How to Find a Good Chiropractor

In New Jersey, 36 cancer patients at a veterans hospital in East Orange were overradiated — and 20 more received substandard treatment — by a medical team that lacked experience in using a machine that generated high-powered beams of radiation. The mistakes, which have not been publicly reported, continued for months because the hospital had no system in place to catch the errors.

I've been on my back for the past couple weeks with a nagging case of sciatica.  My doctor wants me to get an MRI.  After reading this story, I'm having serious second thoughts about having anyone pump radiation into my body.  Which gives me an idea.  The best lawyers in New York can be found by searching on Google.  I think it's time for me to speak to a good chiropractor.  What search phrase should I use.  Let me try...best chiropractors in westchester, ny........

Case Could Present Court With Unique Challenges

In what appears to be a clear case of medical malpractice, the Daily News reported today that detectives are investigating a Queens clinic where a 37-year-old woman was fatally injured while undergoing an abortion.

Alexandra Nuñez began bleeding heavily during the procedure at A1 Medicine, a gynecology clinic in Jackson Heights, on Monday.  One of Nuñez's arteries was inadvertently severed and she went into cardiac arrest.  She was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where she died a short time later.

In a city where incidences of medical malpractice are a common occurrence, this situation  could prove to be anything but common should the family of the deceased decide to sue the clinic.   It would seem that any claim against the clinic might present some unique challenges for the plaintiffs given the volatile nature of the circumstances surrounding Ms. Nunez' death.

I have to wonder whether the plaintiffs'  lawyers will be able to find jurors who will not let the fact that Ms. Nunez was undergoing an abortion at the clinic when the accident occurred interfere with their ability to rule based on the facts of the case only, and not let their own prejudices cloud their judgment.  

I also have to wonder if lawyers for the plaintiff will even be able to find a panel of jurors who can keep an open mind throughout the proceedings.

Nunez own daughter, Davila  insisted that her mother did not believe in abortions. 

Negligent Workers Allowed Back on the Job After Brief 30-day Suspension

The Daily News reported today that the two EMT workers accused of coldly ignoring a dying pregnant woman because they were on a break returned to work Thursday.  

In the same edition of the paper, the News reported that unemployment has risen in New York City to 10.6% in the past month. That means a lot of people are out of work.  Some of them, no doubt, would love to have a full time job right now working for the EMT.

I can't make sense of why the NYPD would give EMTs Jason Green and Melissa Jackson their job's back after simply slapping them with a 30-day suspension for abandoning Eutisha Rennix, the pregnant woman who became ill last month in a local restaurant. 

Green and Jackson are trained medics.  If they care at all about what they do, or people in general, regardless of whether they were sipping coffee together, they should have done everything they could to come to the aid of the ailing woman.  If they don't like their jobs, New York is full of out-of-work people who no doubt would be much better suited to the work. 

Hiring these two negligent workers back to me is tantamount to the New York Daily news hiring a reporter who doesn't like to write, or a fireman who hates climbing ladders.  It makes no sense.

Green only seems to care about one thing.  The News quoted him as saying:  "I'm relieved I still have a job," he said as he hugged a co-worker and playfully swatted another on the shoulder outside Metrotech in downtown Brooklyn. 

"This whole thing's been stressful," said Green. "I'm just hanging in there."

The dispatchers, who still face a criminal probe, were grabbing a bagel at a nearby Au Bon Pain when a worker told them 25-year-old Rennix was having trouble breathing.

Rennix, who was six months pregnant, had collapsed and was in the back of the store.

Jackson called a fellow dispatcher to report the incident but witnesses said she and Green did not try to help Rennix themselves.

The mom and her premature baby both died hours later. Green, 32, and Jackson, 23, denied they left the coffee shop and insisted that they did all they could to help.

The Fire Department has yet to interview Jackson or Green, but Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano said he could not comprehend a member of the FDNY not stopping to help.

"We help, that's what we do - no matter what," Cassano said Thursday. "When you raise your right hand and take that oath, that's what you're pledging to do."

"If you don't want to be the person to help, go find a job somewhere else."

Exactly, Commissioner.

Depression Drug Controversy

Based on dozens of recent news reports it appears as if the medical community can't agree if taking anti-depression medication, the so-called SSIDs, or serotonin reuptake inhibitors, is any better for patients than giving them a simple sugar pill.   

A group of researchers claimed recently that prescription medications such as Paxil and Lexapro are only effective when conditions of depression are severe in patients.  Those with low to moderate disorders receive no benefit at all from the drugs.

The psychiatric community, who largely prescribe this medication, and, of course, the drug companies, have denounced the researchers' findings and have come out against the study with guns blazing in the media.

My question is, what are the patients supposed to do, or believe?  Millions of people in the US take SSIDs because their doctors prescribe them; and many claim to feel better after they starting taking the pills.

If, in fact, it can be proven that this medication is no better than a placebo for the vast majority of people who take it, will patients have just cause to claim fraud against the drug companies and their doctors?  

If Only Pets Could Sue

Most people are familiar with the terms: medical malpractice, child abuse, negligence.  There are laws to protect people and lawyers who specialize in protecting the rights of victims of these abuses.  But what about the health and well-being of other innocent creatures, the ones we share our lives with, who are often just as helpless as their human counterparts?

Yesterday, a Manhattan woman was caught on video kicking and yanking her 9-pound pup - in the same housing project where surveillance video captured another dog beating earlier this month.  

Tiara Davis was busted Monday after repeatedly pounding Sparky, her 4-year-old Pomeranian, theASPCA said. Davis - who is 5-feet-5 and weighs 200 pounds - beat the pup into unconsciousness.

Most decent people are reviled by this kind of behavior.  I say we need tougher laws to protect animals from abuse and stiffer penalties for people like Ms. Davis.

Negligent EMT Workers Could Face Jail Time

The Daily News reported today that the two EMTs workers accused of failing to help a dying pregnant woman when she collapsed in front of them did not show an ounce of remorse afterward, according to sources.   I know when the gas tank in my car is empty. But I've never been very good at gauging the level of someone else's remorse.  Besides, what does "remorse" have to do with it?

Without even having to divine the state of their emotions, the plain and simple fact of the matter is that Jason Green and Melisa Jackson, the two emergency medical technicians, walked out of an Au Bon Pain coffee shop with bagels while Eutisha Rennix, who was six months pregnant lay gasping for air on the floor of the eatery.

"They had a callous disregard for that woman," one longtime co-worker said.  I couldn't believe it. It's like they felt as if they couldn't be bothered to help that woman."  Who cares what they felt?  It's what they didn't DO that matters.

The lawyer for Green and Jackson Tuesday claimed his clients did all they could for Rennix, 23.  If this is true, he has a lot of explaining to do.  

The Brooklyn district attorney's office said it is considering prosecuting Green and Jackson for official misconduct and reckless endangerment. They could face jail time if convicted.

Rennix, who had a 3-year-old son, was taken toLong Island College Hospital, where she died. Her premature baby died two hours later.

"It is outrageous that emergency medical technicians who have a duty to provide emergency services to individuals could ignore someone who is in need of such services," said Rennix family lawyer.  I couldn't agree more.

Heartless EMT Workers Refuse to Care for Dying Woman

A grief-stricken Brooklyn mother blasted two off-duty city emergency medical technicians Sunday who are being investigated for refusing to help her dying pregnant daughter - decrying the medics as "heartless."  She had it right.  They are heartless and negligent and should, soon I hope, be on the receiving end of punishing personal injury lawsuit.

Cynthia Rennix wept for her 25-year-old daughter Eutisha Revee Rennix, who died after collapsing in front of two FDNY EMTs who were buying bagels at the shop where she worked - but declined to help.

"They are useless. They are heartless," said Rennix, surrounded by relatives in her Flatlands home. "They are trained. They should be more responsive."

Co-workers said they begged two EMTs in the store to help, but they only callously turned and said, "Call 911" before walking out with their food.

"Those EMS workers who didn't help. ...She would have been alive," said a colleague who asked that her name not be used.

"I am angry," said the dead woman's twin brother, Eudane Rennix, a soldier stationed in Kuwait who rushed home to comfort his family. "[The FDNY] should apologize. They should try to reach out to the family."