Airbag Injuries

Airbags have been in use for many years now. In fact, some of the major U.S. automobile manufacturers began installing airbags in some of their vehicles in the early 1970s. While they do save lives, airbags can also cause some unforeseen problems. Children riding in the front seat can be seriously injured or killed when an airbag deploys in a crash. An airbag is not a soft, billowy pillow. To do its job, an airbag comes out of the dashboard at up to 200 miles per hour - faster than the blink of an eye. The force of an airbag can hurt those who are too close to it.

Even when one is cautious, airbags can be unforgiving. When a manufacturer designs, produces, or installs an airbag incorrectly, serious injuries and deaths can result. Defective airbags include, but are not limited to, those that deploy with too much force, deploy in minor collisions when they are not otherwise needed, or fail to deploy under circumstances in which they should.

Airbags are designed to save lives in the event of an auto accident. Occasionally, though, an inflated airbag may injure a passenger. Most bags deploy with a tremendous amount of force, thus posing a serious threat to those who sit too closely to them.

If you or a loved one has been injured as a result of an airbag, don't fight the battle alone. Please contact us (210) 979-9777 or visit our web sites http://www.thebaezlawfirm.com or http://www.sanantoniopersonalinjurytriallawyers.com because: "We care about your legal needs."

Dog Bite Law in Texas

(AP)-According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, 4.7 million Americans will suffer a dog bite injury this year, most of them children. Each year, about 800,000 dog bite injury victims are treated at clinics and hospitals and about a dozen people die from dog attacks.

Dog bite injuries can involve puncture wounds and lacerations that may result in scarring. Reconstructive surgery may be necessary. If the dog has not been vaccinated, the dog bite victim may need to undergo a painful treatment for rabies. Infection is always a concern.
Dog bite injury victims often suffer emotional as well as physical trauma. Psychological therapy may be required, especially for children.

Texas follows the ancient and outdated "one bite rule." This means that legal liability for a dog bite is based on one of the following circumstances: (a) the owner knew that the dog had bitten someone previously or had the dangerous propensity to bite a person, (b) the accident was cause by the negligence of the person handling the dog, (c) the accident was caused by a violation of a leash law, prohibition against dogs trespassing or running at large, or a similar animal control law, or (d) the injury was caused intentionally by the person handling the dog.

On the other hand, new law went into effect for criminal liability. Under the new law, the owner of a dangerous dog can still face misdemeanor charges if the animal injures someone. That same owner now can be on the hook for a felony and prison time if the victim dies or suffers wounds requiring hospitalization.

Our lawyers will pursue full compensation of all current and future expenses related to the dog bite injury. Please contact The Báez Law Firm, P.C. http://www.thebaezlawfirm.com for further information about the laws concerning dog bite injury victims. We offer a free consultation to review your case and discuss your rights. We care about your legal needs!

Slip and Fall cases

In our opinion, the slip and fall era of multiple filed cases is getting extinct. Insurance companies and their attorneys have gotten good at arguing the main issue: " notice of a dangerous condition that existed."

When do I have a claim for my Injuries if it happened at some one else property? The old mith that if you get injured on someone's property then you are entitle to a recovery is not longer true. Unless the property owner, negligently failed to keep its invitees safe by not removing or correcting the dangerous condition, you must likely are barred from recovery in Texas. The fact that a dangerous condition existed may not be the only factor on your case. The owner of the property must have had "notice" of the dangerous condition and failed to correct it.

The era of sliping and falling on a spill of water (or any liquid for that matter) is almost gone. Many big companies in Texas has opted to take cases to trial rather than settling the case because they know that the standard is very hard to meet. When customers at the grocery store spill a liquid, unless the owner of the property had notice of the spill, and failed to correct the spill in a reasonable time and manner, the owner may not be at fault for the customer's spill.

On the other hand, if the owner of the property created the "dangerous" condition, then notice is not an issue. If you have been injured at a store by a dangerous condition on the store, give us a call (210) 979-9777 or visit our website http://www.thebaezlawfirm.com/ for a free consultation. We care about your legal needs!

Dog Bite statistics

Studies of dog bite injuries have reported that:

The median age of patients bitten was 15 years, with children, especially boys aged 5 to 9 years, having the highest incidence rate

The odds that a bite victim will be a child are 3.2 to 1. (CDC.)

Children seen in emergency departments were more likely than older persons to be bitten on the face, neck, and head. 77% of injuries to children under 10 years old are facial.

Severe injuries occur almost exclusively in children less than 10 years of age.

The majority of dog attacks (61%) happen at home or in a familiar place.

The vast majority of biting dogs (77%) belong to the victim's family or a friend.

When a child less than 4 years old is the victim, the family dog was the attacker half the time (47%), and the attack almost always happened in the family home (90%).

If you or a love one has been bitten by a dog, give us a call (210) 979-9777 or visit our website at http://www.thebaezlawfirm.com because we care about your legal needs!

U.S. Transportation Secretary Announces New Effort

(AP) Washington, DC - To combat the alarming trend of rising motorcycle injuries and fatalities, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters recently announced a comprehensive new federal initiative to improve motorcycle safety with more rider education and training, tougher standards for helmet certification labeling, law enforcement training, and road designs that consider motorcycle dynamics.

Secretary Peters – an avid motorcyclist – also released a television public service announcement where she credits her riding gear for saving her life during a 2005 motorcycle crash. “Take it from a motorcycle enthusiast who also happens to be the U.S. Secretary of Transportation,” Secretary Peters says in the PSA. “Check your bike before each ride, wear all your safety equipment and ride with others so you’re more visible. If I hadn’t taken those safety precautions, I wouldn’t be standing here today.”

Peters said the motorcycle safety initiative will create new national safety and training standards for novice riders, curb counterfeit helmet labeling so that consumers can be certain they are buying DOT-certified helmets, place new focus on motorcycle-specific road improvements, and provide training to law enforcement officers on how to spot unsafe motorcyclists. In addition, Peters said, the plan includes a broad public awareness campaign – including the PSA - on safe riding techniques.

Have you been injured in a motorcycle accident, please call us at (210) 979-9777 or visit our website at http://www.thebaezlawfirm.com for more information. We care about your legal needs!

History of spinal cord injuries

Accounts of spinal cord injuries and their treatment date back to ancient times, even though there was little chance of recovery from such a devastating injury. The earliest is found in an Egyptian papyrus roll manuscript written in approximately 1700 B.C. that describes two spinal cord injuries involving fracture or dislocation of the neck vertebrae accompanied by paralysis.* The description of each was "an ailment not to be treated."

Centuries later in Greece, treatment for spinal cord injuries had changed little. According to the Greek physician Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.) there were no treatment options for spinal cord injuries that resulted in paralysis; unfortunately, those patients were destined to die. But Hippocrates did use rudimentary forms of traction to treat spinal fractures without paralysis. The Hippocratic Ladder was a device that required the patient to be bound, tied to the rungs upside-down, and shaken vigorously to reduce spinal curvature. Another invention, the Hippocratic Board, allowed the doctor to apply traction to the immobilized patient's back using either his hands and feet or a wheel and axle arrangement. Hindu, Arab, and Chinese physicians also developed basic forms of traction to correct spinal deformities. These same principles of traction are still applied today.

In about 200 A.D., the Roman physician Galen introduced the concept of the central nervous system when he proposed that the spinal cord was an extension of the brain that carried sensation to the limbs and back. By the seventh century A.D., Paulus of Aegina was recommending surgery for spinal column fracture to remove the bone fragments that he was convinced caused paralysis.

In his influential anatomy textbook published in 1543, the Renaissance physician and teacher Vesalius described and illustrated the spinal cord in all its parts. The illustrations in his books, based on direct observation and dissection of the spine, gave physicians a way to understand the basic structure of the spine and spinal cord and what could happen when it was injured. The words we use today to identify segments of the spine - cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral, and coccygeal - come directly from Vesalius.

With the widespread use of antiseptics and sterilization in surgical procedures in the late nineteenth century, spinal surgery could finally be done with a much lower risk of infection. The use of X-rays, beginning in the 1920s, gave surgeons a way to precisely locate the injury and also made diagnosis and prediction of outcome more accurate. By the middle of the twentieth century, a standard method of treating spinal cord injuries was established - reposition the spine, fix it in place, and rehabilitate disabilities with exercise. In the 1990s, the discovery that the steroid drug methylprednisolone could reduce damage to nerve cells if given early enough after injury gave doctors an additional treatment option.

Although the hard bones of the spinal column protect the soft tissues of the spinal cord, vertebrae can still be broken or dislocated in a variety of ways and cause traumatic injury to the spinal cord. Injuries can occur at any level of the spinal cord. The segment of the cord that is injured, and the severity of the injury, will determine which body functions are compromised or lost. Because the spinal cord acts as the main information pathway between the brain and the rest of the body, a spinal cord injury can have significant physiological consequences.

Catastrophic falls, being thrown from a horse or through a windshield, or any kind of physical trauma that crushes and compresses the vertebrae in the neck can cause irreversible damage at the cervical level of the spinal cord and below. Paralysis of most of the body including the arms and legs, called quadriplegia, is the likely result. Automobile accidents are often responsible for spinal cord damage in the middle back (the thoracic or lumbar area), which can cause paralysis of the lower trunk and lower extremities, called paraplegia.

Other kinds of injuries that directly penetrate the spinal cord, such as gunshot or knife wounds, can either completely or partially sever the spinal cord and create life-long disabilities.
Most injuries to the spinal cord don't completely sever it. Instead, an injury is more likely to cause fractures and compression of the vertebrae, which then crush and destroy the axons, extensions of nerve cells that carry signals up and down the spinal cord between the brain and the rest of the body. An injury to the spinal cord can damage a few, many, or almost all of these axons. Some injuries will allow almost complete recovery. Others will result in complete paralysis.

Until World War II, a serious spinal cord injury usually meant certain death, or at best a lifetime confined to a wheelchair and an ongoing struggle to survive secondary complications such as breathing problems or blood clots. But today, improved emergency care for people with spinal cord injuries and aggressive treatment and rehabilitation can minimize damage to the nervous system and even restore limited abilities.

Advances in research are giving doctors and patients hope that all spinal cord injuries will eventually be repairable. With new surgical techniques and exciting developments in spinal nerve regeneration, the future for spinal cord injury survivors looks brighter every day.
This brochure has been written to explain what happens to the spinal cord when it is injured, the current treatments for spinal cord injury patients, and the most promising avenues of research currently under investigation.

If you or a loved one has suffer from spinal cord injury because of someones negligence, we can help. Visit us at http://www.thebaezlawfirm.com for a free consultation. We care about your legal needs!