, arson and fleeing from law enforcement. The suit
claims the companies and owner were negligent by failing to take proper
precautions to protect people on the property from the dangers of this gunman,
which were reasonably foreseeable given his past record and current probation.
The companies and owners should have run a proper background check, which would
have shown the gunman as a unreasonable and dangerous rick to tenants, tenant’s
guests and others at the apartment complex.

Not only did the companies fail to run a criminal background
check and they also did not provide working keys to the apartment, causing the
Police Officer to have to attempt to knock the door down, putting him in the
direct line of fire of the gunman that night.

If you or a loved one have been a victim of negligent
security, call and schedule a
free consultation with the lawyers at Kaire and Heffernan today.

Samantha Heffernan

Samantha Heffernan is a Miami personal injury blogger. She has been blogging about dangerous intersections, car accidents, medical negligence and other related injuries in Miami for several years.

Available for rent to anyone over 18 for only $50 a day, scooters are as visible in Disney as Mickey Mouse ears. According to a Disney employee, when the park opens up at 9am, half the scooters are already taken and by 11am they are completely gone. These scooters provide a lifeline for people, some with disabilities, who cannot walk the massive grounds.

However, with the increase in Disney crowds, the electric scooters have also brought in a rapid increase in lawsuits- some reports of being run over, and others reporting they were injured in accidents.

With the rapid crowd increase, the park recently banned oversized strollers to avoid accidents. However, in regards to scooters, Disney is limited on how they can regulate them due to federal law governing rights for people with disabilities. According to a senior staff attorney at the National Disabilities Rights Network, scooters receive the same protection under the law as wheelchairs. This means Disney, and other companies, are not allowed to outright ban them. The most a company can do is place regulations on them, such as speed limits, restricted areas/lanes, only if there is a real documented danger. But, any such rule would likely require the U.S Department of Justice’s approval.

In 2018, 11 law suits
were filed that allege injuries caused by scooters at Disney, the most in the
last 5 years. From 2014-2017 there were only two to three per year. These law
suits are filed by both people getting hit by scooters and the drivers
themselves. One driver, following Disney protocol, went backwards off the
monorail while being directed by theme park workers when his scooter flipped
and slammed his head into the concrete and twisted his neck, causing him to
need surgery.

Despite the fact that
Disney employees give instructions to scooter drivers and there are written
instructions at the vendors, arguments are made that there needs to be more
instruction given before letting people lose with scooters throughout the park.

If you or a loved one
have been involved in a scooter accident, call and schedule a free consultation
with the attorney’s at Kaire and Heffernan today.

Samantha Heffernan

Samantha Heffernan is a Miami personal injury blogger. She has been blogging about dangerous intersections, car accidents, medical negligence and other related injuries in Miami for several years.

Currently, if you were to
apply to become a physician, you would be required to disclose to the Florida
Medical Board any past mental health illnesses and substance abuse issues. The
committee members for the Board, which oversees physician licensure and
discipline, are starting to question whether or not these questions should be
on the application form, and met last December to discuss changing/removing
these questions. They will be meeting again later this month to officially
address the matter.

Many states have already
modified their applications to reflect only current issues. The committee
stressed the importance of the balance between the safety of the patients and only
asking questions that address whether the physicians current health would
impede their ability to care for patients’ safely, stating that treated past
mental illnesses may not affect ones current ability to safely practice
medicine.

In January, 15,000
physicians were surveyed in regards to their mental health. Of these
physicians, 44% reported feeling burnt out, blaming bureaucratic demands, long
hours and other factors. Of these 44% two-thirds said they did not plan to seek
out help, 11% reported feeling down and 4% said they were clinically depressed.
And, of those who reported being clinically depressed, 14% said they have made
mistakes as a result.

Many of these physicians
are reluctant to seek help, due to a fear that their colleagues will perceive
them as weak or unfit to practice medicine. They are also afraid it will deter
their ability to renew their license. A Naples physician, who is active with
the Collier Medical Society, agreed that this stigma and fear of losing their
license is why doctors refuse to get help, sometimes causing patients to suffer.

The Florida Medical
Association also agrees that the state medical boards should be reviewing the
licensure steps to determine if some of the questions being asked about past
illnesses are stigmatizing and intrusive, when there is no reason to believe
the physician is unable to practice safely.

Questions about a history
of mental health diagnosis and treatment, when they are not relevant to whether
the physician can practice medicine safely, can actually violate the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA). According to the Florida Medical Association, the
application questions must focus on current impairment and not on illness,
diagnosis or previous treatment in order to be compliant with the ADA.

The federation wants the
State Medical Board to focus on the current impairment only. Doctors with a history
of mental illness or drug abuse who have been successfully treated will benefit
immensely if these questions about past impairment are dropped.

Samantha Heffernan

Samantha Heffernan is a Miami personal injury blogger. She has been blogging about dangerous intersections, car accidents, medical negligence and other related injuries in Miami for several years.

In the most recent statistics released by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, there were a total of 387,900 car accidents in Florida in the course of just one year.

Data from the US Department of
Transportation shows there is a 12% steady increase in car accidents every single
year.

The two counties with the highest number of car
accidents in Florida are Miami and Broward County.

Miami had a total of 63,157 car accidents in one year, and Broward County right behind it with 40,324 total crashed.

Of the 387,900 car accidents, there were a total of 246,285 injuries and 2,892 fatalities.

In Florida, March had the highest number of accidents
and those between the ages of 25-34 were more likely to be involved in a car
accident.

Friday also had the highest number of collisions.

67.78% of accidents happen in the day time.

The highest number of collisions occur between 4:00pm – 5:00pm.    

The population growth in Central Florida has given a rise to the frequency of crashes. According to the US Census Bureau, the metropolitan area of Orlando and Orange County grew by 60,000 new residents.                                 

According to TIME magazine, the following are the most
dangerous Intersections in Florida:

-Astor, FL: Intersection of State Road 40 and State
Road 19

-Orlando, FL: Intersection of North Semoran Boulevard
and Old Cheney Highway

-Kissimmee, FL: Intersection of Vista Del Lago
Boulevard and Route 192

-Hialeah Gardens, FL: Intersection of Hialeah Gardens
Boulevard and North Okeechobee Road

The main contributing factors of car accidents in Florida
are distracted driving, poor weather conditions, the increasing rate of retired
Americans and impaired drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

If you or a loved one have been injured or killed in a car accident, call and schedule a free consultation with the lawyers at Kaire and Heffernan today.

Samantha Heffernan

Samantha Heffernan

Samantha Heffernan is a Miami personal injury blogger. She has been blogging about dangerous intersections, car accidents, medical negligence and other related injuries in Miami for several years.

The official website of the U.S Military Health System and the FDA have green lit a new blood test that could be revolutionary in determining the presence of a traumatic brain injury. This blood test, trademarked as the Brain Trauma Indicator (BTI), is the first of its kind and was funded by the U.S Department of Defense and the U.S Army.

Florida based biomarkers created the BTI blood test, which
was designed to detect two specific protein markers; Ubiquitin Carboxy-terminal
Hydrolase-L1 (UCH-L1) and Glial Fibrilliary Acidic Protein (GFAP). Both of
these proteins appear in blood, at elevated levels, up to 12 hours after a head
injury significant enough to cause brain bleeding.

When the brain bleeds, it causes hematomas (large
clots) in or around the brain. A lot of times, the initial bleeding is not
noticed by the sufferer. If these hematomas are left untreated, they can swell
so large that they cause the brain to shift position within the skull. This
shifting creates damage to the skull, which is often fatal.

In the past, visual examinations of the patient and
period of questioning were the only tools used to detect abnormal brain
function. However, there were many instances where patients with brain bleeds
were able to pass these tests, leading to deaths minutes or hours after being
cleared.

The best way to prevent deaths from brain bleeds is to
quickly get the sufferer into surgery, where doctors can immediately begin
removing blood and relieving the pressure on the brain. This new blood test
hopes to eliminate undiagnosed brain bleeding and unnecessary deaths.

The two proteins this test detects, UCH-L1 and GFAP,
are only present in elevated levels when a brain bleed is likely and not during
a mild traumatic injury (like a concussion). Creators say the test will quickly
be able to let doctors know whether or not an individual has suffered a head
injury that requires immediate medical intervention.

This test may also help prevent the need for a CT scan
on the brain, which subjects the brain to radiation.

The BTI was originally created for military use, and
in the past decade over 375,000 service members have been diagnosed with a
traumatic brain injury.

News of this test comes shortly after Temple
University announced they are also working on a blood test to diagnose
traumatic brain injuries. However, Temple’s test is designed to detect
microscopic changes in cells inside the brains blood vessels-which would be
geared more towards diagnosing injuries to the brain which have a high
probability of leading to chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

The Brain Trauma Indicator has the potential to save
lives that may have otherwise gone unnoticed with verbal and visual testing.  

Have you or a loved on suffered from a traumatic brain injury or a loss due to traumatic brain injuries? Call and schedule a free consultation with the lawyers and Kaire and Heffernan today.

Samantha Heffernan

Samantha Heffernan

Samantha Heffernan is a Miami personal injury blogger. She has been blogging about dangerous intersections, car accidents, medical negligence and other related injuries in Miami for several years.