Articles Posted in Personal Injury

Boston winters tend to come with lots of snow.  More so than in many other parts of the country.  In addition to the snow, we also get colder temperatures and wind chill factors than many other cities.  This combination of snow and sub-zero temperatures can make it very difficult to go out and fully clean off your car in the morning before work.

According to a recent news article from Fox News, leaving snow and ice on your car can result in a dangerous car accident. There are a variety of reasons that leaving the snow and ice on your car can result in a serious accident. While it will obviously restrict your view, and that is dangerous, it can also be dangerous to other drivers in terms of restricted vision. The article discusses and incident caught on camera where a huge chunk of ice flew off one vehicle and smashed into the front window of another vehicle. Continue reading

With the arrival of winter, emergency room staffers are anticipating an uptick in the annual increase in the number of injuries related to snow and ice.  In some cases, these are serious or even fatal car accidents. Snow and ice may also play an integral role in injuries that occur when people slip and fall on the ice, according to a recent news article from Fox News.

One doctor interviewed as part of the article said extremity injuries are particularly common this type of year.  They occur when someone slips on ice or snow and then tries to catch themselves. While it is a natural reaction to try to put your hand out when you are falling, so as to brace yourself, it is actually one of the worst things you can do.  When your outreached hand makes contact with the sidewalk with all of your body weight behind it, it is easy to break your wrist or hand.  This is why snowboarders and those on roller blades are supposed to wear plastic guards on their wrists to prevent a broken wrist when falling. Continue reading

When we talk about head injuries and concussions, we are often talking about what is known as a closed head wound.  As the name implies, this is a head injury that can result in a concussion or other traumatic brain injury (TBI) in which there is no laceration to the skin, and the patient is not externally bleeding. Internal bleeding is likely occurring, and that can result in serious damage.

However, an open head wound can obviously result in a traumatic brain injury or concussion, as well, and this is what is discussed in a recent news article from the University of Utah Health Feed.  The first question many people have, as discussed in the article, is why a head injury will bleed as much as it often does. Continue reading

Most people are familiar with the concept of a slip-and-fall negligence case. As the name implies, it is a personal injury case involving an accident that was caused by the victim slipping and falling on a hard surface.  In some cases, we are dealing with an icy sidewalk, and in other cases we are dealing with a person slipping on a wet floor in a store.

While these cases may seem routine, they can be very complex.  The first thing to understand is that a slip-and-fall case can result in serious personal injury.  We have seen cases with ankle fractures, broken ribs, broken hips, knee damage, and even serious head injuries, including death.  If person lands on a hard surface, such as the floor or sidewalk, with his or her head, it can result in a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Continue reading

Despite the growing base of knowledge doctors and researchers are building on the problem of head injuries and traumatic brain injury (TBI), there is still a lot we don’t know.  For this reason, any new study that is being performed has the potential to include some major breakthroughs.  Even if they intimately fall short of reshaping the treatment paradigm, they may still yield very important results.

According to a recent news feature from VICE, a prison brought in a brain injury expert to conduct studies and find out what research can be learned from the inmate population and see what can be done to help them during the rehabilitation process for those who will eventually be released from the prison system. Continue reading

As the weather gets colder, many people will be getting their equipment ready and heading to slopes for skiing and snowboarding this winter season.  Many will go to the various ski resorts in Massachusetts and many more will head to the bigger mountains in Vermont and Maine and other parts of New England.

In fact, skiing and snowboarding are so popular for residents of Boston that ski resorts regularly advertise in the city and even organize bus trips for people to get up to Maine or Vermont to ski and enjoy the day or weekend before being brought back to the city.  While this can certainly be a lot of fun, skiing and snowboarding pose some degree of risk and a lot of accidents will happen that are nobody’s fault. Continue reading

Every year during the fall, people enjoy going to local pumpkin patches, and, in addition to getting pumpkins and apples, they like to watch pumpkins getting fired out of cannons.  There are various different types of pumpkin launchers, but they are generally powered pneumatically (compressed air) or with some type of slingshot mechanism.  This activity is officially known as “Punkin Chunkin.”

This activity has become so popular that Discovery Channel holds an annual competition and makes that competition into a reality show bearing the same name as the activity of launching the pumpkins.  They are judged on various factors, including distance and maximum height. However, it is apparently not without risk of injury.

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While hunting is not an activity that occurs in Boston proper, there are plenty of areas in the Commonwealth where people do go hunting on a regular basis, as well as in the surrounding states of New England.  Many of these area have professional hunting guides that advertise in Boston to get customers.

Hunting is clearly a lot of fun for those who participate in the activity regularly, but there is obviously a level of danger involved, since we are dealing with firearms and possibly people who are not very familiar with how to use firearms and firearms safety.  When a person hires a guide though a service, they are often relying on that guide for equipment and, even more importantly, their expertise. Continue reading

A recent news article from Philly.com takes a look at the high risk of suffering an eye injury while engaged in paintball activities.  To be clear, we are talking about people engaged in sanctioned paintball completions like the ones held a paintball centers around Boston and throughout Massachusetts.

The results of a recently completed study show that, while there is technically a higher risk of a participant suffering an eye injury while participating in a sport such as basketball, baseball, and bicycling, the risks from paintball often result in a partial or total loss of vision for at least some period of time if not permanently.  Continue reading